Voyage Phoenix: June 12, 2024

---

Today we’d like to introduce you to D’Lisa Khademi.

D’Lisa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
I started my esthetician journey in 2002 and attended the Oregon Institute of Esthetics. I was lucky to get a great education with the staff having over 75 years of combined experience in the field. Unfortunately, now our industry is plagued with schools that are simply diploma mills with bare-bones teaching and deregulation is rampant.

In some states, you can get licensed with as little as 300 hours! My schooling took 1500 hours to complete and took me a little less than a year. Right after I graduated, I moved to Las Vegas and worked at a very large spa salon called Destination Laguna, which was located less than a mile from the Strip. It was such a great place for me to start because the manager was also an esthetician, and they had many training classes.

After living there for about 2 years, Phoenix was calling me back, and I worked at multiple places for a couple of years before venturing out on my own. When I took the leap to become my own boss I rented a room at a salon and spent around $5k to get started. But I still had bigger goals, so a year or so later, I opened my first salon in Old Town Scottsdale right in the heart of the entertainment district. It has 1 esthetician room and 6 stylist stations.

4 years after opening I decided to expand and opened my second salon near downtown Phoenix, which also had 1 esthetician room and 6 stylist stations. 2 years later I expanded the Scottsdale location and added another esthetician room and 6 more chairs. During this time, I realized that we were quickly outgrowing the Phoenix location, and 2 years in, I signed on to be one of the first retail tenants in a luxury apartment complex that had yet to be built.

The Muse was completed around 2 years later and has a prime location right on the edge of downtown Phoenix, across from the Phoenix Art Museum, on the light rail, and near the freeway. It was so perfect I decided to consolidate my two locations down to just this one. It has 2 treatment rooms, one nail station, and 9 stylist stations. Salon D’ Shayn has now been in the valley for 16 years!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Owning, running, and working in your own business is never perfectly smooth sailing. There are always going to be ups and downs. When doing the buildout on my second location, I had to file claims against the contractors because they did shoddy work. I won, of course. After the expansion of my first location a pipe burst and ruined the brand-new flooring that had just been put in.

My third and final location took 2 months longer than it was supposed to, and we had to move everyone to the Scottsdale location during that time, which was a tight squeeze to accommodate all of us. Then, there are the issues that can arise when finding the right team members. While I have been so fortunate there have definitely been some bad apples along the way.

Recently a person who used to work with me decided to open their own place and proceeded to try to poach our clients by stealing our client list! So tacky, but in the end, it just made them look bad, but I still had to get my lawyers involved. Most recently I spent thousands of dollars on a machine that does electrical muscle stimulation to tighten facial muscles.

A company, which shall remain nameless, threatened to sue me, saying it was patented technology and that although my machine was bought legally, I couldn’t use it. It was such a gamble to fight and my lawyers advised me to just take the loss, it would have cost so much in legal fees and the company threatening me was extremely litigious. But even when problems arise, I still would take them any day to be the successful business owner that I am, and each hardship is a lesson.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Being an established esthetician for 22 years I have learned so many modalities over the years. While I am glad for all the training and certifications I have earned as of now, there are 2 things that I love: waxing and my Aging Gracefully program. Waxing is pretty straightforward, and I have built my business on it. I utilize speed waxing techniques and can do a full body wax in 90 minutes usually.

My Brazilian takes less than 30 minutes and I have been told they don’t hurt as much as other places, this of course comes with time and experience. For the last 10 years, I have also been leaning into skincare quite a bit. When I got into my 40’s, my face really started to change, lax skin, jowls, and I was not digging it at all! While I think there is nothing wrong with plastic surgery, I wanted to pursue other options and treatments.

I offer peels ranging from very mild to deep, RF Microneedling, Plasma Fibroblast, and TF treatments. All of these help to build collagen, even out skin tone, tighten the skin and the Plasma can actually get rid of excess skin. They all have varying degrees of downtime and I like to do a combination of them. I always say, “Give me a year to work on your face.”

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The game has changed so much from when I started to now, and the playing field is never the same, it seems. The world of esthetics is pretty saturated, and it can be really hard to stand out. I think that the most important aspects of being successful in my business are not just being good at what I do but going above and beyond to give the client a great experience. Having a really good website, with SEO and booking, is crucial.

I have the best web person, and my business wouldn’t be where it is without her. I learned that the hard way. After 10 years of her diligent work, we parted ways because COVID hit and I had to cut some things out. After a year, I brought it back but with someone else, and my business suffered. I am glad to say she and I are back to working together, and it is making such a difference.

Having someone behind the scenes doing the stuff you can’t is so important. Same reason I have an amazing tax person, I would be lost without her. Once your business grows, hiring the right staff is paramount; your business is only as good as those that work in it. Learn as much as you can in your field because you can always niche down.

Even though I really dislike the amount of time that has to be spent on social media, it’s important. Learn how to do it, hire someone to do it, and get your staff to do it. The more people that are working to get the visibility of your business out there the better. I know everyone says, “Never give up,” but I actually don’t believe in that.

Owning a business can suck the life right out of you and leave you broke and miserable, so it’s ok to pivot. It’s ok to walk away. You really need to love what you are doing most of the time, and you also need to be profitable. If you are killing yourself and going broke, cut that cord and walk away! You can still be successful and happy and not the boss.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SalonDShayn.com
• Instagram: @Salondshayn
• Facebook: @Salon D’ Shayn
• Yelp: @Salondshayn
• TikTok: @salondshayn