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

Alright, Morgan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My first year in business was incredibly slow. I would get clients from facebook ads, but other than that I just had my close friends and family helping me get by. I had always really enjoyed the social media side of things and wanted to get into TikTok. I would post quick videos of my facials on willing clients and I would talk all thing skincare. It’s TikTok common knowledge to know the more you post, the more likely you’ll get more views, more followers, and more engagement. My first viral video happened overnight! I woke up with a whopping 3 million views (now that video is pushing 12 million)! Not only did I wake up that morning with tons of new followers but i had tons and tons of new clients on my books, which was the ultimate goal. Since I started my TikTok i’ve gained over 300,000 followers and many regular clients. I even have clients travel from all over the country for treatments! I’ve not been in the industry for a very long time but knowing that i’ve inspired other people to become estheticians is an incredible honor. I’m still learning everyday what works for my business, but my biggest piece of advice for new estheticians or beauty small business owners, is to post A LOT. If you feel like you’re posting too much, you’re posting enough! On average, potential clientele need to see your brand at least 7 times before they commit to a purchase decision. POST POST POST!

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?

My name is Morgan and I own and operate The Skin Care Cottage. I have always had a love of beauty and makeup as I used to do competition dance as a kid and always had on stage makeup. Growing up I always had my heart set on beauty. I knew that I didn’t have many other interests than that but when I graduated high school, I did the regular 18 year old kid thing and tried out community college. I hated it. I made it through 1 year and knew that esthetics was my path. I enrolled in Tennessee School of Beauty and got to start in May of 2019 and was the first student to graduate in my class that November. Took my state boards, finally got licensed, landed my first job and then BOOM, Covid-19. I worked a whole 2 weeks before being put on catastrophe leave. I wanted so badly to get the ball rolling with my career. A couple months of unemployment go by and I get word of a Medical Spa opening up in my very small hometown. This was so exciting for me and felt kismet! Turns out, it wasn’t for me. Medical esthetics wasn’t quite my dream. At the time I decided to move on from the job, no one was hiring estheticians. My only option at the time was to open a salon suite. Best decision of my life! My favorite part about being a solo esthetician apart from the total creative freedom, is the relationships I make with my clients. Making them feel relaxed, confident, and like they’ve gained a new friend!

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

The first thing I did was go to profiles of people that I knew that would be loyal clients and I followed their followers and then their followers. I followed local businesses too! Next, I ran instagram & facebook ads for $5 a pop and got a lot of engagement from those.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business wasn’t easy. I had no planning or savings when I was ready to open up shop. This is my favorite story because it’s so special. My Nana gave me a loan to purchase everything I needed to open up. It’s not a typical business funding story but I love it. Last year when I relocated to a bigger space, I dedicated my spa to my grandmother.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @skincarewithmorgan
• Other: TikTok @skincarewithmorgan

Image Credits
Photos of me in the pink are S. Morgan Photography all others are mine.