Lavika's Lash House: Beauty and Business

Lavika's Lash House is a Pacific owned and run Beauty Parlour based in Auckland specialising in Eyelash Extentions. It was started by founder Veronica Tatafu 4 years ago after the birth of her sixth child, named Lavika. In search for a work life balance where she could be present in her daughters life Veronica left her corporate job and started doing Lashes. Since then she has built her business from the ground up and now uses the knowlege she has gained to teach other aspiring business women how to do lashes through her masterclasses.

The Coco team got to talk with Veronica about her hustle, what it means to be an empowered woman and so much more.

How would you describe your business to those who are hearing about it for the first time?

My business didn’t really take off properly until me and my husband separated. Suddenly I found myself alone having to provide for me and my 6 children. When your back is up against the wall you have two options, cry and quit or focus and make it work. Quitting wasn’t an option so I lashed my butt off. Our business was born out of the struggle of a mother who wanted better for herself and for her children. We are here for all women out there who are looking at their life and know that they deserve better but hold back for whatever reason. It could be family or finances or something else. But we encourage them to go for it and to live life to the fullest. Demand better because they deserve better. I wasn’t going to stay in my relationship with all the problems and abuse, so I demanded better for myself and I encourage all women to do what it takes to have the life they deserve.

In recent years lash extensions have become a favourite self-care treat for your urban Pasifika woman. Do you notice a difference in attitude amongst your clients before and after they get their lashes done?

Yes absolutely! We often say that we don’t provide lashes we provide confidence. Because the difference from when they arrive to when they leave is like night and day. We don’t believe that we add anything extra to a women’s beauty but we just help bring out what’s already there. And that’s the hard part especially for us pasefika women. Sometimes we are so busy being busy that we forget to take care of ourselves and take time for ourselves and we start to forget our beauty and our worth. Lavikas is all about reminding women of their value and helping bring it out through our lashes and through our whole customer experience. We want them to walk out knowing that they are beautiful and that they have all it takes to face the world and to own it!

In your IG bio you have “The EMPOWERED Woman”, how would you define an “empowered woman”? 

Empowerment isn’t a fad or a trend. It’s a decision. A decision that you deserve better. And this is such a hard thing for us as women and mothers and daughters and partners because we are so giving and resilient. But the reality is that when we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of others. We are literally robbing the world of our talents, potential and power. So when we say empowered women or empowerment we are simply saying that we have made the decision to step up our game and to ensure that our energy and environment is in accordance with what we want from life and more importantly what we want for the future. And then we encourage others to do the same. To not hold themselves down or let themselves be relegated to a corner but instead to be all that we know we can be because that’s how we will help our children and our families and our communities better in the end.

What is something about your business that you wish more people knew about?

Our Business Model. When we say women empowerment it’s not just some empty hype girl words. We have a business model that encourages women to have work life balance where they’re able to work around their family. Our lash techs can work their own hours, choose how much they charge and we are very very open when people have to attend to their family and stuff. We have this because family is most important to us but also we understand that if home isn’t right and if our internal energy isn’t right then we can’t look after our clients. Also as part of this we off courses to get started in lashing and start a side hustle. The coolest part though is that it includes a 3 month apprenticeship with us where you can come in whenever you want, ask questions, shadow us and be a part of the environment. Also we have a chair dedicated to our apprentices where we offer discounted prices so they can perfect the craft while also having that real life experience and earning a little bit of money as well. It’s not a lot of money as an apprentice but it’s a huge confidence builder to know that someone actually sees value in your service and is willing to pay. This in turn helps our apprentices and all our techs to see their value as well. Our model is something we are most proud of.

What advice would you give other Pasifika entrepreneurs who have a dream of starting a business?

Get help because it’s not easy. We are lucky to have Christian Malietoa-Brown who came on board at the beginning of the year as our business development director. But I can’t stress enough how hard the journey actually is and it can become very isolating and lonely so it’s good to have help and have people you can turn to and ask for advice because they’ve been there and they’ve come out of it. It’s better to learn from the experience of others instead of having to go through it yourself.

We are more than happy to offer business support and help to those who are starting or already started whether in lashes or beauty or any business because at the end of the day the principles in business are mostly the same but yeah it’s definitely not easy so you have to be ready to face what comes but in the end it’s all worth it.

Lavikas Lash House on Facebook here