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

Juanita, 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?

Asking your friends and family to support your business can be tough but I truly believe a stranger will support you way more then friends and family and that’s okay because they are not your ideal audience. A simple share or word of mouth would be great and very appropriative but I don’t expect my friends and family to come get serviced by me because not everyone gets lash extensions, teeth whitening services done or it’s not for them or that can’t afford it and that is completely okay! Things that are appropriate when asking friends and family would be just to ask to share a post or give a recommendation. I definitely draw the line when friends and family assume just because we’re close they can get some type of discount / deal, or give an option on how I should run my business. You’ll get the right support from the right people!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Juanita a 24 year old entrepreneur who decided it was time to turn my hobby into a functioning business. I started by getting my lashes done and I loved how passionate my lash technician was about her work and it inspired me to take the leap to take her 2 day lash course. Taking the course made me realize that becoming a lash technician wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but with a lot of practice and dedication I got better every step of the way and with the help of a great mentor/teacher I was able to become the lash tech that I am today! I soon fell in love and became passionate with my work that I decided to expand and offer not only Lash Extensions, but Teeth Whitening and ToothGems as well, hopefully in the near future I’ll be able to expand even more by offering other services as well.

My main goal is to improve on customer satisfaction I love to hear my clients feedback on what I can improve on or what I could have done differently to offer a better experience. What sets me apart from others is quite tricky because by no means am I better then the next lash technician but I’d have to say is I am willing to go the extra mile for my clients and make sure they leave happy and satisfied with my work. For example I had a new client come to me for a Fullset of lashes, she loved them prior to leaving but after a day or two she had reached out stating she had an issue with the set I had did and they mostly all came out. I offered to redo her entire set free of charge, she was very pleased I was willing to go the extra mile to give her the desired set she had hoped for!

Being passionate and loving what I do has given me amazing opportunities to not only grow as a person but a business owner as well, from being able to be apart of magazine articles / blogs to doing pop-up events and starting my very own product line. Not only do I offer lash extensions and teeth whitening but I also sell items for those who can’t get lash extensions and products for just about everyone.
A few items I offer are:
• 15+ different styles of lash strips
• A variety of glow in the dark glitters
• custom handmade lash cases
• Mango Body Butter
• Lash/Brow Growth serum
• Strawberry Lip scrub
• Turmeric Face scrub
• Eczema cream

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

I built audience by constantly posting my work or booking link. Believe it or not but posting constantly and being consistent is key, don’t get me wrong it can be challenging to constantly post but don’t let that discourage you. Believe in yourself and you can achieve any and everything you want in life!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy would be word of mouth but other way would be handing your business cards out whenever you’re out and about, adding your business to google for those who might be looking for something in their area.

Contact Info:

• Website: Nitasbeautybar.square.site
• Instagram: Nitasbeautybar_
• Facebook: Nita’s Beauty Bar