When Founder and CEO of Vixen® Spa Inc, Karen Dixon was asked about what inspired her to become an Entrepreneur, she talks about her journey and how Vixen® became a reality.
At a very young age, her dream was always to build her own business. She loved being creative and thinking through possibilities and inventions that would make her feel that the work she was doing was rewarding. She always had a passion for the beauty industry and wanted to influence others through the power of positivity, building relationships, and overall wellness.
At the age of 8, she wasn’t using transparent tape to wrap holiday gifts, instead, she was using it to create fancy nail extensions that adhered to the natural nail bed. Not the most durable invention at the time but as a child, she believed it was the next best thing to having long nails for which her friends thought would be impossible at such a young age. She would attempt to sell them at the neighbourhood parks and playgrounds for .25 cents a set in hopes of growing her new invention. Young and naive, she was eager to make a sale but not for the money. She just wanted to create excitement amongst her friends. She felt her creation made the impossible, possible. Soon enough, her beauty invention was a hit amongst her friends and classmates. Fast forward to the age of 15, she continued to grow her passion in nails, as well as hair and offered her services to friends and family at no cost. She simply loved what she did and was enthusiastic about strengthening the relationships around her.
After high school, she pursued a Business Management Diploma and realized even more that building her own business would be the ultimate goal for her. She obtained a deep knowledge of the world of Nails and Esthetics. After obtaining several Nail and Esthetic certifications, she was entrenched in the industry and kept up with her passion. In parallel, her love for people, building relationships and helping others achieve professional success geared her towards a Human Resources career. This enabled her to climb the corporate ladder and hold senior leadership roles within several Fortune 500 organizations. She eventually left the corporate world to build the Vixen® Empire, grow her corporate locations to 40+ employees and Franchise the Business.
In addition, Karen and the Vixen® organization believes in giving back in a big way not just through nails and hair. Whether it was gathering donations for the Halton Women’s Shelter, helping wrap gifts during the holiday season for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, building houses for Habitat for Humanity or hosting a fundraising event for the Leukemia Foundation and the Canadian Breast Cancer Society, Karen and her team are always finding ways to show their love and support for the communities they serve in.
Karen eventually combined the experience she had in retail, leadership, esthetics, operations and Human Resources over the last 20+ years and built a thriving business. In an extremely competitive market, Vixen® was born. When asked why “Vixen” Karen tells us that the word Vixen is reminiscent of ‘Sexy and Confident’. Evidently, the word Vixen means female fox and Karen felt it was symbolic of her goals in building a brand that the public would relate and be attracted to. Since then, the name Vixen® has been the talk of the town in households, offices and funny enough in neighbourhood parks, ironically where it all began for her as a child. It’s now known as the go-to place to feel sexy and beautiful inside and out. She wanted to have a direct impact in the community around her and for everyone to experience the Vixen® Difference, ultimately making the impossible, possible.
Vixen® Nails & Spa was established in 2011 and is committed to making clients look & feel their best. With 4 Corporate locations and several Franchise locations opening in 2018 across Ontario, the client experience is the #1 focus and aims to build relationships and improve the lives of everyone. This is done by means of collaborating with brand partners and using authentic products while maintaining strictly high sanitization standards. Every detail of the client experience has been carefully thought through providing an environment of comfort and enjoyment for people of all ages. Vixen® is licensed to sell and serve alcohol at all their locations which is another distinguishing feature of the business that enhances the overall client experience. Over the years, Vixen® Nails & Spa has proudly served tens of thousands of clients has enabled them to be an industry leader, achieving awards of excellence year after year. Vixen® is the Top Choice Award Winner for 5 consecutive years in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and is this year’s winner for Top Nail Salon in 2018. Identifying a huge gap in the marketplace, Vixen® Nails & Spa rapidly became the destination for those who value overall wellness and superior client care within a clean and friendly environment – at a price point that’s not scary cheap and not outrageously steep. It’s a one-stop shop for all beauty needs and continuously works towards having the most current techniques and trends to achieve amazing results.
Vixen® is the brand that inspires confidence by providing premium services while improving lifestyles and raising the bar in client experience and personal care. We plan to spread our brand of service offerings to many cities across Canada to make everyone Live Well · Be Sexy!
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