As an immigrant from Belarus, we built a successful business in the USA and now helps earn others

Anna Ishutina together with her students. Photo: From the personal archive of Anna Ishutina

It’s not for nothing that America is called the land of great opportunities. Here it is possible to start life from scratch and, having a good idea and a large supply of patience and hard work, build a successful life. A native of Belarus, Anna Ishutina, is clear proof of this. She came to the United States to study business, and eventually opened the most successful permanent makeup school in New York.

Beauty School

Anna starts her usual day at 6 am. She has breakfast, runs to training, and from there she goes to her favorite school-studio, which has long become her second home. Even though Anna now has 6 masters on her staff, she comes to work every day - to teach lessons, perform a procedure on a client, or check the work of the studio and encourage her masters.

Her salon school TIAN Permanent Makeup Studio - this is one big one and cleaner open space: no rooms, only a single room, freedom and communication.

Twice a month, classes are held at the school; the rest of the time, the salon’s specialists, who are all Anna’s students without exception, bring beauty to their charming clients - they make graceful eyebrows, draw arrows, work using microblading technology, extend eyelashes and eyebrows, and even help restore color nipple halo after oncological or surgical operations.

Today the school begins a basic course in permanent makeup, which Anna teaches together with the second teacher Tina. At 9.30:70 sharp, new students sit at comfortable tables and wait for the lesson to begin, looking with interest at the plump and bright educational brochures. As the founder of the school says, there is a lot of theory in teaching, but the most interesting and important thing is practice. That is why at school they help you place your hand from the very first day and devote XNUMX% of the time to this.

In total, female students will receive 100 hours of training in the basic course, followed by a licensing exam. Regular classes last from 9.30 to 17.00, intensive classes from 9.30 to 20.00.

“Even without knowing English, I easily passed the license test and answered 50 questions in 15 minutes. Anna and Tina prepared me well for the questions, although I was afraid,” says one of the students, Natalya Dvorakov, who completed the course only last month and today stopped by the school for coffee while passing by.

While we were talking, the students listened to the theory and, with some fear, picked up cars and latex mats to begin their first interaction with a professional instrument. The movements become more and more confident right before our eyes. Anna manages to pay attention to each of her students, because there are only four of them. Study groups are specially formed into small ones - this way, Anna is sure, a personal approach to each student is maintained.

In the school of Anna Ishutina they devote a lot of time to practice. Photo: From the personal archive of Anna Ishutina

“One of the advantages of our school is small groups. When I just started my journey in this profession and was looking for courses, I was dumbfounded by the fact that American schools offer training in large groups, where the teacher physically does not have time to devote time to each student, and therefore does not provide the necessary knowledge. Therefore, we take only a few people for one course, so that after our educational institution, each of them comes out and can work immediately. As a specialist, not as a beginner,” says Anna.

From an idea to your own business

Anna herself found herself in the profession almost by accident. She still has training as a translator and lawyer in her native Belarus and plans to work in marketing. She came to the USA to study business administration; she now successfully applies the knowledge she gained in her own successful business. Anna was interested in permanent makeup by her mother, who did it professionally. Anna was so eager to learn a new profession that, unable to find a suitable school in the USA, she went to Italy to study. And only a few years later, when she had already established herself well as a master in New York, she decided to open her ideal school. Her mother, who received her medical education in Belarus, supported her daughter and became a co-founder of the school.

“When we started to figure out how to open a permanent makeup school, it turned out that a license was needed to officially teach. That is, according to the law, we could not just go and start teaching - this right had to be earned. Anyone who teaches without such a license is working illegally. Since we wanted to do everything right, I spent several years studying and obtaining the necessary document. When all the legal part was ready, we rented a room in Brooklyn and began investing minimal money in advertising. We didn’t attract outside investments; we made do with our own finances,” shares Anna Ishutina.

TIAN has long been transformed from a school to a studio where classes are held. Photo: From the personal archive of Anna Ishutina

So in August 2015 of the year appeared TIAN Permanent Makeup Studio - The first school in New York to train permanent makeup specialists and the only school in America where teaching is conducted, in addition to English, in Russian.

Anna recalls that they were very lucky, because after advertising on Facebook and Instagram, a month after the opening, they formed the first group of students. Word of mouth about the new school spread quickly, because the program and approach were significantly different from other educational institutions - small groups, the basic course was designed for 100 hours, and not for 5 days, as in American schools. In addition, famous world-class masters often come to the school to conduct training, and its teachers participate in conferences and congresses on permanent makeup around the world.

Such an approach to business allows the project of Anna Ishutina to receive good recommendations and grow. Not only residents of New York, but also girls from other cities and states come to her to study.

“People come to us to retrain from other schools and a lot of girls come from Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey, California and Connecticut. This is very flattering. That means we’re doing everything right,” Anna smiles.

The words of the founder of the school confirms the student TIAN Kristina Aivazian, who flew to New York from Los Angeles.

“When I moved to the United States, for me, like for many other immigrants, the question arose - how to earn a living with dignity and grace. I understood that I wanted a profession in the beauty industry, and I realized that I needed to complete training quickly enough to earn money in the near future. Plus, I had a language barrier, and ideally I wanted to find a school where they taught in Russian as well. A year ago, I saw an advertisement for Anna’s school on the Internet and, without thinking twice, called. We talked, and a few weeks later I bought a ticket and flew to New York. I want to say that I couldn’t find anything like this in Los Angeles, which is saturated with all possible services,” says Christina.

After training, the girl returned to Los Angeles, passed the license exam and began to practice. Now she has her own clients.

The main thing in Anna's case is
it is scrupulous. Photo: From the personal archive of Anna Ishutina

Another advantage of Anna Ishutina’s school is that even those who do not have the slightest experience in the field of permanent makeup can take a course there.

“Both artists and people with no experience came to our school. And I was often surprised when I saw how skillfully an inexperienced master works compared to a person who has an artistic education. Scrupulousness and patience are important in this work - you need to practice a lot and not be lazy. This is my main message to all students!” says Anna.

The school does not look for work for its graduates, but, according to its founder, the profession of permanent makeup master is so rare and there are so few good masters that salons are happy to hire specialists.

“Being a permanent makeup artist means earning good money. For example, in New York, the cost of eyebrow tattooing starts at $350, nipple halo restoration can cost from $1200, and trichopigmentation can cost $5000. And even if you divide the cost of the procedure over several hours, you will get a very decent hourly wage,” explains Anna.

Anna Ishutina wants to open a salon in Soho. Photo: From the personal archive of Anna Ishutina

She does not hide her pride: the number of clients of her studio is constantly growing, as is the flow of people wishing to undergo training. The girl is even thinking about opening another salon in Soho - she plans to hire her best students there.

You can contact Anna by phone - 347-922-6310 or by email [email protected]

Read also on ForumDaily:

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