Brow Betty Progress Ridge Grand Opening tomorrow!!

Wow! The time has finally come. We are 24 hours away from opening our second location here in the SW Portland area! It is a dream come true.

Many people walk in to Brow Betty daily..asking if we are a chain.....on one hand it is truly a compliment....on the other hand I want them to know that we are really still just a "mom and pop" joint (literally) and that I have the blood, sweat and tears to show for it! For the past several months... since we signed on the dotted line for Brow Betty Progress Ridge...my husband and I have been running around this town like a couple of crazies...we were laughing the other night that we really are a "mom and pop" kinda joint!

We really could not have done it without the incredible team that we have! They are such hard workers but they are also some of the sweetest people we know. We all met the other night for a field trip at the new location....the "newbies" got to introduce themselves and the "pros" got to show them around and get them set up...and then a few of us headed over for pizza after to celebrate....It was magical....I really could not ask for more....

We still have lots of details to hammer out in the next 24 hours...but I am so excited to share the next chapter with you. We are working in overdrive to keep the culture of Betty alive and the heartbeat loud over at Progress Ridge and we invite you to come by tomorrow and check us out!

All of our current team members will be there at least one day a week so if it closer to home or work.....and he/she is your favorite....definitely make the switch!

We will be open all day tomorrow 10am-7pm and we will be celebrating with champagne and cupcakes all day! Please come by to say hi and see what we have in store!

THANK YOU for your support and we look forward to getting those brows in perfect shape!

Brow Betty Progress Ridge - Beaverton
14985 SW Barrows Road, Suite 123
Beaverton, OR 97007
503-718-7378

THE RUMOR IS TRUE!! PROGRESS RIDGE HERE WE COME!!

I am soo, soo, soo, crazy excited to announce that we are opening our SECOND location!! It took us over a year...and a few tears...but we found it... and it is just the right spot! We are heading towards Beaverton located at a beautiful new outdoor mall called Progress Ridge. (yep, fake lake and all!) We have New Seasons Market as our big brother neighbor as well as Cinetopia movie theater, Posh Baby, Play Boutique, The Barbers and right across the street is the fabulous kid's wonderland... Big Al's!!


It will look, run and feel the same as Betty in Bridgeport and each of our team members have chosen to work at both locations! (woohoo!) We have been so, so, so blessed by all of YOU our faithful and fantastic clients... (over 30,000 brows beautified!) so we are crazy excited to be able to offer another location for you to venture to! As you can see in the picture we are still knee deep in construction but I just couldn't keep the excitement in any longer!


We look forward to some amazing people joining our already stellar crew and we cannot wait to open our doors! As of today, right now, at this moment...we have been told around November 10 will be the date! I am no dummy and have been to this rodeo before....so fingers crossed we come close!


Thank you for all of your love these last three years...we could not have done this without your support (and demand) that we found in our fabulous hometown! We are still working on a DAILY basis to provide you with not one.... but now TWO of the best brow and body waxing joints in town....and if you don't believe me....come on over and I will show you all the empty bottles of vino in my recycling bin! (a wee bit of stress)


Make sure and follow us on Twitter @browbetty and our facebook fan page to keep up on all of our latest updates and craziness!! See you soon!!

The "art" of the Walk in.....

Have you ever tried to predict the rain pattern in Oregon?
How about the snow we get every year? HA!

We have highly paid meteorologists in this area who don't get these predictions right on a daily basis...and they have the best equipment money can buy!

trying to predict the amount of clients who "walk-in" to our lil shop at any given moment is much the same....

....It's unpredictable!!!

My poor hubby and Brow Betty CFO has more charts, graphs and spreadsheets than Brett Favraaaaa's team of lawyers ( I was going to say Tiger but I think Brett is more current)...he has figured out TO THE MINUTE how many clients have walked in our doors for every day of the week for every week of the month for the past two year....and it has absolutely NO PATTERN whatsoever!!

Who in the world can predict that one Wednesday we will have 16 walk-ins at noon and the next week we have ZERO??

We have felt the "growing pains" and in the past year we have tried to be OVERLY prepared for these predictions and just like the rain in Oregon......it just doesn't make sense! We have tried over staffing during certain times/days..(doesn't work) we have tried to shorten our appt. times (quantity over quality NEVER works) We have tried just having a "walk-in" esthetician ( sooo didn't work as they loved her and started booking her)....we tried it all because....I LOSE SLEEP OVER THIS!!! NOTHING hurts a small biz owner more than "sorry we are full" ....NOTHING!

More than half of our business on a DAILY basis is "walk-in" business....we had 23 walk-ins yesterday (not kidding) so obviously we have a sign that says "WALK-INS WELCOME" (not guaranteed.....but welcome!)

SO.....here is my suggestion as a fellow "walk-in" (YES, I walk in to my own shop!) If you know you are heading our way...give us a call and we can either grab a spot for you or let you know what times we have available .

If you are in the area then YES come in and see if we have a spot because MOST of the time we do! Or...if you have a favorite esthetician then please just call and set up an appointment!

But PLEASE don't get upset with us if we cannot accommodate you at a particular moment or with whom you like even though she is with another client or isn't working that day (sounds silly when you read it...but it happens and not so fun when you are sitting up there trying to explain that to someone) We will always get you in when we can or book an appointment for you when we can't! Think of us as your favorite restaurant...most of the time you can get right in but some of the time you may have to wait or make a reservation for another time!

Last month we celebrated our second full year in business (my son will giggle if I say it as year "number 2") and I just wanted to say how proud we are of our wonderful staff, how thankful we are for all of you, our wonderful clients, and how excited we are for another fabulous year!!! Please keep telling your friends, Please keep emailing me your thoughts and wonderful comments about the team and in return Chris and I will keep trying our best to make Brow Betty not only the best place in town for waxing but the best place in town to work as well!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Jackie

We just found this!! Thank you Forkfly! It makes a small biz weep when we get unsolicited write-ups like this!

http://blog.forkfly.com/portland/discover-portland-brow-betty

SO much about running a business....has nothing to do with business at all.....

(This little ditty is written in one sitting...It is my version of "therapy"...It comes straight from my heart and I don't pay much attention to grammar or spelling...this one is a LONG one so grab your wine glass and enjoy!)

I learned most of my work ethic from my father. He was in the timber industry and worked his way from the "green chain" as a kid to becoming the VP of a major lumber corporation. He treated every single employee (and he had thousands of them at over 50 different mills) like they were part of our family. He had more notes and letters of kindness from employees than anyone I knew. I had the opportunity one summer of seeing his skills first hand. I was on break from college and chose to work in one of his lumber mills (yes...he actually made me interview for the job and no...no one knew I was the "boss's" daughter when I was hired! )On a monthly basis, different "VPs" would come and visit the mill.....WOW... you would think the President of the United States was coming to town. We had to clean for days, greet them when they arrived, be on our best behavior and work our tails off to prove to them how great this mill ran! Most of the VPs would say hello (making darn well we knew who they were) and then would take off with the General Manager of the mill to walk and talk. Within an hour they would be gone and the rest of us would resume business as usual.I quickly noticed that when my dad came through it was a COMPLETELY different story...When he showed up he knew everyone by name as he greeted them. He would then grab a doughnut and cup of coffee and chat with everyone for a bit asking about families and personal things. When the GM grabbed him for the "walk and talk" he would grab a few of the other employees to have them walk with them. He wanted to know from the guys who actually worked on that machine how things were really running. He wanted to know what he could do to help them on a daily basis or help them achieve their productivity goals.....W-WHAT?

THEN after the tour was all done he went to his car and grabbed his sack lunch and came to the employee lunch room and sat and ate with all different employees to laugh and joke with them. It was magic....to see these guys sitting with the boss's, boss's, boss's, boss....as though he was their co-worker. I was so proud...more than I could ever describe. He would then tour the mill some more and then wait for the swing shift to arrive so he could say goodbye to the first group of employees and then greet the second group. That summer was a turning point for me....I now understood SO much about running a business and it had nothing to do with business at all....

I learned more at that mill in 1990 than most ever will in an entire lifetime. Unfortunately, just two summers later, my father lost his life to Pancreatic cancer.....he may be gone but his legend still remains....just ask anyone who ever worked for him!

As most of you have heard me shout from the mountain tops...we have an amazing group of women at Brow Betty. They not only work their tails off on a daily basis but they do it with pride. They are so kind and respectful and treat each other as well as they would want to be treated! They all have individual goals set to keep them striving each day to do their very best. This summer we gave them a team goal. It was definitely an achievable goal but would take all of them working together to get there! We told them it would be well worth the reward....They EXCEEDED our expectations. They worked hard not only for the reward but to fulfill some personal goals as well. SO last Sunday we loaded up a limo, popped the corks and headed up to the beautiful Allison Inn for an amazing celebratory dinner. The girls were glowing and so were Chris and I. It was all about being a team...it was all about working together....and at the end of the day it is about proving that if you work hard...you can play even harder!

THANK YOU again for coming and supporting Brow Betty. Obviously we could not have the success that we have had without YOU or our amazing team!

Always keep you comments coming as I LOVE to hear them!! Jackiemans@browbetty.com
Jackie Mans Owner


PS - Keep telling all of your friends!!

Cheers to the twins!

Tonight is a night we are super proud to be a part of but is very much a hard night for us! Some of our dearest friends Kirsten and Ian Olson had beautiful twins, Graham and Taylor, that were very much a part of our family's lives. They were diagnosed at just 27 months with MLD, a terminal and heartbreaking disease. We lost Graham when he was only 4 in 2006 and Taylor when she was 5 in 2007. The Children's Cancer Association (CCA) was right there during the twins' journey in helping with whatever the Olson family needed even though it they were not terminal with "cancer".



Brow Betty is proud to be a sponsor at tonight's event "Wine and Wishes" up at the Oswego Hills winery to not only remember the twins, but to help raise money for the CCA. We so look forward to this event and our shop has been humming this week with lots of local participants getting ready for a fun night out!! Cheers to you Graham and Taylor for being who you were in just a short amount of time and leaving a HUGE footprint on all of our hearts! You will always be missed but never forgotten!!





If you would like to get a glimpse of Graham and Taylor's lives go to http://www.ourtwoangels.com/

BEDAZZLE + VAJAYJAY = VAGAZZLING???

Move over Grandma...the days of "bedazzling" my jean jacket with the latest and greatest bejewels is long gone....

VAGAZZLING?? Have you heard of it? I got wind of this a while back when the "I'vegottoomuchmoney" crowd started to get decorative with their Vajayjays at $500 a pop! In this economy I thought for sure it was going to stay in the penthouses of the upper westside a bit longer...until Jennifer Love Hewitt came along!

"LOVE" (as she used to make her friends call her back in my hotel days) went on a talk show a few months back and talked about being VAGAZZLED...then proceeded to describe how this was done! The super expensive version is having swarovski crystals placed in a shape or word on your bikini area. It can cost quite a bit and only lasts for up to 5 days. SO in the wake of "LOVE"'s declaration we have had quite a few inquiries wondering if we were going to (or if we did) provide this service. I personally did not want to go here....it is SUCH a fun idea but would be a very time consuming service.....

SO...to have a little bit more fun this month we are now going to offer "take home" kits in your initials. Betty Beauty who provides our "color for the hair down there" kits is now sending us little packets of pink and white crystal letters that you can put ANYWHERE on your body. (at least those parts that can feel sunshine while naked!) You can bedazzle your shoulders, arms, chest and yes...even your Vajayjay! I thought it would be fun to try out and see what the reactions are! Each letter is $3 so it is definitely worth it for a few nights out!! We will be getting the whole kit set up next week so come on in, have a laugh and try the "latest and greatest" trend of the month!

P.S. - we just read in Marie Claire magazine yesterday about a new trend....are you ready??? Vagacial! yes... you read this correct....and trust me I am rolling my eyes WITH you on this one!!!! We WILL NOT be providing this service any time soon and I WILL NOT be describing the details.... go on and google it! (it's there!)