Source: Latino University
APRIL 2008
THE BEAUTY GURU:
JOANNA VARGAS
GIG:
Aesthetician and owner of Joanna Vargas Skin Care Salon.
FIRST JOB:
Office manager at a photo gallery.
CAREER ADVICE:
“Learn who your client is and what they are looking for”.
While most people hide from the world when their face breaks out, Joanna Vargas wants to see it all.
After all, it’s how the aesthetician became Hollywood’s go to girl for gorgeous mugs.
The Mexican and Irish mother and wife, who counts celebs and supermodels as clients didn’t plan to become a skin care specialist. After graduating from the University of Chicago, she dove into the corporate world and realized it wasn’t for her. But starting your own business takes risk and leaving a seemingly great job maybe difficult to do. Even if necessary. “After five or six years I was still doing the same thing”, says Vargas of a past job before she switched paths.
“It took a lot of introspection and honesty with myself to come to the realization that I was going nowhere. I had to take a chance and move on”. And move on she did. After working with several facialist she developed her own method of skincare and started her own business. But communication counted the most. “About four years into my career, I took professional communication courses that literally changed the speed and direction of my career path”, she says. “I wish I had done it right from the start”.
Her only regret is not having more confidence. “I let someone have a really important job in my business because I didn’t think I could handle the workload”, she says. “The mistakes that person made cost me a lot of money. After they left I took over the job and realized I could do it and well! I have never doubted myself again.”
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY:
“I get to really create everything about my company, from the atmosphere of my salon to doing the research on the latest treatments and technologies in beauty. I go from being a researcher to a designer to caregiver of my clients all in one day. The downside? Everyone counts on me, so I can’t afford to have a bad day”.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS:
“two weeks before I opened my salon, clients were calling non-stop begging me to open early. I ended up having to open five days early to accommodate a client a client who flew in from Europe just to see me. That’s when I knew I had made it”.
MY FIRST JOB TAUGHT ME:
“Customer service is really an art; do it well and a client will always remember you”.
20 April 2008/Latino University
Joanna’s flagship salon is on Fifth Avenue in New York City (across from fashionable Bryant Park, where she is much in demand during Fashion Week by designers, socialites and fashion editors alike). 
Triple Crown Facial
Beauty Black Book
