Angela Hugghins - Esthetician & Owner of Cult of Reason
In this episode, Tim sits down with Angela Hugghins, esthetician & founder of Cult of Reason skincare, for a wide-ranging conversation about what it looks like to build multiple businesses on your own terms. Angela shares how she structured her solo practice to protect her hands, her energy, and her lifestyle after nearly 30 years in the industry, why she made a significant price jump despite fears of losing clients, and how she thinks about the break-even math before introducing any new product or equipment. She also talks candidly about the origins of Cult of Reason, the unexpected challenges of running a product business, and the recent purchase of a commercial building to house her businesses and generate rental income.
Angela's question for Tim: Now that we're landlords, what are the tax advantages of owning commercial real estate, how do we maximize rental income, and what other ways can we benefit from this new structure?
Key Takeaways:
- Angela capped her working days at four per week after years of overworking, a deliberate lifestyle decision driven by the physical demands of her craft.
- She hired a virtual assistant who spends just 30 minutes a day managing her emails and client communications — a small investment that she says has paid off in stress reduction far beyond its dollar cost.
- After building a wait list of over 200 clients, Angela made a significant price increase, gave clients three months of advance notice without disclosing the exact amount, and lost only three or four people as a result.
- Angela launched Cult of Reason to recreate a discontinued product she had relied on, starting with a single formula developed over two years through a custom cosmetics lab, funded entirely out of pocket.
- She describes Cult of Reason as a passion project that is now self-funding, and identifies supply chain disruptions and tariffs on imported ingredients as challenges she hadn't anticipated when she started.
