Jean Bertini
by Kelly Martinsen
As a woman business owner, it is interesting to hear how Jean Bertini, who has been an electrolysis practitioner for more than 20 years, got her start. “I was being treated with electrolysis for my own unwanted hair,” she recounts. “The electrolysis technician treating me was a nurse, and she said to me, ‘You should really do this; you should perform electrolysis because you are so good with people.’”
Bertini realized how much her electrolysis treatments meant to her own self-esteem, and decided to take night classes to become an electrologist. She did this while also maintaining a full-time job. Starting out in her home, she began with just five or six clients. Then, through word of mouth, her business grew to the point where she could no longer do it out of her home. So, she started working out of several local Long Island salons. Eventually, Bertini got married, and it was with a push from her husband that she finally quit her full-time job to start her own business.
Bertini says she was both elated and scared when she rented a small room and placed an ad in the paper announcing Electrolysis By Jean was open for business. She admits she was petrified when she signed the first office lease and saw the bills rolling in. Yet, still she knew this was her life’s purpose. Having the need for electrolysis herself, Bertini found she could relate to her clients wholeheartedly. “I would sit there as they would lament about their lip hair or facial hair, and I could really empathize. I knew what they were going through.”
For Bertini, the story has completed a full circle. The unwanted hair that claimed her own self-confidence as a young adult, once removed, gave her an inner power and the confidence to start her own business. Then, as she began to see the effect that she had on her clients by removing their unwanted hair, her confidence grew stronger.
“I was never one with a lot of self-confidence, yet I was able to overcome this lack of self-confidence by helping others. Honestly, it was as if with every person I helped, my confidence just grew. I knew I was good at this; I was good with people. I was helping people that were facing something I had also once faced.” Bertini loves her role as a woman helping women (and men), and employs a small staff of those equally dedicated to the idea of helping women and men feel their very best.
When asked what advice she would give an entrepreneur, Bertini smiles and says that looking back, she would have advertised more, explaining that there are two expenses in business: the rent and advertising, and advertising brings the clients.
That said, the growth of her company was organic and allows for her serene, private boutique-style atmosphere.
As a former electrolysis client, Bertini knows there is more going on in the electrolysis chair than hair removal—there is a bonding, caring, even sometimes therapy. “What happens in electrolysis, stays in electrolysis,” she says with a laugh. “It is incredibly personal.”
To learn more about hair removal and hair regrowth, contact Jean Bertini at Info@EBJSkinCare.
