GUEST BLOG FRIDAY: Patty Funder, LaserLight for Men and Women, tells the story of her Business
Today, Patricia Funder, President and Founder of LaserLight Skin Clinic, LLC, shares her story of risk, hope and finding the resources to develop a business. Through lessons learned, best practices, and some coaching and mentoring, Patricia is on the path to success!
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LaserLight represents the window that opened for me when a number of doors closed along the path of my career as a Medical Device Quality Assurance and Compliance professional working in the corporate world. I loved this career because it utilized my writing skills and expertise in an allied field of medicine, an avocation since I was little; but I found myself laid off one too many times, after I had developed highly streamlined processes that made compliance to regulations easy enough for a less experienced person to follow.
Even before my last layoff – a small start-up whose founder told me had the goal of selling the business – I began my search for another career, one that I could do for the rest of my work life and that would get me closer to “patients.” The idea of laser skin care dropped out of the sky, and I embarked on a course to find out what I would need for education/training and certifications to use lasers to do permanent hair removal, eliminate skin imperfections and to make people look and feel their very best and youngest.
I enrolled in the most comprehensive laser training program that I could find in the country, and earned a certification as a laser technician from the National Laser Institute. There were no jobs available when I completed the course — laser had not caught on in New England yet – so I invested everything I had to create my own medspa, and prayed that I had all the business acumen that I needed to make this a lucrative endeavor. From the beginning, I instituted a cross-functional Board of Advisors.
As the LaserLight brand developed and its needs exceeded what my volunteer Board could offer, I found that small business owners can source expertise and guidance without spending beyond their means. I hired a marketing director, who could develop the graphics and the plans for advertising for me. Next I hired a business coach as an independent contractor and began participating in monthly group coaching sessions that she facilitated. LaserLight’s new Chief Financial Officer and a Human Resources consultant came aboard after a presentation I gave at one of the local networking events. It goes on, with a lawyer, IT experts, a bookkeeper and more.
By using these professionals, who often are former managers with broad expertise and accomplishment, I cost-effectively raised my own level of business expertise. The one resource that I maintain as pretty constant is business coaching, often in a group setting. This affords me a support group, a client focus group, and a trusted advisor wrapped into one. As a so-called “solo-preneur,” I have experienced those dark days when the revenue stream just trickled, or the clientele went into hibernation. There is no substitute for a cheering squad who believe in you and your business to pull out of a dismal month with the energy to create wealth in the coming three months. Likewise, my group experiences have given me far more creative ideas than would have been possible all by myself, and they have challenged me with pertinent reading and resources to guide me as a business leader.
I am excited to face LaserLight’s future with more comprehensive services, and treatment enhancing product lines. We are on the threshold of hiring our first employee. And I am thinking that I can do this until I am 95!
Patricia Funder, MS, CLT
LaserLight Skin Clinic, LLC
LaserLight for Men and Women