Resilient Entrepreneurs: Yenny Ramírez Rivera CEO of SIESUA
Standing without feeling that there will be an end and thinking that disruption only arises transformation, has been the key to staying firm and sustaining your company during the crisis with 80 employees and 125 thousand clients.
The Woman Post | María Lourdes Zimmermann
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And it is not easy, maintaining a business that for many is not a priority is the biggest challenge that this Colombian entrepreneur with 14 years in the world of hair removal had to take on since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Woman Post chose a group of Colombian businesswomen with the support of the expert consultancy firm in inclusion and equity EQUILATERA EQ to show the resilience of women in times of crisis and their responses to the pandemic.
Yenny Ramírez Rivera CEO of SIESUA
14 years ago the idea was born to start in Colombia with a laser hair removal business with the highest technology, a team of specialized doctors and a group of more than 50 women, they began by delivering warm and friendly experiences to their clients, conquering thousands of them and making them dependent for a moment, creating a pleasant need for them when solving their skin problems associated with folliculitis and other diseases.
That is why SIESUA as a laser hair removal company is not a conventional aesthetic company, it is a priority organization specializing in improving the health of its clients with the use of state-of-the-art equipment.
When the global crisis due to the pandemic broke out, Yennie was in Spain, the perspective from which she saw what was happening was not the best, a confined country, people going crazy because of the confinement, pain and sadness at the death of thousands of people Without safe treatments and the handling of a situation blindly, in the end, everything was new for the world and Spain was the focus of infections in Europe for months.
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The 14 hair removal centers in Colombia were closed in March and were without services for two months. For Yennie, the only thing that could not exist was fear and under that thought she empowered her people, kept in contact with them and began by taking care of her workers with health protocols and self-care measures so that they and their families were healthy.
"All our efforts were focused on them and on the emotional strength of our team of specialists, it was not easy but we have been united," says the businesswoman.80% of its workers lived in the most conflictive areas of Bogotá with high infections, so care had to start at home.
Like many entrepreneurs, Yennie did not stop paying rent on her 14 stores, her workers need her more than ever so abandoning them was not an option and her clients began to express the need to continue their processes.
The balance of the pandemic was a single store closed in June, two planned to close in August, and the opening of two stores outside shopping centers to begin serving their customers, those with priority problems.Hair removal, more than an aesthetic process, is also a process that promotes good health, so it is a business that needed to continue, explains the businesswoman.
"I always had the idea of doing a hair removal process at home and it was time to implement it." We had two months to think about that strategy, SIESUA HOME, which implies special logistics, according to the businesswoman, because we must comply with the highest standards and reach our clients' homes to make an intervention at home and make them feel in a cabin with all security measures for your peace of mind.
In June they gave the company free rein to continue being a priority business, so they opened two new hair removal centers outside the shopping centers in Bogotá and that implied an education process with their clients, they had to adapt to a new normal, So they promoted the use of a kit to be able to enter the centers and carry out the necessary procedures with safety as a priority.
The reactivation of the company began again with two hair removal centers operating. In July, the company's income was 35% and a positive balance, 0 infections.
Although all its employees have not been able to return to normality, they continue to provide services with doctors and assistants in their hair removal centers.
"From all this that is happening in the world we have learned and the situation has united us more and more" explains this woman, an example of resilience and optimism. "We learned to anticipate things, we have turned what the world gives us into good things and we are focusing on transmitting what the world took from people and was security."
"When we experienced all this, apart from generating our own strategies, we decided that we should team up with other companies to get ahead." Thus, they created a community with brands in similar circumstances to help each other with complementary services and "thus we have resurfaced without fear of this situation that showed us for the first time that we are all equal." Yenni concludes.
For this and other reasons, Yennie Ramírez Rivera CEO of SieSua can be considered a Resilient Colombian Entrepreneur.
