Kala Evans
Kala Evans had everything in place: the just-right location on Atlanta’s iconic Peachtree Street, 10 years of experience as a licensed massage therapist; a niche as the city’s only PureSculpt specialist; and a ready-made client list from her time working for luxury resorts, Fortune 500 companies, and on film sets with celebrity clients.
She thought she knew how to run a business. But the clients weren’t coming—“and I was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she says. “I was just doing a lot of things backwards.”
Evans knew she needed help, and as luck would have it, a Google search led her to Augusta’s theClubhou.se and its Make Startups entrepreneur certification program.
“You can own a business, but entrepreneurship to me is innovation and finding ways to make your business better,” says Evans, founder and owner of ATL BodyWorks.
She says that theClubhou.se’s Make Startups—part of a five-city network of entrepreneurship certification launched through a Partnership for Inclusive Innovation grant—helped her realize that while she was in business, she wasn’t doing business. For example, she hadn’t broken down her expenses to ensure that she was charging appropriately for her services. She knew her market—high-level professionals and celebrity clients—but she wasn’t doing the marketing to bring clients in.
Her Make Startups mentors were very transparent with her, listening to her plans and offering examples from their own experience.
“It was sometimes uncomfortable,” she says, “but it helped me grow. Before, I might not have understood something, but I was too embarrassed to ask. The Make Startups environment made me feel safe enough to be vulnerable.”
Now, she has a firm grasp on exactly what she’s spending on massage oils, tools and other supplies; she’s changed her services menu and pricing structure; she’s marketing more effectively on social media and is also hosting events; and she’s looking into expanding into new markets, such as medical massage. She also has a ready support group in her class; although she took Make Startups virtually, she and her cohort have stayed connected and still text almost every day.
Without Make Startups, Evans says she might have gotten to where she is now eventually, but it would have taken a lot more time and money. “Make Startups was a blessing to me,” she said.
These days, when she doesn’t have appointments, she’s going back to her business plan, looking at what she could do to help build her business. She’s being more accountable to herself, she says.
“This is what I want,” she adds, “and it’s go time.”
