WaxMe Body Waxing Studio Open and Successful

FSBDC at UCF Assists Orlando Entrepreneur Plan and Start Her New Business

Contact:    Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or HThayer@ucf.edu

            Chuck Wheeler, Consultant, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4846 or Charles.Wheeler@ucf.edu

Orlando, FL – Have you ever wanted to be your own boss? Have your own company? Be the 100% beneficiary of your hard work? Desiree Aviles did and decided to start her own business. But, she asked, “where do I start?”

Although early in her career, Aviles was already a successful aesthetician with a loyal client following at a highly-regarded Orlando spa. All thanks to her expertise as a skilled and licensed body waxing technician. Like many first-time entrepreneurs, however, she was not an experienced business planner or manager.

“I had no idea how to start or run a business,” Aviles recalls. “Not a clue. And I don’t have friends who have their own businesses either. I felt like I could never have done what needed to be done on my own. So I decided to go to the FSBDC to see what I could learn from them.”

And that’s what Desiree Aviles did. She went to the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and attended its “How to Start Your Business” training class. Then she followed that by meeting with FSBDC consultant Chuck Wheeler.

“It’s like I said, this was all new to me. I didn’t know about business entities, EIN numbers, breakeven analysis,” Aviles continued. “But then the FSBDC took me through everything I needed to get started.”

“Walking into that class, I felt a little intimidated because of my lack of knowledge. But I was made to feel very at ease right away. Then I sat down with my consultant and he helped me so much. He was always there for me as I moved ahead. Anytime I had a question or needed help, he was there.”

As a result of Aviles’s hard work and the assistance of the FSBDC, her new business WaxMe – a studio offering full body waxing for men and women, “from the face all the way down to the toes,” using only organic hard wax – was started. She has now been in business a few months and is off to a great start. “Business has been booming,” she reports. “Between my loyal clients and some new ones I have found through marketing online, I am already making money. In fact, I hit breakeven within 5 days of opening my doors.”

“It has been great working with the FSBDC. If I hadn’t gone there, I wouldn’t be here,” new business owner and successful entrepreneur Aviles says today. “They are exceptional. No one else will sit down with you and go into such detail on how to start a business. There’s so much involved that I didn’t know about but my consultant and the FSBDC did, and they guided me through.”

“I know there is more I have to learn and I will be using the FSBDC to help me,” concluded Aviles. “I plan to continue attending their seminars, and will be meeting regularly with my consultant for his counseling. Their assistance and service has been exceptional from beginning to end. And this isn’t the end for WaxMe; it’s only the beginning.”

For information about WaxMe, please visit www.waxmestudio.com.

— FSBDC —

About the FSBDC at UCF

With its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida SBDC at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF Office of Research & Commercialization and the Florida SBDC Network. The FSBDC at UCF provides business seminars and no-cost, one-on-one business consultation to emerging and established businesses. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 10 service centers across Central Florida.

In 2016, the FSBDC at UCF served over 2,400 entrepreneurs in Central Florida through consulting and training, resulting in nearly 6,700 jobs created, retained or saved; $980 million in sales growth; $92.7 million in capital formation; $154.6 million in government contract awards; and 120 new businesses started.

About the Florida SBDC Network

For over forty years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy.

Since 2011, Florida SBDCs have provided 513,107 hours of professional business consulting to 74,669 client businesses, resulting in 252,955 jobs created, retained, or saved; $33.3 billion in sales growth; $2.6 billion in government contract awarded; $1.4 billion in capital investments acquired; and 4,159 new businesses started.

A statewide network of over 40 offices, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a 2016 recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.

FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com