Nails to lashes: The First Refresh founder on constructing an on-demand magnificence platform in S’pore

Rachael Kam was a former lawyer turned entrepreneur. She graduated with a legislation diploma from the Nationwide College of Singapore, and spent eight years in company authorized apply.

Being a lawyer is certainly a secure and well-paying job — or a “security web” — but it surely was not one thing she was enthusiastic about.

That has since modified considerably for her. In 2014, she made the leap to be an entrepreneur and began her first enterprise enterprise, Lucy & Mui, offering locally-made minimal nice jewellery to the world.

Throughout these eight years of operating the e-commerce enterprise, Lucy & Mui loved good gross sales. In actual fact, greater than 40 per cent of their orders got here from abroad, primarily Australia and america.

In 2022, she began up a model new magnificence enterprise. Known as The First Refresh, it’s an on-demand magnificence platform that gives magnificence providers within the consolation of 1’s dwelling in as little as two hours’ reserving discover.

Her imaginative and prescient for The First Refresh is to be a game-changer within the magnificence trade by making a platform that prioritises high quality, flexibility, and affordability.

Her ardour for magnificence and entrepreneurship was ignited when she realised that lots of the girls who have been magnificence professionals, didn’t have the identical flexibility to work round their household wants as she did. She noticed a chance to create a platform that might profit each prospects and wonder professionals, and he or she went for it.

With the institution of The First Refresh nevertheless, Rachael needed to put Lucy & Mui on hiatus that very same 12 months, as she was unable to handle operating two companies whereas being current for her household.

Simplifying the reserving course of for magnificence providers

The First Refresh goals to “do magnificence higher” by offering technology-enabled reserving, eliminating commute by bringing magnificence to at least one’s doorstep, providing honest and clear pricing, and delivering high quality magnificence providers.

Shortly after the lockdown in 2022, I made an appointment with my long-time lash and forehead therapist to have my lashes and brows accomplished. It was an extended back-and-forth course of to guide in through WhatsApp, and I bear in mind considering to myself that there was a lot that might be accomplished on this house.

When she lastly got here by for the appointment, I had a minimum-viable product to point out her, within the type of a Shopify retailer with a scheduling app stacked on high. If nothing else, I wished to know that I may make a distinction for her.

– Rachael Kam, founding father of The First Refresh

The irritating reserving expertise finally led to the launch of The First Refresh, which began out as a ardour undertaking and has since developed to develop into her “life’s work”, as described by her husband.

The platform affords a variety of magnificence providers, together with nails, lashes, brows, hair and make-up, and facials. By means of The First Refresh, purchasers can seamlessly schedule bookings on-line with just some clicks in addition to examine time slot availability in real-time.

Past bringing high quality magnificence providers to the house, it has a deeper mission to supply versatile work to girls and alter the face of magnificence with honest wages and a neighborhood of expert magnificence professionals.

Every magnificence advisor undergoes a stringent choice and vetting course of — they’re assessed on issues like consumer communication, consolation ranges, and technical abilities — earlier than they’re onboarded, with lower than 15 per cent of candidates accepted on a quarterly foundation.

At The First Refresh, you possibly can go for both one-time purchases or a recurring subscription plan that enables versatile scheduling of self-care at most well-liked intervals reminiscent of three, 4, or six weeks, or longer. It additionally means that you can skip, pause, swap, or cancel anytime after two bookings.

The Refresh Subscription is our approach of difficult conventional pay as you go packages in magnificence salons via a technology-forward SaaS mannequin. In 2022, the wonder trade recorded greater than $285,000 in prepayment losses.

With our subscription mannequin, you pay as you employ — shoppers can cancel, skip or edit their subscription instantly from their membership portal by connecting with our concierge crew, giving the buyer full flexibility in managing their magnificence wants.

– Rachael Kam, founding father of The First Refresh

Subscribers can get pleasure from a ten per cent low cost on the retail value of providers, and there’s no surge or dynamic pricing relevant. In actual fact, it affords a lifetime pricing, which permits lively subscribers to retain their subscription value for all times.

Demand for home calls elevated as a consequence of COVID

Rachael confronted a number of challenges through the early days of organising the corporate. She did largely all the things herself, from advertising and marketing and press to operations, and was on customer support responsibility 24/7.

“My stress ranges have been at an all-time excessive,” she lamented.

One of many key challenges that The First Refresh confronted was scaling sustainably with coronary heart. Rachael realised that scaling a enterprise with excessive demand is straightforward, however doing it in the correct approach with the correct construction, crew, and tradition is a novel sequence of challenges.

Regardless of the challenges, the corporate has steadily grown — from a one-person crew in 2021, to a crew of greater than 30 as we speak, with a rising listing of happy purchasers and accolades to match.

“I’ve been extremely blessed to have a crew that helps [our] imaginative and prescient, works exhausting, is superb at what they do, and provides me the assist I must suppose strategically and produce The First Refresh to the following stage,” expressed Rachael.

Sadly, COVID-19 has affected many companies, and The First Refresh was no exception. The corporate needed to cancel small nail events and gatherings because of the adjustments in guidelines. Nonetheless, the pandemic additionally modified shopper behaviour, with extra shoppers embracing the home name mannequin versus making their approach to a magnificence salon.

Though disruptive, Rachael in the end sees the pandemic as a time for them to “develop stronger, adapt quicker, and survive through the hardest of occasions.”

Rising income and buyer base

The First Refresh believes that with magnificence, the very best advertising and marketing is completed via word-of-mouth. The bootstrapped startup was initially launched to solely household and buddies, enabling natural progress throughout the first six months.

We intentionally stayed away from paid advertising and marketing to permit us to check, enhance and develop throughout the constraints that we had as a small enterprise. Throughout the testing part between the second and third quarter of 2021, our income grew 2.5 occasions via word-of-mouth solely.

– Rachael Kam, founding father of The First Refresh

One of many keys to the success of The First Refresh is the corporate’s deal with buyer expertise. The corporate’s web promoter rating (NPS), which measures buyer satisfaction, stands at a formidable 84.7. That is 2.5 occasions the trade common for magnificence, and it’s a metric that the corporate tracks on a weekly foundation.

Since its inception, The First Refresh has achieved many different milestones and successes. For one, it has paid out six figures in salaries and commissions to its magnificence advisor crew, which is a real-life indicator of its mission in motion.

“Nearly half of our crew are moms — listening to about how they’ll scale down their hours of labor to prioritise the wants of their kids, being there at evening and through holidays actually resonate with me as a mom. As a enterprise, we proceed to push for exponential progress — we quadrupled our income between FY2021 and FY2022, and want to speed up progress additional in FY2023,” stated Rachael.

The First Refresh’s mission to supply honest wages and versatile work for magnificence consultants is a refreshing tackle the standard magnificence trade, and is a commendable aim that may profit many expert magnificence professionals.

Sharing future enterprise plans, Rachael added that they are going to be launching their first in-house product known as the Lash Magic! Serum — which promotes longer, thicker, fuller and more healthy pure lashes — by the third quarter of this 12 months.

Within the 12 months forward and in 2024, the crew additionally plans to steadily broaden their complementary vary of magnificence merchandise.

Featured Picture Credit score: The First Refresh