Our Businesswoman of the Week, Kilkenny College of Beauty and Sports Therapy’ Lynn Dowling shares her career inspiration, the most challenging parts of her job and advice for those who are interested in starting their own business.
Where did your love of beauty stem from?
When I was a teenager my older sister was on a beauty therapy course at Kilkenny College of Beauty, she thought me lots of treatments and took me in for a week work experience, I loved it instantly. The routines just stuck in my head, I was like a sponge because I loved it! I already knew how to do many beauty treatments before I even started college. In college, I constantly thrived for perfection a trait I have carried with me to my business.
What inspired you to set up your business?
I wanted to own this college from the time I went there on work experience at 15!! I knew it had so much potential and I could channel this into a college with so many opportunities for prospective students. I wanted to instil high standards within the Beauty industry organically from within the college. I completed my BA in Adult Education which just confirmed my second love which was teaching, this business was the perfect opportunity for me to combine both.
What challenges has the pandemic posed for your business, as college students have been studying at home? How did you overcome and adapt to these?
It has been very challenging for our staff and students but we have an amazing team and we create a strong relationship with our students. We really all pulled together to get through this. Staff and students were rigorous in adhering to all our new covid protocols, with such close contact within this industry it was paramount that everyone worked together to keep us all safe. We launched our new learning portal on www.beautytherapycourses.ie which really helped students while we were in full lockdown. We also enhanced our current website www.kilkennycbt.com to include more blended learning resources and tools to help the business function online. We also had to half class sizes so from a business perspective it has been difficult. Our students have adapted to every challenge they met from online learning to online examination. We really have to acknowledge the amazing commitment from our students who still all passed with honours.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I honestly just thrive on students success. I’m totally focused on student standard and perfection in a positive learning environment. The team of staff have a great relationship and drive to see their students excel and I think this can be seen by students and they feed off this. The ultimate reward is year after year employers seeking our students through direct contact with the college and I'm delighted to say even in this current difficult time all of our most recent Beauty Therapy graduates have walked straight into employment.
What is the most challenging?
Having your own business can be tough, it’s hard to find a work-life balance and with 4 kids it can be hard to get any real switch-off time. My background is Beauty and Education so I do find the business side of things challenging.
What would you say to someone who wants to do the same or set up their own business? Go for it! I was not planning on buying this business until my kids were older so it came along at the wrong time but I jumped on it and It’s so rewarding. It can be a challenge but once you get the right team in place things start to become easier. If you're in Business for the right reasons it will be fulfilling, for me it's just the sheer love of the industry!
