Each month, we sit down with one of the leaders in the beauty and wellness industry to find out more about their business, their insights on the industry and their predictions for the future.This month, we spoke to Nayera Senane, owner of Beauty by Nayera.
1. Thanks for taking some time today. Tell me a little bit about your business and yourself.
I own Beauty by Nayera and I focus mainly on facial injectables like Botox and fillers. We also do facials, eyelashes, microblading, makeup and eyebrows. Kind of like a one-stop shop, but those other service providers handle their own schedules and appointments.
2. I noticed that you work with celebrities and models. How did you get into that?
It’s honestly all through our Instagram. Just by posting my work through Instagram, I got a few celebrity clients. I also used to work at Sev Laser, which works with a lot of celebrities, so I’m well connected with celebrities through them as well.
3. Are there any celebrities you can share that we might know who are customers of yours?
One that I can think of off the top of my head would be Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi. She’s on the show Shahs of Sunset. She posted it herself last week to Instagram. A lot of other celebrities are a little more private about it so I can’t share that.
4. Shifting gears a bit, I see you have a background as a cardiac nurse. What led you to what you’re doing now?
I’ve always had an art background and I wanted to do hair, makeup, fashion. But I come from a family of doctors and nurses so they kind of pushed me toward the nursing route. When I finished nursing school, my heart wasn’t in bedside nursing. I wanted to incorporate my art background, fashion and beauty into what I learned. That’s when I got into injectables. I was working as a cardiac nurse doing injections on the side for about 5 years.
5. What led you to make the jump to opening your own location?
It started off as a hobby and then as I got really, really busy, I couldn’t work two full-time jobs at the same time. That’s when I decided to take the risk to do what I loved. But, still, for the longest time, as I was opening up my new business, I still worked at the hospital to play it safe. Once everything was stable, I decided to leave the hospital. I was lucky — I got to turn my hobby into my career.
6. Clearly this is something that you’re passionate about. What is it that excites you about your business?
I just like making people feel better outside of the hospital. It’s a good feeling seeing someone look in the mirror afterwards, feeling better about themselves and giving them the boost of confidence they needed. It feels good to make people feel good.
7. What were some of the challenges you faced as a small business owner?
Everything’s sort of been a challenge. It’s finally starting to kind of go smoothly. But it was tough at first. I was working so much and at the same time I was also in my master’s program for nursing. I had absolutely no life. I was just studying and working.
8. Now it sounds like your business is going well and you’re thinking of opening another location. How did that come about?
My fiance is a doctor and he was doing his residency in Philadelphia. While he was working there, I got a few messages through Instagram asking if I was ever on the East Coast. There was a med spa that was only a few blocks from where he lived, where I could work when I visited him. Since he was working so much during my visits, it gave me something to do for the one week each month that I spent with him. It started off as just seeing one or two clients, but by the time he finished his residency, I was seeing 200 to 300 clients a week in Philadelphia. There aren’t as many people who specialize in injections on the East Coast, so my client base is huge.
9. What are some tips you might share with another small business owner who is trying to get the word out about their services?
I always tell people that if it wasn’t for Instagram, I don’t know how I would have done it. I don’t use any form of advertising outside of Instagram. I tell people to post one photo per day, hash tag them with popular hashtags, and then make sure your photos are nice and clean and crisp, something that is easy to look at. It really helps when I get those promotional clients as well. If I get one or two of those models and do their services at a discounted rate, they repost it on Instagram. Some of the models that I work with have 1 or 2 million followers — 1 or 2 million people who see my page after they post about my services has really helped me a lot too.
10. What are some of the things that you do to try and streamline such a busy schedule?
I see on average about 25 clients a day and their appointments are 15 or 20 minutes long. So as I’m consulting one client, another client has Lidocaine on, or they’re just sitting and reading some information, or filling out their consent forms. Everything runs in the background so I can keep things moving.
11. How has using Zenoti changed your business?
The medical spa where I used to work used a different application for saving ID pictures, a different application for consent forms, and then a different application for scheduling clients. I love that Zenoti is all in one. Plus, everything is HIPAA compliant too so it makes my life a lot easier. Also, I hated how, in the past, we would use paper for forms and charts. Looking for charts would take so much time, especially when you see so many people a day. Zenoti saves me time by not having to dig through charts. I have the Zenoti app on my cell phone so I have access to my files at all times. When a client emails me a question, I don’t have to worry about not having access. I just pull the app up on my cell phone and their chart is right there. We use iPads for our customers to fill out their forms so it makes it quicker and easier for them complete their forms too.
12. Going forward, what are your goals for your business?
I fell in love with the East Coast when my fiancé was living there. It turned into home. So in Philadelphia, by opening up a location, we’re kind of targeting all those locations. I have clients driving from New York to come see me, from New Jersey, Delaware. But definitely my goal is to open up Philadelphia and then kind of take it from there.
