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

Patricia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career

When I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s the ideal successful person meant you graduated high school, went to college and then looked for a career in corporate America. You worked your tail off and you did whatever it took to climb the corporate ladder to get to the top. That meant gruling hours, overtime, and bascially at the beck and call of your career. Later in life I realized this does nothing for your quality of life. You end up a miserable, exhausted, stressed, unhealthy person. It wasn’t until in my early to mid 30’s I realized you CAN build a career around your life vs trying to fit your life around a career. The only way I found to have the flexiblity and to be able to call the shots is Entrepreneurship. Finding something that’s personal to you that you have a passion for and figuring out a way to monetize it.

I would LOVE to see more classes in high scools and in colleges about how to take steps in building your own business. I believe high scools need to teach kids real world situations they are going to find themselves in regarding finances, credit cards, retirement funds, investing and how to be responsible with money. Classes to help them discover what they are truly talented in in order to determine if a trade school would be better than a University. We definately need more emphasis on trades now more than ever along with real world practical living knowledge. I believe if a young adult can figure out a trade they are reall good at and enjoy, they have an amazing opportunity to be able to start their own business too!

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

My business Perfection by Patricia, is an on location Professional Makeup and Hair Design team! We specialize in Makeup and Hair Design in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas. Our team is available for on-location services for: Weddings, Special Events, Photo Shoots, Publication/Media, etc

In 2006, I was burned out as a cosmetics manager in the retail industry and had a desire to be my own boss. I knew had a talent and around that time freelancing in makeup for events and photoshoots was starting to become popular & little did I know that the big “BOOM” in hiring an on-location artist for weddings was on the horizon! In those days, a bride would go to the salon to get their hair done and hit the makeup counters or have a friend do their makeup. Now it is totally just assumed that a bride will be booking an H&MU team for her wedding.

It took me about three years of consistent networking with local photographers, venues, planners and other vendors to start creating a local name for myself. Before I knew it, we were booking about 80 weddings a year plus many many photoshoots, magazine publications and commercial shoots. I built a six-figure company and had a team of 7. In 2019 I hit a breaking point where I realized I was stretching myself too thin. I was away every single weekend from my family, juggling sometimes five weddings in one weekend. I knew I had to take a step back and revaluate what was important to me, my health and my family. I have a 2nd business as well with the number one skincare company in N. America. It’s my online franchise which I am super proud of. That allowed me to take some time off and cut my weddings down to about 35 a year.

In 2020, we had a major halt for six months due to covid. It was another “break” for me and another moment I was so grateful I created a plan B on the side along the way with my online skincare business. This created time for me, once again, to reevaluate what I wanted out of Perfection by Patricia while still being a present mommy and pulling in an FT income with my ecommerce gig.

I have been fully emersed in weddings for 2021 and 2022, but I am finally confident, fulfilled & empowered since I’ve learned to say ‘no’ more. I think that is so important for a business owner. Knowing when to say no, when it’s going to spread yourself too thin. I’ve always said you have to take care of yourself before you can give your best to others. I have to have a happy medium in order for me to perform my best work and to give the best service.

The feedback I receive from clients that I believe sets us apart from other companies is our timeliness/quickness in getting H&MU done and also our response time in communication.

When we do a wedding we never go over a 4 hour prep time for parties. I personally feel making the wedding party sit there all morning at any time more than that is nuts. So I will make sure we have enough hands on deck to make that happen depending on their party size. We a lot about 30 mins per service. (30 mins for hair and 30 mins for makeup) Also, you can ask any vendor out there who’s worked with us….WE ARE STICKLERS ABOUT STICKING TO THE TIMELINE & NEVER RUN OVER! I am super proud of that.

I never let an email go unanswered for more than a day (most of the time, I am responding immediately or within a couple of hours). I think our clients appreciate that very much. In fact, I know they do because most of the time they are astonished that I’ve “replied so quickly”.

I am most proud of being able to be an example to my daughter, who is now 14, grow up watching me have my own career and still be a present parent, maintaining a home and be the best wife I can to my husband. Women can do it all and I believe it’s achievable when you aren’t working for someone else but instead working for yourself. There is a big sense of fullfillment. My daughter now aspires to own a business as well.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

As I stated previously, I do have a “side hustle” along side of Perfection by Patricia. I work with the number 1 premium skincare brand in all of N. America, Rodan+Fields. I partnered with the brand 9 years ago alongside of PbyP. It’s totally Ecommerce and I do not have to stock inventory, deal with shipping items or delivery. Everything is done online and it’s so turn key! I know I’m providing the top skincare and lash serum to the public. I can run my business anywhere R+F is sold and right now that’s US, Canada and Australia. I have built residual income meaning I’ve done the work once and can get paid continually over and over. My product is consumable so my customers have to reorder when they run out. I have found a way to basically make money in my sleep with an online ecommerce store. The best thing is I’m simply sharing the brand either in person or online with social media, I send them my website, they order and the company takes it from there by packaging and shipping and dealing with any sort of questions or returns etc. Ambassador programs are super popular these days – an ambassador shares products and gets paid a percentage on them. Direct Sales is the exact same thing! It’s a legitamte business model and I encourage anyone to partner with a solid reputable company delivering quality products. My business has helped me tremendously in times of need, paying off debt and is even providing me a way to put my daughter through private school. I consider it now my FT business now because I can fit it into my everyday life and it’s running 24/7 bringing me FT income.

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

Over the past nearly 17 years in business within the wedding industry, I have connected with many local wedding vendors. Building fantastic relationships over time with photographers, planners, venues, officiants, and even other hair/makeup teams has been key. Networking is so important with other businesses. I do zero advertising and I would say 60% of my referrals come from other vendors. The other 40% would come from social media or past client referrals.

Vendors like to refer us because they know we provide stellar work, are always on time and complete a job on time. It takes some time to build a reputation of course and it helps that I’ve been in business for so long. I would encourage anyone new starting out to attend all networking events and utilize social media to connect with others to start building those relationships.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/lovelifewithplove
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectionbypatricia/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-love-2a52a3193/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcrp0Eb_ADNi5hNGfaJ-qrg
• Other: http://www.perfectionbypatricia.com/

Image Credits
Kathy Howard Photography Jen Hagan Photography Fabiana Skubic Photography Jessica Lee Mason Photography 627 Photography Rosey Shell Photgraphy