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

Chanette, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My Grandmother was and is my hero! I was raised by her until I was 5 years old. And as an adult I was very close with her! My grandmother was very stern, but also very loving. She was the matriarch of our family.
She taught valuable lesson of taking pride in any job that I do whether it be big or small, to always give 100% whether it be menial or not. We weren’t poor but we weren’t rich but always make sure we had the best, she would work so hard for the things that she wanted because my grandmother love to look nice she was a very beautiful and elegant woman and I and I definitely get my fashion sense and love makeup for my grandmother.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Let’s see I kind of fell into makeup, I always thought I wanted to be in The fashion industry, as either a stylist or buyer. Then one day I got a job at a makeup counter and the rest was history. I had a natural talent for it. I was living in St Louis at the time, my father was in the military and he had just got stationed to Los Angeles, and I was like oh I’m definitely moving to LA if I want to be a makeup artist. When I first moved out here I dabbled in and all the various stages of the makeup industry, doing music videos, fashion shows, small films such a demanding hustle.
While I was in makeup school, I was working part-time as a salon manager, and one of the hair stylist also did makeup in the salon and eyebrows and I saw said it was quite lucrative.
So after makeup school I went and got my esthetician license so that I could work in the salon
I currently work for myself as Brow artist, makeup artist doing lash lifts brow laminations, facial threading/waxing.
I’m most proud of going into business for myself, it was very frightening at first, but it’s one of the best decisions I ever made.
What sets me apart, I’ve been in this industry for a very long time, but I never stay stagnant and I’m always learning taking lessons taking courses to always be in the know. I cultivate one-on-one relationships with my clients I absolutely love what I do it’s my passion, I love bringing out my clients innee beauty. In the words of one of my favorite actors aka my spirit animal Mae West “when you look good you feel good”

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

So when I first went into business for myself as I stated before it was very frightening, it wasn’t even actually in my plans. I rent a small space inside of a hair salon. The previous owner of the space rented it and I worked for her inside of that space for 5 years. She then had to pull out of the space and wanted me to go to one of her other locations. The owners of the salon however asked me if I would like to take over the space and at first I was very hesitant cuz I had never worked for myself and of course had many doubts.
The owners sat me down gave me tons of words of encouragement and even said theyd loan me the money to buy all my equipments and products to start the business! So I had no other excuse but to just do it!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

As I said I rent space inside of the hair salon.im Always constantly introducing myself to new clients that are there for hair services. Of course good old word of mouth always works well I offer referral program.
Also investing in the Yelp and Google ads have been effective

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makeupbychanetterene?igsh=MmVlMjlkMTBhMg==
• Other: https://www.fresha.com/a/makeup-by-chanette-los-angeles-16919-ventura-boulevard-5xrzq8rp