Amy Ling Lin, Founder of “sundays”
Name: Amy Ling Lin
Founder: sundays
Who is Amy Ling Lin?
I am the CEO & Founder of sundays, a global nail care brand and non-toxic nail and wellness studio - a trained Esthetician (and Chinese immigrant) who disrupted the nail salon business and operating model, re-positioning nail treatments as practices of wellness and self care. I launched the first nontoxic nail wellness studio in NYC, and was the first to introduce a meditation manicure. Instead of the rush in and out service (typical of traditional nail salons), sundays creates a holistic wellness experience that includes a meditative manicure, self-love letter writing, and an affirmation card that clients can bring home at the end of every service.
Additionally, sundays has an eponymous nail polish and nail care brand – I wanted to create a collection that was double duty, non-toxic and professional grade, but one that could actually help improve the health of the nails.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
sundays is disrupting the traditional nail salon industry, which hasn’t changed in the last 30 years, by bringing in both healthy nail products and holistic experiences. We want to make everyone look good and feel great.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
All about inspiring, motivating, supporting and growing.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
Sharing resources that are helpful to me, might be helpful to others; Sharing experiences - it is important to feel that we are connected and we are not alone in this long journey.
What lesson or skill did you take with you from a prior job to help you succeed in your role today?
When I think back, every job or internship I had are valuable experiences to help me become who I am today. My internship at Bergdorf taught me about details, my job at a marketing firm helped me with multitasking and my experience of opening local salons helped me get rid of shyness, being able to talk to clients, hiring and filing. Even one of the jobs I couldn't wait to leave at that time taught how to treat others. I told myself, I would not treat others like how my supervisor did. I am grateful for everything I have experienced, good or bad, when you look back, it becomes your story and results in lots of valuable lessons.
Let’s talk social media—who handles it for your company (you, an internal team member, an outsourced solution?) and what is the secret to making it successful? What is the biggest challenge?
Our team members handle social media for us. Our handle is @sundays_studio. We used an agency before and found the best way is still handled by our internal team. The secret I believe is to communicate your authentic voice behind the brand on the social media platform and what differentiates you. The biggest challenge is that algorithms change quite rapidly and trends come and go, how to balance who you are while tagging into the algorithm so that you don’t just get dragged around in different directions.
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
We are a nontoxic wellness salon, so everything we use in the salon was produced by us to ensure that it is safe for everyone to use, from pregnant women to kids. Our goal is to make you look good and feel good. We change the rush in and out feel of a typical nail salon setting to a relaxing home set up, no more bright surgical light, loud drying fans, but a serene place where you can have a moment of relaxation. What truly differentiate sundays is the guided meditation manicure - when you are getting your manicure done, you can listen to our customized guided meditations to make you look and feel good at the same time.
What would you do differently if you were starting your business today?
I might consider a co-founder, as it is hard to start a business and continue building when you are a sole founder. One plus one hopefully is bigger than two. There are challenges about having a cofounder, it is like a marriage, but the reward is high if it does work out.
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