Who is Jessica Kidner? Beauty Boss
Let me introduce myself. I’m Jessica. I own a beauty business which I built from the ground up. I have been in the industry for over 15 years. I’m also a wife and a mum of three beautiful children (2 girls and a boy). I had a dream in my early 20's to own and run a salon business that would give me the freedom to work in the business when I wanted and also give me the time to work ON the business as I had my young family. I wanted flexibility in my life that I knew owning a business COULD bring if I built it correctly. After many tears, trial and error, I was able to find that groove every business owner wants, to have a business to support my dream life. If you have the same dreams and determination as myself I’d love to show you how I did it through this blog. join me as I share all I know through video, written blogs and E- courses to fast-track your way to your dream business.
BIG News- I recently sold my business for nearly 10x what I paid for it. I will share with you the steps and strategies I used to build my business up to be worth what I wanted at the end.
I believe that you can be a successful, profitable and a more relaxed business owner, without having to work 50 hour weeks. I believe you can build a business that lights you up and lets you live the life you want to live. I’ve done it, so I know you can do it too.
I see and hear the tug of war between staff and owners all the time, with the owners feeling like they need to do everything in their business. And I get it – I was there too. I was working ridiculous hours and went through plenty of hard times, with story after story of crazy things that can happen in business and with a team. Spent 10's of thousands of dollars on coaches to help me and give me the magic answer i was searching for but I realised this wasn’t sustainable. They didn't know me or my business. My husband and I sat down one night and had a real hard look at where we were and where we wanted to go. I needed a more peaceful life that included a more successful business which didn't need me on the floor. It was time to put in strategies to let people help me. Turns out I didn’t have to do everything myself. So I changed my mindset – how I looked at my business, what my role was within it, where staff fit in and what systems I had in place. This was the turning point that changed my life forever.
Let’s back up a bit…
I always knew I wanted to make my own way in the world. No damsel in distress over here! As a child I saw women staying at home, taking care of the kids (the hardest job of them all!), often relying on ‘the man’ to support them and the family financially. I knew I wanted a family one day too, but I wanted to earn my own money and get out of the house. For me, it was about building financial stability as a team. I also knew that my dyslexia wasn’t going to stop me in my tracks!
At 19, I joined the beauty industry as a nail technician. I worked full time and went to night school to gain my Beauty Therapy Certificate. I was a determined young thing. Working in different salons soon taught me that the beauty industry was high stress! The owners were constantly struggling with staff problems and were working themselves into the ground. Eventually, I ended up back working in the salon of my first ever boss. Watching her burn out really highlighted what I didn’t want!
In 2008, I purchased the business from my boss. I knew so many things could go wrong, but I was inspired to do things differently and make a real go of it. 2008 was a good year, I also won nail professional of the year. This really gave me confidence in myself – I did know what I was doing and I would take this business further.
Side note: during this time I had met my man and got married. We knew we wanted children and this spurred me on to create a business that would support a budding family.
One thing I had learnt from the beauty industry was that you needed a point of difference. I chose gel nail polish – a long-lasting alternative to regular polish that was just gaining popularity.
Choosing a niche really improved my business, as did an expansion in floor space and move up the street (I managed to cut my rent in half by doing that!).
It was during this time I also made the decision to hire staff and started training them in running the business, not just the services we did in salons. Building a team and spreading out the tasks that are needed to run a business, allowed me to start spending more time ON my business, rather than IN it.
Over the years I had reached out to different business coaches to get advice, guidance and direction but no one seemed to genuinely care about my business or me personally. I felt like I was being treated like a robot and they expected the same from the staff.
So instead, I took inspiration from my husband’s corporate gig and began to introduce policies, procedures and systems in my nail biz. I wasn’t thinking like a ‘small business owner’ anymore, I was thinking BIG.
Teaming up with my husband also helped with finding ways for me to cope with different situations and aligned us perfectly with our goal to have a working salon that was an income stream for our family.
In 2011 I fell pregnant with my first baby and travelled overseas. I could only do this because my salon was already running without me. As it turned out I wasn't a very good pregnant woman and I was sick as a dog and couldn’t get into the salon at all. This was the perfect test.
My business didn’t fall in a heap. In fact, it thrived!
Since then I’ve had another 2 babies and things only got better business-wise.
Since buying the business I’ve increased my turnover by over 10 times!
What’s my secret to such success? Great systems to allow staff to serve more and more clients, putting in more retail with systems to turn it over and introducing a number of different systems and processes to maintain growth in all areas of the business.
And now, thanks to this, I was able to have my time at home with my children in their early years.
It might sound unreal, but I promise you I’m not special. This is 100% possible for you and your beauty business too.I LOVE to help other women in business. It’s something I’ve always naturally done (just ask any of my biz friends!). And now is my opportunity to serve on a greater scale.
Jessicakidner.net is my passion. It’s a hub of information and ideas for any beauty business owner. There will be issues and problems that come up but it's the way we deal with them that make us stand out from the rest.
It’s about creating systems and changing your mindset (let’s get back to positivity!) I will share with you practical tools and tips you can apply in your own biz that I used myself.
It’s everything I’ve learnt, developed and implemented in my role as a beauty business owner. I’m sharing it all!
It’s putting the heart back into you and your business.