Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Garza.
Hi Melissa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Melissa Garza and I own The Skin Retreat in the Houston Heights. I’m also a wife to a wonderfully supportive man and mom of 3 amazing kids. When I was in college at St. Edward’s University, I worked at Aziz Day Spa in Austin, TX and fell in love with the tranquility of the spa environment. A few years later when I had my first daughter, I wanted to have a more flexible schedule so I could be more available as a mom. My mom suggested becoming a massage therapist as she had just met a lady that started her business and was in control of her own schedule and clients. It sounded very appealing and I remembered how much I loved working at Aziz. So I went to school, became a massage therapist and began working at Beautique Day Spa in the West University Village. As soon as I found out what an esthetician was and what they did, I knew that was my calling. While I enjoyed being a massage therapist and working with clients, I kept waiting for the day I could return to school and become an esthetician. Finally, the day came. I enrolled in the esthetics program at San Jacinto College, finished my education, took the test and became a Licensed Esthetician. I was already working at Bella Rinova Salon and Day Spa as a massage therapist and manager. I then took on a third role as an esthetician. I had a wonderful boss Lynette Davis who believed in me and gave me a lot of freedom to learn and become the esthetician I wanted to be. I will forever be grateful to her. However, among my dream of being an esthetician, I always had a very entrepreneurial spirit and dreamt of being my own boss. I was very shy and in the days without social media, building a clientele was not easy. I had some wonderful loyal clients but I didn’t realize that it takes so much more than the desire to own a business. I had not set myself up for success by laying the groundwork. So I had a lot of other side jobs throughout the years. I was a real estate agent, a receptionist, a bookkeeper, a baker, a buyer at an engineering firm, an inspection coordinator and many other roles. I finally decided enough was enough and I would give owning an esthetics business one last really good try. The whole world had opened up with social media and I had learned so much more through my other careers that I knew I was ready. I opened The Skin Retreat in Friendswood in 2017 sharing a suite with Jaime Brousseau, The Botox Boss. We were both starting out and immediately became great friends. After a year, we parted ways. She wanted to be in Seabrook and I had decided to move to a newly built suite in Pasadena. My Salon Suite was a great place to build my business and realize that I could do it on my own. I grew in confidence, clientele and skill. Then 2020 hit and we had to shut down during the pandemic. The owner of My Salon Suite was amazing and did not charge us rent during that time. I took the time to indulge in every class I could take. I read a lot and took advantage of all the free and low-cost education that was being offered during that time. And there was A LOT being offered. I took compliance courses with Med Spa Advisor, found a Medical Director to work with and set myself up for growth. When we were able to open back up, I was armed with new exciting services and a lot of knowledge. I had also taken on a protégé Victoria before the pandemic. I taught her every service that I offered and she had become a great asset to The Skin Retreat. By the fall of 2020, I decided to move my business to The Heights into Revive Salon and Spa on 20th St. Victoria decided to open her business in Clearlake so I helped her to set everything up as New Aura Esthetics and I’m so proud of how well she has done. After moving into Revive, I added new equipment and new services to expand my offerings. I also became a professional-level laser technician, purchased some lasers so that I could offer the very best to my clients. I have loved being at Revive. The environment is very supportive and I have been able to further grow The Skin Retreat. I began training estheticians in business and advanced skills along with seeing my own clients. This year, I rented a second room at Revive, hired two amazing estheticians and laser techs, Oscar Escamilla and Cassandra Gonzalez-Shrier. I have loved training them and teaching them what I know. My next goal is to expand the education side of my business to teach other estheticians to do what I do, help them grow their own businesses and skills and create a supportive environment in which they can flourish.
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?
It has not been a smooth road. Entrepreneurship never is no matter how good people make it look on social media. YOU HAVE TO HAVE GRIT AND TENACITY! You have to have the funds to sustain yourself when times are bad because there will be those times. Taxes, budgets and all the other background business side of things have always been the hardest for me. I’m great with clients in the treatment room. Marketing? No problem! There’s so much more to owning a business and if you want to grow, there will be so much more. Take it slow. Master one thing at a time before you add something else. It’s possible but you just have to know when and where to pivot. Get creative with your solutions and stay on top of your finances. It has helped me so much to have my husband and parents who are always there to lend a hand with anything I need. So much so, that my mom is even going to get her esthetician license to come work for me!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I own The Skin Retreat, which is a med spa in the Heights. I am an aesthetician and laser professional. We specialize in corrective skin care and advanced treatments for hyperpigmentation and age management. I am most proud of the relationships I have built with my clients and the results that we get from them being consistent and showing up for themselves. What sets us apart from others is the personalized care that we give The Skin Retreat. I will also be starting a laser hair removal training program this year. I’m so excited about that because lasers have become such a vital part of skin care that estheticians need to be laser licensed. I love training other estheticians in business and advanced procedures just as much as I love educating my clients on how to care for their skin
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I love best about Houston is the diversity that it offers. There are people from all over and that also makes our food the best! What I like least about our city is the traffic.
Pricing:
- Laser Hair Removal Packages from $200-$4000
- Radio Frequency Microneedling from $600-$900
- IPL $300-$500
- New Client Custom Facial $115
- DMK Skin Revisión Program $250-$3825
- Esthetics Coaching starting at $1500
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.theskinretreattx.
com - Instagram: @theskinretreattx
- Facebook: @theskinretreat1
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/
rVMZEkTdYvb
