Today we’d like to introduce you to Cara Dempsey.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
SKINCARA started off as an idea; as most businesses do. An intangible thought that was tucked away somewhere in the back of my mind. It was something I thought would happen way down the professional road for me. Fast forward to March 2020, where I was temporarily furloughed from a local medical spa due to the shutdown. Like most of us, I had plenty of time to think and reflect during this time. I thought about where I’ve been, how I got to where I was at that moment, and what my future looked like. I began toying around with this idea of what if I launched my business now?
Could I do it? Am I crazy for wanting to do this during a pandemic? What would people think? If the shutdown taught me anything it’s that life can change in an instant. I’ve always been one to go after crazy ideas. If I feel in my gut something is right I go for it. No matter how crazy it seems to the outside world. Launching SKINCARA was no different. In a time where most businesses were closing temporarily, or even for good, I was opening one.
My gut has never lead me astray and thank goodness this has been no different. If it wasn’t for the shutdown, I don’t believe I would be sitting here with you today. SKINCARA would probably still be that intangible idea in the back of my mind. Today, I am so proud she is very much a tangible, living breathing dream that is no longer stuck just inside my mind.
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?
I don’t think any business owner would say the road of entrepreneurship is a smooth one. It’s more like a curvy, dusty unmarked backroad that somehow manages to drop you off at the most beautiful, hidden location you never thought you would arrive to.
Launching a business during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic provided plenty of challenges, setbacks, and delays; and that’s just on top of your everyday normal business struggles. Our business provides close-contact services. We provide touch and healing through our services and treatments. Finding a way to navigate that through the new norm of social distancing was, and honestly still is scary and uncharted territory.
I think as a business owner you have to find ways to adapt. If not your business ultimately won’t succeed. Luckily for us, we have found a way to not just survive but thrive during this time. People are craving touch more than ever and we are happy to be able to bring that to them as safely as we can.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about SKINCARA?
When I was creating SKINCARA I knew I wanted to create something different. I knew I wanted my clients to experience skincare in a different way than they ever had before. SKINCARA is constantly evolving but I believe we are redefining the way skincare is done.
SKINCARA is a boutique-style skincare studio that specializes in corrective skin care treatments. We are also a certified acne specialist studio and are passionate about educating our clients and helping them achieve clear skin. We offer products and treatments that are exclusive to our studio in all of East Tennessee; like the Facial Infusion and the Botox Facial. Our goal is to offer innovative treatments that provide our clients with five-star results.
SKINCARA offers more than once-a-month skincare treatments. We want our clients to feel as though they can pop in the studio, sip on a glass of champagne and shop our full line of skin and body care products. It’s more than just a transactional service for us and our clients. We are creating relationships that extend far beyond their appointments and use SKINCARA as a way to empower them through skincare.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
It’s hard to choose just one important lesson because there have honestly been so many. I find the most impactful lessons have been the little ones I experience daily. What I’ve found that resonates with me most frequently has been learning how to be adaptable.
By nature, I am a planner. I like to know what’s going to happen when it’s going to happen, and who it’s going to happen with. Going with the flow is not how I operate. Owning a business basically guarantees that things will go wrong and they’ll be wrong to a severe degree. That typically doesn’t work well for me and my “plans.”
I’ve learned to expect the unexpected and plan for things to go wrong. Have a backup plan and then a backup plan for the backup plan. It has not been easy learning to be this adaptable but I am a better business person for it.
Contact Info:
- Email: byskincara@gmail.com
- Website: byskincara.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byskincara/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byskincara
Image Credits
Evolve Creative Studio by Erika Bentley and Sarah Eli Photos
