Dermalogica’s FITE Entrepreneur Program for Salons

At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, Jane Wurwand, founder of Dermalogica, announced the FITE (Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship) Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, an entrepreneurship education initiative for the salon industry that is set to impact more than 100,000 women and girls over the next three years.
 
Dermalogica joined No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, Vital Voices Global Partnership, WEConnect International and a coalition of over 30 core partners from the public, private, and multilateral sectors to announce a new series of commitments that aim to address significant gender gaps and advance the gender equality targets of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Over the next five years, the coalition’s collective CGI Commitments to Action will directly impact more than 900,000 individuals in over 60 countries worldwide to advance women’s economic participation, address violence against girls and women, and promote women’s leadership in both the public and private sectors.
 
The US salon and spa industry provides a robust entrepreneurship avenue for women, who make up 85% of the industry and own 61% of all salon businesses. Additionally, the industry is predicted  to post better than average job growth and has registered steady growth over the last decade – outperforming the overall economy in 11 of the last 14 years.
 
Recognizing this projected growth and unique opportunity for women, the FITE Entrepreneur Accelerator Program will focus on filling the business skills gap that currently exists in the salon industry by creating entrepreneurship education to supplement the existing vocational training education.
 
“Expertise in education and skillset training have been the cornerstones of Dermalogica’s success for over 30 years,” said Wurwand. “We are now looking to jumpstart entrepreneurship education with women in the salon industry – accelerating the potential of over 100,000 women and girls in the U.S.”
 
The commitment will span several phases and include: the creation and launch of an online resource platform; providing scholarships to a select group of women in the industry for community college online education classes; and hosting a weekend-long boot camp for salon entrepreneurs – at a partnered college or university – to take business, financial literacy, and management workshops.
 
After assessing the findings from these first three phases, Dermalogica will move into the phase four launch of a new education platform with salon specific courses such as how to retail, balance your books, market services, manage a small business, employee skills, and how to increase your service revenue and take home pay. The platform will be developed in partnership with global financial empowerment non-profit partner Operation Hope who is digitizing their financial ‘dignity’ education and entrepreneurship curriculum.
 
FITE (Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship) is an economic empowerment and educational initiative founded in 2011 by Dermalogica, to support women entrepreneurs around the world to start and grow businesses.