Kyla Dufresne has always admired business owners, idolizing them like rock stars. Entrepreneurial by nature, she started early and soon found her calling in the wonderful world of waxing.

She started Foxy Box in 2012 when she found the need for a go-to place to be waxed in the Victoria area. What began as a home-based spa turned into a successful business and now employs 40 women from 2 beautiful Island Locations.

Foxy Box has just unleashed its marketing for Franchise Recruitment and is on a mission to inspire and empower women to celebrate their uniqueness and rock what they’ve got from Vancouver Island to across Canada and eventually the globe over.

Client Q&A

Q. What services has WeBC provided you and how have these services helped you?

A. My WeBC business advisor has been more than a delight to work with! She was just as excited about my business as I was and helped walk me through every step of getting my loan approved. Finally, I was able to build my dream flagship storefront location.

WeBC has offered guidance in areas that I didn’t feel super confident in, such as finances. They held a seminar where other female business owners could all sit in and discuss a glossary of financial terms to help us feel more confident in our leadership. I have recently applied to become a Mentor for other females in the beauty industry as well. I believe the more you can surround yourself with like-minded individuals the more you can learn from one another. I, along with most entrepreneurs, have made a lot of mistakes in my time as a business owner and I’d love the opportunity to share these experiences with someone new to the industry to hopefully catch some slip-ups before making them themselves.

Q. What personal lessons have you learned as an entrepreneur?

A. I am constantly learning in this life of an entrepreneur. The biggest personal lessons I’ve taken from this venture are as follows;

1. It is important to draw a line between friendship and business.
2. I have also realized the importance of not getting too emotionally involved in my business, it is important to not take everything personally. Look at every situation with a logical mind instead of an emotional one.  Although emotion is what creates the brand, it is not necessarily the best leader in making big decisions.
3. Another important lesson has been to create a proper work-life balance. It’s so important to have ‘YOU’ time. Without this, there is no fire behind my brand. Now, I regularly check in with myself, recognize when I need a break and take care of myself.

Q. What are your major successes? At what point did you feel you had achieved success?

A. I know it sounds cliche but it’s important to recognize success at every little step.  If you’re not taking a step back to look at your accomplishments and see how far you’ve come, you can easily lose focus or drive.  Do your regular check-ins and take a minute to pat yourself on the back sister.

The first time I achieved success was when I moved my business away from my home to my own retail location. From there, being able to hire a team of rockstars which allowed me to work on my business instead of in my business was a huge success for me.

Being able to open multiple locations with the profits of my one store was a huge milestone.  The next big hoorah will be when we find the right franchise partners. Don’t forget to see where you came from and celebrate… if you can’t celebrate each step along the way, what’s the point of success?

Q. What is your greatest strength as an entrepreneur?

A. My people skills. If you are excited about your brand it’s easy to pump up your staff and create a beautiful atmosphere. I treat my staff with kindness and respect and in turn, it creates a warm and welcoming environment for my clients and my staff.

Q. What are your goals for the business?

A. My goal is to be the number one beauty franchise to invest in and work for in Canada by 2025.