Most founders spend their early years trying to create profitability. The assumption is that once the business generates meaningful cash, the difficult part is over.
In reality, profitability often introduces a different decision entirely.
Once a company begins producing excess cash, leadership must decide whether that money belongs to the owners or the business. The answer shapes far more than compensation. It influences growth capacity, risk tolerance, hiring decisions, expansion timing, and long-term resilience.
Lindsey Prater confronted that decision surprisingly early. Groovy Peach began as a small piercing studio with no expectation that it would become a multi-location company. Within months, demand was accelerating, appointments were booking weeks in advance, and the business was accumulating cash. Rather than extracting those earnings, Prater and her partners left them in the company and allowed them to compound into future opportunities.
That decision became the foundation for everything that followed.
Growth creates a particular kind of pressure.
When a business begins working, opportunities multiply. Expansion becomes possible. New locations become imaginable. Additional staff can be justified. New investments begin competing for attention.
At the same time, founders often feel justified in finally receiving a return on their effort. After months or years of uncertainty, taking money out of the company feels reasonable.
The difficulty is that both objectives compete for the same resource.
Every dollar distributed to ownership is a dollar unavailable for future growth.
The tradeoff becomes especially important in service businesses. Demand may be increasing, but infrastructure, hiring, training, and expansion all require capital. Companies that remove cash too aggressively often discover that growth begins demanding outside financing earlier than expected.
Prater encountered this tension only months after launch. Roughly six to seven months into the business, Groovy Peach had accumulated a meaningful cash reserve while demand continued accelerating. The company was fully booked, customers clearly valued the experience, and management faced a decision about what to do next.
The answer was not expansion for its own sake.
The answer was preserving optionality.
One of the most revealing moments in the episode comes when Prater reflects on what those early reserves taught her.
"It showed me that it is really possible to save money in the business."
More importantly, it changed how she thought about growth itself.
Many founders begin with the assumption that meaningful growth requires meaningful borrowing. Capital is viewed as something acquired externally. Loans, investors, and financing become the expected path.
Prater's experience produced a different perspective.
By leaving earnings in the business, Groovy Peach created its own source of growth capital. Expansion became a question of timing and execution rather than access to financing.
As she explained:
"I think that if we had immediately started taking home everything that we made, Groovy Peach wouldn't be what it is today."
The significance of that statement extends beyond a single company.
Retained earnings are often discussed as an accounting concept. In practice, they represent accumulated decision-making capacity. They allow a company to move without immediately seeking permission from lenders, investors, or external stakeholders.
That flexibility compounds over time.
The business that can fund opportunities internally usually has more choices than the business that must secure funding before acting.
Growth discussions often become conversations about speed.
How quickly can the company expand?
How many locations can be added?
How aggressively should leadership pursue market share?
Those questions matter, but they ignore another variable: risk.
Throughout the episode, Prater consistently returns to sustainability as the governing principle behind Groovy Peach's expansion strategy.
Her objective was never simply to become larger. The objective was to build a company capable of surviving the consequences of its own growth.
That distinction influenced how the company approached capital allocation. It influenced how much money remained in reserve. It influenced how aggressively expansion was pursued.
As Prater put it:
"It's more important to me that the business that we have is sustainable and built really well."
That perspective is easier to appreciate during periods of uncertainty than periods of growth.
When demand is strong, leverage can appear attractive. Expansion opportunities can seem urgent. Risk often feels manageable because current conditions are favorable.
Sustainability requires evaluating decisions against conditions that do not yet exist.
Prater's focus on maintaining reserves reflected an awareness that future disruptions are inevitable, even if their source is unknown. Growth financed through retained earnings created a buffer that supported both expansion and resilience.
Capital made expansion possible.
People made it repeatable.
As Groovy Peach grew beyond its founders, the challenge shifted from financial capacity to organizational consistency. The customer experience that initially differentiated the company lived inside the founders themselves. Expansion required transferring that experience to employees without diluting what made it effective.
Prater credits much of the company's growth to identifying and protecting the values behind the customer experience.
Initially, those values existed informally. The founders knew what they cared about. Employees who shared those instincts tended to succeed.
The challenge was making those standards visible enough to scale.
Working with a business coach helped the company define the values that already existed inside the organization and convert them into hiring criteria, management standards, and cultural expectations.
That process changed hiring from intuition to system.
Instead of simply evaluating skills, Groovy Peach began evaluating alignment. Candidates were assessed based on whether they genuinely cared about the customer experience the company was trying to create.
The result was a culture capable of reproducing itself as the business expanded.
Many organizations discover the strength of their culture during routine operations.
The more revealing test occurs when something breaks.
Prater described courage as one of the company's defining values. She was not referring to dramatic acts of leadership. She was describing situations where employees made mistakes, took ownership, communicated directly with customers, and resolved difficult situations themselves.
Those moments mattered because they demonstrated whether values had become operational.
A founder can personally protect culture inside a small company. A scaling company depends on employees making consistent decisions when leadership is absent.
That requires more than stated values.
It requires people who understand what the organization expects of them and who are willing to act accordingly when the decision becomes uncomfortable.
The companies that scale successfully are rarely the companies that avoid mistakes. They are the companies that develop people capable of handling mistakes in ways that preserve trust.
Groovy Peach's hiring philosophy reflects that distinction.
Prater repeatedly returns to the same conclusion: the company's growth is fundamentally a people story.
"Finding the right people that care about what we're doing and why we're doing it has always been the key."
The most interesting aspect of Groovy Peach's growth story is not the number of locations, employees, or revenue milestones.
It is the sequence of decisions underneath them.
The company did not begin with a large financing event.
It did not begin with a sophisticated growth strategy.
It began with demand, discipline, and patience.
Retained earnings created financial flexibility.
Financial flexibility created expansion opportunities.
Expansion opportunities required leadership capacity.
Leadership capacity depended on culture and values.
Each decision strengthened the next.
Viewed individually, none of these choices appear extraordinary. Viewed collectively, they explain how a business that started inside an 85-square-foot salon suite grew into a multi-location company generating millions in annual revenue while remaining financially disciplined.
For scaling CEOs, the lesson is less about financing strategy and more about judgment. Growth is often presented as a series of opportunities to pursue. The harder challenge is deciding which opportunities deserve today's cash and which require preserving it for tomorrow.
Lindsey Prater is co-founder of Groovy Peach and Groovy Peach Piercing Co., a Utah-based piercing company that has grown from a single salon suite into a multi-location business. Through a combination of retained earnings, disciplined expansion, values-based hiring, and internal leadership development, she has helped build a sustainable company without relying heavily on outside capital or excessive leverage.
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Jeff Holman is a CEO advisor, legal strategist, and founder of Intellectual Strategies. With years of experience guiding leaders through complex business and legal challenges, Jeff equips CEOs to scale with confidence by blending legal expertise with strategic foresight. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Intellectual Strategies provides innovative legal solutions for CEOs and founders through its fractional legal team model. By offering proactive, integrated legal support at predictable costs, the firm helps leaders protect their businesses, manage risk, and focus on growth with confidence.
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The Breakout CEO podcast brings you inside the pivotal moments of scaling leaders. Each week, host Jeff Holman spotlights breakout stories of scaling CEOs—showing how resilience, insight, and strategy create pivotal inflection points and lasting growth.
Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform:
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Want to be a guest—or know a scaling CEO with a breakout story to share? Apply directly at go.intellectualstrategies.com.
Transcript Summary:
00:00 Bootstrapping with retained earnings
00:29 Meet Lindsey Prater of Groovy Peach
02:48 The first “we’re going to make it” moment
04:10 Reinventing the piercing experience
08:36 Scaling to three studios
09:00 Sourcing jewelry in China
15:40 Early growth milestones
18:21 The power of retained earnings
20:22 Revenue growth and sustainability
24:42 Hiring the right people
27:03 Defining company values
33:38 The story behind “Groovy Peach”
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Lindsey Prater (00:00)
I think that if we had immediately from the get-go just started taking home everything that we made, Guru Peach wouldn't be what it is today. I personally wouldn't have learned the the lesson of how powerful, you know, retained earnings in a business can actually be. Finding the right people that care about what we're doing and why we're doing it. It's more important to me that the business that we have is sustainable and we have the potential to really do something with that money.
Jeff Holman (00:29)
Welcome back, everybody, the Breakout CEO podcast. I'm Jeff Holman, your host. I'm with Intellectual Strategies, a law firm that helps small businesses grow. And we provide a fractional legal team to grow with you as you grow. And so I get the opportunity to bring in some CEOs and talk with them about their growth ⁓ experiences and the insights and kind of reflection and perspectives that they've gained along the way. And I'm really excited to have Lindsay Prater here with Groovy Peach. Lindsay, thanks for coming on the show.
Lindsey Prater (00:57)
Thanks so much. I'm already having a great time. I can't wait to dive back into more conversation.
Jeff Holman (01:01)
Yeah, we had some we had some good ⁓ preliminary icebreaker questions, didn't we? I I learned some stuff. I we've we've known each other for a year or two now outside of the podcast and and I've really admired the way that you've been building your business and the you know, you've come I've seen just from my perspective, ⁓ and again it's limited contact in some ways, but from my perspective, I've seen you deal with things and I've asked questions about your business and you've got these answers and you're doing things that have
to be honest, have surprised me that you're already doing as much as you are. Do you get that very often that you're like you're talking to people and they're like, You've already done this? You're you're already here? Is that is that common or is it just me? Yeah.
Lindsey Prater (01:44)
That's pretty common. Is probably the most commonly surprising thing people you have three stores in how many how long is it's been like three years. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you.
Jeff Holman (01:58)
No, I well I think it's it speaks to your speaks to your level of competence and you know, your thoughtfulness. I w when we talked before you you mentioned you're very much a strategic thinker, a future thinker person. And and I have to say when I heard that I was only a slightly surprised and I'm like, there's probably a ton of strategic thinking, but there's a ton of execution happening too, right? Yeah. Well tell me, 'cause you know
Lindsey Prater (02:21)
There's so much of both. Yeah.
Jeff Holman (02:27)
Well, here's the question I wanna I wanna lead with. Is there a moment and and we'll kind of backtrack from here, but is there a moment in the business when you thought to yourself, or maybe it was an emotional response, and you just thought or felt, I think we're I think we're gonna make it. I think this is working. Do you remember a moment like that?
Lindsey Prater (02:48)
There's been a few moments like that. The very first one, ⁓ and I think about this often, we started Groovy Peach, never intending for it to become a business that we thought we would scale or hire hire employees to work with us and for us. And and about seven months in, six months into the business starting, we had not spent a dime of any of our earnings. And we had a pretty good war chest at that point.
And and we were not slowing down in our appointments. We were booking out for weeks and weeks and we had been doing that, you know, since the beginning of the business and realized that the service that we were providing was really meaningful to people. And that by that point we had also saved so much money that we had the potential to really do something with that money ⁓ and not have to borrow. And
And that was a moment for me that felt really cool. I was really proud ⁓ of the work that we had done and everything we'd accomplished and really, really energized by the thought of what ⁓ a b a bootstrapped business could be like and feel like. And so far it's it's been a lot of work always.
Jeff Holman (04:10)
Well let's back up a little bit if we can. Because cause you've got cause I haven't explained, but Groovy Peach is a piercing studio, right? You guys do ear piercing, maybe other piercings. ⁓ but it's it's really just piercings, right? It's this a kind of a fun upbeat, I don't know, what you you describe it. I have words, but they're probably outdated words. What are the words you would describe?
Lindsey Prater (04:30)
Words that other people use to describe it, because it's a good signal to me. Like, are we are people ⁓ understanding the vision and the concept of of who we are and why we're doing what we're doing? ⁓ but yeah, everything you said. So really I I feel like Groovy Peaches is more of an experiential ⁓ business than just straight up a service business. We we provide a service and we provide goods like the earrings that we sell.
But really at the end of the day, we want to be the studio that people come to for their ⁓ piercings that are monumental in their life that represent like a big milestone, like a first ear piercing, you know, for a child or an ear piercing that you get maybe after a bad breakup or graduating, you know, from high school or college or something like that. ⁓ and most people I have, you know, if you look at my ear, I've got a lot of piercings on my ears.
Most people don't wind up with twenty piercings on their ears. And ⁓ and so it really is such a big deal for people to come get an ear piercing. And I talked to so many clients and I'm included here. I had my first ear piercing at the mall at Claire's. Yeah. The piercing gun. And, you know, people walking by and I'm nervous. And it was not the experience that it could have been. And that's what we set out to do with Groovy Peach was just not focus on doing every single
Piercing we could possibly do. We don't pierce all the body parts. We pierce we focus on ears and ⁓ and we focus on the experience. And so
Jeff Holman (06:08)
So I I don't that I know of, I have no piercings anywhere. ⁓ so I've never been through this. I've got daughters who have, you know, piercers and stuff. But what made you what made you say to yourselves, you know, I think this could be different? Like why why not just let the, you know, the clairs of the world continue to do what they do without creating a different experience?
Lindsey Prater (06:31)
That's a another really good question. So my business partner is my little sister. And ⁓ she and I are and always have been very interested in fashion in general and in ear piercings. And we had a few and we'd had experiences at the mall, ⁓ you know, like at Claire's or at tattoos tattoo studios you go to that
are a very different experience than what you get at Groovy Peach. And ⁓ so one day she had and both of us are very entrepreneurial spirited and minded and we've been we're always tossing around business ideas. And one day she said, I think we should start a piercing business. And one of the reasons why that made sense was because I have a lot of experience working in the medical field. Okay. And I had previously
⁓ started IVs and drawn blood and all sorts of things. And so the thought of ear I was like, yeah, you know what? I think I could actually pierce ears. And so we kind of started that out in that little tiny salon suite space, thinking it would just be a few extra hours after school. And I was not ever setting out to be the piercer that knows how to pierce every single body part. I just wanted to be good at, you know, at ear piercings and have a little bit of extra income and something
Else outside of being a mom. And and I connect with people really well. That's ⁓ another part of who I am. And I just love people talking to them, getting to know them. And so really quickly on, I just realized I I don't think I saw that coming, but ⁓ very quickly on, we could recognize that this was such a big deal to people, and when we could provide a space where they felt so supported.
and understood and they felt like they had a friend who was leading them through this experience of getting an ear piercing. ⁓ it just felt good and it was rewarding. And that's I would say that's the moment when I was like, ⁓ you know, some planning on this, but that's but that's where that came from.
Jeff Holman (08:36)
Yeah. And and you've and you've grown that with your sister and and your team to to now three studios, is that right?
Lindsey Prater (08:44)
Yeah, we have three studios and we have eighteen employees between w including us.
Jeff Holman (08:51)
Yeah, that's fantastic. ⁓ and you're flying to China to go get your product. we we talked about that a little bit, right? Were you just at the Canton Fair? Is that where you had gone? Or were you somewhere else?
Lindsey Prater (09:00)
We didn't even go to the Canton Fair. ⁓ we we went to a few different jewelry markets and feel like I could just spend so so many more days in jewelry markets. There's so many of those.
Jeff Holman (09:11)
Was that like heaven being a being an ear piercer and and going to ⁓ somewhere in China that is just jewelry? Are these like large, large ⁓ you know, buildings just full of all the jewelry you could ever think of? Is that what this is? Just a quick note about our guests. I host the Breakout CEO podcast to share behind the scenes insights from scaling businesses. As an attorney, I see the real challenges leaders face long before success becomes public. But client stories.
have to stay confidential. So we invite guest CEOs to share their own moments of struggle and success. I'm so grateful to our guests and my team at Intellectual Strategies for making this show possible. Now let's get back to the show.
Lindsey Prater (09:56)
If you've been to China, you would understand exactly what it is like a huge building and there's floors and floors and floors and on each floor just so many individual businesses and little little tiny stores in between and you just shop and shop and shop and shop.
Jeff Holman (10:11)
Which which cities are were you in? I don't I know I know different cities in China have different kind of
Lindsey Prater (10:16)
We were mostly in Guangzhou.
Jeff Holman (10:19)
so you could have gone to the Canton Fair if you'd wanted to.
Lindsey Prater (10:22)
Yeah, the Canton fair wasn't Guangzhou. Yeah. They don't have a whole lot of the type of jewelry that we were looking for at the Canton fair, which is kind of interesting. Okay. Just fly back for a day to see what was up, but they it was not very relevant. And I it was kind of surprising, but they didn't have a whole lot of jewelry. Because we were over there looking for different types of jewelry, right? There's piercing grade jewelry that's essential for a wound that's healing in your ear, and then there's fashion jewelry that you kind of buy anywhere.
Okay. That's jewelry you can put in like a heeled piercing and those are two very two very different types of jewelry.
Jeff Holman (10:58)
Okay. That makes makes sense when you say it. I wouldn't have wouldn't have thought it myself. So ⁓ going to China, you've been there before on a short layover you said earlier, but but spending two weeks there, like did that did that open your perspective at all to anything new for the business? I mean, you've bought from China in the past, but going there, talking to the suppliers, how did that experience, you know, maybe influence your outlook?
Lindsey Prater (11:25)
It totally influenced my outlook in the sense of ⁓ I realized how how just how deep of a level of partnership there is to be had ⁓ with some of the vendors we've already been using. And it's one thing to buy things from them and never have met them. Haven't I I've had some jewelry customization in the past. ⁓ but to meet meet these people in real life and you know.
I rode in one of their cars. We went out to dinner. Like we got to know them on a pretty personal level. And they are just as excited about partnering with us as we are with them. And I think there's a lot of upside ⁓ on both sides for them and to to think through how meaningful that is for me ⁓ and them is is pretty neat. You know, it ha there's a lot of upside for our business to ⁓ not have a middleman and to have a
A partner that can make exactly what we want and do it quickly.
Jeff Holman (12:28)
Well, I'm excited. We may have to talk offline. I'd I'd love to hear more about what you did in China and ⁓ and some of the plans you have that might be, you know, maybe more ⁓ confidential things if you want to share them at some point. Not on the not not on not public on the show, but going to China. So one one thing that I when I went to China for the first time, flew into Hong Kong, ⁓ went to Shenzhen, flew up to Shanghai, and everywhere I looked, I remember thinking, H how is this so big? How like
Lindsey Prater (12:42)
I I would love that.
Jeff Holman (12:58)
How do so many people live here? How do they have so many building? Like a and the the the example I used was, you know, an apartment complex here in Utah is like a large one is maybe like eight four story buildings with ⁓ with twelve units in a building and you know, it kind of sprawls out over a couple acres of land. When you go to China or Hong Kong, ⁓ you're like, there's twelve fifty story buildings all in a cluster.
And that's one of dozens and dozens of of, you know, residential buildings that are that are everywhere. You I and I just was like the scale of this is just different. I mean it's it's hard to explain until you see it, I think. Did you have a similar experience or was there anything that stood out to you going over there and just saying, Man, how how would I have known this if I hadn't been here?
Lindsey Prater (13:52)
No, completely. I think the scale is still hard to comprehend even when you're there in it. Cause as far as you can see, it's it's dozens and dozens and dozens. And when you think about that, we did I don't know why we didn't go to Shenzhen. I'm so upset with myself. We did spend a couple of days in Hong Kong. Okay. Shenzhen's right there in the middle. But when you think about that, on top of so many other huge cities, just in China. Yeah. It's
very hard to really conceptualize just how many people are there.
Jeff Holman (14:24)
Did you do any shopping in Hong Kong? I I I don't do much shopping myself when I travel 'cause I but but I think Hong Kong has somewhat of a ⁓ somewhat of a fashion scene, don't they?
Lindsey Prater (14:32)
Yeah, and yes, we did we did quite a bit of shopping. I got a nice watch in Hong Kong. ⁓ I loved Hong Kong a lot. And we did a lot of shopping in Guangzhou too. I got I came home, we checked eleven bags coming home, Jeff. We shopped and shopped and shopped and brought a lot of stuff home for Groovy Peach and then of course I brought home a lot of stuff for myself.
Jeff Holman (14:54)
Well, I I may or may not have had a sh a very unique shopping experience when I went to Guangzhou. Some people said, Hey, I wanna buy some I wanna buy some name brand bags, but I wanna buy them from not name brand prices. And I found myself at one point in a little room where I was locked in with thirty or forty other people. I'm like, like, I'm not sure I wanna be here. This isn't my place. But ⁓ interesting experience nonetheless.
Lindsey Prater (15:17)
I I had a couple of experiences like that and I was I loved it. I was happy to be locked in.
Jeff Holman (15:24)
Yeah,
makes sense. Makes sense. well so t tell me, you got the three studios with Groovy Peach, you got your your eighteen employees and your your sister's your partner. What have been some of the milestone growth moments for you in in this business?
Lindsey Prater (15:40)
Some of the like I said, I I touched on that just a minute ago. Kind of, you know, six months into just heads down working so hard on the business and and just trying to focus on getting as many clients through the door and booking as many appointments as we could and and doing it in a really good way, stopping to think, okay, what do we want to do from here? Do we want to keep doing the same thing or should we scale the business?
Jeff Holman (16:05)
Well and you s and you mentioned too, I I didn't touch on this anymore, but you mentioned that you would save you'd just not spent anything, right? Not paid yourselves anything from that. Which is kind of unique. Not everybody has that opportunity. But ⁓ you know, even somebody who could who doesn't have to pay themselves from their business initially, like that's maybe isn't the choice most people would make. They'd they'd be like, huh, I made this money, I'm gonna go, you know, go enjoy it. What what what made you guys decide to just leave it there? Did you have kind of this inkling that maybe we'll grow something much bigger?
Or was it a safety thing? Like like that's a that's not a n I I wanna say that's not a typical decision that a lot of people would do when they start to make money.
Lindsey Prater (16:46)
It was, you know, these are interesting questions. That it was a combination of I would always recommend ⁓ having an operating agreement when you start a business with somebody. Sometimes though when I I always say Groovy Peach was like started in an iMessage and none of us really were thinking that it would become a business that we had to worry about. But so some of it was we had not worked out the mechanics of how we fairly split money up. So we just
Jeff Holman (17:14)
So it's like w s so you had people that were maybe splitting the booth fee and and coming in at different times to do the piercing, or were you doing all the piercing and and other people were doing other functions?
Lindsey Prater (17:23)
I we were doing the me and the and our partner, we were doing my sister, we were doing all of the piercings. ⁓ we didn't hire anyone until we were a year into business. And so at the start, we were just doing all the piercings. And the way that we made it fair was we all just worked the same amount of hours and tried to split it up as the work as evenly as possible. And then the business covered our overhead, like our rent and our supplies.
So it was pretty easy to manage that way. And we didn't work a whole lot. It was just a couple of days a week. It wasn't anything of a huge commitment.
Jeff Holman (17:59)
So it sounds like maybe the the r the result of just not taking a lot out of the business initially was if for no other reason not having worked out the details about how to do that exactly, right? And and maybe not needing it ⁓ right in the moment.
Lindsey Prater (18:13)
And then yeah.
Jeff Holman (18:15)
How did th how did that set you up for maybe this the next stage of your business?
Lindsey Prater (18:21)
⁓ for me personally, and I'll speak just for myself, it showed me that it is really possible to to save money ⁓ in the business and it showed me that
I think that if we had immediately from the get-go just started taking home everything that we made, Groovy Peach wouldn't be what it is today. And I personally wouldn't have learned the the lesson of how powerful, you know, retained earnings in a business can actually be. And it's forever changed my outlook ⁓ with just what is possible in business and entrepreneurship. And I think
A lot of people think that to start a business you have to immediately go to the bank and get a huge loan and spend a huge amount of money up front. And my it it forever changed the way I think where, you know, if I have friends or family that are thinking about a business and a lot of times I'm like, why don't you just do a small test and see how it goes rather than thinking about making this gigantic investment with, you know, not a lot of knowledge of if it's gonna succeed because it absolutely can.
I think be successful depending on the type of business. I think in service based businesses especially it really is pretty possible to ⁓ just start small and and grow it.
Jeff Holman (19:44)
as you're describing this, I want to make sure the audience doesn't have the impression that, you know, you and your sister now work out of booths or have small businesses or something that you just run. And I know you might think of it as still small and fledgling and growing, but but it's it but it's a real business. And can you give people eighteen employees is, you know, one indication of the size of the business. A lot of ⁓ you know, a lot of my friends who are running small law firms don't have eighteen employees, right? they might not make the revenue that you make too. I don't know. I I don't know.
Y but you guys, w what are some of the indications that you could share with with the audience about, you know, the size or how well the business is doing right now?
Lindsey Prater (20:22)
Yeah, well I mean, so the first our first full year in business, I think Groovy Peach ⁓ had a gross revenue of about three hundred and thirty thousand dollars, which blew my mind. And then the next year we
Jeff Holman (20:37)
Which
for a hand for a couple for a couple people, you know, doing this on the side or after school, that nobody like that's fantastic. That's fabulous.
Lindsey Prater (20:46)
Yeah, yeah. And then the year after that we did a million dollars and then we over we over we doubled that last year, just a little over two million. And then this year we are on track to probably hit about three million dollars. And that's without adding a store. So if we add in if we get some s another store up and going, then that's gonna help us.
Jeff Holman (21:08)
And without debt, right? Like or without significant I don't know if you've taken on debt, but but you ⁓ a lot of that was made possible because you saved the first six months of your of your income and you put it towards the future, right?
Lindsey Prater (21:21)
We saved the first six months and we continue to to do that. my partner and I we take home a really small amount of of money every month. Now we do take some money out of the business, but it's not anything very high. ⁓ we could take a lot more, but it's still important to me to ⁓ to grow ⁓ off of retained earnings as much as we can. And there's conversations are a little different, you know, if we
We're at the point where I think we have some leaders in the business that we a huge part of reason that that we can't scale is is having good leaders in the business that can open stores and give the clients the experience that we need and not and when we only had, you know, two stores and a handful of employees, ⁓ developing a good amount of those employees to become really strong managers is a lot harder. And now with more time under our belts, we're set up
To do that a lot better and more effectively.
Jeff Holman (22:22)
you know, I'm glad you shared those numbers, ⁓ because I think they're impressive. And ⁓ I think with the audience hearing those numbers, they're probably saying, wow, I didn't realize that's what we were talking about here, that this was a business that was doing two or three million dollars a year. ⁓ you know, eighteen employees, three stores, like that, those numbers make sense, but when you put the numbers on it, I think it really emphasizes how well you're doing. Do you
Are you proud of what you've accomplished so far, Lindy?
Lindsey Prater (22:54)
Yeah, I am. And I I still I said this to you way earlier. I I feel like we have so much still to do and we're such a young business and we're still earning our stripes and you know, there's a lot of other businesses that two or three million dollars is, you know, absolutely just not that very much money. ⁓
Jeff Holman (23:16)
And I But you're not judging yourself against those businesses, are you? I hope. Yeah, like like you. You're you're how many years into this now? Three years into this, doing two million dollars, on your way to three million dollars. Let's just pause and say that's fantastic. Like a lot of businesses, a lot of business owners, that's not their trajectory, right? and you're not VC backed, you know, you may not be on on track to be a billion dollar unicorn, but who cares, right? Like you're building a a sustainable business that
Lindsey Prater (23:23)
We're three years into this.
Jeff Holman (23:44)
is growing steadily and well. And so just kudos to you for what you've done. ⁓ I think it's fair for us to acknowledge that, for you to acknowledge that and take that in and be proud of be proud of that moment.
Lindsey Prater (23:57)
Well, thank you, Jeff. That's so sweet of you. You know, like we have it's really important to me that we have savings too, if and that's a huge part of our our cash strategy is that we have enough money in the bank should something catastrophic happen, another pandemic, who knows what could come along. There's just lots of things that at the end of the day, it's more important to me that the business that we have is sustainable and built really well and that we're not
completely leveraged to the point where I can't sleep at night and I'm worried about, you know, what could happen and and I think when the time is right we we can think about, you know, better funding and growing faster. But I'm really happy with with where we're at right now. So thank you. It means so much.
Jeff Holman (24:42)
I love that. ⁓ and it's well deserved. So getting back to my other question, the the unlock in your business, like what what's made the growth possible? Is it is it that you hired the right people? Is it that you, you know, got lucky and found the right locations? Is it that you're just in the right market? Is it that you're, you know, you're you're you're fantastic in your supply, you know, buying buying low, selling high, you know, buying your products at the right price and selling them the right like like where where's the magic here for you?
Lindsey Prater (25:08)
The magic is exactly the right people. I think that's the key and everything else can still be improved that you mentioned. ⁓ and that will always help us. But finding the right people that care about what we're doing and why we're doing it and care to do it in a in a really thoughtful and kind way is always been the key for us. And we spend significant time ⁓ filtering through lots and lots of when we hire, we usually have
Anywhere from like fifty to a hundred applicants, we get so many people that apply and we spend a lot of time ⁓ sifting through those and and looking for people who are really aligned with our company values and we have those defined really well and all of us at Groovy Peach know what our values are and why they're important as a as a company and a culture. And every time that we ⁓ interview and try to get to know people based off of who they are and how
well we feel like they their values intersect with our company values and how well they can live our values ⁓ and give that experience to our clients, we succeed and win really well. So the people and the and making sure that the people that we hire are just fantastic makes it easy and it helps us to avoid all sorts of interpersonal conflict at work, even though that stuff still can come up. ⁓ it gives us an easier place to ⁓
I don't know, find resolution from 'cause we all have a a framework of language that we're familiar with and can work through together and for it's for sure the people that everything possible.
Jeff Holman (26:50)
Did you know this from the beginning? Like was this just something that you're like, I I knew from the beginning we had to have the right people, so we've just always d done it this way. Or or did you have to is this something you learned ⁓ you know, more and more as you as you grew the business?
Lindsey Prater (27:03)
Yeah, that's a really good question. And I think that there this is another probably breakout moment that I could share with you. So I think that ⁓ and I'm not tooting my own horn here. I think the values of is very, very reflective of the founders of me and Haley. And that is I think what from the start, it took us a few months in to realize that a lot of it was the magic of how we interact with people and care for them.
Jeff Holman (27:16)
Come on, do it. Do it.
Lindsey Prater (27:33)
And we had hired a couple of people who were just same as us, really aligned that way and they were doing as great of a job as we were. And ⁓ and ⁓ it was at that point that we hired a business coach and it was a group of individuals that ⁓ really helped us narrow in the the values of our business and like putting names to them and and that was a breakout moment for us that from there I think we
Probably could have kept limping along and getting lucky, but I think over time the luck would run out and and it would be easier to, you know, hire people who were not quite as aligned. But under help have h working with a with a coach and somebody who had a lot of ⁓ years of experience hiring and running businesses was really impactful for us to be able to put words around.
what made the experience in Groovy Peach special and how to capture that in in new employees and individuals that wanted to contribute and be a part of what we were doing for sure.
Jeff Holman (28:43)
It when you say put words to it, like when you f I think you said that twice in there. And the first time you said it I thought I I took that as maybe you actually created avatars for the types of people you wanted to hire and and gave them names. I'm not sure if that's what it was. And the second time you said it, i i what give us like w what's an example of when you say putting words to it? What what did that mean for you?
Lindsey Prater (29:04)
Well, okay, maybe that is nerdy, but I have done that exercise of putting avatars to people and that and that's a more recent thing. ⁓ just for the exercise of what would the what would the ideal groovy pH employee look like and what would they how would they present themselves and h you know, if they were in this situation, what would they do? And if we were meeting them for the first time, what types of things would they want us to know about themselves? I think it's worth the effort of and it's you know similar to a
a client persona that you do in marketing. You want to understand who your client is. ⁓ I think it's just as important to do that with with our employees here. ⁓ prior to the getting so crazy to make up avatars and personalities of of imaginary people, ⁓ it was just kind of drilling into the understanding the the words of the values that shape us as a company and ⁓
And there was a lot to choose from, but it was honestly pretty easy at the end of the day to pick the five that felt the most relevant and important and ⁓ and then just focus all of our energy on living up to those values and finding ⁓ finding people that embodied them naturally and very easily.
Jeff Holman (30:24)
Is there one of those values that stands out to you? One that you maybe see more often or you or you you ⁓ maybe see less often than you love when you see it in the in the team?
Lindsey Prater (30:35)
I love that. Courage. ⁓ yeah, courage is is one of those values. It's a personal value of mine too. I think it's so incredibly important to put yourself in a situation that may feel risky and to do something anyway. I feel really proud of of some of our team members when they maybe make a mistake on a piercing and they're learning.
And it doesn't turn out exactly the way they wanted. And ⁓ one way or another, it someone usually knows about it. And I feel so proud when it's that person who has the comp that hard conversation with the client steps up and solves the problem on their own. that makes me really proud. And it's not uncommon, but every time I see it happen, I'm still just as proud as I was every other time.
Jeff Holman (31:28)
Yeah, fixing mistakes. I mean that nothing nothing better than to see people taking accountability of fixing mistakes. And I I you you've raised a side question for me. I guess you I guess you let a a mistake piercing grow in and you repierce it, you know, the right way later. Is that is it kind of that simple to to fix?
Lindsey Prater (31:46)
Yeah, it's it's not always quite that simple. There's things that are different a little bit every time. 'cause it's you're putting a hole in someone's body. And so sometimes it's a matter of picking a piece of jewelry that's gonna heal a little bit better in that spot. Sometimes it's a matter of taking the piercing out altogether and just letting it heal and having to re pierce. That's what happens a lot of the time. And that's a hard conversation to have. ⁓ accountability and seeing people own up to mistakes, you know, everyone
loves that and talks about it and cares about that. I think it's one thing that's probably in the medical field you see this too. It's hard to do when ⁓ people's money and their pain and their body is involved and they have to think like a lot of people are really afraid to get a piercing and to hear that, okay, shoot, you we we need to redo this piercing. You have to do this all over again is really tough thing for some people to ⁓ to hear.
Jeff Holman (32:42)
But it's part of part of the experience on occasion, right? Like you guys are experience based. If if we could all have our have, you know, the ideal ways, we would we would never make mistakes. We would always do everything perfectly and everybody would be happy and they pay us a lot of money. And, you know, life would be different than real life actually is. ⁓ So not to focus on any of that, but that's you know, that's part of part of the experience in working with team members, part of the experience working with customers.
And let's face it, we've probably all, if we look back at our own companies, we could say, Gosh, I ⁓ quote, pierced that in the wrong place. I I I need to fix that in my business now, right? Little mis I don't know, miss piercings a am I making up a word right here? ⁓ mis piercing in my business that that I need to let it grow in or I need to, you know, adapt to what I've done and and go from there. So
Lindsey Prater (33:36)
That's so true. Yeah.
Jeff Holman (33:38)
So well hey, I wanna ask ⁓ before we wrap up here, 'cause I this is my maybe most curious question here, and that is, where in the world did the name Groovy Peach come from? Is that a is there is there a story behind that?
Lindsey Prater (33:52)
wish there was some awesome story. Sometimes I wonder if I should just make something up.
Jeff Holman (33:57)
now's your moment, Lindsay.
Lindsey Prater (33:59)
Okay,
okay, okay. Come as good, never mind.
Jeff Holman (34:01)
I was travelling and just kidding.
Lindsey Prater (34:05)
Honestly, we wanted so I used to be really into roller skating. It's so nerdy. My three daughters and I took professional roller skating lessons together and at the time I was loved it. I I don't even roller skate anymore. I don't have time for it. I haven't had my skates on in over a year. It's really sad. but the word groovy to me has always like been
closely related with roller skating, the type of music and the type of like vibe that we wanted to ⁓ convey. A lot of piercing and tattoo shops that you go to, you know, the type that are maybe on like State Street are very like dark and serious and have a completely different
Jeff Holman (34:50)
A of counterculture, ⁓ if you will, right.
Lindsey Prater (34:52)
Yeah,
yeah, exactly. And so it it was just a matter of of us putting our heads together and like spitting out a whole bunch of words. We I we loved ⁓ like disco and orange and ⁓ it was just like a mood board of just putting so many different words together until we liked the way Groovy Peach sounded and it felt like you'll know this, it felt like really sticky as far as remember the name.
And there's a lot of people who they can remember groovy or peach. So if you go to Google and you type in like groovy piercing or peach piercing will come up and even if they can't remember the whole name, it's felt like a really smart word. ⁓
Jeff Holman (35:37)
Actually
you've like doubled or tripled your search results that way. I've never thought of it that way. Having two two unique words relative to the service you provide, you actually just got more coverage. That's that's fantastic. Yeah. I'm gonna have to think about that.
Lindsey Prater (35:52)
Yeah, think about that one. It's so true. ⁓ I cannot tell you the number of people over the years. And I'm so many, they're like, I couldn't remember your exact name, but I knew it had like groovy in the name or peach. And so I just typed in that and we actually pay for those words, you know, to be S and everything. But and I can see the searches that people search and a lot of times it's groovy piercing or peach piercing. And so it it was just
Jeff Holman (36:09)
For your SEO and
Lindsey Prater (36:20)
Yeah, just we were looking for a name of a business that just felt like something that was really fun, that embodied what we were trying to do and something that would be easy to remember.
Jeff Holman (36:30)
I love it. What what's the one name that you that you remember and you're really glad you did not pick? Is there one that stands is there one something like that? You're like
Lindsey Prater (36:38)
Yeah. What the other name that we're seriously considering was the piercing atelier. And that's a French word. And I still think it's so beautiful. I love it. ⁓ I think the word atelier is spelled differently than it sounds, and it would be hard for people to ⁓ I think atelier, it's a French word for like what does it mean? Like a unique shopping experience, I think. Is I'll have to actually Google it. I don't remember anymore.
Jeff Holman (37:09)
The words flow together, they sound really nice and eloquent.
Lindsey Prater (37:12)
Right? They do. Yeah.
Jeff Holman (37:15)
Different from Groovy Peach though. Groovy Peach like it sounds to me like you made the right choice.
Lindsey Prater (37:19)
Yeah, I think we did. I think we did. And it opened up I mean, our colors, our color palette is so pretty and it's so like dopamine coated. We have all the dopamine decor and colors and people just love it. They come in there and it's like feels like Disneyland.
Jeff Holman (37:36)
I love do you have on on that note, 'cause I I was just thinking, you know, I think you get a lot of attention here in Utah. Do you have people come from out of state or maybe, you know, a daughter who comes to visit her mom or vice versa and and they're like, Hey, one of the places we want to go while we're in Utah is Groovy Peach. You're are you guys becoming a destination?
Lindsey Prater (37:55)
So so many. I feel like, you know, back in the day when Cafe Rio opened and you came home to visit your family in Utah, you had to go to Cafe Rio. Yeah, yeah. It's we get that all the time. People they either just straight up will travel to see us, ⁓ from like Wyoming, they'll drive or Idaho. ⁓ but we've had people come from all over. And then there's a lot of people that it's a tradition that every time they're here in town for fourth of July or Christmas, they
come with their sisters and family that live in Utah and they all come to Groovy Peach and get a new piercing.
Jeff Holman (38:29)
wow. That's fantastic. Well ⁓ where can people find you? people who've listened to the episode, they're Man, I want to find out more, maybe come get a piercing. Where where do they go? A aside from just telling them to search groovy piercing or peach piercing, what's the more direct route?
Lindsey Prater (38:31)
Yeah.
Yeah, so our website is groovypeach.com and we're on Instagram and TikTok. If you search Groovy Peach Piercing Co., you'll find us there. And we have our three stores are in Bountiful and South Jordan and Oram.
Jeff Holman (39:02)
I love it. But and to finish this off, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a really easy question with a really hard answer. I think. Maybe I'm wrong. ⁓ if you could describe in in two or three words where you want to be in five years from now, what would you say?
Lindsey Prater (39:18)
Doing something new?
Jeff Holman (39:19)
Doing something new. Okay. That's a mystery right there. So doing something new. Is that doing something new with Groovy Peach? Or am I maybe I'm maybe I'm violating my own rule by adding
Lindsey Prater (39:32)
I know, I'm like, am I allowed to to answer? I'm not sure. I ask I ask this question all the time in ⁓ meetings with my team. At the end of the meeting I say and everyone I don't know if they love it or hate it. It's probably mixed, but tell me in one word, how are you feeling? It's really hard, but I think
Jeff Holman (39:50)
Did
just replicate? Did I just I just take your wow.
Lindsey Prater (39:54)
I think that I just got a taste of my own medicine because I I love to ask that question. And I think that when you can like think about all of your feelings and distill it to one single word, it's really powerful exercise to go through because it's hard. Yeah. I think that is both doing something new with groovy peach and and just other things in my life. I thrive, absolutely thrive in change and ambiguity. I think if I don't have that, I would be very f feeling just really unfulfilled. ⁓
Jeff Holman (40:24)
The life of an entrepreneur right there. Yeah. Living living in the chaos, loving the chaos. So I I can r I can totally relate. Yeah. Well, Lindsay, this has been fantastic. Thank you for taking some extra time and and ⁓ doing this recording with me. I know you're super busy. You're growing something awesome. And ⁓ I'm glad to be able to see see the progress and ⁓ get some updates once in a while from you. It's been it's been a lot of fun.
Lindsey Prater (40:46)
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Jeff.
Jeff Holman (40:49)
And for our audience who joined us today on the Breakout CEO podcast, thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And if you enjoy the show, a rating or a review goes a long way. Our mission is to promote the stories of breakout CEOs in scaling SaaS, e-commerce, and tech companies to equip peer CEOs with valuable perspectives and confidence.
Thanks again for joining us on this episode of the Breakout CEO. I'm Jeff Holman, and I'll see you next time.
