We caught up with the brilliant and insightful D’Lisa Khademi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi D’Lisa, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

I became and Esthetician in 2002. Looking back on 20 years of being in this business, it feels like a lot less time than 2 decades have passed. It is a continuous hustle and just when you think you might be able to slow down and coast a bit something always happens. But even from the beginning I was always striving for something better. We all need to start somewhere and after 6 years of working for other people I opened my first salon location in Old Town Scottsdale in 2008. I maxed out all my credit cards and took out a loan. One factor that made it all possible was the landlord that took a chance on me. I talked a good game and even though I had nothing to leverage he said he felt I had what it takes to make a successful business. 2 month later Salon D’ Shayn was open for business. It was a small 6 chair, 1 treatment room space with the tiniest back room, but it was mine and I was proud of it. Then within 6 months the housing market crash happened. People were losing their homes and their jobs, I was losing clients left and right. The owner of the house I lived in short sold it and I didn’t even have enough money to get a studio apartment. A friend of mine let me move into his spare room and only charged me $100 a week in rent. During this time I was really scared that I wouldn’t be able to keep the business open. I had a meeting with my landlord and was very honest about where I was at, what I needed to not have to fold which was a reduction in rent. Luckily he granted me that. For 6 months I really struggled, I defaulted on my loan and credit cards but I kept my doors open. Miraculously I was able to rent out all my chairs to some amazing stylists and slowly build my client list back up.
Within 5 years of opening my first location I was able to open a second location in Phoenix on 7th Avenue and McDowell, less than 2 miles from my house. Because I had destroyed my credit when I defaulted on my loan and credit cards I had saved around $50k and used that to pay for my second location. It was also a 6 chair salon and I quickly filled all of them. 8 years later and I still have many of my original Phoenix crew working with me!
After 2 years of the Phoenix location being open I took over the whole bottom floor of the building my Scottsdale salon was in and expanded that space to 13 chairs, 2 treatment rooms, 2 bathrooms and an actual break room. But that decision was not economically sound. I spent around $50k for that expansion as well but it was so hard renting out the new chairs. I only worked there 2 days a week and 4 at the Phoenix location. I felt that since the Scottsdale location had been operating well for 5 years before I opened the second one it was a well oiled machine. Unfortunately that was not the case. It always had something going on, whether it was staff not getting along, the constant pressure of financially trying to keep it afloat,, bringing other estheticians on board and filling their books. Honestly it was exhausting. I was seeing clients 10 hours a day 6 days a week and trying to balance everything else. It was wearing me down.
I started feeling that the Phoenix location was just too small. There was this lot that had been empty for 25 years on the corner of Central and McDowell, right across from the Phoenix Art Museum. I use to drive by it and throw out this energy thought, “I don’t know what you are going to be, but whatever it is, have space for my salon.” Within 2 years of opening the Phoenix location I got a hot inside tip that Lennar homes got the green light to develop a luxury apartment complex on that exact corner! I did some digging and contacted their lawyer. Soon I had a meeting with the project manager and shortly there after I signed a lease, even before they broke ground. 2 1/2 years later Salon D’ Shayn had a new custom built space. The Scottsdale location had been hemorrhaging money ever since the expansion and once again my landlord was my saving grace, he let me out of my lease a year early. It wasn’t without repercussions, I walked away and left all my equipment to him. Expanding that location was a costly mistake to the tune of around a $100k loss. But I have made peace with it. Not every decision in business is going to be a winner and you learn form your mistakes.
I am proud that Salon D’ Shayn has been a staple in the Valley for 14 years. The last 2 have been rough for everyone but we made it through and are slowly roaring back. I am always wanting to make the space better so I have been upgrading throughout from all the furniture in the reception area to the styling stations, shampoo bowls, adding tons of plants and moss art. I am even going to get one of those super fancy automatic bidet toilets that are remote controlled. You know you have made it when the toilet is bougie!
The location we are in now is my final location until I decide to retire. How I am leveling up now is continuing to learn and add to my skill set modalities and machines to help people age gracefully. I want people to know they have options for their skin besides plastic surgery. I also have the best team, everyone who works there has years of experience, mostly all at least a decade. They too are always doing continuing education to learn the new trends. I am very thankful to all of them.

D’Lisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been an esthetician since 2002 and opened Salon D’ Shayn in 2008. I built my business on waxing but over the last decade I have been building a following with my aging gracefully skincare. I offer a variety of services to help people put their best face forward from facials to peels, Plasma Fibroblast and RF Microneedling. We are a full service salon and offer haircare, nails, massage, Botox and injectables.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

There are so many ways to build clientele but my top three are a well managed website with SEO, reviews on platforms like Yelp and Google and Groupon! Many people shy away from Groupon but I look at it as free marketing. I only run one for Brazilian for first time clients and offer them their second wax at half off. That gives me twice the opportunity to wow them. When it comes to reviews on Yelp I respond to every single one and we have over 300. I just recently hired a Social Media Marketing Manager and I know it is going to be a great investment. You definitely have to spend money to make money and when I hit certain goals I raise what I spend with my website SEO and marketing.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is constantly evolving. There are so many streams from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. It can be really hard and frustrating to get your business in front of the right audience. Some people have a knack and pick up how to create content really quick. That is not me. I am terrible at all the technology and it always felt like a burden. That is why after all these years I finally hired someone to take over that aspect of my business. I had no idea how to go about finding the right person and it had been on my mind a lot. I got a direct message from Maggie Nelson of My Magpie Media via Instagram. I looked at her content and instantly liked her. She is also a redhead and is very body positive. She researched women business owners in the area and liked mine! She was able to work with my starting budget which allowed me to make this leap. It was necessary to bring my business today the next level. You can find Maggie on Instagram @mysizemagpie Go show her some love or if you are in need of a Social Media Marketing Manager I highly recommend her!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SalonDShayn.com
• Instagram: @SalonDShayn
• Facebook: @SalonDShaynPhoenix
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/wSX0u728Bob
• Other: TikTok @salondshayn