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

Tara, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

I started my career in Corporate America, so I have experienced firsthand several things that do not work well for our industry. The main one is forcing employees to do roles or tasks they do not favor more than what they love to do. A great example is having a makeup artist or hairstylist focus on the sales more than doing their creative talents. People are very capable of doing many things, yet that does not mean they want to or they are good at it. So forcing someone to do a role they do not want to do or passionate about is a disservice to the company and the employee. I believe Corporate America should take more time to find our what their employees want to do and are passionate about, then finding a way to have them to that the most.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started my creative career as a model while pursuing my Bachelor’s degree in college at the University of Central Florida. My parents were more supportive of a professional role, so I self pursued and self funded my way through modeling school at John Casablanca’s. It was there I learned my skills to model and where I learned I had a talent for makeup. I had to do my own makeup as I was starting out and during that time someone told me to go apply at MAC Cosmetics, where I truly learned the education behind the art of makeup and makeup products. Meanwhile, I had the luxury of having my makeup done numerous times by thousands of makeup artists and I learned a lot about what it out there. A lot of very unprofessional and unsanitary experiences sitting in their chairs. Learning what not to do, helped me elevate my services and ensure that my artistry for clients was more that what I saw, more professional, very sanitary and personable. After college, I started a career in business for insurance companies, as my parents felt I needed a ‘real job.’ So, working a Monday through Friday job, my arts could only be lived out on the weekends. As a result, my modeling jobs slowed down and I freelanced at MAC versus working all the time. Then one day my friends were getting married and she asked me to do her makeup and that is when my wedding beauty career started. I did her makeup at no charge and learned that wedding were VERY different from anything I had ever done. It was not a photoshoot, it was not a retail customer and it was not for a party; the makeup I was doing was for one of the biggest and best days of someone’s life.

That is when the chills of passion came and to this day, it still does. I love what we do and being part of someone’s special day is unlike any other makeup job I have done. My work has been globally published, I have been on the covers of magazines, yet knowing my work, the Breluxe team’s work is going to be in someone’s family for life is the greatest reward.
It is truly an honor.
After working alone, I organically needed to grow a team and this was exciting! I was going to take out all the bad things I experienced and put it on a silver platter for others. I wanted to gift seamless experiences to every one. The Artist, the Client and the Wedding.
That is how BreLuxe. was created. It was inspired by my experiences, struggles and passions.

BreLuxe. is the #1 Wedding Beauty Resource for quality service providers and products, specialized in weddings. We have an exclusive network of Wedding Beauty Specialists that service the luxury market for weddings and events.

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

I started my business as a side hustle while being in Corporate America and self funded it all at first. I set a budget I could invest from each paycheck and I used that money to grow and invest in my business. When I decided to leave and go full time with my own company, I could not get a loan at first. So I used my own credit cards and took out money that did not incur interest for 12 months, this gave me the capital I needed. Then after 1 year, I qualified for an SBA loan that was helpful and very low interest. Once we were established in year 2, I was able to operate fully with our sales and revenue. Yet, as business has highs and lows, a business line of credit allows us to be flexible and sustain during harder times. For us, slow seasons, like winter.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Helping others, period. I always tell myself and my team that we need to stay focused on helping others and that has really lead us to success. We do not sell our products or services, we just provide clients help with beauty. That keeps us going and truly feeds our passion of helping others.

Contact Info:

• Website: breluxebeauty.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/breluxe
• Facebook: facebook.com/breluxebeauty
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-bre-a49b8969/
• Twitter: twitter.com/breluxebeauty
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BreLuxeBeauty
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/breluxe-beauty-burbank-4?osq=breluxe

Image Credits
Image Credits @arpitmehta @sarkisstudios @andremaierphoto @mayamyersphotography