Facial Collective has one studio in Madison, Wisconsin, and another on the way in Phoenix.
Facial Collective founder and CEO Jan Zalud knows the mistakes you can make as a franchisor—because he’s been on the receiving end of those mistakes as a franchisee.
“I’ve failed twice,” Zalud said. “I’ve lost a lot of money in franchising already with two brands that, of course, the goal was for those to be successful. I was a franchisee and they were not.”
After some time working in investment banking, Zalud wanted to invest in a business of his own. So he tried his hand at being a franchisee for a few brands before he started Facial Collective in 2022.
Zalud has owned a few concepts throughout the years, like the nail care brand Prose, boutique fitness concept CityRow and Perspire Sauna Studio. His group FG Brands still owns Perspire studios in Georgia and Texas, along with Facial Collective.
With Prose, Zalud said the nail care business is complex. “We tried a million different ways to make it work,” he said. “It didn’t work. That’s actually the reason why Facial Collective exists. So, all the bad things, hopefully, will end up being great.”
Traci Dalsin, vice president of operations, and Jan Zalud, founder and CEO
Facial Collective has one unit in Madison, Wisconsin, with another in the works for Phoenix. The flagship location is a corporate store, while Phoenix is owned by an experienced esthetician who is signed on for a second unit.
“We’ve been testing, building the model, building the membership, really gathering data from the customers, making sure our margins work” in the year or so since the Wisconsin store opened, Zalud said.
Facial Collective is a membership-based model, with plans starting at $89 a month, depending on the market. Memberships include one customized facial each month, plus other perks.
He wanted to create a facial experience geared toward the 20-to-40-year-old market that wasn’t too expensive or intimidating. Plus, he wanted to ensure the model could work in a smaller market than the typical highly populated cities, like New York or Los Angeles.
Legacy brands, Zalud said, aren’t “up to par” with what the younger crowd is interested in. They’re oftentimes more expensive and not geared toward preventative services, which 20-somethings are looking for, he said.
Facial Collective introduced micro-needling and injectables, like Botox, after seeing the demand.
“Our idea is to take some of the clinical med spa services and add it, because … our customers were telling us that’s also what they wanted,” Zalud said.
The beauty, health and wellness space is getting crowded with players big and small. Of the many brands on the Top 400 list that offer facials, Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa was the top earner in 2022. The 500-plus-unit franchise did $640 million in sales in 2022, a nearly 15 percent increase in systemwide sales.
Woodhouse Spa, which did nearly $166 million in 2022, is another competitor. Franchise development firm Fransmart made a rare investment in an emerging concept, Glo30, which launched in 2012.
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The initial investment ranges from $315,000 to $410,000, including the $45,000 franchise fee.
Zalud is looking to sign on fewer franchisees who own more studios. He’s targeting tertiary markets, like Madison, Wisconsin, but with a focus in the southern states.
“I like that there’s less competition,” he said of places like Birmingham, Alabama, or Greenville, South Carolina. “The consumer there still wants the trendy, really cool stuff, but not everybody thinks of them.”
This article has been updated to reflect that Zalud owned CityRow, a boutique fitness concept, not Pepperboxing. He was a strategic adviser for Pepperboxing.