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

Hi Elexa, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy running your own firm? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I started my business at 20 years old, since a child I just knew I was destined for more and was always very money driven. It was something I was never taught or learned a lesson about I like to say I was just born with the mindset. Opening a business by myself at such a young age was not an easy thing to do, I didn’t feel I had a lot of resources or people to ask for help so I had no other choice but to figure it out on my own, and that is exactly what I did. Getting all the paperwork organized, setting up policies, making sure you’re following all protocols can be very frustrating and unmotivating when you’re really not even sure what you’re doing or if you’re doing it right. It makes you think is this even worth it? Am i going to succeed? Will i still be afloat 5-10 years deep? I am only 1 year in and my business is my number one priority and my most prized possession. When weeks get difficult and overwhelming, I do ask myself what if I just let it all go and work a regular wage job, so I can just clock in & out, I don’t have to continue working when i’m off, I can just ask somebody to pick up my shift when i’m not feeling good, how much easier that would make my life. But when i really think deeper about it I could never trade my position for something smaller, maybe things would be easier but not happier. When it’s easy there’s no challenge, and when there’s no challenge there’s no growth or lessons to learn. My job is just like any other, I have days where I don’t want to come in, fantasize about switching careers, but whenever I’m thinking those thoughts I just remind myself where i’m at, why i’m here, that I’m exactly where I need to be and couldn’t do anything else bc this is mine and I built it for myself to be happy and successful. So yes, I do wonder if I could be happier doing something else and I remeber quickly the answer is no, I thrive off the challenge and the craving to be bigger and better each and every year.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Elexa Parra and I am 21 years old. At the age of 16 I started to develop the idea of becoming a hairstylist. I loved the idea of having some freedom in the career, getting to wear what I want, making people feel and look pretty, and just overall creating art. I enrolled in cosmetology school after high school and quickly realized hair dressing is not for me. It was a lot harder than I thought, I did not like standing on my feet all day, I could not understand much of the science or skill behind the position. Luckily for me, in cosmetology it covers all beauty services, in school their main focus is hair, but we did learn about skin, makeup, and nails as well. Then there it was, I fell in love with nails. I couldn’t give you a direct reason what it was that caught my interest bc that skill didn’t come easy to me either, it could have been the fact nobody else in my classes wanted to pursue it, I found a little more joy in it because it felt a little more personal to me. Being face to face with the client, knowing it’s not a permanent service so if I mess up we could fix it or change it again in a few weeks, knowing it’s still a service that makes you feel pretty, clean, and put together. I graduated cosmetology in August of 2020, mid pandemic so no graduate could take their state boards and get licensed, what the state did was give us a provisional temporary license so we could get to work right away until it was safe to take the state test in a group setting. My first job was your traditional vietnamese nail salon. I started off doing a lot of pedicures knowing I wanted to master acrylic nails. I would practice acrylics for a year and I could not find confidence in my work and left a lot of clients unhappy, I decided to look for another nail job that could help train me better and give me more experience. That is when I found luminary nails which is the product I now specialize in. Luminary nails is a flexi builder gel with the sole purpose of growing the natural nail out while keeping them shiny and extremely durable. I never heard of the product before I started working for the business who introduced me to it, They helped train me and I’ve built up a lot of clientele because it was a newer product that totally changed the nail game. These nails last 3-4+ weeks with no lifting or chipping while staying super shiny. I worked with this business for over a year until I felt I was ready to go on my own because having my own business was something I’ve always dreamed of. So I started up Elexa’s Beauty Mark in September 2022 and have been thriving every since. My clients are what keeps my business operating, so I always try to give back and show recognition and deep appreciation to my consistent clientele. My schedule stays very regularly steady and it’s not so often I can take in new clients which is such a blessing. I love my job and the beautiful people who chose me to be their artist, it’s such a fulfilling feeling and a constant reminder how needed I am by people, because my clients don’t play about their nails! I am very steady book that when someone has to reschedule it’s likely they’ll have to wait another 2-3+ weeks to get back in, so they’ve made seeing me a priority in their schedule. I can never express enough how grateful I am to own this business, I’ve built such good bonds with my clients and do all that I can to keep them satisfied.

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

I feel the most effective strategy for growing clientele is definitely word of mouth. If you make one client happy they will go tell their family and friends, but if you make one client unhappy, they will tell all of their family and friends. Naturally people like to share what they are doing especially if they find benefits in it. When I first started my business i would do little promo deals of if you post my nails and tag me you would get $5 off, if you reccomend a client to me it’ll be $10 off your next service, and when you show your happiness & passion in your work and towards your clients, people are going to like you and want to share. Social media marketing is another big strategy for gaining clientele & exposure but that can be difficult especially if you don’t feel very saavy or creative with making posts, but with the times we are in it’s crucial to have social media for your business to grow

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

I’ve build my audience from making consistent posts and being interactive with other accounts as well as the people on mine. Liking, sharing, commenting is a great way to get more activity on your page. Tiktok has been a massive platform to gain exposure and a fun way to create content. Short videos are easy and entertaining to watch, it draws people in when there is some humor or when they feel they can learn something or even relate to your posts.

Contact Info:

• Website: elexaparra.glossgenius.com
• Instagram: @elexasbeautymark
• Other: Tiktok – @elexasbeautymark