We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amber Amaru a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amber , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

The first client I got at the DRIPBaR was during the month of June 2021. I had a rough year and a half trying to build the startup location of my iv vitamin therapy company over the pandemic. The DRIPBaR is one of the fastest growing franchises in the country right now and has won awards for it. I was the first franchisee and sometimes it takes a lot of figuring it out before a model is scalable for early adopters.

I joined the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, Professional Women’s Council, Jacksonville Women’s Business Center and Women Business Owners of Northeast Florida the went to over 100 meetings and events before the store opened. Every bit of the networking was worth it and the time because my first paying client was from the PWC. Gretchen and her husband would be proud to be mentioned. She referred so many people. She is VIP at her store over a year later too. I am so grateful for her. The relationships I have made by doing local hands on marketing can’t be purchased.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Amber Amaru, owner & managing director of The DRIPBaR Jacksonville and havd been in the anti-aging for medicine sales world for 13 years. I am from Fort Mill, SC and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2008 with a double bachelors in international business finance & marketing. I live in Jacksonville, FL with myhusband and three kids.

I have always been preparing to own a business. I wanted it to be something I really believed in. Over my 12 year medical sales career at Web.com, I worked with thousands of plastic surgeons, medical spas and anti-aging clinics. I won 11 President’s Club awards for my sales and client service abilities. When I was asked to be a part of this franchise in 2019, I was so thrilled to be able to put my focus & drive into a passion project. The DRIPBaR is a perfect fit for me because I enhoy helping people feel better through medical iv therapies. Vitamin C and B12 are the main ingredients in our drips. Glutathione is my favorite vitamin for making skin glow, viral support, reverse signs of aging and for anti inflammatory properties.

My main reason for going all in is because we have one life and I feel like we have to nurture it. We have the chance to add to the possibility of living a longer lifespan with the micronutrients we put in out body. When I was asked two years ago by another franchisee after an A4M meeting in Vegas to go to visit a DRIPBaR location in Warwick, RI to learn about intellectual medicine through iv vitamin therapy, I absolutely went the next week. I was the first franchisee to sign and am glad to be a part of a growing golden ticket to improving cellular health. I have learned so much about detoxification through ridding heavy metals and immunotherapy support. We have a research and development team. That really sets us apart in the industry. My nurses and front desk honestly care about each client. We go out of the box for our people to figure out what health effects they are looking for and customize a proprietary blend of vitamins for each one. Read our reviews on Google. I believe we are truly changing the way people think of healthcare. Someone doesn’t need to go to the hospital anymore if they are severely dehydrated. They can come into my store to be pampered and feel rejuvenated in under an hour.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding a business isn’t always easy. I really was hoping to get an SBA loan and because our franchise was new, they just didn’t exist. I applied to 43 banks for small biz loans and was denied for all of them. They weren’t willing to take the risk on a new business iv therapy model. I ended up using a company called Benetrends to do a ROBS rollover program with over half of my IRA retirement account. Since I needed around half a million dollars to do this startup, I had to scramble to get personal loans too. This can really mess your credit score up applying to all these places if you don’t time is appropriately. My best advice I give to new business owners if take a few weeks to do research on the lowest interest rates and then apply all at once or in a few days so banks won’t decline you seeing all these hits on your personal credit. Then I was able to get 5 personal loans approved because I did it that way. My mentality was to do whatever it took to find the money to make this business work. My mindset is still that way.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We have tried so many tactics for a small medical based store to grow clientele. From tradeshows to social media marketing, the best source of bringing in business is truly referral marketing. It may sound like an obvious answer, but it’s not. Cultivating the process to make referral marketing work takes a lot of perseverance. I found out you can’t just ask employees to bring friends or mention it to clients. We have found giving a specific amount referral credit (our lucky number is 22) to all works great. We do bring a friend and both get a free vitamin detox shot days as well. And you have to market that through email, text, website, online etc. Implementing a plan of action and staying of top of it works. A satisfied client will tell others of their positive experiences they have. We treat our folks like family or close friends. Stay determined and you will do well. I believe doing well in my book is defined as long as an one is trying their very best to execute a task then you will get the outcome intended.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thedripbar.com/locations/jacksonville-fl/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dripbar.jax.tamayamarket.fl/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/THEDRIPBaRJacksonvilleTamayaMarketFL
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dripbar-jacksonville
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/DripbarJAXTM
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/the-dripbar-jacksonville