Kathy Vu, fourth year Public Health Science major, is a young and successful entrepreneur. She already has a few businesses and is well on her way towards more success. Her latest business, Kanta Deals, just launched this January, and judging by Kathy’s attitude, passion and background in business, Kanta Deals will be a great success.
Her brand name is Kanta, which has two meanings: the Hindu meaning and her own personal meaning. Since she loves the Indian culture she picked the word “Kanta” to represent her brand, which means “desired, admired and attractive.” She took this meaning as “desired beauty,” and her brands represent that. Her personal meaning represents the combination of her name, Kathy, and her boyfriend and business partner’s name, Ta.
When asked about her business background, she said with a slight giggle that she “always had the entrepreneur spirit.” She then began to describe a vignette from her experience in third grade. Her class had a pencil dispenser and she noticed that her classmates were not satisfied with the color selection. Kathy’s entrepreneur spirit took note of that when she decided to purchase packs of pencils to sell to her classmates. She made $50 per week by selling pencils.
At 18 years old, Kathy’s first business venture was with Limited Liability Company. She started with only five hundred and turned that into thousands of dollars. LLC stands for protecting assets and registering businesses. Kathy started a cosmetic company, known as Kanta LLC. With her business, Kathy faced the challenges of starting it with intense research, finding reliable suppliers to import, distinguishing marketing and business, and most importantly establishing the customer base and trust.
In August 2011, Kathy opened up Kanta Beauty, a beauty salon in Huntington Park. She had previous experience in websites and wanted to branch out. She did that by opening a beauty salon that focused on eyebrow threading. Eyebrow threading, originating from the Middle East, is more gentle and precise than waxing. To make her business different from any other eyebrow places, she gave her customers a Zen environment in the middle of Los Angeles. She created the Zen environment by providing complimentary tea and putting the customers first. However, she sold Kanta Beauty location in December 2011 to focus on Kanta Deals, even though she still does events under Kanta Beauty.
Her newest business venture, Kanta Deals, launched this January. She described Kanta Deals as “a website that has a niche of college student users eager to try out deluxe samples of beauty products. College students get to fully sink their teeth into samples of beauty products and see what fits their needs before fully investing in the full-sized product. Kanta Deals hopes to bridge the gap between women and beauty industries to give them one product at a time to try—eliminating the overwhelming sensation with all of the beauty products out there on the market.” What does all of this mean? Think of it as a candy bowl, since the customer chooses what they exactly want to try for FREE (plus shipping)! Through sponsors and personally contacting companies, Kathy receives the products to promote and give out for free.
Currently, Kanta Deals is promoting Violent Lips, which is a temporary lip tattoo and the first brand to sign on. This product gives the illusion of pumped up, glittery lips. The product is a huge lip cut-out and the customer adjusts the cut-out to fit their lip shape. Violent Lips lasts four to eight hours, which is perfect for a whole night out. The retail value is $15, but with Kanta Deals, you only pay $3.98 for shipping.
One of Kathy’s plans for Kanta Deals is expanding it for guys. Since beauty products are a stigma and taboo for guys, she believes that guys may feel more comfortable trying the products in the comfort of their own homes.
For all of her success, Kathy gives a huge thanks to her boyfriend, Ta, who is currently in the business school at USC. As her “rock and support,” Ta was her first investor with the $500. She admits it is sometimes a struggle to balance relationship and a partnership, but she continues to nurture both their relationship and businesses. With that being said, Kathy believes it is important for everyone to have a good support system because “You’ll fall down and need someone to help you get back.”
What’s next for this young entrepreneur? She hopes to have more investors and manage more things by herself. In addition to managing her own business, she hopes to start an Anteaters Entrepreneurs Resource Center to help those who want to start their own business. Until then, students can email her at kathy@kantadeals.com to get advice and support on starting their own businesses.
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