We recently connected with Jennifer Charm and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

After doing stage makeup all through high school and college, I started doing makeup for bands in NYC and then moved to LA. in ’76. After a number of years doing everything from production work to waiting tables, I started working for the owner of a chain as aesthetic service/retail locations which were inside salons. One location was inside a mall and that was my main location. I was great at cosmetic sales and giving makeup lessons and applications. I had never set out to be an aesthetician, (much less a “business owner”.) I was a make up artist and was very happy in that role. But eventually I had to get licensed in California in order to work the salon locations and enrolled in esthetician school. I eventually helped a fellow esthetician at the chain set up 2 similar businesses for herself. I ordered product, trained staff and ran the makeup and facial waxing divisions.

After 2 years I finally felt like I needed to go out on my own. While those businesses were delivering aesthetic services, they were heavy into sales. Retail is a very important aspect of the salon business but I realized that that wasn’t really my purpose in becoming an aesthetician. My purpose was to help people be happy in the skin they were in. and if they needed home care regimens that would support my facial work then great, but I hated what had been drummed into me which was that each person walking in the door was thought of as money in the till!

Anyway a couple of years later I had saved up enough money to apply for a dba, get business cards made and purchase my first waxing instruments and tinting supplies; a beauty chair, a phone and felt secure enough to go off on my own and lease my first space which was inside a nail salon. I went to the esthetic shows and researched skincare lines and settled on one. I had about 15 clients when I walked in the door. I spent a lot of time creating relationships with the nail techs and with their clients and slowly started to build a clientele of my own. I had about 50 steady clients.

I didn’t have much administrative or financial training and an advisor at my church suggested I look into a series of inexpensive but wonderful life improvement courses they offered. I did four of them which covered being in control of one’s finances, financial planning and accounts and business statistics. Another on the basics of communication and one on PR.
In the following months I 10Xd my business because of those courses and even started my first savings account. Everything was paid off and I was able to expand into more space. That was 1994!

When I was in beauty school the instructor gave us a classroom assignment. She said here are two examples; in one of them you have $5000 to spend on opening up your aesthetic practice. In the other you have $10,000. Where will that money go And what will make up the difference between the two? Most of the girls researched and wrote out all sorts of fancy multi function machines and the most expensive beds and fancy furniture. No one thought of business cards, business insurance, a business license, sample containers, mixing bowls gloves, and all of the various and sundry non-glamorous items one actually needs to run a business including an advertising budget!

So my suggestion for someone starting out in ANY business is to create a business plan. They should know what their goals and their purposes are, they should know what their statistics of the business are so they know when business is up or down, it’s not all about the money. They should know how to plan and how to carry out a plan boat for expansion and for adding additional services. They should know how to do every function of the business even if they hire some of them out. They should know how to handle their banking and their finances. They should know how to talk to customers and yes, how to sell because everything is sales even if you are simply selling the product of your own business. And they should continue to get educated in their field because there is always new information coming out and a good business owner is always on top of new services, products, social media etc.

Jennifer , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I still do professional makeup applications all around Los Angeles and makeup lessons in my salon here in Chatsworth, CA. But the art of results-oriented facials has really been my main thrust. After all, “the painting is only as good as the canvas”!

I specialize in holistic, results-oriented skin care services, I am not a “Spa” facialist. My specialty is in empowering my clients, young and mature, to take responsibility for their skin through regular treatments, using personalized effective home care products and offering holistic help. Vitamins, supplements, collagen, stress reduction are all key in creating clear smooth skin and I also have a social networking health & beauty products company which I started in 2010. I sell the only US and Internationally patented oral liquid collagen matrix (collagen/hyaluronic acid/condroitan sulfate) plus collagen matrix infused skincare, gut microbiome supplements and numerous other exclusive products. These help my clients acheive clear, smooth younger looking skin and healthier bodies overall.

I was also one of the very first aestheticians to do Brazilian waxing in LA . After experiencing some awful services in less than ideal settings, I set out to be cleaner, safer and faster than the “competition” at that time. Over the years I have consistantly won the LA Hotlist Contest for best waxing salon!

When I was starting out aftrer getting licensed, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the leading skin care professionals in the field including Dr. Howard Mural, Dr. Mark Lees and Dr. Daniel Perricone. I also mentored with one of the very first educators in the USA to have the worlds first microdermabrasion machine shipped to them from Mattioli engineering in Italy. I had a chance to work with the machine and write up my experiences before the machine was even approved by the FDA to be sold in America. I had one of the first machines in Los Angeles and I’m an expert in the field.
I also had one of the first near infrared LED light panels in LA. I had gotten interested in the NASA research after reading about it in a medical journal.

I am very into higher education. I am constantly reading scientific journals relating to the skin and health, taking advanced education courses, doing research in the field of aesthetics for skin. I’m also currently training to be a licensed spiritual counselor so that I can better understand the complex relationship between the spiritual (stress) and the physical (skin & bodies) and also better understand my fellow man. Spiritual and emotional stress wreaks havoc on the skin and most drugs prescribed for what are essentially spiritual problems are terrible for the skin!

After 20 years in business sticking mainly to acne and anti-aging facials and body waxing, I expanded to offer other aspects of aesthetics and got myself educated to be excellent in them. in 2002 I became a certified Endermologist. In Jan 2022 I became certified to provide lash tinting and lifting, dermablading and in 2017 was trained and certified to offer pixel blading/shading for eyebrows.
I provide all these services in my private salon-licensed skin studio in Chastworth Ca. .

I would say that it’s my many years in business, constant education and willingness to take responsibility for my clients health and welfare that sets me apart from other aestheticians. I have seen it, used it and sold it all!
Honestly, I am among a handful of local aestheticians that are still in business over 30 years. The average aesthetician wipes out in three years or less.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit and CA instituted its draconian lockdowns I was put out of business for over a year and a half. Even when Dermatology practices and their facial departments reopened, even when the hair industry reopened, skincare salons remained shut down. Because I had no employees, I didn’t qualify for more than the one basic “Grant” given out by the government and the PUA ( pandemic unemployment insurance) which was laughable. Shutting us down effectively put us out of business! I immediately turned to my social marketing healthcare products company and learned how to do TicToks and Fb video lives and boosted my previously small online social retail business into my main source of income. While I created home spa baskets for curbside pickup after things had calmed a little bit and stores were reopened, there was that year where I feared I’d lose my car lease as well as my credit card payments. My advice is to always have 2 or more sources of income that all cover one’s basic financial planning.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes definitely! As I mentioned, business education is key. The courses I took at my church can be done secularly at any Hubbard College of Administration which are world-wide . The classes on finances, sales, business goals, organizing a business were priceless! I don’t know anyone who has ever 10Xd their business without training like these courses provide. Also following Grant Cardone and his 10X Organization helped me to gain control of my finances and grow them.
Lastly, having a strong sense of spirituality and religious beliefs is so important for mental health, in my opinion.
In my industry 100% of the purpose is helping others and sadly, it is common for Aetheticians to ignore their own needs, both physically and spiritually. Our business demands a lot of physical activity plus we are constantly “on” when clients are around. We take in a lot of emotional baggage!
It’s important to practice what you preach. An Aesthetician with pimples or a hairdresser with fried hair, a bankrupt financial adviser or a morally ambiguous psychologist…you wouldn’t go to them and give them your hard earned pay. So entrepreneurs in all industries need to practice self care and, be spiritually healthy.

Contact Info:

• Website: saloncarabella.com
• Instagram: beautydivajen
• Facebook: Carabella Cosmetics & Skin Care
• Twitter: @BeautyDivaJen