We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexis Aro . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexis below.
Alexis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
I grew Lashed and Bronzed from the ground up. I started off in my very own living room back in 2018 where I took on learning lashes on the side after finishing up my 9-5 corporate job each day. When I started out, I would set monthly goals for myself. At first my goal was to take 1 new client every day and gear towards bringing in maybe an extra $600 bucks or so. I focused on building for a year. I worked every other weekend and 2-4 nights out of the week after work sometimes until midnight. Eventually the foot traffic grew so much that I was ready to relocate to a more professional setting. Then I moved on to a salon room rental in December of 2019. Covid shut everything down shortly after and sent me back to working from home. This was just a small set-back and only made me want more. I knew that the only way I would get to the next step of growth in my business was to focus day and night on my business.
Right before covid hit I was constantly focusing on making connections with as many people as possible. When I started this business I had no idea the direction it would take me. I had no idea what I was capable of. When you’re at the bottom looking around at those who are already on top, it may feel like you’ll never get there. Like you’ll never be able to get to that level. As soon as you shift that thought process, mountains begin to move. I poured into myself and treated my business as if it were already huge. Have you ever heard that quote “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”? I think you should show up for yourself every day and treat your business like the business you want it to become, not just the business you have. What started off as a side hustle was treated as a full time career before it was one and that makes a difference. I was able to grow a large clientele when I was solo and most of those clients are still with me or now work with me. I also began training others on how to do eyelash extensions. Some went on to start their own businesses and some are on the Lashed and Bronzed team now!
Before I opened my first salon location in September of 2020 I would digitally create salon mock-ups for what I thought was just fun. I would giggle and say “what if…”. Little did I know my fun would turn into my reality. I planned out exactly how I envisioned my salon to operate, where it would be, what it would look like, a budget to open without taking out loans and creating debt. The more I planned it, the more achievable it seemed but still just so scary to take the leap. All you need is a solid, thought out plan. I would dream about my space often. I toured a few locations thinking I would just find a small suite for now, but touring locations and seeing what kind of spaces were available peaked my interest in more than just a small space. I started quickly re-gearing into the thoughts of something larger than me. A salon where I could share my passion with others and help them to bring in additional income or replace their full time income alongside me. When I was deciding on location something always brought me back to Millersville. Over the last few years I noticed that Millersville has been highly focusing on development both in the residential and commercial aspect. I knew that this would be a convenient and prime location to accommodate current clients and new clients as we are 20 minutes or less from surrounding populated cities.
As soon as I found our spot I started reaching out to a few people who I thought would be interested in joining me in this business endeavor. I was able to have a small team lined up that was prepared to start when we opened for business. Very quickly the word began to spread about our location. Our team started to become busier and busier until there was a point that we were too busy to accommodate new clients. I was able to shift things around in our space and expand our team with new lash artists.. Very quickly we were running out of room for new artists but the demand continued to increase for our services. At that point the idea of a greater expansion started to look like reality for us. I was able to quit my full time job in January of 2021 and focus on my business full-time.
The suite right next to ours became available and I did not waste a second on opening that second suite in August of 2021 for an amazing expansion opportunity in less than a year of our first suite being opened. It was at this time that my goals began to grow too. I started to often find myself “day-dreaming” on what we could become even if it sounded far-fetched for a newly opened and still growing salon. I had already shocked myself and that confidence just continued to grow. I immediately started planning, researching, and obsessing over how to make this next move happen. There were a ton of moments of self-doubt. Moments of fear. One wrong move and I could potentially lose it all. But that will not happen to me unless I allow it. When you have a goal that you feel passionately about, you have to become bigger than that goal. I knew that I wanted to offer more than just Eyelash Extensions and Spray Tans. I longed for more and I wanted to create a one stop shop for our clients. The client’s experience and convenience for them is important to me. We moved into the direction of a full-service salon offering lashes, spray tanning, teeth whitening, facials, hair services, waxing and more! This transition was a huge learning curve as I had to figure out all of the steps that actually go into making your space permitted and licensed to accommodate more services like these. It was a stressful few months as I navigated everything from becoming very acquainted with the county permitting office all the way down to all of the inspections. During this time of growth and learning I became pregnant with twins. This added to the excitement of new things to come but with a high risk pregnancy this was definitely a rewarding challenge to juggle it all. Before I knew it the expansion was done and It wasn’t long until we were at capacity even with the new suite that was able to accommodate more than a handful of new professionals to our team.
There was another available suite in our building that I would look at everyday and express how incredible it would be to occupy the entire building. I would talk about what new services we could offer and what my plans would be. If you talk about something and manifest it long enough it could just happen. June of 2022 was when we expanded into that third suite that I manifested. (After maternity leave of course!) My goal with this third suite was to begin expanding on the new services we offer. We are currently renovating our space to expand on our team of hair professionals and hope to have new stylists with us by this upcoming new year.
One thing that really helped to make this dream a reality was our social media platform. We are lucky to be able to connect easily with our community through social media as our main resource along with word of mouth referrals. We are able to showcase our work and boost our artists portfolios, advertise sales and offer an online booking system for our clients. This makes the entire process of looking for and scheduling a beauty service so much more convenient. We also enjoy connecting with clients and potential clients utilizing Instagram’s interactive features such as stories and polls.
Opening this business from start to date has been a fully self taught process. I continue to learn and be humbled everyday in every aspect of the business all the way down to the craft I practice. While I was able to expand this business very quickly into where it is today, it wasn’t seamless but with anything, it is possible. One important thing that I would like to share with someone who is interested in taking the next step with their business is to know that you don’t have to be born into luck or wealth to be successful. I don’t come from money. I don’t come from opportunity. In fact, for me it’s quite the opposite. I had to create this opportunity for myself and I’ve created opportunities for each and every person who I’m lucky enough to have work by my side at Lashed and Bronzed. No matter who you are or where you come from, if you invest into yourself and trust your capabilities you can become whatever you want. You just have to work for it and work hard. For now I am going to continue working hard to make our space greater, always improving and I am excited to watch it continue to bloom. This is still only the beginning of Lashed and Bronzed.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Back in 2019 When covid hit I was still new to a salon suite (room) that I was renting. When we we’re unable to return to work and had to go in to lock-down I had to figure out a way to continue paying for my space without pulling from my full time job income which at the time I had no idea if I’d be considered “essential” to keep money flowing in. This is when I launched our online store where our lash trainings were converted to online training courses. I was able to connect all over the world with like-minded individuals looking to dip their toes in to the lash world. I was able to make a foot print in over 300 women’s lives so that they could start working as soon as restricti0ns were lifted. Additionally, as most of us were freaking out wanting our beauty services during lock down I developed a self-tanning and magnetic strip lash line for our clients. This is what really pulled me through the lock down and started creating my nest egg to put towards my own space.
Whenever I would feel afraid about the idea of opening my own space I thought back to these tough and uncertain months.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What really helped us build a good reputation was the fact that we offer quality service at an affordable price. Most of the lash artists at Lashed and Bronzed were trained directly under me. My clients or potential clients who we’re drawn in when I was solo were comfortable in trusting these other artists. Additionally, we really care about the work that we put out there. We always take our client’s in to consideration with every service to get it right every time. With this being said, I strive to recruit individuals who are professional and know how to make our existing and new clients comfortable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lashedandbronzedmd.com/
- Instagram: lashedandbronzed_
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Lashedandbronzed
Image Credits
Kevin A. Alvarez