Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danielle Roper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Danielle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The biggest issue I see in esthetics when it comes to profitability are a few things. First, competing with the medical side of the industry. Many MediSpas have capital to open their business and are able to afford luxuries like marketing and web development. There are a lot of independent estheticians out there and we are simply bootstrapping our business. We are trying to save money any way we can and that usually doesn’t come out of our treatment rooms. It takes us time to build enough money to hire on these professionals and that can mean we are losing out on profits. The second issue is the cost of time. Over and over again I see people on social media complaining about the cost of someones service rate. People that are not in an industry that exchanges a service for money can‘t fathom the overhead of running a business. In esthetics, we have to purchase a lot of things just to perform one facial. Much of that is buying into a professional line, many of which have minimum order price points. We have other things like tools: extractors, bowls, fan brushes or our disposables: sponges, q-tips, cotton rounds and/or gauze, microneedling tips. All of these things have to be purchased in multiples. We have to spend time cleaning and doing laundry, maintaining our specialized equipment. Many of us try to take continuing education to further our knowledge and stay up to date on trends and changes. Some of these courses are in person and only available in certain cities so travel may be required. Its so much more than just rubbing a nice smelling product on someones face for an hour or so. There is a lot of overhead to account for in our pricing on top of our time. When you are trying to compete with the lowest possible denominator and peoples idea of what they should pay, it can be a very low profit margin until you are able to consistently being in clients.

Danielle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into esthetics purely because I like to know how to do things myself. I‘m a true DIY‘er to the core. I have been DIY‘ing my business, Derma Lab, for over a year. When I was 21, I started getting really bad acne and it persisted after trying all the products that claimed it would help. I happened to work for an ophthalmology practice and started speaking to the esthetician we had for our cosmetic practice. It became clear to me that she was what I wanted to be. If I could clear my own acne then I surely could help others and that is what I desperately wanted. Well, I signed up for school within a week of coming to the realization of what an esthetician did and started a full time, 14 month program. I can say that I didn’t learn how to clear my acne in school. The knowledge we have today is a world away from what was being taught 16 years ago. The good news is that I found my tribe and finally started down the path of clearing my own skin and learning the ins and outs of acne clearing. I am now an acne specialist in Colorado Springs and have been growing my business over the last year. I feel like I can connect with my clients on a different level because I struggled with acne and I know the stress and anguish it can cause looking in the mirror every day, putting makeup on over my breakouts and feeling like it was still really noticeable, the pain from the cysts on my jawline, the red marks that linger and scarring left behind that can become more pronounced as we age. I connect to clients because I know how they feel and I want to be a support system for them mentally. I want them to lean on me when they feel defeated. Acne is not a straight path to clear skin. Its a roller coaster with twists and turns and loop-de-loos. We focus on products and cleaning up clients lifestyle and ensuring their diet is supporting their journey. Gut health is something I really drive home with my clients as most are dealing with underlying gut problems, something I also have a lot of personal experience in. These are puzzle pieces we try to put together over the course of a clients journey to get them to a place that acne isn’t the first thing on their mind when they wake up and have to get ready for their day.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I have no experience in running a business and I had no family or friends that owned a business that I could lean on when starting this adventure. I have been searching for great resources and happened upon a few that have been and important part of my journey recently. First resource is another esthetician that has been my mentor for a long time, Cassandra Lanning of The Renegade Esthetician. She is a wealth of knowlege and has certifications in diet and nutrition. She is my inspiration on a daily bases and has become a good friend.

Another person I met in my office building, Craig Tomanini. He has a tech business called @AskCraigTee and has helped motivate me to keep learning all that I can about the tech side of my business. His team is amazing and Jessica helped me finally get my social media plan in place. She was also gracious enough to be my model for my branding photos. The second resource that has helped me come out of my introvert shell and get to know my business more has been Achieve Systems. This is an enormous resource for the basics of business to scaling an existing business. There is a resource for anything you need, there are people in every industry to help, daily calls with their leaders to keep you on track and help you succeed and its been amazing for just idea generation.

Last resource I have been loving is an SEO guy, Matt, I found on Instagram. His company is HeyToney.ca and he has free resources as well as paid courses. Just watching his easy to follow videos on SEO has made me more confident that I can do this myself with enough practice. I love his tips and he’s constantly posting.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think the biggest thing I have to unlearn in my business journey has been changing my mindset. I am quite the pessimist in life and it’s taken me a very long time to change the way I think and feel about when things go wrong and the future, especially in my business. I’ve really tried to get into positive, thinking and manifestation and trying to think about how I want my future to look and how I want my business to look and just visualizing that and understanding that when something goes wrong in my business, it’s a learning lesson it’s not the end of the world. It’s just some things for me to take and move forward with so I can become a better business owner and understand what I’m doing in my business better with each step. It’s still a work in progress for me, but I’m getting better at staying positive and getting myself out of disappointment and low moods when things don’t go how I envision them going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dermalabesthetics.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/dermalabesthetics?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DermaLabEsthetics/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/derma-lab-colorado-springs?osq=derma+lab
• Other: Blog: https://www.dermalabesthetics.com/skininthegame

Image Credits
Aspire Images