A yr or so in the past, not that many individuals had heard of Louisa Schneider’s ear piercing model, even those that’d really gotten studded or hooped by its licensed nurses. However she pulled a dramatic transfer to vary all that, and right this moment you probably have a tween (even a physique half to bedeck), you possible know her firm’s identify: Rowan. It isn’t simply protected; it is the cool place to go.
Schneider punctured the market, so to talk, by treating piercing as a medical process. It was a novel concept in 2017, and maybe apparent looking back, however it took failing and pivoting to search out the best enterprise mannequin, one that may let her model shine just like the hypoallergenic jewellery it sells. Right now, by all accounts Rowan has discovered its groove. With 400 staff, it is on observe this yr to have 65 shops and an annual run fee of $100 million in income. All of this made Schneider certainly one of 20 finalists on our Entrepreneur of 2024 record of progressive leaders.
So that you began Rowan in 2017 as a distinct segment concierge piercing service in New York Metropolis, the place nurses would go to folks’s properties and do the honors. How did the nurse factor come about?
I used to be working at a hedge fund, taking a look at retailers like piercing firms that had been doing effectively in malls. Round that point my daughter was born and I assumed, I am not going to take her the place I went as a 12-year-old. My mother and father had been each docs. My sister’s an ob-gyn. All my aunts are nurses. And so they stated, “Oh, we pierce sufferers’ ears on a regular basis.” That is when a lightweight bulb went off and I noticed that this can be a medical process – and no shock {that a} lady’s well being care difficulty hasn’t been correctly addressed but. So I began actually doing the analysis, and the speed of adverse final result was about 30%, when you can consider it, that means an embedded earring again or an an infection or a poor placement. And now we will scale back that fee to lower than 1%.
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Quick ahead to the tip of 2022 when Rowan had kiosks in about 300 Goal shops. What occurred subsequent?
Goal gave us an incredible quantity of credibility the place a nurse could be prepared to forfeit a shift to return be a part of Rowan and complement her hospital work, which in any other case would have been loads tougher on the time. However our clients did not understand they had been getting a Rowan piercing, they thought they had been getting a Goal piercing by a nurse. And so for me, who was constructing a model, it did not work. I wasn’t going to have the ability to develop a worthwhile enterprise doing that. And so we stepped away.
Was {that a} tough resolution?
Very very onerous. Plenty of sleepless nights. As I stated, it is actually robust to construct a branded expertise in another person’s 4 partitions. And that wasn’t a shortcoming of Goal. That was simply the truth of the scenario. It may have been wherever. Goal was an amazing companion. They’ve finished fantastically bringing in well-known, established trend designers and even Starbucks, however within the case of a brand new firm simply beginning, it is difficult. So whereas a Goal development alternative seems to be actually fascinating to traders and in an Excel spreadsheet, that may oftentimes be very deceptive whenever you speak to the human beings concerned like your clients and staff. After I did that, I noticed specializing in constructing Rowan’s personal research made extra sense.
So, beginning in 2023, how did you develop your model to 65 shops this yr and an annual run fee of $100 million?
We already had just a few Rowan studios that had been performing effectively. And we had been simply in a position to open in cities the place we had a Goal presence and already had skilled nurses that needed to work with Rowan. At this fee, we’re just about rising 100% a yr. It is simply been quite a lot of pivoting.
Rowan sells earrings and after merchandise too. Any new improvements there within the final yr?
That is one I am enthusiastic about. So many women play sports activities and so they get their ears pierced and hop on a soccer area and so they have a giant drawback. So final yr we launched our sports activities studs — tender earrings you could put in and you’ll play onerous carrying them. Having spent quite a lot of time on fields myself, I do know that it is an actual ache level and when it occurs, it is fairly traumatic.
Now that folks know they’re getting pierced at Rowan, how do you convey in additional clients? What’s your secret sauce?
While you return to 3rd grade together with your ears pierced, everybody notices and so they ask, “The place did you go?” So we make it possible for each buyer who leaves looks like that they had a five-star expertise. And that pays for itself in phrase of mouth advertising.
