Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabrielle Okray
Hi Gabrielle, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey in aesthetics began in 2019 when I enrolled in The Skin & Makeup Institute of Arizona looking for a pivot. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and had been working in large-scale commercial crop production since 2012, but wanted to pursue something different that excited me and allowed me to work directly with people instead of sitting behind a desk all day. Of course, as soon as I signed a lease on my first salon suite, covid hit and shut everything down. It was a strange time to try and start a business, and after making the decision 6 months later to leave Arizona and move back to the midwest, I found myself starting over once again. My family and I moved to the greater Minneapolis metro area in February of 2021, and I opened Woodbury Wax Bar less than a month later. I originally opened in a one-room salon suite, and advertised my grand opening special – “get your first wax free” for three weeks on Facebook before I opened. I figured as long as I could retain 40% of the people that came in for a free wax, I would have a decent foundation of clientele to work with. On opening day, I was fully booked.
From there, it took 11 months until I was consistently busy enough that I needed to hire. I wanted to continue to expand my clientele and offer additional bookable hours without personally spending more time in the treatment room. I hired my first employee on 1/1/22, and she has now been with me for two and a half years!
In November of 2022, we moved into The Aesthetic Collective, where we are currently located. The move offered us an extra thousand feet of space, including a gorgeous lobby and reception area, additional treatment room, office space, coffee bar, break room, and more. Since moving to the Collective, the business has really been able to thrive. We are currently open 5 days a week, most days until 7pm, and we see about 500 clients each month.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t think any road to opening your own small business is perfectly smooth, and that’s definitely the case for Woodbury Wax Bar. One of the things I’ve found to be the most challenging is finding the right people to bring into the business as waxing specialists. I’ve had three other employees (besides the first one I hired years ago) that have come and gone, none of which have been quite the right fit, and the turnover has left me in no real hurry to put up another “We’re Hiring!” post. Because the service we provide is so personal, we find that most clients (understandably) prefer to stick to one individual wax specialist. Most of the time, the biggest obstacle we have to overcome is educating clients and potential clients about the facts of waxing vs. the myths they’ve heard online or from friends who got waxed one time thirty years ago. That’s why we place such an emphasis on educating clients during their first waxing services, about everything from how to take care of their skin at home between appointments to explaining what causes ingrown hairs and how shaving and waxing fundamentally differ. At the end of the day, no small business is without it’s challenges, and we’ll continue to find the best ways to face them that best serve both our clients and our staff members.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We specialize in Brazilian waxing, with an emphasis on creating a comfortable experience for new guests, whether it’s their first time getting waxed or their thousandth. It’s not a secret that there are multiple of different chain waxing locations right down the street from us, and people have tons of options when it comes to choosing a waxing specialist. But when I was first opening Woodbury Wax Bar, I knew I wanted my business model to be the opposite of the big name chain locations whose primary focus is speed. I’m a firm believer that when your wax specialist feels extremely pressured to complete multiple services in a 15 minute period, they are far more worried about how fast they can go than they are about client comfort or quality of results. At Woodbury Wax Bar, we only use vegan, hypoallergenic wax, which further aids in the comfort of the whole experience as it creates less redness and irritation for our guests. I’m so proud that Woodbury Wax Bar has serviced over three thousand guests in the past three years, many of whom had never been waxed before, and has given so many women an introduction to Brazilian waxing in a way that’s low pressure and delivers fantastic results. For countless people, waxing is an entire lifestyle change that impacts them in ways they wouldn’t have considered before switching from shaving to waxing – healthier skin, less irritation from stubble and razor burn, and a more low-maintenance approach to their self care routine.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up on as part of a farming family in central Wisconsin, and my first love was horses. I was the “weird horse girl” of my family, constantly asking my mom to take me to the barn or pick me up from a horse show. I spent all my free time at the barn: cleaning tack, brushing ponies, building jumps, and just generally being a feral farm kid. I still own and ride horses as often as I can, and am hoping to get my son into riding lessons this summer. I firmly believe that growing up around horses helped shape me as a person in a major way; it taught me so many valuable life lessons that I don’t know I would have learned elsewhere. Responsibility, respect, and maybe most importantly, discipline. I’ll alway be thankful that I spent so many of my formative years on a farm.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.woodburywaxbar.com
- Instagram: @woodburywaxbar
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/woodburywaxbar
