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

Kait, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

At SLFMKR, the one key element I feel very strongly about providing our clients with beyond sales and service is education. While we are a sales-driven retail business that does need to turn a profit to remain in business and excellent customer service is a non-negotiable, I believe that we have a responsibility to our clients to provide them with education around the skin care they are investing in. The beauty industry is an oversaturated market and skin care can be both complex and nuanced. Purchasing skin care can be overwhelming and confusing. By providing education, we empower our clients to feel confident in their purchases and in using their products. Product education helps to set the client up for success. Using products correctly will lead to more efficacious results and therefore trust in our team that results in a lifelong customer with repeat purchases.

Kait, 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?

The concept of SLFMKR was developed out of both a need and want when I moved from New York City to Cleveland, Ohio in 2018. I was on a path of clean living due to a myriad of health and fertility issues that started in my 20’s and continued into my 30’s. I had already made the “clean switch” on nearly all of the products I was using in my home and in and on my body, but upon our move to Cleveland, I found that I had to order nearly all of my preferred beauty and personal care products online or stock up on them when in New York. I saw a void in the Cleveland market for a place where people could experience curated, quality clean beauty IRL. I wanted to create a space not only for clean beauty and self-care products, but also a community around clean living-one filled with education and support.

I am proud of the education and support my staff and I are able to provide our community with as we have so many client success stories, from help with acne and breakouts to tackling anti-aging without injectables. We meet our clients where they are, recognize their needs and wants and guide them to products and a regimen we know they will be able to understand and maintain.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe that SLFMKR’s approach of service and education over sales have helped to build a reputation of trust and success with our clientele. We do not focus on selling as many products as possible or the most expensive products but instead what we deem as the best products for our client based on their skin, their skin care goals and their skin care needs. We recognize that everyone has different skin, different goals and different needs and therefore every recommendation we make is very consciously made on a bio-individual level.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started SLFMKR with a very small fund of a few thousand dollars from my husband’s meditation business, as our retail concept was initially an extension of his meditation studio. My professional background was in fashion and beauty retail and I recognized that a small retail offering of clean, non-toxic products could be a great addition to the meditation studio.

His meditation studio opened at the end of 2019 and just a few months later in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Ben made the difficult decision to close his studio but I recognized that my retail concept had legs even in just the short time I had launched. I decided to move forward with further developing and expanding the concept in a new space all my own.

Because I only started with a few thousand dollars, I would only buy small amounts of inventory when I had the capital from any retail sales. During COVID, our sales were all driven from online orders. I focused on email marketing and social media to create awareness around the brand. I offered free local delivery to safely get products to our clients.

Little by little, our retail sales grew and I was able to place larger inventory orders. My first business credit card had a credit limit of about $2,000 so I had to be be very strategic about how I managed my cash flow. When I had inflow, I would buy only what I could truly afford. It was very organic, calculated growth and still is to this day. I still manage our cash flow for inventory in a very similar way, but with much larger credit limits.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://slfmkr.com/
• Instagram: @slfmkr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slfmkr