We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gladys and Andrea Romero. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrea below.

Gladys and Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

When you first open a Business you are super excited to tell your family and friends, but sometimes you will not receive the support you were expecting them to give you! It is very important to keep your feet strong to the ground and be prepared for non supporters. All you really need to do is believe in yourself and keep going! Draw the line when they expect a service for free, it would not be fair to pay everyone else but yourself.

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.

Gladglam was established in 2016. Founded by two Latina Sisters. The business expanded by selling accessories online and doing pop up events. In 2019 we launched our Lashes and went towards the Cosmetics route all leading to the establishing of the Gladglam Makeup Academy in 2020. With the main focus being Makeup and Hair styling courses. We prepare our students with experiences and connections with the makeup industry and provide internship opportunities with options for job placement. Our philosophy, is we are not just another course, we are pillar stone of the community inspiring the next generation of makeup artists.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building a platform for a business was a series of trials and errors finding what works and what doesn’t and most importantly Networking and building up that contact list for your business or platform.

It’s also a numbers game making multiple accounts developing a following for that ecosystem. Knowing that you can apply scaleability according to your demographics and the size of the audience.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Actually, Yes! Gladglam started as a side hustle back in 2016: We remember attending a seminar where we learned the back end of e-commerce and that’s where our side hustle started. Although as little girls, we would always dream and talked about owning a boutique or something. It’s always been in back our minds but never thought it would become a reality. We both had full time jobs and gladglam was our escape from reality, we invested so much energy that it turn into our full time business. One of our milestone and how it scaled up to now is when we were earning in a day what we would earn in a week of a regular job. Honestly, giving without expecting much in return was a major factor of our success, when you give everything with your heart the reward is always priceless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://WWW.gladglam.net
• Instagram: @gladglamakeupacademy
• Facebook: Gladglam Makeup Academy
• Yelp: Gladglam Makeup Academy