AA E1 Glosshouz Franchise Founder's Story

Here's the transcript from our first episode of the Aesthetic Advantage podcast, where we aim to share with you all things Glosshouz, including the brand, the people, the business!

Enjoy this founder's story video, with Loni Le Van, on YouTube as well at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBwR3i40D2k&list=PLZSBuvMWgSIs0LtTdbRpZkyhEIKMAdiw0&index=4

Glosshouz USA Franchise Founder's Story

Welcome to the Aesthetic Advantage Podcast, where we explore the business of beauty, wellness, and medical aesthetics. Each week we bring you insights into treatments, innovations, and strategies shaping the industry. And if you're business focused, find out what makes this franchise worth owning.

Good Day podcast listeners and our very first episode. We're starting at the beginning with the story of Glosshouz You'll hear directly from franchise founder Loni Le Van about how she created a beauty spa and med spa model designed not only to deliver exceptional client results, but also to operate as a scalable, profitable, and fun business.

We'll cover her entrepreneurial journey, the treatments, the innovations that set Glosshouz apart. Why the brand is now expanding nationwide through franchising. Whether you're interested in aesthetics as a client, provider, or as a potential business owner, this episode will give you insights into what makes Glosshouz unique.

Let's dive into episode one.

Hi everyone. My name is Loni Le Van and I am the owner and founder of Glosshouz, USA Spa Center franchise. This [00:01:00] is my entrepreneurial journey and the story of how I came to own my own business. That is called Glosshouz Spa Center in local Denver, Colorado. And I'm now franchising and I am excited to let you know that we are expanding in different states, and this is the story of my journey. To kick things off, I wanted to start at the beginning so that you could get to know me and understand where I come from and what I'm all about. I was raised in Texas, down in Brownsville, by the border of Mexico, and I was one of eight girls raised by my grandparents as a small child.

My biological mother did abandon me and my two sisters and my grandmother came to visit and found us alone in the apartment and decided to adopt us. So that is how I got started in life. As I was growing up, I was fortunate that my grandparents really loved me and they ended up raising eight girls together.

So the five of their original girls, and then three of us little girls that were their 'firstborns three small children that they adopted. We were raised down in the valley amongst the. Orchards of oranges and grapefruit. And in our backyard we grew cabbage and used to swim in the ditches, the irrigation canals. And that was a fun way to grow up. And as I grew up, we moved to Iowa for a short period where my grandmother was from, and we got to know some of her extended family, but I guess it was just too cold there.

Then they moved a little. Further south to Arkansas, and that's where I went to high school. My high school was a very small high school, and we had about 23 people in my graduating class. And I graduated second in my class, so salutatorian, but of course the bar wasn't very high as far as, educational.

Background, but I had fun in that environment and I got to play all the sports, even though I was terrible at it. But I played basketball and volleyball and also, um, softball. And then after I graduated, I moved to Texas and with my sister who was living there in the, at the time, she was in the Air Force with her husband, and I met my.

First husband who was also in the Air Force. So I married him right away, after only three weeks of knowing him.Probably not the best decision as a 19-year-old, but I was very sheltered growing up, and I didn't know how to do anything on my own. I was terrified to buy things in a store, to go on a trip or anything like that. It's hard to believe that that was my mindset at the time, but when I married him, he seemed very worldly and experienced, and I was impressed with that. So we got married right away. I ended up joining the Air Force Reserve, which I  thought would be a good move for my first career position. And it was a great experience. I loved being in the Air Force and going through basic training and learning technical skills, and , I ended up going to Shao Air Force Base outside of Chicago where I learned all about computers and preparing reports for aircraft and things of that nature. After that, my ex-husband got deployed to Japan, so I went with him over there and I tried to create a path of my own. I started school remotely. So college taking, college classes, all the basics. And eventually that marriage didn't work out. we just didn't have a lot of. A lot in common and didn't want the same things in life. So I ended up divorcing . But I did happen to be expecting my first daughter at the time.

I think that having my daughter at such an early age, 23, when I had her, made me realize that I needed to go back to school, finish, and have a career so that I could provide for her and me when we were alone at the time. So I moved back to the States in with my sister in San Antonio, and I started going back to school and studying engineering.

My little daughter, um, now all grown up does still remember when I used to bribe her to go to big college seminars with me in the evening and I would get her McDonald's. And uh, she used to remember that, uh, those were the days before devices and entertainment for children on phones. And I stuck with it and, worked two jobs while I was attending UTSA U.T. San Antonio. And I did get a degree in electrical engineering.

I was always good in math, but I didn't wanna be a math teacher because I just didn't think I would be able to get ahead on that kind of salary. And I ended up being an engineering major instead. And I did really enjoy the curriculum. And all the learning of different systems and control systems and, um, coding and all of the type of curriculum that we had as an engineer.

So that was a lot of fun. And I graduated, my first job out of college was as an application engineer. For a telecom company called Marconi at the time, but then we were bought a few different acquisitions later. It was tele labs and I was a system engineer for, um, an account that was Bell South, a regional Bell operating company out of Georgia and I used to interface with them about their lab systems and new products that we were developing for their telecom deployments. And that was a great career. Eventually I did leave that position. I think I was there for a good seven, eight years. And then I got on with 3M Company. So another Great American innovative company that taught me a lot about how to create and develop. And I was an application engineer for them developing fiber optic equipment systems and wireless networks equipment. They're very innovative and, resourceful and, unique in the way that they come about developing products. So that was. Wonderful to have that experience.

Then I moved on to Hewlett Packard. At Hewlett Packard. Uh, this was later in my engineering career. I was hired on as a global product marketing manager, and I developed, notebook computers and tablets for Hewlett Packard. So that was my, experience that I had developing business cases and coming up with features versus costs for equipment and that type of work. And that was, an interesting part of my career. Although while I was working at Hewlett Packard, it just became apparent that I was stuck in this rut of working, um, in a corporate world where I was in a cubicle or meeting room all day long, every day and it just got to be monotonous. I was one of few hundred thousand employees in Hewlett Packard, and I think that really set me off on my journey to become an entrepreneur. I wanted to create something of my own , and that's how I got onto the path of developing a new and exciting business called Glosshouz.

At the time I was still living in Texas, in the Houston metro area in the Woodlands, and I came up with the idea to start my own business and talk to my then, uh, husband at the time, my second husband, that I have two children with another girl and boy. And he thought that it was a good idea and he had an opportunity to move to Colorado for his sales position and we had always talked about moving to Colorado. I just love Colorado and it's a beautiful place. And so when he had an opportunity to move for his job, then I made a deal with him that if I. Um, resigned from my current position. Then when I moved to Colorado, I just want to get started on my own business idea and he thought that I would be good at it, so he decided to make that deal with me, and that's how the idea came to fruition.

Once I decided that I wanted to own my own business, then it was just a matter of what kind of business would I have. I did look into a lot of technology type businesses, so I researched different franchises, even solar panel installation companies, cell phone repair companies, things of this nature. But after a while, I just thought to myself.

Why don't I do something that's more fun than that? Where I am at the front desk, I'm checking out people, getting to know the customers, spending time with them. And I started looking into different franchises for beauty and wellness. So I researched, uh, lash extension companies, blow dry bar companies, massage companies, different things of this nature and in the end, I just realized that those companies all had a maximum, uh, revenue and take home pay of about a hundred thousand, which was less than I was making at the time. And I really had no desire to build and work really hard on a company of my own only to make less compensation. So I decided that a great idea would be to make a massive spa center location that, you, a woman could go and get all the different types of services done all in one place, and it would be a destination type of spa center where you could order a beverage and have a snack and spend all day there if you wanted. Because it has women. We have a lot of things that we wanna keep up with, including our hair, our nails, our Botox, have some relaxing time massage facial. And all the type of things that we like to get done. I thought this was a great idea and I was obsessed with it, and I started working on that business case and how I could put all that together all in one place. That is how the idea of Glosshouz Spa Center was born.

I was very excited about having a business that was run by women for primarily female clientele because I just think that women have so much in their lives that they're always taking care of their family, taking care of their children, their husband everyone, and we need a place where we can go so that someone takes care of us, and I just love that idea.

In my career, as you can imagine, being an engineer, I worked with primarily male colleagues, so this was going to be new for me. But of course, growing up with all sisters, I was very excited to get back to it and to have a business to help take care of women.

People always ask me how did I come up with the name Glosshouz? And uh, it's not that exciting of a story, but as I was working on names, I came up with Hot H-A-U-T-E and um, oh, I don't know, I had some crazy names out there, but every name that I would come up with, I would ask my girlfriends back in Dallas.  How about this name? How about that name? How about this name? They were probably sick of me asking them for over almost a year while I was building the spa. I still didn't have a name for it, and eventually one of them came up with a name. How about Gloss? She said, and I just love the idea, you know, gloss for glossy hair, glossy nails, but at the time I thought it's just not big enough. For what I'm creating. So then I added on Houz, HOUZ, to the end and Gloss. How was a URL that was available And there you go. That's the name I thought it. I thought it looked kind of modern and also represented a bigger place where you could get everything done, and so that's how I settled on the name of Glosshouz for the spa center.

As you might guess, since I had never owned a business before, there were a lot of things that I needed to figure out. To name a few those things were how to negotiate a lease, how to make a business plan that supports the cost of construction and the rent. Month to month, um, how to design and develop the spa center facility, how to advertise everything for a brand that does so many types of services, how to drive key performance metrics so that I can maximize profitability, how to reach a comfortable enough profit so that I can really take care of the team and help them grow in their career. And the list goes on and on. And those are all things that I've learned over time.

One time I read in a business book, and I agree with this a hundred percent, is that when you are first a business owner you run into challenges, uh, things that are monumental and keep you up at night, and you're so worried over it and it takes up all your energy and stresses you out, but then you figure out the answer. Eventually you just stick with it and come up with a solution, and then you keep having those things happen over and over, one thing after another, and something you didn't even expect would a problem becomes a problem. But then you solve that problem and over the years then you still keep having these problems. Now, after a few years. You run into a problem and you think to yourself, oh yes, I had that problem before and now I know exactly what to do, and this is a solution and it's nothing to worry about. And you learn these things over time and then that becomes more manageable in business and that exactly happens. And I remember once I realized that, then I knew it was a big relief to me that I'm getting the hang of business. I'm understanding how to be a business owner, but when you never done it before, it's very intimidating and. The thing that you can realize is that it doesn't have to be things that you learn on your own, and it doesn't have to be mistakes and things that happen to you.

You can also learn from other people's experience and that can actually shortcut your path to revenue and your path to growth so that now you have someone helping you. Providing all the shortcuts and helping you with your business and your culture, and that can really speed things up, on your entrepreneurial journey.

When it comes to strategies and approaches that I have used to grow the business, my general strategy is the age old saying, do unto others as you would want done unto you. And I know that sounds simplistic, but it's the golden rule, so-called, and it works in every scenario and every circumstance. When I think about the hospitality, hospitality of my spa center business, I really want us to go the extra mile to make people feel welcome and comfortable like they own the place themselves. I just love it when a guest whips into the spa and they raise their hand. I'll take a mimosa and I'm headed to the back. Honestly, this signals to me that they're very happy and competent and it's the best compliment ever.

Also, we never want anyone to be unhappy for any reason. Therefore, we empower the whole team to do anything possible to make sure that the guest feels happier and more confident every time when they leave the spa, the team laughs at me because I always say to them, we are not in the business of making people sad, so we definitely have to always work to just make people feel relaxed and comfortable and be extremely happy with their results. So we work really hard to make that happen. Over the years and after much fine tuning, the business has evolved into a robust recurring revenue membership model, and that really resonates with our guests and benefits our business also. It's a win-win!

About 62 to 65% depending on the year of our business, revenues come from our BFF savings program members and those customers, the customers that really love Glosshouz, are the ones that come to us for one type of service, or they come because they're looking for multiple services and a place that does it all, or maybe they're from out of town and they're just visiting and they wanna come for special occasions. So we are the ideal location for that.

I introduced the BFF savings program, about three years ago, 2021. And when I did that, the business significantly grew very quickly. I think that what was happening was people would come to us for a specific service that they just found their provider and they did it over and over and over again. So, for example, someone would come for Botox and then they would.

Just see us every three months for Botox, for Botox, for Botox, for filler, maybe, you know, or something. Or they would find their hairstylist and then they would just come for their balayage every six months. But once I introduced the BFF Savings Program, the way that program is configured is that it rewards people for trying different kinds of services.

And once we did that, that really helped our business grow significantly. The business benefits because now people are trying all kinds of services and the client is just much happier being able to do multiple types of services all in one location. So it's a perfect situation.

I am happy that over the years, the medical aesthetics part of the business has really grown over time, and I do believe that that is the best opportunity to evolve and grow with our clientele. Health and wellness is really becoming a focus of more and more people to live their best life and to have longevity and to have health even into their older years, and I think that this is the biggest opportunity that we have as Glosshouz evolves, specifically adding nutraceuticals and hormone therapy and peptide weight loss, and helping guests. Keep track of their lab biomarkers to identify, uh, what they can optimize in their own health.

I think that all of those types of services are gonna be needed more and more as people are proactive in keeping up with their health and wellness. So that's a big opportunity that we have.

If I were to go back in time and do something differently, I guess I would have created the BFF savings program sooner. Also, I would've gotten business consulting or perhaps read all the business books that I've read lately, in the very beginning before I got started. , Because the thing that I realized is that you need to develop a team culture in order to have a successful business and it seems cliche, but it actually is very true, is you have to define your culture. What do you want to be important to the team? And then you need to look for those people when you're interviewing, and then that is how you will develop a culture. At your business that will in turn be happy, be motivated, um, be able to have a vibe about them that's very friendly and outgoing and wanting tohelp the guest and then that makes the guest want to come back to your business over and over. So it's sort of, full circle that you developed a team and that develops your business. Glosshouz spa centers provide a destination facility being able to offer all the different variety of services and having the BFF savings program that's unique to the industry really sets us apart.

It's not easy to be able to provide. All the different types of services that we do from hair, skin, nails, massage lashes, uh, permanent makeup, medical aesthetics, lasers, peptides, weight loss, all the different things that we do, very well and consistently. And so that takes developing processes and systems to be able to train the team so that they are experts in what they do, and we've done a good job of doing that. We have extra amenities for the guests that are visiting the spa, such as lush spa, ropes, , beverages, refreshments, different things of this nature, and that makes the customer wanna come back and see us. I think that taking care of our team, our dedication to helping them move forward in their career with their education is something that really develops our people and that helps them stay longer and helps them really care about our guests and care about each other, and that makes it such a ni nice place to work. I love serving our guest clients and they are what make

us successful.

However, as it applies to all business that exists today, really the only reason to come together and develop a business is to take care of the team, to help them make a good living, to give them opportunities and help them succeed in work and life. And I just think that we are so lucky to be in this industry, a business that we really love, and that would be my advice to people that are looking for a business is to not settle on something that you don't love. Business is hard and you need to keep at it and persevere. The only way that you can do that and still really enjoy it is if you have a passion for what you're doing. So that would be my number one advice to anyone that's looking to get into business.

I remember in the beginning when I was hiring people, I just felt that anyone I hired, it was my responsibility as the business owner to make it work. But really it's up to the individual and so I have to go out and find the individual that wants to do what I'm asking them to do that wants to help grow this ball that wants to proactively help their team members that wants to learn and grow and develop themselves and their career. And once I find those people, then they're the ones that really make Glosshouz great.

 We are known for being the friendliest spa in town, and that's because we have a lot of fun working together and making our clients happy and confident. As the business has been becoming more and more successful, and I was thinking of how to develop the team, I realized that in order to give them a career path to keep growing, then I needed to grow as a leader and as a business owner, and as you're thinking about expansion for business, there really are a number of ways that you could grow. You could organically build another spa center and grow in that manner. You could seek investors that want to help you and have a say in how you're growing the business. You could. Um, franchise your business.

At one point I had attended a NASDAQ Entrepreneurial workshop for women and someone in the meetup had suggested to franchise the business. So I read this book, franchise Your Business by Mark Siebert. I ended up hiring his organization to help me develop the franchise organization and the franchise business opportunity, and as I looked into it more and more, I realized that Glosshouz and the way that our business is run and how it becomes successful is a great opportunity to help other entrepreneurial type individuals that want to have a business in aesthetics and wellness. I'm very excited about helping other business owners develop themselves and their team and helping them grow as a business. So this is my passion today. I feel like I can offer a lot and really help other franchisee operating partners become successful in bringing a Glosshouz to their community.

The Glosshouz brand has a lot to offer. The way that we sell and cross sell different types of services for our customers is a marketing machine just on its own. And then the BFF Savings Program and the value proposition that it provides for our guest clients is really something unique that helps grow the spa business.

The training systems and processes that we have in place to keep those spa fresh and growing is something that sets us apart in the end. Our mission and our vision is to grow to truly care about our team and our guests, and to have our guests really find a place that they love. Coming so that they can feel confident and happy every day. And in the end, what could be better than that? It's just such a lovely place to work.

We are now offering franchise opportunities with the Glosshouz brand in many states such as Colorado, where we're from, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, as well as Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and some other states. So if you're very interested and you would like to speak to me personally and get to know me better. Please reach out.

You can go to franchise.glosshouz.com and just fill out a form there and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible. And then you'll wanna come to visit the spa and make sure that you love the business as much as we do. We've recently started franchising and we've signed up one other franchise partner who will be opening a next location here in the Denver, Colorado area. Very exciting. So reach out and we hope to get to know you and learn more about you soon.

Thank you for joining us on the Aesthetic Advantage Podcast by Glosshouz. If you'd like to learn more about us, our treatments, memberships, franchise opportunities, visit Glosshouz.com.

Until next time, stay inspired. Stay beautiful!