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

Ivana , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

Since day 1 I have always had a great and phenomenal support system behind me. I am a wife, mother and a business owner. When I say a support system its not just with my business its all around. My family supports me and stands behind me 100%. And to my clients….my clients kept me and keep me booked and busy. And honestly that’s why I keep going. Majority of my clients have been supporting me since I was waxing in my 2 bedroom apartment. They were consistent and kept me busy. If it wasn’t for my clients I wouldn’t have this wax shop. Yes i was nervous but having my family/friends and my loyal clients root for me and pushed me to keep going was such a success. I will forever be thankful and grateful.

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

Hi I am Ivana Benton, owner and CEO of Ivana’s Beauty Garden located in Stockbridge, Georgia. We specialize in body waxing, vajacials, yoni steams, facials, foot detox, lashes, and also sell body scrubs/body butters, and yoni products. This shop first started off as a dream and turned into a reality. After graduating esthetician school i began working at wax shops, later down the line i knew I wanted to open up my own business and work for myself and that’s what i did. I stepped out on faith and quit my job. Immediately after I started waxing out of my 2 bedroom apartment, not only was i waxing I also offered vajacials, facials, yoni steams, and foot detox all at my apartment. I knew eventually I wanted to open my own shop however I knew I had to put in a little bit more work. I saved up and found the perfect place to open my shop. When the shop first opened it was just me waxing, however my clientele started growing and growing and I knew I needed to start looking for a team. I hired team and my business started growing tremendously and still is til this day. I love what I do, this is my passion, this is my dream. I am blessed and highly favored. But i know i couldn’t do this alone, with the help from my family/friends, my team and my loyal clients i am forever blessed and grateful.

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

Advertise! Promotions! I am literally a walking billboard, i teach my team to be a walking billboard. There is no such thing as too much advertisement or too much promotion. Anything I can put my name on and advertise my business I will. Also word of mouth, i know that is more “old school” but trust, it still works. I am so big on content. The beauty world is nothing but content. Everyone wants to see how it’s done, or the before and after. So putting out content is must with my business. My vision is to be seen all over the world. I don’t just want to stop here, i work on growing clientele everyday. Everyday there is at least one person new that walks in my shop. My team and I always ask, “How did you hear about us?” some answers are: social media, google, the back of a grocery store receipt, or they seen my business card somewhere. And I am not stopping there, there are still so many more platforms I have not touched yet, in due time I will. So the main answer to this question, “Whats been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?”, I would say be a WALKING BILLBOARD!

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

Ivana’s Beauty Garden is a body waxing shop. Which means we are considered to be in the beauty/skin care industry. So starting off with a specific industry category helps you narrow down your social media presence. However to actually build up that media presence you have to know what are some things they are interested in seeing. For example, talking to your audience, giving them polls, question games, or any other media interactions helps you narrow down what source of content to post and how to post it. Everybody loves to interact and share opinions, just like the “ShadeRoom”, that’s a platform that allows every and anybody to interact and share thoughts. I built my audience on social media by staying consist with content. With a lot of help from my team it has allowed me to have such a strong audience on social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ivanasbeautygarden.com/
• Instagram: ivanas.beautygardenn

Image Credits
PICTURES CAPTURED BY: IG: @DWILSONPHOTOGRAPHY