May 17, 2017

Meet Maria DesHotel of Elegant Electrolysis in Spring Branch

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria DesHotel.

Maria, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a native of Manilla, Philippines and graduating from university there with a bachelors degree I have had a successful career teaching in Montessori schools all over the world. I met my husband several years ago and immigrated to the United States whereupon I decided that inclusive of my major life changes I wanted a different career. After considering many professions, I was one day at an electrolysis clinic having some unwanted facial hair removed and discussed it with my new husband. He helped me set up a plan for training and setting up a business.

With any start-up enterprise there is always a period of uncertainty if you are in fact making the right choices with your life. I too had a few tense moments along the way. With the support of my new family here in Texas and plenty of hard work I finally got my enterprise underway. There was a myriad of details to decide upon after I completed training and my internship. With my husband’s help, we eventually settled on business name and he filed the paperwork to get Elegant Electrolysis, LLC set up. Then came the decision on where to put a clinic.

I was certainly surprised at all of the things that went into the decision-making process of setting up a business and was very thankful that I had not only my husband’s skills and expertise but also my new mother-in-law helped with her long career of entrepreneurship. While there are a lot of people who have issues with their spouse’s family I am one of the lucky few who have a fantastic relationship with his family. Once the criteria were explained to me and I thought through the process we agreed upon what I needed to do to set up a clinic. Having had personal experience as a client, I knew what I did and didn’t like and set out to make it the best client experience possible.

The search for a location was longer than I had expected. Until I set out one day just driving around and started asking leasing offices at places that looked interesting. After showing my husband the choices, we visited the various lease spaces and found one suitable to our needs with just a few remodel items that needed to be done. Then a few weeks later the contractor was done with the construction and we started ordering the furniture and fixtures needed along with the equipment. Wow was that ever a lot of boxes coming in the door!

Many late nights and weekends later, we had it set up like I liked it and we set up Website. From there it became an exercise in trying to get advertising visibility. Of course, any business owner will tell you that the first few months are fraught with anxiety as you wait for the customers to find you. In your business plan, you need to have sufficient funding to make the rent for a while with no customers. That, of course, was the most stressful point in the entire endeavor. You start to question yourself if you made the right choices and if your advertising strategy is working or not. Watching the money quickly drain out of your account as you try first one and another advertising campaign with little return on your investment will quickly takes its toll on you. Keeping a positive attitude and a few prayers helped me get through those tougher times.

I really enjoy what I do now and can say without a doubt that it is more personally rewarding to me than even my previous career. When I was teaching young children, there was that joy that they experience upon learning new things and as their teacher I had pride in seeing that moment when they made the connection. As an Electrologist, I now get to see the joy in my clients as I help them change their appearance and feel better about themselves. The majority of my patients translate that increased feeling of self with a happier personality which then becomes a betterment of their lives. For me that is a very rewarding feeling to see that happen!

Great, 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?
There were plenty of challenges! Finding a school the learn what is a very niche skill took some time. I was very lucky to have my husband to support me in this and funded my education.

Finding a space to set up my clinic was a challenge too. So many considerations like easy access for what is a very car-centric city that is Houston. Making sure I had good lighting seemed to take forever in endless discussions with the leasing agents.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Elegant Electrolysis, LLC – what should we know?
Electrolysis is an FDA approved method for permanent hair removal. It works where laser doesn’t, especially useful for blonde, grey hair or places you just don’t want a laser to be shooting at you! The hair removal method has been in use for over a hundred years and is very safe and predictable.

Setting aside the time to listen to the client in their needs and what their goals helps to distinguish us from others in the area. I get so many new clients telling me that they feel like they are on an assembly line at other establishments. Or worse, on the clock, waiting for the timer to ding.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Caring about the person and helping them achieve their goals in changing their personal appearance with the removal of unwanted hair.

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