774 Rachel Hicks:

Test. Measure. Build. Then double down on what’s working and stop the rest. That’s the mantra of Lean Startup and agile software development and it’s really the only way to bootstrap a business. Because like first-time entrepreneur Rachel Hicks shares today, there is always more you don’t know – and you can’t let that stop you from taking action, failing forward along the way, and learning as you go.

MELINDA

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m a 5-time serial entrepreneur and CEO founder of the interactive podcast app Podopolo. Wherever you are listening to this, take a moment and join the Wings community over on Podopolo, where we can take the conversation further with your questions, perspectives, experiences, and advice for other female founders at whatever stage of the journey you’re at! Because together we’re stronger, and we soar higher when we fly together.

Today we meet an inspiring first-time entrepreneur who made it her mission to improve the way we whiten our teeth – and jumped into business with no experience and bootstrapped to 6 figures in a few short years.

Rachel Hicks is the CEO and founder of two companies – U Whitening, a first-of-its-kind teeth whitening in person experience, and Professional Whitening Products, a one-stop-shop for teeth whitening supplies.

Many entrepreneurs never started out thinking they would be entrepreneurs. Many businesses are born when a founder with expertise in a specific area gets frustrated with how things are being done, realize they can’t change much within a corporate structure, and come to see that they’ll have to innovate on their own to solve a problem – hopefully for a big enough market of people to grow a scalable business.

Rachel Hicks was a low paid dental assistant. She hated her long commute. She saw that there was a massive multibillion dollar global market for teeth whitening. She also thought the products out there weren’t good enough.

So she made the leap into entrepreneurship, and today she tells the story of what it took to bootstrap her young company to 6-figure success – all the challenges along the way, including a strict covid lockdown in Canada that shuttered her operations, and pushed her to pivot into an even bigger business opportunity.

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Rachel Hicks and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

Melinda Wittstock:

Rachel, welcome to Wings.

Rachel Hicks:

Hi, Melinda.

Melinda Wittstock:

You jumped into business with no experience and you’ve built your company into the six figures in a relatively short period of time. What have been your biggest lessons that you’ve learned along the way?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, it’s definitely been a winding road for sure. And I would say one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned and I would pass off to any entrepreneur, especially a female entrepreneur, is make sure that your product or your business, because I’ve personally found that, I don’t know if it’s being a female or my age, but not being taken seriously by different companies that you need to work with along the supply chain and it’s frustrating. It’s slows you down. And that has definitely been, unfortunately, a typical run-in that has happened more than once.

Melinda Wittstock:

So do you feel that you have to prove yourself over and over again with everyone you meet?

Rachel Hicks:

Exactly, 100%. And what I’m finding a lot too, and it’s weird when we think about it, is typically big companies that you work with along the supply chain, that front facing person is customer service. And a lot of the times these customer service positions are not necessarily from the field, et cetera, so you might be told something that’s actually not correct if you actually know your product or service. So I do find that background knowledge and really knowing your stuff is going to help, because you don’t take a no from somebody who doesn’t necessarily know what they’re talking about.

Melinda Wittstock:

So I can’t imagine running a business or starting a business where as a founder I didn’t know everything about my market, my product, the competitive environment, all of that. Have you met people who start businesses and they don’t know about their industry?

Rachel Hicks:

I would say this might be a little bit more niche in the whitening industry, because whitening so unregulated. There’s so much noise out there that it’s hard to find “proper knowledge” on different products, on different regulations, et cetera.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So I can see that being an issue in consumer products, especially unregulated ones where you have, say, a whole bunch of influencers that sell supplements, right? It’s more of a marketing thing and they haven’t invented the product themselves, right?

Rachel Hicks:

For sure. Exactly. And then it’s that domino effect since they’ve just learned from that business’ customer service end and not necessarily the full background, and it’s just a domino of mis-education sometimes.

Melinda Wittstock:

So the teeth whitening business,   is growing incredibly quickly. It’s going to be almost a $12 billion marketplace by 2030. Is that one of the things that made you excited about tackling this market?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I believe that cosmetics in general seem to be coming more and more of a highlight in everyday routines, but teeth whitening is an interesting one as since it is so unregulated, it can go into either, say, the dental market or the beauty industry market, and there’s just so much potential regardless of what market you target. So it was a no-brainer for sure, once I really did my research and understood what was going on.

Melinda Wittstock:

So what makes your product different from all the other tooth whitening products out there, because there are so many?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, great question. So we actually have two different products. So we have products that go straight to the consumer, and then we have products that go straight to a business. So our consumer products, if you are working with us at, say, our studio location and you’re coming in to see us for an actual in-chair whitening session, then our products are made locally in Canada and we are dealing with minimal to no sensitivity. We’re mixing two types of peroxides, which isn’t as common in the teeth whitening world, and that’s going to limit sensitivity, because usually sensitivity is the main reason some people deter from doing higher grade in-chair whitening.

And then on the flip side, if you are either dental office, a beauty business, et cetera, and you are looking for whitening products to promote with your business, we are working with our lab here in Canada and we are doing something unique. We’re helping businesses out where we are, you could say white labeling our products with minimal branding so then on the flip side it’s going to go into your business so seamlessly without you having to go on private label and do large order quantities on your own.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, I see. So how big is your market? I mean, you’re obviously in Canada. Is this available in the United States?

Rachel Hicks:

So our take home products that we have here we do ship. We obviously don’t have any in-session locations in the States at the moment, but take home products, yes. But our B2B business, so our products for businesses, we do ship worldwide.

Melinda Wittstock:

So it sounds like you have grown quite quickly with these two different parts of your business model in a few short years, and was this very clear to you when you launched exactly what you were going to roll out and how you were going to roll it out? How much has actually happened that you thought would happen, or has it been very different? Have there been surprises along the way?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, great question and lots of surprises. So when I launched into the teeth whitening world, it was originally with our straight to consumer face business, so that was with U Whitening. And then what happened was my DMs, our emails just were getting flooded with questions on how to do this sort of business, what products to use, whether they were dental professionals, beauty professionals. And what’s that saying? Your clients will tell you what they want. So then it was just a no-brainer to also then jump into the space with our other end of the business, we call it professional whitening products, and that’s where we are there to help educate and source best products for businesses wanting to do teeth whitening as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. And so jumping into it, you didn’t have any business knowledge. What made you decide to be an entrepreneur and just go for it?

Rachel Hicks:

It was really being fed up, coming from the dental industry. I’m a trained dental assistant, and it was long hours. And here in Canada, unfortunately, dental assistants aren’t at the greatest pay wage, so it was having to hold two separate jobs outside of dental assisting as well, just to make ends meet. And then that commute home every single night was just that wanting more feeling, but it’s like what is that more? So it wasn’t on my mind, but I definitely wasn’t that kid that had the lemonade stand or anything like that. It really was just progressed with just this underlying feeling of this isn’t right. I’m not supposed to work one day off a month and still not be making it. So it just came together from frustration.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s often the way that so many people become entrepreneurs. It’s like you see a problem or there’s a frustration in your own life, and it’s like, “Oh gosh, I guess it’s me. I just have to just jump in and do it.” And every good entrepreneur I know has really figured out how to build the plane as you’re flying it, right? So you’re learning all this stuff all the time. You’re constantly growing. I mean, would you say that you’re… Oh, let’s see, how am I going to say this? I guess looking back on that trajectory over the past three years, what do you think it is that makes you and others by extension succeed in entrepreneurship? What are the character traits do you perceive that you need to really make a go of this?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, resilience is one for sure, because there are going to be, as I mentioned, lots of frustrations and curve balls. I mean, look, in the middle of all this we hit COVID, so that was frustrating. That was really challenging. And then also another one-

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, we’ll come back to this in a moment, but how did COVID impact your business? Did you have to pivot significantly?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, so when COVID happened here in Ontario, we had very strict regulation lockdowns. So we actually had to close. We were closed for a large majority of the year, so that was really pivoting to pushing online sales for take home products at that point. And then that’s also what helped spark more of the educational background, et cetera, building out that side of the business since we couldn’t see customers face-to-face. So that was definitely a curve ball.

Melinda Wittstock:

So yes, but a curve ball that actually pushed you though to innovate. I think this is often what people don’t necessarily understand. And I’ve done this five times, five different significant businesses and a whole bunch of other side hustles beyond, and if I look back, I’m honest with myself. Every single growth or every single innovation came as a result of something that was really hard or a curve ball. As you say, it’s not pleasant in the moment you’re living it, but you look back on it and do you think, “Oh my God, thank God that happened, because otherwise we wouldn’t have this whole online piece of the company.”

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, no, that’s really true, for sure. When you’re in it, you want to cry, but at the end of it does really help grow.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%. These challenges are done for you, I guess. Not to you. And so getting back to you, you mentioned resilience. What are some of the other character traits that you think make you and others like you stand out and succeed as entrepreneurs?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. Another one, I mean, feel like it sounds so cliche, but organization is huge. If you cannot organize not only behind the scenes, there’s no way that you’re going to be able to organize business blueprint as well, right? So organization is massive. And if you are the best at keeping things organized, then I would definitely off the hop look into maybe hiring a virtual assistant, et cetera, because if you can’t keep things in line, you’re not going to be able to go very far.

Melinda Wittstock:

So how did you manage all that at the beginning? Not only do you have to get your product working, you got to prove that people actually want to pay you for your product. And take me through the trajectory of how you actually got to where you are now. What were the first, second, third things that you had to get right before you could get to the next phase?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. So I was super fortunate along my dental world journey. I actually ended up in dental sales. So I was a dental sales rep, and I got a great connection with a dental manufacturer, so I was able to jump right in with testing out products. So that’s a huge thing is, of course, finding that product. And then you’re right, then you have to make sure that people are actually going to buy that product. So then it went into formulating and figuring out what worked, what didn’t, lots of tests on family members in the close circles, and also figuring out the technique that works best as well. And then once we nailed that, it went into focusing on that warm market, and then once the warm market started talking, that cold market started hearing. We started doing a bit of advertising, and then that’s when we realized, “Okay, we can actually sell this product.” And then it just dominoed. We started in-home, and from there I noticed… This was actually an interesting portion was there was no way financially…

If somebody with a business background looked at my books when I was in-home and I said, “I want to move to a commercial storefront,” they would’ve said, “Yeah right” I mean, the books, they were not there. But in my mind and in my soul, I really felt like if I had a location with multiple chairs so you could come in and get your teeth whitened with your spouse or with your bestie or a bridal party, I mean, that’s obviously more revenue. So I went for it and built out that end. We went to a commercial storefront, and then it’s been a domino from there. So we locked in our product and then we practiced, practiced, practiced, and then figured out our formula of what’s working. And from there, then we just duplicated.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a great way to grow. And so what are your next steps? What are your challenges right now that you’re working on, Rachel?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, right now, I mean straight to consumer end, we are working on developing great connections with local businesses, helping also service their clientele, doing pop-ups, say, at dental offices or medi spas. And then on a wide range, so out of our geographic location here in Ontario, we are really working on helping promote knowledgeable, safe education when it comes to teeth whitening. As we mentioned, it’s not regulated, so there’s a lot of noise and products out there that aren’t the best and we really hope to change that, make this industry not sketchy and much more appreciated and hopefully a great industry moving forward.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So how big is your team now at this stage?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. So from a consumer front end, we have two dental assistants that work with us throughout the week at the studio, and then on the back end, we have still one virtual assistant and also two people who help part-time during the week to help pack orders on the flip side.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wow. So that’s pretty small.

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, exactly. So it’s still a lot of me.

Melinda Wittstock:

Uh-huh. And so what are your plans to grow the business so you have more of a team around you and you can scale?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. Our plan is to really narrow in on what the market’s telling us, again, listening to the clients through different advertising platforms, et cetera. We’re getting a lot of feedback on what is working, what’s not, and that’s what we continue to do is listen to our client base and then maneuver from there.

Melinda Wittstock:

So where do you want to be five years from now? Where do you think the business will be? How big will it be? How many markets will it be in?

Rachel Hicks:

We really hope to be a big player in five years in both the dental and the beauty industry as a location to come and source not only the best products, but the best education. So we hope to be worldwide heavily in five years.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. So how do you deal with a competitive aspect, because I guess there’s so many things, like I could walk down the street here in Santa Monica and there’s tooth whitening here, tooth whitening there, this, that? There’s all kinds of products you can buy, yeah, both in the dental side but also in the beauty side. And it’s confusing for a consumer, but I imagine it’s also tricky from a competitive standpoint for how do you stand out or how do you differentiate yourselves from all the others. What’s your marketing strategy to be able to, yeah, stand out in all that noise?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. So on the back end, so for both the consumer front and straight B2B, is our biggest highlight is we’re dental professionals, so that’s a big aspect to take away from you as a consumer, should be looking for someone with a background or has been trained by a background with dental background. And then for the business end, again, coming back to a company that has that additional schooling knowledge that really does help when it comes to this specific industry. I mean, if you don’t understand absorption processes or actual chemical breakdown of peroxides, then, I mean, you’re not going to have a big playing field on producing the best results or minimal sensitivity. So it really comes down to us pushing that we have that background knowledge, which I hope other entrepreneurs in their industry really focus on as well. I mean, your journey is winding, and if you have a schooling background, definitely use it to your advantage for whatever entrepreneurial journey you are on.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s so important. So going back to the beginning of the interview, when you were talking about how hard it is to be taken seriously, particularly as a young woman, not only as a woman, but as a young woman, what are some of the things that you’ve done to make sure that people do take you seriously? How has it changed you? What’s your approach?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah. What I’ve really noticed is that at the end of the day, not only in these situations, but in general with business, this is also something I should have mentioned in some good character traits is communication. You have to be able to be a good communicator, because, for example, if someone’s not taking you seriously, it’s not getting mad at them and isn’t going to help the situation. It’s communicating your thoughts, communicating why in this situation you believe that they need to re-look what they’re telling you. And then also in general, just communicating, say, with your customer base, et cetera.

I would say that’s been the biggest thing, especially as a young entrepreneur, is if I didn’t sit back and really try to communicate with each connection, then it would be even more difficult, because I’m sure we’ve all had it before, is there can be a lot of harshness in the business world. And I would say I have really learned to not take harshness as seriously, so that’s been a big learning standpoint for sure, is you almost have to have a little bit of a thick skin in the business world. But on the flip side, that communication is going to be golden.

Melinda Wittstock:ddd

And so have you bootstrapped this business entirely, or do you have any investment in it? Are you seeking investment?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, great question. So I have bootstrapped this. My husband and I, to first get started, we remortgaged our house, and then it’s just been from there. So no investors.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so at what point do you think you need investors to be able to scale rapidly, or will you just grow organically as you have been?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, I think we’re going to see that tipping point within the next year or so. Obviously as sales grow, you’re going to want to really look into, okay, obviously bringing in and making high, high order quantities are going to be more ideal, but that obviously involves a lot of capital. So we’ll see. We’ll judge over the next, I would say, six to eight months. And you’re right, that’s definitely going to be something that we’re going to have to look at in the future for sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

So what would be your top three pieces of advice based on your own lived experience here that you would share with other young women taking the leap into entrepreneurship?

Rachel Hicks:

The first one would be, I don’t know the quote exactly, but I’m sure we’ve seen it out there. There is a quote out there that says something like, “Don’t let somebody with a $20,000 salary kill your million dollar idea.” I felt that so hard when I was in the dental world wanting to jump into teeth whitening. I was told again and again, “You can’t do that. You can’t do that,” so that would be one. Second would be to go after something that you actually like talking about and interests you. It is going to be hard to want to keep going if it doesn’t light you up. And the third one would be also make sure that you’re sticking with your core values. At the end of the day, you want to of course make money, but also build something that you’re proud of.

Melinda Wittstock:

So that’s really, really important advice, and I want to congratulate you on your progress, and also make sure that people know how to find you and work with you. What’s the best way?

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, so if you are looking to learn more about teeth whitening, and say if you’re a dental professional or a beauty professional, you can follow along for a day in the life of a teeth whitening entrepreneur @mentorrach. If you’re looking for the business teeth whitening supplies, you can look up Professional Whitening Products, or if you are straight to the consumer and you are looking for just whitening products in general, you can check out U Whitening.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Rachel Hicks:

Yeah, thank you so much, Melinda.