We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Shelton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

It takes Consistency, Discipline and Great customer service. Consistency if you want it to work, discipline if you want success and great customer service skills if you want your business to grow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey guys, I’m Lisa, a licensed cosmetologist and the owner and operator of the Lash Cafe’ located in Lexington South Carolina. A mother to two beautiful daughter’s and a furry pup! I recently celebrated 2 years as a full time entrepreneur!! In 2017, I started my journey to become a cosmetologist not knowing that I would become a lash artist and put hair aside the following year. while in cosmetology school, I had mixed emotions about what my calling was I loved braiding but I didn’t have a passion for the hair industry, “crazy right.”while in school one evening I purchased a ebook from a Instagram page with eyelash vendors and decided to take a chance ordering eyelash strips. At that time I didn’t have much knowledge on business or eyelash extensions but strips were trending and I knew the girls at my school loved lashes. So I’ started selling to the girls I knew at school and a few others that I knew locally. Once again I’m strolling on instagram in the middle of the night and come across a few eyelash extension pages with pictures of these amazing lashes and they offer lash extension courses, I start doing research to find out what is required to become a Lash Tech. I go to school I start asking questions about eyelashes to see if anyone knew anyone in the area that taught courses. This one particular day I got to school we had a guest speaker and she was a Lash Technician that graduated from my school instantly I was engaged in everything she had to say. After class I asked how I could become a lash tech and if she taught classes and if she’d teach me, she said yes and I never heard from her again. Long story short she wanted to recruit for her business, After meeting the guest speaker I came across another young lady at school enrolled in the esthetician program doing her classmates eyelashes so I asked her if she would train me and how much did she charge for training she also brushed me off and never got back to me so I left them alone. I kept coming across the same Instagram account that was offering the lash course so I decided, I’m gonna take this lash course. In March of 2018 I drove to Florida and became a lash technician!! I graduated cosmetology school in October 2018 and was ready for business so I thought lol needless to say I’m four years in and I’m beyond proud of myself for not giving up when no one would help me. Building my business hasn’t been the easiest thing to do but it’s worth it, everyday I’m learning and educating myself in my industry. When I decided to become a full time entrepreneur I really didn’t understand what I was taking on but I took it on anyways. Entrepreneurship is scary and very lonely in the beginning, I didn’t know anything about having a structured business or having systems in place, no knowledge on business banking or business credit I really winged it for the first two years. “I know what a bold move right.” I was determined to figure it out and that’s exactly what I have been doing. Consistency and discipline is how I built a 6 figure lash spa from scratch I started with one customer and now I have serviced over 2k in the last 3 years in business. I’m beyond grateful for every customer I have. My customers have helped me with so much as a business owner, a great amount of my knowledge and education on business I’ve learned from some of my entrepreneurial customers. They’ve taught me so much and never made me feel less then, but always made me feel like I can do this especially on those days I felt like giving up. It’s hard to believe that I do Eyelash extensions for a living but I’m happy with the decisions I’ve made and the way I make customers feel by enhancing their beauty.

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

I honestly have to say RELIABILITY and AVAILABILITY ! Reliability is the key factor for service based businesses. Most customers want to know that they won’t get stood up or cancelled that they’re some type of safety with paying a deposit to secure an appointment.

Availability is also important because when most customer finds someone they’re satisfied with they stick with you but if availability’s are limited it’s hard for them to become a repeat customer which will make it hard for them to refer more business to you.

Any advice for managing a team?

It’s funny you ask I decided I’d start building my team in April of this year. Over the last eight months I hired two young ladies and things were going good for the most part but needless to say I’m back at square one. Managing is not for the weak at all, you honestly don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what you’re doing , you have to learn personalities, be an educator, be an overseer of everyone’s work , be a mentor and a protector while running the whole entire business ! I didn’t have systems in place because I didn’t think managing adults would be hard but listen I needed that experience to learn what not to do next time. As the business owner you must always remain professional with employees, and know your employees names aren’t on the line your business name is, the employee represents the company and anything they do will fall back on company. My advice to any business owner looking to build a team. During the interview process, be straightforward don’t hold nothing back dig deep to find out exactly who you’re hiring are they reliable? Can you trust them, are they dependable? What motivates them ,what are their intentions? what discourages them ? Are they for the business or for self. Do they like people? Can they work with people? Are they a peoples person? A personality check needs to be in place, confidence check needs to be in place during the interview. Make sure you’re clear on every thing you except from the employee. Your expectations need to be set, your rules need to be in place. Your policies and procedures needs to be followed. Your dress code needs to be
enforced and respected. your employee needs to know that you’re running a business, this is not a partnership you guys aren’t friends. Set the tone from day one. One valuable thing that I’ve learned is understanding the difference between a W-2 employee and a commission contractor if you don’t know the difference between those two learn that first before you hire. Always keep applications on hand , it’s crazy to say this but never get comfortable with your current employees. Keep in touch with your potential‘s applicants because anything can happen. As a business owner don’t go out of your way trying to over satisfy or accommodate your employees big no no stick to your rules that you have in place. Don’t let the employee run the business. Make sure there is a probation period that every employee must meet… lastly, keep business and personal life separate.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Lashcaffe.com
• Instagram: The_lash_cafe_llc
• Facebook: Lash Cafe
• Youtube: www.YouTube/Lashcaffe
• Yelp: The lash cafe
• Other: Google : The Lash cafe