Beauty Business Strategies
The podcast where salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners — just like you — learn quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
Beauty Business Strategies
From Pop-Up Parties to Thriving Medspa: An Owner’s Journey
In this enlightening episode of the Beauty Business Strategies Podcast, we sit down with Alicia Bonner, a former physician assistant who boldly embraced entrepreneurship to establish Bella Mobile Aesthetics.
In our candid conversation, Alicia takes us through her unique transition from organizing pop-up Botox events to founding a successful brick-and-mortar medspa. She openly discusses the hurdles she faced in leadership, team management, and the invaluable role of professional guidance in her journey.
Key insights include:
- Alicia's philosophy of staying open to coaching.
- Her experiences working with a business coach.
- Her ambitious plans for mobile expansion.
Beyond the business tactics, this episode is a heartfelt story of community, support, and fulfillment from pursuing one’s passion.
Conversation highlights:
00:00:03 - Transition to Medspa Ownership
00:11:10 - Taking the Leap
00:25:01 - Transition, Growth, and Mobile Expansion
00:29:57 - Seeking Guidance and Pursuing Dreams
00:33:47 - Appreciation and Thanks for Sharing
Tune in to discover how Alicia's blend of determination and adaptability has shaped her career and serves as inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs in the beauty industry.
Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/0QRA-pvLRZw
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The Beauty Business Strategies Podcast is designed to give salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners, just like you, quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
Welcome to the Beauty Business Strategies podcast, where we give salon, spa and med spa owners quick tips to make more money, inspire your team and create world-class client experiences.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome everyone. Welcome back to the Beauty Business Strategies podcast. My name is Michael Yost and today I am joined by Alicia Bonner a great guest and you are going to love her story, alicia. How are you?
Speaker 3:I am wonderful. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Oh man, my pleasure. So I'm really interested for you guys to hear and have this conversation with Alicia, because there's just a great story in her story and the journey of her business and what she's about Again, something I think is extremely relatable to all of us that are in business or thinking about this idea of possibly getting into business, or whatever role you're in, there's absolutely going to be something there for you today. But before we go any further, it's always great to get an introduction, because some of you may be like I'm not sure who Alicia Bonner is. So, with that in mind, alicia, why don't you give yourself just a quick introduction before we dive in?
Speaker 3:Sure, my name is Alicia Bonner and I am a physician assistant and a small med spa owner in Yardley Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Awesome. So as we were preparing, I asked Alicia to keep her intro short for this reason, because part of this story goes into exploring where Alicia started and where she is now, and I didn't want that all immediately revealed in the intro. So let's dive into that. Let's dive into where your journey started and so before you got into business for yourself and started in the business for yourself because again I'm giving away a little bit, but just for context Alicia started out a little bit what I'll describe right now and it'll become clear a little bit part time in another area and then eventually transitioned. But give us an idea of what your career journey looked like before you started Bellamobile.
Speaker 3:So I worked as a full time physician assistant in an area of medicine called physical medicine and rehabilitation, so it's doing a lot of pain management and physical rehab, and so I had a Monday to Friday, you know, seven to three, 30 or four job. Part of that job entails injecting neurotoxins like Botox and such for chronic pain conditions. So I was injecting large amounts of Botox for migraines, stroke patients, contractures, and so, for my own curiosity I was maybe 26 or 27 at the time I'm like, well, how do I do this? For, like bar head wrinkles, you know, like I want to, I want to learn the beauty side of this product, and so, as courtesy, they would send trainers in to train me for the aesthetic side, just for fun. And so I started doing that on just friends and family, because they're training me. So then I wanted to practice how to do it.
Speaker 3:So this was around 2009, maybe a little earlier, 2008, 2009. And then it became, oh well, can you do a friend of a friend, and then friends of friends of friends? And so then I started doing pop up Botox parties and filler parties, and that's how I became Bella, meaning beauty, and then mobile and aesthetics, and so I worked my full time job and just did this part time beauty thing honestly as like a social thing. My mom was always going to Tupperware parties and tastefully simply parties and you know, and so it was reminiscent of those types of things. So I would show up and actually I would do a lot of like other doctor's offices and hair salons and just do these pop up events and they were super fun and it subsidized a little bit of my income. With my graduate school tuition. I was, you know, looking for a little side gig and this was perfect, kind of create my own hours. So that's how I started Love it.
Speaker 2:Well, again, who doesn't love a good pop up Botox filler party? I mean, come on, you know. I mean who's listen, that's a cool thing. So I love this idea that you know what started as and again, it just goes to show, as we've said for years and years, and it's never going to change, word of mouth is still every business's best friend, but that's not what this conversation is about.
Speaker 2:But I mean, it's already pointed out, that's like what started as I just started to do some friends and family just to practice and utilize a skill that I have, but in a different way because, as you shared, you were doing more of the injectables and using the same product, but more for medical treatment purposes instead of beauty treatment purposes. But now it's like, hey, listen, the door open to expand my horizons a little bit. You know what next thing? You know, friends are telling friends I love that. And so this became this, like I said, this idea of that, that mobile. You know I'm going to move around and be, you know, liquid like that, and go where, go where opportunities lie for me. So how long did that? So what was? How long was that journey? I mean what? How? You said these I think it's you referenced the idea of kind of start doing that like 2009.
Speaker 3:Yes, and then I got busier and busier and people wanted to be able to find me at a brick and mortar location occasionally, like if they needed a touch up or if I wasn't having an event. And they had an event to go to and they wanted services. So in 2015, I found a medical director who had a location and he also did aesthetics part time, and so we decided to unite and come together, and so then I was still working my full time job and but I would sort of utilize the brick and mortar location for patients to find me when they needed appointments, and I had some, you know, set hours, but also I did still do mobile events.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool. So we're, you know roughly then about that, six years in became something that says all right, we got a little bit more of kind of a home base to kind of start to work out of. You know, one thing that is interesting is obviously there probably had to reach a point somewhere in this journey where we probably had to start to make some decisions around. Ok, you know, I've got still, because during this whole time, if I'm not mistaken, right during this whole time, we're still working our regular job. We still have a regular job going on at that point.
Speaker 2:But what became about what year or what part of this journey did this? There had to be a tipping point in there, somewhere that started to say, well, you know I've got my job, but then there's also got the demand or this other opportunity out here that's gone from just do this in the evening, on a couple nights a week or a weekend, pop up or an event or something like that, To now, like the demand probably started to kind of balance out and you had to probably start to reach a breaking point. Talk about that. What was that like?
Speaker 3:So I continued to do that and it basically ended up being where I was working two full time jobs. I was working my traditional job in medicine and then running the meds bar, and I was so busy and at one point I hired two estheticians to come in to help with additional services. So I was growing the meds bar and the services that we offered and I was constantly learning. But in my mind I was still thinking that this was like playtime and because I worked in my traditional medicine role, and so this just felt like fun, and so at one point it just became overwhelming to do both for as many hours as I was doing.
Speaker 2:So so, yeah, so you've got this idea of all right. I actually started growing to the point where it's like, yes, we actually started having other team members become a part of my side job, which is kind of funny, you know, to say side job, not so much a side job anymore. With that in mind, then there, obviously we know we reached the point where it was like all right, it's time to just do this and dive into this end of the pool. And I think here's something that I think is very, you know, very relatable is many, many and many. A person that's listening in or, you know, is listening in, and maybe they're in the same kind of place that you are as we talk about this, or just this journey in general, is very relatable. What did that look like for you personally to have to make that jump? I mean, was that an easy jump for you? Was that a difficult jump? What was what was easy, what was hard and what was that like?
Speaker 3:So it was the hardest thing I ever did mentally to make the jump, to go all in with the meds, bob, because I had to. Not only was I giving up a guaranteed salary, benefits and health care and your paid time off and things like that. You know, you think you're going to just hang a sign and be like, hey, I know how to inject Botox and filler, like, come see me. And it's not like that at all. People very much need to know you and trust you and have that provider relationship before they trust you with those things. And so being sure that I had enough of sort of a basis and the confidence of the people I was working with and also having a plan, you know, to make that jump.
Speaker 3:I was trained in medicine. I don't know financials and I don't know. You know leadership even you know, like I know, how to work as a team member and as a physician assistant. It's kind of like bred into us that you know things that are outside of your scope of practice. You go to your supervising physician and you have to know how to delegate to, you know the medical staff below you, and so you're always, always a middleman, a middle person, and to then have to jump into this leadership role I felt very unprepared for and not trained for, and very nervous about.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:So, you know I had to yeah, let's, I mean, let's talk about that, because so what I, you know. Again, what I love is, as you just shared this idea that hey, listen, number one, I had to make the jump from and this is so relatable to, I think, everyone listening is I had to leave something that I knew I had to make a change and something that I knew, just something that I did not know While I was excited about it, while I was excited about the opportunities. At the same time it's like I also had my security over here and excitement on the other side of it. But there's this whole big is this gonna work? Kind of thing or what's this gonna look like. So you kind of make that break in time. Okay, I gotta make this happen.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about, like, what was the biggest hurdle with that and how did you get yourself planning for that move from leaving my set job, this full-time job that I have, that offers me that rock, that kind of that security to the business. And then talk to me maybe even about the first like roughly, I'll just say first six months, because you were just kind of alluding to it is I opened this business while I knew my skills. I knew my craft in your area. I knew the work that I did In the first six months. What were some of the biggest challenges for you as a leader?
Speaker 2:Now, with people now turning to you whether, than is, you just were kind of sharing? I'm so used to just going. I knew how to be a team member and go here, but now, all of a sudden, all the eyes are looking my direction and I'm looking going. All right, I guess I need to give some of this Like talk to me about that, maybe some of the wins and some of the great things about it, and at the same time, what were some of the challenges with it?
Speaker 3:So I desperately was seeking professional advice. I know when I know something and I know when I don't know something, and I try to surround myself with people and with a team that are going to help me in the area that I'm lacking. And so I was listening to a podcast and another med spa had mentioned that they were doing coaching with strategies, and I had never heard of strategies and they mentioned a specific coach and I immediately went on and emailed and said I need this coach. I didn't know what he was doing for them, but if it was helping them, it had to help me. And so Dennis got ahold of me and we did our intro call and from there my mind was blown, because all of the things that I had been seeking to learn about the financials and writing like the yearly budget I mean they would come to us in medicine with the budget, but you're like, okay, well, who the heck made that? Where did that come from? It was like magic. And now all of a sudden he's like, all right, do this incubator course and write it. I'm like, oh, but you do it. And then my mind was blown and then you can continue to tweak it. So it was sort of learning those skills. And also, I mean, at the time I was a single mom and so I was worried about insurance and so I had somebody who was so helpful with insurance that helped me with those things. So I sort of surrounded myself with the people that guided me in the areas that I was lacking knowledge and confidence to make that change. And I decided that I started coaching in 2021 and made the plan that by 2023, I was gonna leave my full-time job and I'm just gonna keep doing what I was doing. And it was burning the candle at both ends but I figured, okay, I can do this for a little bit longer until I'm really ready.
Speaker 3:And in 2021, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer and she was diagnosed and 26 days later she was gone and it was awful. But at the same time she kept saying you have to just do this, alicia, life is short, this is what you're meant to do, like you're ready. And she kept saying and Dennis said you're ready, you just need. But I was mentally not ready for some reason. Having that cushion of an extra year, even though I didn't need it, it just kind of pushed it further away. Like I have time. I have time and I'm just gonna keep doing what I was doing. Losing that time was a big wake-up call for me. It pushed me like this is what I love to do when I go there. It's not work, it's fun. My patients come there because they want to see me and I want to do it. I went to Dennis and I said can I do it sooner? He said yes, you should have did it a year ago. Before my mom passed.
Speaker 3:I put in my notice that I was leaving in 2022. At the beginning of the year, instead of waiting until 2023, I went all in in 2022. It was the scariest, hardest thing, but I had a support team and I had the passion and the drive I had already. Nothing is harder than working two full-time jobs, being a single mom and running a house. I was really burnt and now, all of a sudden, I'm like, wow, the weight of the world's off my shoulders. I had so much more time to learn the things that I didn't know the leadership things and the financials Just so many things about business that I felt like I didn't know. I now had plenty of time to learn them. That's what made me take the jump, even faster than mentally I think I was prepared to. But I just said, let's do it. I need to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what really hits me is watching you and the emotion and talking about your mother. Here's the question that really comes to my mind right now is you talked about how I really help myself back with making that jump. My own fears and maybe self-doubts or questions helped me back Mentally. I was more held back than anything, but it's amazing when you're talking then about your mom and what an inspiration it sounds like that she was, but again her just saying you got to do this. How do you take jumps now faster? Do you listen? I'm not going to waste because you made that reference there.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to waste that time. I'm going to honor in a sense, in a way. Here's what I'm getting almost out of, that is, I'm going to honor this idea of I'm not going to wait around because I see that time is a limited thing and we need to honor the times that we have, especially, like you, referenced and loved ones and things of that nature. But as that translates now to just business in your life in general, do you find yourself with a whole lot less holding back and a whole lot more? No, listen, we're going to make choices and make decisions. We're going to move forward, not recklessly, but we're going to move forward and I'm not going to. I regret spinning my wheels for the time I did when I should have just acted on those. Does that stay with?
Speaker 3:you now? Absolutely. I realize, when I made and took the step, that taking the step was the scary part. Once you take the step, you fall into pace. You either sink or swim. Now I realize that it's always you plan for it, you prepare for it. Are you ever truly mentally ready for it? No, now I know, if you've done your homework and your research and you've made a plan, it's not always going to work out. It's not always going to be this huge success, and that's okay too. But I definitely feel like I don't let my fears and my mental block hold me back. I definitely take steps faster because I do realize the time is limited and waiting is really just dragging your feet. You're not actually benefiting yourself all the time by waiting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that's so awesome. I heard a speaker recently and this is almost kind of ties in. He shared his story and he talked about how many times he failed, but in a way he went on to say I failed forward faster and farther than I would have ever done. Then I would have ever dreamed of having not attempted some of these things. It's almost that same kind of idea. Not that there's this failure necessarily linked to it, but it's like, hey, listen, sometimes things don't go as planned. But you know what? The fact that we keep pushing to do things, we keep advancing ourself, rather than just sitting in that one spot going well until it's perfect or waiting for the right opportunity that quote right opportunity to come along.
Speaker 3:So I think that's really awesome.
Speaker 3:It doesn't knock on the door for you. You have to kick the door down, you know. So it's been a true learning experience, but the joy that has come every day. Like I say, my sister is a nurse and she was a hospice nurse and Dennis said my coach said you need to think about bringing on another injector. And I just happen to be on the phone. We talk every day driving to work, and every day I would be driving to the med spot. I'd say, guess what? I don't have a job anymore, because I no longer felt like I had a job, like I quit my job and now I just work at the med spot for fun, like that's how, mentally in my head, it felt very exciting and awesome. And I said Dennis said I should think about bringing somebody else on. And she said that's funny because I quit my job today.
Speaker 3:And so the same day it was the same day and I said, oh my god, like that is a sign from our mother that like let's do this. And I said do you want to do this? And she said I don't know, but I want to try. And so that was a year and a half ago and she started out with, just, you know, two half shifts a week, so eight hours. She's now four days a week in my med spot and we laugh all the time because, you know well, we joke all the time. You have to ask Dennis first. You know, can I say extra? You have to ask Dennis first, but it was like it was just meant to be a few hours and in less than a year she's there. Now, you know, full time and same thing. We just both took the step and decided to see if it would work and we love it and it's going phenomenal.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. It's again. You got to keep opening doors. You got to keep walking through doors. Sometimes you got to keep kicking doors down, right, but again you never know where that's going to lead. You, had you not continued to do that like, said that moment of like, well that's funny because I just quit my job today? Well, that's funny because I would have never come to that, we would never met at that intersection.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So that is so awesome and I do.
Speaker 3:I do feel that, like that positive energy every day you know of, like keep, keep doing it, keep moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. What is so? Let's kind of fast forward to kind of all right. So where are we Give us a sense of where we are like right now? So, hey, listen, when we're doing this, we are just entering, just about to be November 1st, you know, at the end of 2023, as we're talking right now. So talk to me about where we are as a business right now when it comes to what our location looks like and what the business currently looks like at this moment.
Speaker 3:So we we've transitioned from me carrying a wheelie suitcase and a box of supplies and a microdermagration machine that weighs about 200 pounds by myself to to a location which we were originally in Langhorn, but it looked like it was from 1990 and they didn't want to update it. And then, 2022, my husband and I opened a new location. We redid everything, floor to ceiling. We picked the floors, the cabinets, everything. My med spot is mostly all pink because that's what I love and it's beautiful and welcoming, and we were doing, you know, a decent business. In the beginning, you know, we were keeping our head above water and end of November or, I'm sorry, beginning of November 2023. We have done one point two million dollars in revenue so far this year and we're constantly growing and and building and and adding to the team.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And how big is your team right now? Right now, there's nine.
Speaker 3:Okay, there's three providers three estheticians and two guest care specialists.
Speaker 2:Awesome, that is fantastic. And we, we are only mobile because now we drive back and forth to work to a location. That's our mobile. Are you still got the mobile aspect?
Speaker 3:I've never completely given up mobile events, always been something fun, and that truly is like a girls night out Although it's girls and guys now too and it's an awesome way that I connect with other businesses in the community. So we'll do like a low outs Botox and bubbly night and people will go to their hair salon and, you know, get a blowout. We'll do some Botox, and you know. So I do still do mobile events and love them, but we just schedule ahead of time and adjust my in office hours as needed, but yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2:So I love it. I love it again, still doing things that you enjoy doing and still passionate about, from that end when you could easily say you know what you know, I've got this, come and see me here, but we're still keeping you know in touch with that root kind of idea, because I'm sure, more than anything, because it's like I still enjoy doing that.
Speaker 3:And my and honestly one of my goals for 2024 is to expand our mobile team.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 3:To have a team of people that just do that, you know, do events in their specific local area, but trained by myself and my team. And yeah, so 2024, I want to be more mobile again.
Speaker 2:Love it. So you mentioned Dennis, your coach. He's quite a few times through this conversation and you know something that, for those not familiar with Dennis, he is like one of our fantastic educators and coaches here at Strategies, you know, and he gave one of probably the I said one of probably the greatest compliments I have heard in all the years I've known Dennis and I've known Dennis now I didn't even know if I want to even say we might even be able to start to use the framework of 20 years. I hate to say it like that.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say 18 makes me sound like a little bit younger, I guess for some reason but known Dennis for a lot of years and he gave again probably one of the greatest compliments when we were talking about you and your business in particular, and he just shared the fact he goes probably one of, if not the easiest people I've ever coached Because of your willingness to be coached and just your attitude toward that. And so my question for you is how does it feel to hear something like that, someone that says like you know, wow, like I'm really maybe one of the best people you've ever coached, the most coachable person that he's worked with. How's that? What's that mean to you?
Speaker 3:So I feel that I was very coachable because I was desperately seeking coaching when I was first joining with Strategies and linked up with Dennis. There were things that I was seeking out, like reading books and asking professionals, and nobody was translating the language into something that I understood. It was like they were all explaining it to me in Greek and I don't know Greek and they thought that I should know Greek. It was very bizarre and then all of a sudden he's like oh no, this is what it means and he translated it so perfectly and it is exactly what I was looking for. Like I said, I was desperately seeking the guidance and the understanding and so any kind of information he gave me I would follow up with it. Any homework He'd be like you're always doing your homework, but homework I know how to do, and it was making things clearer in my mind to bring my dream to fruition.
Speaker 3:Like this is gonna help me to get. Like what's the point of doing all of this if I'm not listening to the advice of people who actually know what they're talking about? If I asked Dennis how to reconstitute neuromodulators, he's probably not gonna know right, I'm speaking a different language. I needed somebody to translate the leadership parts and the teamwork parts and the financial parts and the planning parts into a language that made sense in my brain. And so him to say I was very coachable because I was seeking that information, I wanted it and when it was given to me I genuinely was grateful for it. So it was an amazing compliment. But to me it's just a compliment that somebody sort of answered what I was seeking for a while, finally threw me the lifeline of like here you go.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it.
Speaker 2:Well, this has been a fantastic conversation and I think some things really resonate with me in particular, cause I always kind of like to recap, and from my end, what I loved about talking with you today, alicia, is just this idea that what kind of stands out is, you know, don't be afraid to make the jump, you know, in the things that you're pursuing, and I think that's been a common theme throughout, what you shared from the very beginning of hey, listen, it would have been very easy for you, very easy, to say hey, listen, I'm in a great position as a PA and I'm doing this and I've got this real security here and here's a career in front of me, there's an absolutely a career there in front of you that we could have said, listen, I'd be happy doing this and can grow and do cool things, and but yet it was like you know what I have a desire and there's something else, and like not being afraid, even though you talked about how you know, sometimes the biggest hurdle was making that jump at times, but the ability just to pursue those challenges and to seek out, and I think that really stands out to me.
Speaker 2:I think this is fantastic, so I'm hoping it inspired people. I do have one last question for you right before we wrap up, just a second.
Speaker 3:What's that? My dogs are about to go crazy.
Speaker 2:No, that's all right. Listen, it's all cool. One more question for you before, while we got the dogs at the very end. The last question is this what do you think your mom would say right now?
Speaker 3:Good girl, love it Say good girl, I'm so proud of you. I feel my mom with me every day when positive things happen and she would say I knew you should have did this and I think she'd be so, so proud of me.
Speaker 2:And I do feel that genuinely Love that, love that and with that, what a better, no better way to wrap up. So, alicia, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate you sharing from just a genuine, open heart, and thanks for sharing this with us, and, we hope, for all those listening, you got something that you could take away that to inspire you, encourage you in some way, shape or form as you walk your life's journey as well. With that in mind, we look forward to talking with you again in a future podcast. So, but for right now, have a great rest of your day and we'll talk soon. Thanks.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for listening to the Beauty Business Strategies podcast. If you liked this episode, be sure to hit follow and please share the episode link with anyone who you think could benefit from today's content. To learn more about how strategies can help create more fun, profit and growth potential for you, your company and your team, we invite you to schedule a free 60 minute strategy session by clicking the direct link in the description of this episode. There you'll also find links to our wide array of coaching, seminar and learning opportunities, all of which can be found at Strategiescom.