Meet Jennifer Lancaster | Owner & Operater

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Lancaster and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My daughter came home with lice! I never knew that professional lice treatment clinics existed until a neighbor mentioned to me that she was going to take her daughter to one. Her daughter had come home from school with head lice 3 times that school year already and this time shared it with my daughter. She was at her wits end and asked around for the closest professional treatment clinic and quickly realized there was not one. Everyone was recommended Lice Ladies Atlanta. Us hearing how many of our friends had encountered this issue an drove their children to the metro Atlanta area to seek treatment sparked the idea in my mind to look into opening up something here in Oconee County to help fill an obvious service need for my community.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
In making the choice to step away from my corporate/ non profit career and looking to become a small business owner, my husband and I did a lot of research. We explored the idea of trying to start a head lice treatment clinic from scratch and also interviewed with a couple of different franchises through a recruiting company. However, as I started to introduce this idea to other friends and family members, many of them sang the praises of the Atlanta based Lice Ladies. We decided to give them a call and set up a discovery visit. Once my husband and I went out and visited with the co-founders, Jennie and Molly, we fell in love with their business model and products. Luckily the Athens area was high on their priority list for expansion and we all hit it off well with one another. They were so great with being flexible with my schedule in transitioning out of my full time career while training me to become a small business owner. From our discovery visit to our grand opening was about 3 months and was practically seamless. The Lice Ladies business model is clear and concise, the treatment method is simple and effective backed with products that are scientifically developed to eradicate human head lice. I could not be more happy with my decision to become a part of the Lice Ladies family as the Lice Ladies Athens franchise owner.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We love the Athens/ Oconee area. Being big UGA football fans, a visit to the University of Georgia will always be on my list of recommended places. The downtown Athens area has a vast scene of great places to eat, grab a drink and shop. There is something for everyone! However, I am partial to the slower paced life out in Oconee County where we live and my clinic is located. Watkinsville is beautiful with rolling pasture land and pockets of fun shops and restaurants. Our favorite places to eat out as a family are Oyishi Hibachi & Sushi and La Cabana. We also love to hang out at Wire Park which is an awesome new development that opened recently. It has some fun shops, our local library, great restaurants and our first ever brewery, South Main Brewing!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My next door neighbor and best friend Ashley was the one who introduced me to the concept of a head lice treatment franchise. She was bravely battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and needed help with getting rid of this pesky issue with her 2 young daughters. When we figured out that there was nowhere close to our community and realizing that there was a huge need for this type of service, she began encouraging me to look into opening a clinic myself. She knew I was struggling with where I was in my personal and professional life and trying to strike a better work life balance. I lost my father unexpectedly in January 2019 and dealt with a good bit on internal turmoil around my 20 career in non profit fundraising and special event planning. Although it was a rewarding career, the years of working night and weekends were taking a toll on my young family. This time in life of losing my Dad and watching Ashley tackling motherhood while undergoing treatment for breast cancer gave me the determination I needed to make a professional change and take control of my schedule.

Website: www.liceladiesathens.com

Instagram: @LiceLadiesAthens

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liceladiesathens