Could Use Some Support - Please Give Me Advice
Hi Members!
I am so excited to be a new member of this site. I have been thinking about becoming an esthetician for a long time now. Here's "the thing" I am in my early 40's and terrified (while simultaneously excited) about making this rather radical career change into this field. I am coming from a pretty lucrative, long term career in real estate. I'm just flat out burned out, exhausted and mentally drained by the constant friction/stress of my present field. Having been successfully self employed for over 15 years I feel I can make a "go" of another profession which also offers opportunity to entrepreneurially minded professionals. I am fairly confident I will never make the kind of money I made in real estate BUT I want balance, a life and happiness.
At the same time, I do want to earn a nice, safe living but it scares me a little because I am just not clear on what potential the esthetician path truly holds for someone. I like to do well for myself but yes, I want to balance that with an enjoyable, satisfying career. I think skin care can offer that to me. Are those of you in this field who are entrepreneurial satisfied? Can I support my two daughters on the living I can make? (I am a single mom). I am fully confident in my business skills but this is so different and such a dramatic career change I admit to being scared. Support needed.....advice needed from those who have been there, done that. Or, who can at least speak to what can be achieved in this appealing career. I hope to hear from you and I GREATLY appreciate your input :)
Views: 715
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie Lynn on
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I'm in Southern California (orange county).
Facebook: Julie Lynn and Julie Lynn Skin
Look me up & I can give you my # if you would like to talk :)
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Permalink Reply by Christina on
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Great! Am doing that now. Would LOVE to talk - our common ground is unreal. In fact, does the name "Tarbell Realtors" mean anything to you? I was with them for years when I lived in SoCal. I am now back in SC since my divorce. It is so great to learn of a fellow Realtor who has gone through exactly what I have. Now I know I'm not crazy :) :) Others understand my plight!!
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OMG....I was with Tarbell for the 1st 13 years!!! This is wild!!!
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CRAZY!!!!! I was with the Aliso Viejo office. I was one of the very first agents there when it opened up. You must've known Tom Schulze...I encouraged him to stay in the business after he was very discouraged and he came to be the broker in charge of the Irvine office. Small world. But soooooo....awesome for me to meet someone who completely understands where I'm coming from. I've been suffering through this alone, basically. This is a big career change as you are fully aware :)
Just curious...what prompted you to leave real estate??
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Oh man, I've been with Tarbell San Clemente (right down the street from Aliso) since 1998. I too was the 1st agent and longest one there until I left 2 years ago and went to Star Real Estate. Star is in San Clemente and Aliso Viejo ( such a small world). Wow!!! All this time and we were probably at all the same award shows.
I didn't leave real estate but knew I needed to change directions when the economy tanked and then my marriage. I was too afraid to stay in the Real Estate market as a single mom. I needed to make a change so I managed a Starbucks in Laguna Hills for 2 years and then got my esthetician license but was still afraid of basically commission only. I started interviewing for other management careers while trying to figure out my life. I was offered a job as assistant store manager in training for store manager for Pier One when I realized that having my time freedom/flexible schedule was too valuable for me now especially as a single mom, so I turned it down and here I am going for the esthetician life! I still do real estate part time with my mom Cara. We got our license's together and I loved doing that but it's sooooo different now.
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This is beyond bizarre. I joined Tarbell in 1998. I guarantee you we were at the award shows together. Roula Fawaz helped teach me the business. Long story there. I have been back in South Carolina full time since 2005 basically. We absolutely must chat one of these days. I sent you a message on Facebook.
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Ok, this is CRAZY for sure!!! But super cool too! I used to go to the "MasterMind" meetings at corporate. I spoke to Roula a few times and admired her hard work. Tina kinda drove me crazy. Don Tarbell interviewed me & my mom once for the award show. We were on the big jumbo tron screen at the pond that year when we went up for our awards. It was pretty funny!
Would love to exchange #'s and talk some time.
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Let's exchange numbers for sure. I clicked the "friend" button on here to you which allows for private messaging. I did also message you via Facebook. Let's exchange numbers via either of those conduits.....
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Permalink Reply by Devyn M. on
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The potential for a steady and lucrative career in esthetics is really up to you, in my opinion (the area you live in can also play a part). I know Estheticians who make a ton of money and some that don't and can't fully support themselves yet (and may never). You have to work hard! I also switched careers (or finally found one!) and jumped into this completely. I don't have kids and I am not married so that helped. I am able to fully commit myself, 7 days a week, to this profession. I have been pretty successful and I have only been doing this for 1 1/2 years. I absolutely love what I do so I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything. I am just now starting to take some time for myself but I still work 7 days. Our salon is open (I rent a room) 5 days but on those other 2 days, I am reading, researching, writing a blog, doing FB posts, trying to come up with different services for my clients and doing all the back end stuff (financials, stocking, cleaning, etc). All of this has paid off and I have clients all around the country.
I work really hard and my clients see how much I care. That goes a long way. My clients trust me because I'm honest. That is what they want. And I always give more than they expect...even those that have been with me for awhile. I add something extra to a facial or give them a free sample of something.
There isn't a clear answer for your question, unfortunately. :( The money you need to make is there, you just have to figure out what it will take for YOU to get your business there.
This is a very rewarding career and I can't imagine doing anything else. I hope this works out for you and that you find the success you had with real estate. I am confident you will. :) Good luck!!
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Devyn, WONDERFUL and INSPIRING input. Thanks very, very much. You appear to be a fabulous role model. Question: what one or two keys would you say were essential in building your clientele? Traffic from the salon? Some type of marketing you did? Thanks for the fabulous post!
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Thank you and you're welcome! :)
The internet was key to building my business. I am everywhere! haha I put myself on every search engine. The more you have a presence on the internet, the more your name appears and at the top of the page. So taking that information, I signed up for and started a blog, twitter, linkedin, instagram, tumblr, flickr, foursquare, google places, pinterest, fb website and I think that might be it. :) I am also on Yelp and I use my online booking system (styleseat) a lot. I have looked at other Estheticians in my area on Styleseat and their info is minimal. New clients want to know who you are and what you do. Give them a reason to come to you instead of "Betty" down the street. Plus, I won a contest. Here is the link to my website where you can find links to my stuff, if you're interested. You can see what I do and that may help you figure things out.
The salon I work in opened 1 month before I started. They do not do any kind of advertising so it has been all up to me. I have also found that there are not a lot of walk-ins for esthetics. I'll get some waxing clients that I turn into facial clients but most people do not just walk in to get a facial. I have brochures that show most of my services and I have participated in things in my town that have also helped. I write a newsletter for my clients as well to keep them informed of new services, provide misc. tips, etc.
I give a facial to all stylists so that they know what I am about. That helped too.
The 2nd thing I would recommend would be becoming an expert and making sure people see you as that. I am always surprised at the comments I hear from my clients about their experiences with other Estheticians. I am knowledgeable and so they are comfortable asking me questions. If I don't know something, I tell them that I will get back to them (and I DO!) with the answer.
Feel free to email me if you have more questions. I don't mind helping when I can. :)
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Permalink Reply by coldsalineplexus on
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((Caveat - I am not writing this post to be discouraging, just realistic))
Entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship. If you want balance in your life, don't be an entrepreneur. Eventually you can live a balanced lifestyle as an entrepreneur, but if you haven't found a way to balance your current high-pressure job (which has no overhead) in 15 years, you probably will have a hard time balancing an extremely high-overhead, low-margin entrepreneurial venture (absolutely no offense meant - I have not figured out the perfect balance of my entrepreneurship and life demands either).
A nice low-stress job working as an esthetician in somebody elses' spa or practice can certainly help you earn my definition of "a nice, safe living" after about 2 years (but my definition may not be yours). A more competitive hourly+commission position at a plastic surgeon's office or a resort spa may improve that total if you're willing to kiss up to corporate managers or a grouchy MD all day, and you're not fighting too many other estheticians for services. Being that you're a good saleswoman, you'll eventually do somewhat better than those around you.
Unfortunately, your risk/reward timeline is even further drawn out by being an entrepreneur in this field as opposed to being an employee or contractor. Many of us who are entrepreneurs pay our staff more than we are able to pay ourselves. If you go the solo esthetician route, you will always be limited by your own time, and you will always take a hit when sick, vacationing, or taking time out to care for children or elders in your family. Oh yeah, and taxes.
I know you've experienced the frustration of trying to build a clientele, so I won't bore you describing what that feels like.
With all your years of business experience, I wonder what other types of other careers you have considered? If you like the sound of working in a spa environment, have you tried applying as a manager at a successful (larger) spa in your area? Management positions tend to be the only ones in our industry with set salaries and benefits of any kind.
Again, not trying to scare you off of being an esthetician, but quality training is expensive, and almost none of the people I schooled with are currently practicing.
I'm not saying that you can't achieve quite a bit in this field, and you can certainly enjoy your work time and be satisfied with the work that you do (I certainly am), however I am concerned that you might be idealizing esthetic work as being dramatically low stress, and entrepreneurship in the spa industry as having less friction than other industries. This just isn't the case.
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