Serena Williams once said that “Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.” If that is the case, Elena Asher is one heck of a cheerleader. As the founding owner of LashMakers, based out of Miami, Elena is just as passionate about helping other women succeed as she is about enhancing the natural beauty of women’s eyes with her 118 different products. Her long term goal is certainly more focused on the former: “I would love to have the opportunity to teach more women around the globe hoping to start a new career.”
It is what she herself did. Coming to America at the age of 21 after a life lived in Russia and Israel, Asher barely spoke English and had to work with clients out of her own living room, applying eyelash extensions. She was passionate about her artistry and her clients, but wanted more. Determined, she founded LashMakers and became a wildly successful, internationally known businesswoman, speaker, and educator.
It is the final of those descriptors of which Asher is most proud. Apart from its product lines, LashMakers trains over 400 women each year as eyelash artists and entrepreneurs, focusing not only on beauty but business. “We approach this industry as a million dollar business. The goal is to show others it’s possible” to attain the type of success Asher herself has achieved. In other words, Asher is trying to give other women not only the inspiration they need to follow in her footsteps, but the practical training on how to run a successful business in an eyelash industry that makes over 1.4 billion dollars each year.
Asher believes that the key to her success is a combination of hard work and the joy of helping to create something beautiful. She urges students to “go into business with discipline and love. Discipline will keep you learning and growing, but love will make you work with purpose.”
