Making a Difference in People’s Lives Through Lashes with Jennifer Blair. That's right this is what drives Jennifer and her business Deka Lash. What started because it was so incredibly tough to get her own lashes done Jennifer started her business for others having the same challenges. From that startup she is able to help customers and their confidence and business owners with their pocket books. Today, Deka Lash offers a variety of lash and brow services in both the US and Canada. They currently have over 100 locations open, and over 100 more on the way! They also offer their own proprietary line of cruelty-free lashcare products both in-studio and online. Deka Lash was born in 2011 after co-founder, Jennifer Blair found herself feeling discouraged by how inaccessible lash extensions were to the everyday consumer like herself. Are you ready to learn more on how to inspire confidence in woman across North America? This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA --- Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising
Making a Difference in People’s Lives Through Lashes with Jennifer Blair. That's right this is what drives Jennifer and her business Deka Lash. What started because it was so incredibly tough to get her own lashes done Jennifer started her business for others having the same challenges. From that startup she is able to help customers and their confidence and business owners with their pocket books.
Today, Deka Lash offers a variety of lash and brow services in both the US and Canada. They currently have over 100 locations open, and over 100 more on the way! They also offer their own proprietary line of cruelty-free lashcare products both in-studio and online.
Deka Lash was born in 2011 after co-founder, Jennifer Blair found herself feeling discouraged by how inaccessible lash extensions were to the everyday consumer like herself.
Are you ready to learn more on how to inspire confidence in woman across North America?
This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future.
Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA
---
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, eyelashes, lash, deca, franchise, service, franchisees, business, location, studio, appointments, franchise disclosure document, training, salon, brand, franchising, ran, pittsburgh, jennifer, started
SPEAKERS
Lance Graulich, Jennifer
Lance Graulich00:06
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fabulous episode of ion franchising. I am your host, Lance Gramlich and today another like I said fabulous one. So imagine a tech infused beauty brand. So let's say from unique virtual, I'm doing my eyelash move right now you can't even see it if you're listening to the podcast. But but from unique virtual eyelash triathlons, to a cutting edge lash application technique. This brand is certainly hot. Today, I want to welcome Miss Jennifer Blair, founder and CEO of DECA lash. Welcome, Jennifer.
Jennifer00:47
All right. Well, thank you for the nice introduction. Nice to be here. Well, it
Lance Graulich00:51
is so awesome to have you here. So let's have some fun. And let's talk about DECA lash. You know, so many people say to me, eyelash extensions. How did this come about? Well hold that question. Let's get back to that. Let's talk about Jennifer's history. How the heck did you get getting franchising in the first place?
Jennifer01:10
Yeah, I reflect on that question quite a bit, actually, you know, how did I end up getting here? It's been a journey, I will tell you that. It's it's been about 10 years since this concept started. Back in 2012, I decided that it was time to get back in the workforce. To do a little something for myself, I basically had spent most of the years prior to that raising, we have four children, two girls, two boys, that has actually named after my two daughters. The first initials have their name. So that's Demi and Carly. So that's where the depot came in. But, um, so I spent a lot of my time raising the kids, my husband traveled a lot for work. So you know, it really didn't make sense for me to have a job outside of the home just because everything that run around with the kids, you know, activities, everything. So I stayed at home. And then as the kids started to get older, they were in school full time, it left me to say, Okay, what's my next chapter? What am What am I going to do with my life and, you know, kind of decide that you're starting something wasn't new to me, to us, because we had several small businesses throughout, you know, throughout our lifetime of being together, married. And so, like, starting a business wasn't out of the question. And I was into the beauty part of it just because of my mom growing up, she was always into, she worked in a salon. So after school, I'd get dropped off there. She sold professional beauty products. She had me signed up in different teen pageants, and, you know, modeling she like she, she kind of like we we were together. And she was a young mom. So we kind of grew up together. And that was always something that was in, you know, in our background and fun, always fun stuff going on. So I kind of stumbled across the eyelashes, which it was new 10 years ago, it wasn't as mainstream as it is now, which I believe that has helped to make that more mainstream for women. We have over it, we have about 126 locations right now and growing. But back then, you know, eyelashes were not a thing. And I went to have the service done myself. And I had a really hard time finding a place to get them done. They were either an add on service at a salon, or someone came in every other week to do them. There just wasn't a lot of eligibility. And in addition to that, it was really expensive to have done it was 200 $300 to get a full set of lashes. Yes, and they don't, they don't last forever. So that is that is an you know, investment. And then there's, you know, the reoccurring the refills So, it just it seemed like there was a gap, you know, in in that industry, for somebody like me, you know, trying to get employment, there was probably other people wanting to get that appointment, too. We were going away specifically to away and I was looking to have them for like a special event. So needless to say with all of that I wasn't able to have them done. But while I was away, I did find the time and I absolutely loved eyelashes like they were a natural feeling they gave the pop in your eyes, you know, you just felt better when you looked at yourself. So in my mind, I was like okay, how am I gonna get a refill when I go back home? So that was where the idea kind of came up where that I was, you know, I came to my And I was like, What do you think about, you know, offering eyelash extensions, and you know, making it a service and getting trains. And he was he was on board. You know, like I said, we had other businesses. And so he was like, if this makes you happy, you know, at this time, we had no idea we were franchising, I was just getting back into the workforce. So that's kind of the backstory of, of how the idea was born.
Lance Graulich05:24
And like anyone that does market research, you called some of your friends and said, so this is what I'm thinking, right? I can't find a good place to get my eyelashes done that's affordable with a quality etc. And you had plenty of friends that agreed with you, right?
Jennifer05:41
I did. And DECA was more women than men. They quite play did know what I was talking about. So much. But yes,
Lance Graulich05:49
yeah. I'm sure the men were like, Yeah, whatever you're talking about.
Jennifer05:52
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Lance Graulich05:56
So what was the next move? So you thought of the idea, and then you open your first location? Yeah.
Jennifer06:01
So we opened our first location, well, first I rented, I rented a space out of a salon. That was the first entry and proved out the concept that I ran it as that's the only thing I did was eyelashes. Well, let me back up. I took the training class, and I actually ran a group on for the service. So not knowing how the service was, you know, like how was going to be perceived, back then Groupons, were also a newer thing. And it was a good way to market without putting a lot of, it's like a consignment. So that's, that's, that's what we do. I had contacted them and said, Hey, I got this concept, this idea. They're all over it. And they, you know, they were like, sure. At that time, I had heard, you know, I was hoping that maybe I would get 1020, you know, a handful or more appointments out of it, and clients and production, yes. That the group on actually sold out 250 within a very short period of time. So it was like it was game on for me at that point, because it wasn't just an idea of getting back to work or, you know, having, you know, a little extra money, it was like, Oh, my gosh, I have this full, you know, lineup of people waiting to get this service done. So that, you know, looking back, that was the first sign, okay, people want this, right. Like, there's a need, if there was that many people that that jumped on board. So we ran the group on I started providing the services, what I found was at this point that I was as excited as offering the services, they were receiving it. So then now it's just become a passion of mine. Because the way that people looked and felt different about themselves and the compliments that they were receiving afterwards, when they would come back for their appointments and tell me about it. I was like this, like, this is not just eyelashes, this is not just if there was something more to it, it was really building people's confidence, and you know, just making them feel better about themselves. And, you know, when you feel better about yourself, you you're more productive. And when you're more productive, you're more successful. So there started to be this whole backstory of, of what we were doing other than just eyelashes, and that's when we were like, okay, so we decided, and we we use because my husband's always coaching me in the back in the background. And we're co CEOs in the company now. We decided to did
Lance Graulich08:30
you put our lashes on Michael? Is that what you did? He
Jennifer08:34
will not he will not go for that there's been some other you know, guys on the corporate that we you know, they wanted to see what it was like as an a kind of a thing that we do sometimes in the office. But no, not my key but not not to get them done. So maybe someday. But, um, so we moved out of this salon and decided to open up a brick and mortar that was just dedicated to just eyelashes only kind of sign, you know that that was what we you know, because I didn't move out of the salon altogether. And that that proved to be very positive. I mean, we had people driving hour and a half to come and get an appointment to somebody who specifically did one service. And I think you know, a lot of it was that's the way the industry was going. You know, if you think about it, even the big gyms, like there was the boutique, you know, that went out and nails were on their own and wax things on their own. And so there's different you know, so it was it was people wanted that boutique feel. And that's when we were like, you know, we need to open more of these before anybody else catches on to the idea. So we opened up another three studios pretty quickly in Pittsburgh. And at that same time I formed a training academy for people to learn how to do eyelashes too. So to be able to grow I also had to be able to train people to do At the service, and that's what really allowed me to open those extra, you know, locations because there, there were more people that wanted eyelashes then actually had the skill set to do it because they traditionally don't teach that in a beauty school. So your esthetician every cosmetologist that they don't get that real hands on training for eyelash extensions. So once we did that the academy it allowed us to grow in Pittsburgh to four locations. And then that's when we actually started. That's when we decided we needed to franchise and take this. So
Lance Graulich10:32
where did the whole franchise idea come from? Because I know you and Mike were entrepreneurial, but you've never had a franchise before. So where did that idea come about?
Jennifer10:42
So, you know, we we did try another concept prior to that, to that we thought about licensing the idea. And that quickly, we decided that wasn't a good idea because we couldn't have control the brand. Yeah,
Lance Graulich10:56
that loosey goosey when it's
Jennifer10:57
a little bit loosey goosey. Yeah, so like, the logo would, you know, like, you don't want that as you grow, you want consistency. You want people to be able to come in and know it, get that feel of you're gonna get that same service, you know, by the same studio wherever you go. So that like that we decided we knew that that franchising, and you know, keeping that consistent, and the training and everything that we have was important.
Lance Graulich11:21
So although if it was a licensing deal, the you know, the Big Mac could be a big mic. Just kept Yeah. So So who presented the franchise franchise idea? And at one at what point did you guys go? Wow, that sounds like a great idea. We're gonna start franchising this thing across the country.
Jennifer11:39
Yeah, that was my, that was my husband, Mike, he is, you know, he's a, he's a big thinker. I, you know, I was content with the one store and then, you know, then contend with just owning Pittsburgh, but he was the one who was like, you know, weak, we can do this, if it's, if we've proven this model out here. You know, we can we can take this and we wanted to grow, but if we just knew that it was easy, you know, it was easier to to grow through franchising, then to keep opening up our own individually. So it seemed to be a good way to share that with other people. And, and we knew the feeling, you know, on the consumer side, and that that drove us to to be able to offer the service more convenient, more affordable to people like we were doing in Pittsburgh.
Lance Graulich12:25
Got it. So 120 Something how many locations right now open?
Jennifer12:30
I think 126 might be 127. This week, I think we're opening Atlanta,
Lance Graulich12:35
I love ones lose count, because that means there's so many and that's wonderful. That's amazing.
Jennifer12:41
A lot going on. Yes.
Lance Graulich12:42
So square footage, what is the square footage of a typical location,
Jennifer12:48
we look for somewhere between 12 115 100 square feet. That's the typical location and a female friendly, what we call you know, plazas where other like businesses are in there. You know, we also like to see who our neighbors are going to be and who we fit in well with
Lance Graulich13:07
what do you work really well next to what type of businesses coffee shops, I would imagine?
Jennifer13:13
Well, you know, like I said, it's female friendly. So when you think about nails and you think about hair and you think about you know, fitness you know concepts like pure barre Pilates, like those, those kinds of things, that's where we fit well, where you get that foot traffic that people are already going there. And, you know, you can hit a couple spots all at once, get everything done.
Lance Graulich13:35
Love it. So what is the typical investment overall on average?
Jennifer13:43
you know, we, it ranges right from where you're at, but the typical investment is somewhere between 300 to 500,000 to be able to get in a studio and up and running and have the extra capital to
Lance Graulich13:58
for the startup cost wonderful. And obviously for those listening, the Franchise Disclosure Document will show the hot high end versus the low end and as Jennifer mentioned, really construction is what is what changes at quite a bit depending on whether you've got a first generation or second generation space that you're converting Of course. So what do you think of your best franchisees you've been around long enough? What did they do because some people listening are like wow, this sounds really interesting and other people like eyelashes eyelash but and by the way, let's talk about sadaqa lash, what exactly are the services? We know it's all eyelash related but you know describe DECA lash.
Jennifer14:44
So bright so eyelashes does art is is our main service that we do but we also have other complementary services around the eyes. So we do brows as well. We do tinting we have high draping under eye treatments while you're getting your service done. So you know, it's really focused on that on the face, and the eyes, particularly.
Lance Graulich15:08
Got it perfect. And so when you think of your typical, your top 10% of high performing best franchisees, now that you have this great history, what did these people do before investing in a DECA lash franchise?
Jennifer15:26
Well, they, they're, there's a lot of I mean, a lot of the people are, you know, executives, C suites, a corporate America, no beauty, no real beauty experience, that that's definitely not necessary, but it's people who are looking to, you know, have their own business looking for to make their own future, that, you know, it's people who are passionate about being part of their community, and people who are passionate about helping people because that's, you know, really what, we're empowering women, that's kind of the whole the whole, you know, business behind what we're doing. But there's a bunch of different people, you know, it and not even, you know, when I think of the top like back, not even like, executives, maybe it's maybe it's the executive, but the wife's running the business, right? It's, it was, it's, it's time for her to have something on her own and, and the, he's in the background, you know, helping out. So a lot of couples, be able to get in this with the front end and the back end mentality of you know, customer facing, and then, you know, kind of the the back end part of the business. So there's, there's a lot, there's definitely a diverse background, which is nice.
Lance Graulich16:35
Yeah, that that's, that's phenomenal. And you have quite a few franchisees that own multiple locations, not just single units.
Jennifer16:44
Right. Um, so we're a fairly new brand, right? We've been around, you know, now for it's five years, we're celebrating our five year. So, we are coming up on that time now where, you know, they're opening their second and third locations. And so it's, it's growing within, you know, our own little network, not necessarily new, as, but we are adding new owners, you know, every month at the same time, but yes, so, yeah, we're having a mixture of openings.
Lance Graulich17:14
It always tells me, you know, being a franchise broker and franchisee of many restaurant type brands, over the years, when you see multi unit development, you know, there's good yet unit economics. So I'm assuming you're item 19, or your earnings claim and your Franchise Disclosure Document, I know you have some really good high performing stores, you you list out all of the sales for the stores that have been open for X period of time is what I hear.
Jennifer17:41
We do, yes. So if you if you if you look at our item 19 you will see we list all of our stores, so you can see, you know, from the high to the to the medium, you know, and in between so it gives you a good idea. And, you know, we're some just list all the high ones, but we you know, we get good insight business.
Lance Graulich18:01
No, I love that. I love that transparency. So sort of to sum up where we've been so far I'm thinking about it. So you have people from all walks of life, you know, your you have multi unit development going on your it seems to be that you're exploding with growth now with 126 ish, you know, locations. Let's talk about a little bit of the tech side of the business. When I did the intro, I've always heard DECA lash. Explain with that sort of tech focus. This isn't just any lash extension or lash lounge type concept. So describe that a little bit how that came about.
Jennifer18:37
Why, you know that concept, as well, it started early on for you we had, which seems very simple now. But online booking, you know, something that's convenient, that wasn't happening then. And we did that because of just the growth and you know, nobody, we didn't want people answering the phones while we're in the studio. And that has rolled over into we have a centralized Customer Service Center. So we have a call center that takes the calls for all of our locations. And when and when the call comes in, it's able to pop up see exactly which location they're calling for us with the answer it. And they know the studios, the lash artist, the Customer Service Center is also trained on everything about eyelashes, so they can answer your questions really, really well. There's also a I built on the back end of that, so we're able to answer the phones 24 hours a day. So if somebody's calling in or wants to even chat, so we have the chat function on the website. And people do make eyelash appointments at 2am in the morning. So we want to be available when they want to when they're when they're feeling it. So, you know we have that technology to support and of course, of course because you know, we're in 38 different states. So you know, we're all over the map with different time zones and you know, so we're able to you know, navigate all of that through that technology. We have the eyelash simulator, which allows you to try on different services right on our website or from your mobile phone. So you can see what the lashes look like on before you come in. So you can get a good idea because we have several different styles to choose from. And that's like a really cool feature that people you know, can can use. And even when they're in the studio, it's a nice consultation piece to say, hey, you know, maybe you don't know which one well, let's pull it up and see what you look like beforehand. So you know, that's, that's another pretty cool. i Yes, that's fairly new. Honestly, it's one of our like, wow, factors that I like to definitely highlight for sure. So but we have our mobile app, we have check in process, when you come in, we have like I said, no front desk. So it's all you know, technology driven. So you come in, you get a message on your phone that says, Thank you for you know, coming here, your, your lash artist with you right now, or in a few minutes. And so it allows for a lower overhead cost because of that technology, because you don't have to have that person at the desk doing all that greeting, we have technology that does it for you.
Lance Graulich21:13
Yeah, that's amazing. And as you list off and go through all of those pieces, I think one of my marketing friends, you know, we always calls it friction, there's no friction in that in that experience, because you just make it easy. Yes, there's so many places, you know, between my wife and my daughter, occasionally, when they need certain services, I know they're always frustrated in a non franchise, especially not necessarily in lashes, but trying to get appointments and various different things. So yeah, you know, because people always ask, Well, why a franchise? Well, it's just, it's gonna be a better overall experience, because they've invested the money in these things in the first place, right?
Jennifer21:56
Yes, yes. Yep, you worked. All those, all those kinks out beforehand, and you've had that system in place.
Lance Graulich22:03
So tell me about training? It's I'm sure a big question that pops up when you're getting people through your process, they become a franchisee? What does that look like? What is the requirement for training?
Jennifer22:16
So, so we have a couple of so we have different tracks for training, depending on you know, who you are within our system. So the first and foremost is business training, right. And that's who that what we offer for owners. And we call it deca, you for DECA University and it is a full training, right, we're doing it, we're still doing them virtually right now used to be in person, but we're doing them virtually, they work out great. And we just go through all of the operation pieces, operational operations manual, of what it takes to run a studio, and we spend three days going over all of that material. We also have another track that's for lash artist. And we can actually, you know, once you're out open somebody from corporate world come to your studio, and spend four or five days in your studio with your lash artists training them, they'll also be with you, as a business owner to help you make sure that your studio is set up for everything from your products, to your point of sale, that you're comfortable using your point of sale, comfortable contacting the customer service center, you know, making sure that all of that pieces work. And we call that period IoT. So that's your initial lash artist training. But you know, really, we're there to hold your hand through that whole opening, the first week of opening, while you're there to make sure that everything runs smooth, and any questions that you have that we don't have the answers for there, then we could reach out to somebody that does,
Lance Graulich23:49
I'm sure there's a checklist and your trainers are making sure that people are following procedures, staying in compliance. And you're like, I think I might need to give them extra help or something. And there's always somebody that needs extra help and other people that get it right away. Right?
Jennifer24:04
There is and that's you know, that's why we we really have we've dedicated to regions. So you have that person. That is you start off with a real estate person who helps you find your location. We look at the demographics, we look at the female population, we look at household income, you know, we start off making sure that your location is the right location. And then they walk you through all those permits and everything that you need to start before that build out process. And then they're there to make sure you're you offer your order and your furnitures and fixtures. And when we do all of that in in one location where I know some franchises they give you a checklist and you might have to go to Wayfair for this and Sam's Club for that and everything we have an all in one box solution that our FFT is one package. So you know, we help them know when to order that to make sure it's delivered on Time, depending on how they're built out goes. And then you're handed off to one of our franchise success managers depending on what region you're in. And then you're coupled up also with a Regional Marketing Manager. So those two people are your people throughout the whole entire process of, you know, opening to sustained the whole time, they're there to support you, not only the beginning, but the whole way through. And then like I said, then we have our lash artist training too. And that's another department that helps run your business and with the services and products inside.
Lance Graulich25:33
Sounds like you got everything covered. So who are you really looking for? When you when people go through your process? And they come to somebody in franchise development, business development, they have initial conversations, eventually they get to you, right? I mean, are you the final person that does the selection of, hey, this person is definitely right for us? How does that process work? And how do you know they're right?
Jennifer25:57
Yeah, so our, our franchise development team, puts them through a process. And it's probably you know, similar to others, they have to show up, they, they go through different exercises, you know, videos, if they need to watch questionnaires, if they need to fill out, of course, we make sure their finances are in order. And then they do they come they come to us, and we have what we call meet your team day. And they meet with the leadership team. So it consists of myself and others. So I'm, you know, although I'm, I am a big decision maker in in bringing on somebody new, you know, there are other people so, as they come through, Meet the Team day, they're interviewing us, and we're interviewing them to see if they're the right fit. Usually, by the time they get to that point they are because our development team does do a really good job of, of making sure that they know who is a good fit for DECA lash. So but if I were to kind of just say a couple of things, I think that we look for are definitely people who are passionate about helping others passionate about being part of their community, because even though we are, you know, your are part of a franchise, you really are community based business,
Lance Graulich27:14
your local, your local, no matter how you're, you're a local
Jennifer27:17
business owner, and people want to know, you, as a local business owner, you need to connect and be you know, be part of that community. And that that's really, you know, like a very important piece because, you know, all the marketing world is you can do but like you've got to sell yourself to, like, you've got to be out there. You know, it's your business at the end of the day. So it's yeah, it's passionate people about what we're doing helping others and, you know, community base, and people who are able to be team players, because being part of a franchise is being part of a team and you've got all these other business owners out there that are doing the same thing you know, you're doing and we'd like to collaborate and bring people together. And you know, that's important too, to just to be a team player.
Lance Graulich28:00
Yeah, I always tell people that it you know, when when people start investigating different franchises and get introduced, or I introduced them to brands, I say, Well, it's a little like dating, you know, the first conversations like a coffee date. It's like, you know, two way street you're both getting to know each other and then it gets more serious. So when you get to meet corporate I call that meet the parents. Yeah, it's a commitment
Jennifer28:24
just like just like a relationship or a marriage. You're it's a 10 year commitment. So hopefully that's longer than most people are, you know, most marriages. Yeah. Right. Marriages should last a lot longer that but you know,
Lance Graulich28:40
so Jennifer, any final thoughts or words of wisdom for you know, our listeners
Jennifer28:47
Yeah, I would just say you know, with some of the things I just said earlier is is you know, something that's your your passion you know, to lead and inspire a team and you know, to be part of the community and make a difference in people's lives then I would say DECA lashes the brand for you.
Lance Graulich29:04
Awesome. Well, Jennifer, DECA lash, thank you so much for being here. This was awesome information. You're amazing. Until next time,
Jennifer29:15
all right. Until next time,