We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vanessa Vega. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vanessa below.

Vanessa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

COVID had just turned for the worse and schools had closed down to do virtual learning. I was now faced with the decision to quit my 8-5 office job, to become a stay at home mom of three kids with two doing virtual learning. I found it very difficult to not work, so I decided well I am home, I had saved all this money, why not finally do something for myself. I had always loved brows, cleaned them for people, colored them and why not start tattooing them. The ladies I had worked with kept telling me about this lady in Garden Grove who did permanent makeup, plus did some of theirs. I looked into her, talked with her and made the jump to take my first training course. I spent hours practicing shaping before my final class day where it was time to tattoo an actual person for the first time ever! Whoa, was that a roller coaster ride of emotions from the night before to the end of class. I then fell in love with the art of it and how my live model reacted to her results with such joy! It was seriously moving! Now that I knew this was for me, I had to figure out where to set up because it was in the middle of covid where beauty shops were temporarily closed. Starting out of my home was the only option at first. I flourished on word of mouth referrals, friends and family. Next thing you know, I’m doing more training courses. Teeth Whitening, Tooth Gems, Lash Lifts, Henna Brows and Lip Blushing. I couldn’t resist. I loved everything about these beauty enhancing services and having my own clientele. After mastering all these services and building clientele, it was time to find a shop to work out of. Good bye covid, things are opening back up. I was able to find a beautiful spa to rent a room out of and worked there for close to 2 years. Earlier this year, I moved into my own little place in Bixby Knolls and am looking forward to what’s to come for Enhanced By Vee.

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?

Well for starters my name is Vanessa also known as Vee which is how I got the name for the business: Enhanced By Vee. The enhance part for the many beauty enhancing services I offer that help people feel good about themselves. I am a mother to three amazing kids. I am married to an incredible man who is also an entrepreneur and owns his own painting company. Born and raised in Long Beach with a huge blended family. I always had a love for eyebrows and makeup. I have always worked my entire life and had kids young. So as much as we all hated COVID, it did bring me one good thing, the time to be home for once and invest in myself. So, one beauty service at a time I became well known and loved. I was even voted best Lash Bar of Long Beach with the Long Beach Post in 2022. Now three years later I am offering Ombre Powder Brows, Lip Blushing, Keratin Lash Lift, Teeth Whitening, Tooth Gems, Henna Brows and Training Courses for all men, women and teens. My services enhance people’s natural features and add to their natural beauty. The results help my clients feel good about themselves, look amazing and walk out my shop happier than how they came into my shop.

What sets me apart from others is my business is a small one woman show. It is built on love for what I do and the love I have for my clients. I thoroughly love performing the treatments I offer, spending the extra time to get to know my clients, their needs and wants to create customized treatments/results. I am completely transparent with my clients, care and value their happiness. I go above and beyond to create great relationships with my clients.
I am extremely proud of how far I have come in this industry, how much I have learned, gained and how loyal my clients are. To be their trusted go to Pmu Artist means more than they will ever know. Their continued love and support is what keeps me pushing and working hard everyday to always have open doors for them.

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

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele is honestly making sure my work is up to par for my clients, they are beyond happy with the results plus their experience at my shop. By making sure my clients are completely satisfied, they in return refer you to everyone they know, run into or pass by. Word of mouth has been my biggest blessing for my company.

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

Building an audience on social media started off really well. You have to always post not just on your page but your stories. Post all your work, before, after, during the session, selfies with clients, events, updates, specials, you name it, just post like crazy to stay relevant. Ask your clients that are active on social media to tag your page with their selfies of their results. Building an audience nowadays is a bit harder if you aren’t doing videos. So best advice is do all of the above but try taking more recordings of your job and sessions to have content to create to post about your business and stay up to date.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.enhancedbyvee.com
• Instagram: @_enhanced.by.vee_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4enhancedbyvee
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/enhanced-by-vee-long-beach

Image Credits
Bixby Knolls Association for their wonderful photographer taking my very first business headshot.