We were lucky to catch up with Grace J Power recently and have shared our conversation below.
Grace J, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
When Groupon came out, it drastically changed the laser hair removal business. For starters more people could afford laser hair removal so it started to become much more common for women and men of all ages to start on a program. In order to be competitive I got on Groupon with some laser offerings and also ended up lowering my regular prices to keep clients coming back and be more competitive with other companies running Groupon deals. I also found that I had to have a laser without disposable parts because the one I had used a tip for each customer that cost $20 which made it difficult to turn a profit. I also bought a pre-owned laser instead of new which saved thousands of dollars and allowed me to offer better pricing to the customers.
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.
I started into the industry as a massage therapist. I quickly built up my business and part of my success wasn’t only that a gave a great massage; I developed my skill at marketing, advertising, upselling and tactics for retaining repeat clients. I continued to expand my professional licenses as an esthetician and expanded my skill set with laser hair removal electrolysis Brazilian waxing sugaring lash extensions and more! I ended up developing products that I was selling to my customers and eventually to other salons. I also started teaching not only my employees but also other estheticians in the industry. I now have six salons throughout Montana, Florida and Colorado. I have become more familiar with the hair side of the industry, as I hire cosmetologists to work in the salons, as well as nail technicians. My primary focus is on sugaring and lashes including my own line of magnetic lashes. I’ve also created a YouTube station where I do many tutorial videos on how to use my products for the best results. My online store is Vadazzle.com and I have more information about my certification courses at sugaringtraining.com.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I was in the middle of selling a day spa and starting up a new concept waxing salon focused on Brazilians; at the same time, going through a divorce which included selling our house. For almost the first year of business I was basically homeless. I showered at the gym and lived out of my car, my salon and friends’ couches. I spent a lot of time working on my mindset and staying positive, focusing on my dreams. I definitely had resilience during this time and it paid off. By the next year I had a consistent client base. I was able to afford a small apartment. A couple years after that, I hired two full-time estheticians to take on my client base. I traveled to Australia to scuba-dice the Great Barrier Reef with my new boyfriend. When I came back I started doing marketing full-time and eventually hired two more estheticians. I still have the same resilience as I continue to start up new companies.
Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.
In my time I have bought two businesses and sold to businesses. The first business I bought I kept for 2 years and learned a lot. I also grew the business and was able to sell it for more than I bought it for. The second business I sold was a huge mistake. For starters I sold my business when it was booming. Secondly I sold it to one of my staff who had no idea how to run a business. Thirdly I allowed her to take on ownership of the business without any money down and an agreement to make monthly payments. All went well for the first year until she expanded and ran out of money. She had agreed that if she failed to pay 3 months payments I would be able to take back the business. Not only was she not paying but she also did not want to give back the business. It was a mess and I ended up letting it go which caused me to have major financial hardship. The lesson I learned from that is don’t sell your business when it’s doing great unless someone comes in and offers full price cash up front. The payment plan would have been nice if she would have kept paying but she made some bad business decisions and didn’t have the cash flow. I recently bought a salon in Kalispell Montana and that has been going fairly well. Definitely some ups and downs because I’m running it while living in Florida. However, I grew up in Kalispell and really wanted to bring my products and services to that town. I’ve had some successes and hope to continue expanding my brand in my home state of Montana.
Contact Info:
- Website: Vadazzle.com
- Instagram: @mypinkwinksalon
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/sugarwaxingapplewood
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/gracejpower
- Youtube: Youtube.com/acomoclitic265
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/my-gold-sugar-golden-3
- Other: Sugaringtraining.com