- Rachel Liverman, the co-founder and CEO of $13 million facial chain Glowbar, says there’s a tricky lesson most entrepreneurs don’t study till they’re within the trenches. Nevertheless, she took a anxious second and turned it into an enormous enterprise alternative.
A well-thought-out enterprise technique could appear important for fulfillment—however in lots of circumstances, entrepreneurs could as effectively rip it up, as a result of the longer term has a thoughts of its personal. That’s not less than, what Rachel Liverman, CEO and co-founder of the $13 million facial chain Glowbar, skilled.
“You’ll be able to have a plan, however the universe laughs,” Liverman tells Fortune, including that it’s the one warning seasoned founders don’t let you know.
Glowbar could also be probably the most fashionable facial chains in America, with 18 areas throughout the East Coast, and 5 new shops set to open this 12 months. Between 2023 and 2024, membership grew 100%, and Glowbar’s studio footprint doubled. During the last six years, the facial chain has delivered over half one million facials and is without doubt one of the fastest-growing facial studios within the U.S. In 2023 Glowbar obtained $10 million in Collection A funding, alongside $3 million raised earlier in household and household investments.
However the highway to success is usually a bumpy one—and entrepreneurs are higher off buckling up. Liverman began the enterprise in 2019, and shortly after fundraising and tricking out a Glowbar location in Tribeca, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“The pandemic was wild…I had the marketing strategy, I had all of the docs, I acquired all my buyers. I had this complete plan, after which: Coronavirus,” Liverman says. “It was my first lovely check of entrepreneurship.”
Resulting from New York’s pandemic mandates, Liverman needed to shut Glowbar’s doorways for over six months, furloughing staffers on the retailer till the state’s guidelines allowed for operations to proceed. She even needed to begin a GoFundMe to make sure all her staff have been taken care of.
Nevertheless, Liverman discovered a approach to flip bitter lemons into lemonade—and got here out of the pandemic even stronger.
Discovering enterprise success when the universe laughs
Many individuals have been safeguarding their wealth in the course of the uncertainty of the pandemic, resulting in a $2.1 trillion swell in financial savings from March 2020 to August 2021. As an alternative, Liverman noticed it as a possibility to splurge. With just one retailer completed—the Tribeca location, which had subsequently closed—and one other nonetheless in growth, she noticed an opportunity to increase prematurely.
“It was definitely a check, and I used to be very fortunate I used to be sufficiently small to climate that storm,” Liverman says, including that she quickly took discover that landlords have been slashing hire costs as they struggled to fill empty storefronts in the course of the pandemic.
“So I optimized for that point in actual property and signed in all probability 4 or 5 leases throughout 2020 and 2021—and acquired superb offers. It is one of many explanation why we have now a location on Fifth Avenue and sixteenth Road, as a result of it was the COVID offers.”
Liverman’s daring choice to increase throughout unsure occasions paid off: the Fifth Avenue location now serves as Glowbar’s headquarters. “As we speak, I would not be capable to afford that,” she provides.
When the chips are down or enterprise isn’t taking off, Liverman has one suggestion for entrepreneurs: lean on others. They might even have the reply to your drawback. However on the very least, they are going to present assist.
“It is a easy factor, and as an entrepreneur, while you grasp it, it can unlock a lot: asking for assist,” Liverman says. “Not feeling like it’s essential to fake to know all of it or have all of it discovered. Simply actually weak… If the founder, entrepreneur, or CEO knew all the pieces, they would not have wanted to rent a staff.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
