René Serbon is an international skin expert and aesthetician. With expertise in corneotherapy, René’s focus starts from the outside working in, ensuring that the top layer of skin is nutritionally-balanced before moving on to the deeper layers. Instead of treating the skin with harsh chemicals, scrubs, or peels, René restores the skin barrier. Not only does she help clients with skin disorders, but she also consults with industry professionals, combining profitability and passion through Skin-Centric business of repeatedly and accurately analysing skin. She walks businesses through skin correction using customization and quality of products with a corneotherapy mindset approach to treatment, ultimately creating a seamless, cohesive, and client-centered experience.
In New Zealand, René completed training in Beauty Therapy, known as Aesthetics in Canada and the US, as well as education in Electrolysis from the New Zealand Institute of Electrolysis and Beauty Therapy. She sat for international exams and is a Diplomat of CIBTAC and CIDESCO. With post-graduate training in Laser, IPL, and the Pastiche Method of Advanced Skin Analysis, René is an honoree as a Pastiche recognized educator.
She also serves on the board of education for the International Association For Applied Corneotherapy and speaks regularly on her extensive expertise, most recently at the International Conference on Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, Plastic Surgery as the keynote speaker. René’s passion is teaching clients and industry experts about skin. Even in her free time at home, she connects with her two sons by applying face masks, facials, and other treatments.
What is your company all about?
My company, Dermal Systems, serves professionals in the beauty industry by first leading our mission with education focused around the science of corneotherapy. My personal focus has always been around learning and teaching a deeper understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and cosmetic chemistry related to skin. Today, Dermal Systems serves clients in, what we call, our four pillars of deliverables.
- Education that is non-product aligned and focused around the principles of corneotherapy.
- Distribution of skincare products that fit into the philosophy of our teaching.
- Education and Distribution of diagnostic equipment that scientifically supports findings when analyzing the skin.
- Business consulting for skincare professionals who want to position themselves and their business with a skin-centric focus.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
After leaving university to pursue a career in aesthetics, I quickly built a reputation as the ‘meanest (and best) wax in town’. But, it was not what I wanted to be known for, nor what I wanted to do for twelve hours a day. I remember one day of another twelve hours of back-to-back waxing that ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back. Returning home in tears and smelling like wax, I had to face some hard truths and figure out what I really wanted out of this career path and pursued my passion, skin correction.
My then boss refused to send me to a renowned advanced skin education program that I had wanted to take for a few years, and with that, I took annual leave and attended the training in my own time, at my own cost. It changed the trajectory of my career, and I ended teaching in the field a few years later.
Soon, I realized that knowing the information was not enough. What clients were struggling with was implementing a strong process in their business to make an advanced skin analysis the pivotal point of the client’s journey to skin health and, in the process, help clients to achieve their skin health goals, while also having everyone on the team and clients understand the steps (home care and treatments) to reach the individual’s goal and be profitable at the same time.
Once I helped clients implement systems (thanks to the business studies I was doing at university before pursuing aesthetics) they then asked me what products I recommended and used on clients, and what equipment I used during skin analysis.
When the opportunity to distribute products and equipment presented itself, I felt the fear, overcame it with the support of my mentors and family, and figured out how to do it.
Dermal Systems was born to bring skin (dermal) businesses and systems (education, products, and equipment) to successfully help clients achieve healthy skin at any age.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Entrepreneurship, no matter what field you are in, is not for the faint-hearted. Entrepreneurs certainly have a strong pull toward taking the leap into business for themselves. The top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur include:
- A high tolerance for risk, even when it is a calculated risk. I am not suggesting being unthoughtly risky, but you need a higher tolerance to it.
- Perseverance. You need to be able to stick to it even on days you might not feel like it.
- Self Motivation and Passion. It’s important to be passionate because I believe that without passion perseverance does not come naturally, and self-motivation is a must because unlike in the movies, you don’t have a constant cheer squad on the sidelines. The ability to motivate yourself is you being your own cheer squad, and when others notice and cheer, well that is extra fuel.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
The beauty industry has had good and bad stems from the pandemic. There were times when we could not do what we love, actually doing treatments on our clients, for long periods of time and services literally came to a grinding halt. And for those who are medically affiliated, when the doors opened again, even with limitations, injectable treatments, in particular, soared because everyone suddenly found themselves looking at themselves more often than usual in meetings taking place online rather than in person. It is interesting because it highlighted to me that we really are our own worst critics.
What was validating for me as a business consultant in the industry is the importance of home care for clients. I have always encouraged my clients to not focus so much on having their appointment books full, but instead have strong retail and empower clients to understand what they need to do for their skin on a daily basis at home. You can imagine those with healthy retail margins and empowered clients were less affected because they did not lose the majority of their income with appointment books suddenly empty. Even better, their clients’ skin did okay because they kept on doing the right things to keep their skins healthy at home every day. That was a win-win.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Personally, I am still elbowed deep in the treatment room. As an educator in the industry, it is important to me to have hands-on up-to-date case studies on the go that illustrate and support what I teach. From a product education point of view, it is also important because I am deeply invested in understanding firsthand how products perform on the skin and have real answers when challenging skin conditions to present themselves.
My clients and I focus on corrective skincare, so we often get challenging cases that are not always textbook, and the ability to customize cleansers, serums, and moisturizers for each individual client is advantageous. We are ‘rebels’ and our approach is not to peel, blast, and obliviate the skin to rebuild it like the mainstream of our industry. No, the principles of corneotherapy mean that we do the opposite, we protect the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin at all cost.
Our approach first and foremost gently repairs the skin barrier protection. And yes, we still have great results with all the things our clients desire, improvement in aging, hyperpigmentation, acne, rosacea, and more.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- Initially, we just went in with no idea what we needed to put aside for replenishing stock or understanding what our operating expenses actually were. The trap we fell into was spending money because we could justify a million ways why it would be great to do so, but we did not test to see if the market actually wanted it. What ends up happening is that cash flow gets crippled. It really is the shiny object syndrome, you bring it in because YOU want it, but your clients never indicated they wanted it, and you also never asked. Clients will share honestly if you ask them. So ask a focus group of clients and test the response before big investments.
- Not paying ourselves. It seems logical, yet I am surprised how many make this same mistake. I feel much less resentful to everyone else I pay money to since I pay myself as well. In the end, we chose to go into business to make a living, and I certainly have a strong picture of what it looks like. Validate yourself, and pay yourself an income just like you do every person in your company. Do it from the start, because you otherwise skew your own numbers if you don’t. Eventually, the money to pay yourself has to come from somewhere, so have it as an expense from the start.
- Not outsourcing or delegating. There are only so many hours a day. And honestly, we are not good at everything in our business. Even if we are good at a task, it does not mean it is the best for us to do it. For example, I am pretty good at doing bookkeeping, but I am slow at it. Outsourcing gave me back hours a week that I could then spend on what I am good at – training with my clients. When I do what I am great at (and the same for everyone else in my team), we are always doing better as a company.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Word of mouth is our best form of marketing by far, but our industry is of such a nature that we have to have a social presence too.
Social media allows us to build stronger relationships with our customers and it is fun and light-hearted.
Email is our best form of communication and marketing to our ideal customers and where we have more intimate conversations with our clients. In the end, our clients love learning as well, which is our cornerstone, so we host educational events, open to any industry professionals not just existing clients, and we always attract new clients at those sessions.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
I hate to admit it, but cash flow. It is still a challenge and we overcome it with a thing called a budget. We stick to it 80% of the time. Humans work here after all.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
In my last three years of high school, I was homeschooled. My mom and her friend were selling clothes they imported but soon got distracted by their daytime jobs again. I took the clothes and set up shop in a little shopping village we had and occupied a 10×10 foot little space. I took my schoolwork to the ‘shop’ and sat there to do my schooling while selling clothes during weekdays. It did ok, but I packed up shop after I finished schooling to go to university.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
I am always learning. Currently, I am doing deeper learning in LED technology and Microcurrent because these two modalities fit the principles of corneotherapy. I pair it with revisiting categories of cosmetic chemistry. At the moment, I am digging back into vitamins, particularly Vitamin A and C. Revisiting literature always helps me gain a clearer understanding. Every review allows another piece of information to stick in my mind better. I am also focusing on Vitamin A and C as I am working on a presentation with these vitamins related to the subject matter.
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
The only thing I would do differently is go into it alone, not with a business partner.
Hindsight is crystal clear, but I started Dermal Systems with a partner because the opportunity was presented to us both, but also, I didn’t really believe I could do it on my own. I am grateful for the confidence my mentors and family had in me at the time my business partner decided to exit the business. And in the end, we both are doing what we love so it all turned out fine. I have also been a do it by myself person (hello homeschooling), so I knew it then, but did not listen to myself. I also think we can all trust ourselves a little more than we do.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
I love apps and gadgets!
The must-haves that make my life easier are:
- DEXT– it captures receipts and invoices and pushes it directly to our accounting program. Yes, paperless life. Dext then pushes invoices through to PLOOTO which I also love because once in there I click the button and will direct deposit money to supplier accounts, or wire (if international) oh, and yes… then tell the accounting program that it is paid and from which account. Totally genius! (can you sense my excitement?!)
- Lastly OTTER. I have mine integrated with Zoom so it transcribes all my meetings. We upload our Facebook lives and so forth onto it to have it transcribed so my team can pull all the clever things I said and turn it into quotes or PDF handouts and more. So great. I talk better than I type, so it is a huge time saver. It has an app that I can do voice messages to, as well, so everything I want can be transcribed instantly and my team can access it by simply login in.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Put it in your calendar.
What is your favorite quote?
Paraphrasing, but Richard Branson said this about opportunities: Say yes, and figure out how to do it later.
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