Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Aguilar.
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am very happy to be able to share my story with your readers. My name is Elizabeth Aguilar; many of you know me here in California as Eliza Villalva; I was born in the city of Morelia Michoacan, Mexico but raised in Jiquilpan, Michoacan. I am the oldest of three brother. I could say that my childhood and adolescence were perfect with the exception of one detail; I had a father on a seasonal basis. My parents decided that my mother would remain in Mexico, practicing her profession, while my father would work seasonally in the United States.
As a child, I dreamed of becoming a teacher. I come from a family where on my mother’s side, there are many teachers; my grandparents were teachers, and all of their siblings were too. So how could I deny the opportunity to follow the legacy of teachers? My mother was a Kindergarten Educator, but was more interested in Elementary school grades. So I thought I had my future already planned; I would be an elementary school teacher. By the time I entered high school, I already felt closer to the deadline to make the final decision for my future because when I finished, I would have to choose the university I should attend. By then, I was no longer so sure. I was beginning to have an interest in beauty.
So in high school, the first year that you have to enroll in an extracurricular workshop, I chose the beauty workshop. At the end of the workshop I had stood out as the best student in the class, so they offered me to stay as the instructor for the next two years. Teaching the class would count as my social service internship requirement to graduate. I became more certain that being a teacher was no longer my number one option and was already diverting to psychology, but when I took philosophy junior year, I wasn’t so sure anymore. For me, it was the most boring class I could have. While I continued teaching beauty workshops, I discovered that it was something I loved to do, especially when it was our turn to organize beauty pageants. The day before taking my exam for university, my mother was studying for her master’s degree in her room when I approached her and told her that I had already made a decision; I did not want to be a teacher or a psychologist anymore, I wanted to be a hairstylist. Looking back, it now makes me laugh how my mom dropped the pencil out of her hand. She turned to look at me and said, “Are you sure that’s what you want? I was afraid of her reaction, but at the same time, I felt confident in my decision. She wasn’t happy about it, but my mother supported me. She told me that if that was what I wanted to be, then my job would be to be one of the best hairstylists.
To follow my desire, I had to move to a beauty academy in the city of Morelia. With all the pain in my heart, I said goodbye to my family and my boyfriend, who was not happy either, but I never entertained the possibility of choosing a relationship to achieve over my profession. After two years I returned to Jiquilpan, I started working in a beauty salon applying nails and doing hair. Two years later, I decided to become independent and start my own business. My business started with having a chair and a mirror at home, little by little I was building my own place to work. While I was in that transition, I received the news that I could now go to the United States legally since my father submitted the petition for his family. I already had a life made up in Mexico, so it took me a while to make the decision to settle in the United States. When the economy in Mexico began to decline drastically, and my sentimental heart had been destroyed, it was my last push to make the decision to finally stay permanently in this country. At that time, I never gave importance to learning English as I thought that I would marry someone in Mexico and stay there. I wasn’t giving myself the chance to see the great opportunities that this country has.
As a woman of faith, I asked God to give me the sign if I had made the right decision to stay in the United States, and I can say that he gave me the answer. The first thing I did was enroll in the ESL program for adults because I realized that if I wanted to improve myself and stand out, step number one would be to learn the language. Finally, I started working in a beauty salon but I didn’t have a Cosmetologist License in California. The owner of the salon guided me by giving me the information to obtain it, and a year later, I had already obtained my State Board License. The salon was not busy enough for us, so the owner recommended me to a beauty salon in Garden Grove. I moved to work there. I lasted about a year, but I still didn’t feel satisfied. The pay was very low, and being in a salon from 9 to 7 waiting for clients to arrive was not my thing; I missed the freedom that being your own boss brings you. That’s when I moved to another salon in Stanton, which was busier with haircuts for men and boys, and of course, since I was the new one and the young one, it took me a while to get clients. Yes, I stayed busy, the pay was a little higher, but still, it wasn’t enough for me.
That’s when I decided to join the Cosmo Makeup Academy to update myself on the latest makeup trends. This is how I began to offer more makeup and hair services for events. And since these are usually weekends, there were days when I had to ask permission at the salon to arrive late or not arrive at all so that I could do hair and makeup house calls. The owner of the salon didn’t really like that I was asking for so much time and for me, it was very exhausting that I only had one Sunday free per month, to visit family. Time with family is much more important to me than what I can earn at a job. That’s time and memories that you don’t get back. So again, I didn’t feel so satisfied in that place anymore, and I really missed doing more women’s hair. It was at a makeup event where I met two hairstylists; one of them was working in a salon in Orange and at the same time, working for television. They told me that the salon where they worked used to serve a glass of wine to the clients every Friday. That caught my attention a lot. Because I heard them talking about the type of salon where I wanted to be. So, a went to visit him and met the owner of the hair salon, and we talked about my experience. The following week, the owner of this salon called me and offered me a part-time job doing facials since the current girl had moved on. I accepted, and I kept working part-time in Stanton and Orange. I did this for four months until the Orange salon offered me to be a hairstylist on commission full time. I accepted, and I did it for a year. My checks were a little more than in the previous salons, but even so, I had the goal of a different amount, and I knew that if I wanted to achieve the check I wanted, I would have to become independent, so I decided to be independent and rent my own chair a year later.
I began to see the check with the amount that I wanted at that time. I spent three beautiful years in that salon until that spark of change came again in my head. I began to see the new concept of renting suites for independent stylists on social media. I never had the courage to ask prices, when I saw the images of the suites I imagined that it would be very expensive to have your own suite. The work environment in the salon began to change, and it was then that I gathered the courage and made an appointment at the Phenix Salon Suites in Orange. To my surprise, it was my prejudices that were holding me back because in reality, renting your own suite was not as expensive as I imagined. So I took the big step of opening my own suite in 2019, along with a colleague from the Orange salon who moved to work with me. I have been at Phenix Salon Suites in Orange for four years. I was able to maintain my previous clients, but I have managed to grow many more clients.
In 2021, together with a cousin, I decided to rent a second suite to perform eyebrow services such as microblading, henna, and eyelash services such as extensions and lifting. I am a restless woman; it is difficult for me to be without doing something. I think that is why the salon model of sitting from 9 to 7 waiting for the client was not my thing; I value time. That’s why I work only by appointment, it gives me the freedom to organize my time, and while I am not serving clients, I take advantage of doing personal activities or working on other projects. For example in 2018, together with one of my brothers, we decided to open a company called Bonitomx that sells handmade accessories, and currently, we have developed another online business that is selling Mexican artisan footwear (Huarache). Since we never lost contact with our people from Mexico, we have come together to carry out this type of Mexican craftsmanship. As of 2017, I decided to launch myself more specifically into the Bridal and Quinceañera business, where we provide makeup and hair styling services at home. I have a team of girls whom I train and who support me to carry out these services. And it is also in this business where the youngest of my brothers supports me as a photographer, editor, and manager of my social networks. You can say that we run businesses as a family. And I love that part. My parents have taught us to always stay united as siblings.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think there are stories without challenges, and the truth is that mine is no exception. I think the biggest challenge for me has been arriving in a country that is not where you were born, where the people are not the same type of people. Neither is the culture nor the religion, much less the language. I think that has been the biggest challenge; facing the reality that just speaking Spanish would not open as many doors for me being bilingual. Also, many times when you confront personal situations and you have to continue with your work with a smile so that the client doesn’t notice it; that’s hard. For example, when I recently opened my second suite, I was dealing with my divorce. It was difficult for me to think that I was succeeding in business but not in my marriage, and despite being heartbroken again, having to move on. Another situation that I have learned is that it is not enough to do what you do well, to have a business, you have to learn to manage the business; to stay at the forefront. Currently, social networks have generated greater pressure on us because we are beginning to have clients who demand what they see on social media without taking into account that many of these images are manipulated with filters or that they are celebrities who pay what the service they receive is really worth. This is one of the challenges that many of my coworkers wouldn’t like to admit happens as frequently as it does.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
ELIZA VILLALVA was born with the idea of forming a brand that is known for professionalism and excellent service. By providing different services to the client, it offers the convenience of obtaining them in one place, and thus the client does not have the need to travel to other places.
My current focus is makeup and hair for brides and quinceañeras.
Just like permanent makeup like Microblading, which has become very popular among women, more and more women are looking for that look of perfect and abundant eyebrows, and as a makeup artist, I couldn’t let go of the opportunity to also offer this service.
But without leaving behind the extra services offered. Such as eyelash extensions and eyelash lifts.
Hair color, hair cut, threading, hair treatments.
What I like about what I do is that every day is very different. Offering different services gives me the opportunity to not feel in a routine and do my work with love.
In fact, my idea in the future is to have a larger space than just a suite to provide more space to my clients and have a team of girls who share with me the love of serving others.
I’ve been working hard to run my business so that the day I can have a family, I can dedicate exactly the time to my business and my family.
Something that is very funny is that I denied myself the opportunity to study psychology without thinking that in the end, I would end up offering therapy to my clients because every time a client sits in my chair, it is very possible that a therapy session will begin.
I don’t want to leave out the other two ventures, BonitoMX.com and Kundeni.mx, which were created to give that extra touch to women’s beauty. What I love is to see that not only Latinos consume our products but that other cultures are already beginning to know about them and buy them. That gives me a lot of pride as a Latina woman. So don’t miss the opportunity to visit our online stores.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think that from the moment we are born, we already live at risk; the difference is how consciously we are willing to confront different types of risks. Each of the decisions we make in life will always have a risk, from something simple like choosing what to eat to choosing whether to jump off a bungee. Starting a business is always a risk, it’s just that the level of risk varies, it is very different to create it with a business plan in hand than to create it just because you imagined it would work. I think that is where you run the most risk. And yes, I have taken several risks in my life, both personally and professionally, and many times I take the plunge with a lot of fear, but I have been taught that if you listen to fear then you will remain paralyzed. It is very comfortable to stay in a comfort zone or in something you already know, but sometimes staying in that bubble prevents us from growing and seeing the wonderful opportunities that the world offers us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elizavillalva.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizavillalva_beautystudio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizavillalvaoficial/
