Candace Holyfield Gamed Groupon For $250 Million, Now She’s Helping Other Black Businesses

When it comes to spas, massage therapy and all things wellness in the Black community, Candace Holyfield is your go-to gal. Founder of the Six Figure Spa Chick, a Memphis, Tennessee-based consulting business firm for Black spa owners, Holyfield has been serving the Black spa professionals community for several years, helping owners game the system for better wellness and business wellness.

She’s served over 15,000 clients in the past decade, and at age 39, she created the Queen Spa Expo, the only exposition for Black spa professionals. She’s also the founder of the first Black Spa Awards and the Spa Hall of Fame, which has annually hosted since 2016 in Atlanta.

In a recent interview, Holyfield noted, “To this day, African Americans are not dominating the spa industry whatsoever. But since I started, Black people are making six figures from spa, and that wasn’t happening before.”

Holyfield has hit the one-million-dollar mark in her earnings with the spa industry and uses all that knowledge and prowess to help others hit the six-figure mark. “A lot of people have made six figures, but multiple people have made $300,000 or $500,000 and five of us have made a million. Black people are making some real money as entrepreneurs, and that’s a big deal.”

Holyfield had been working as a waitress for 13 years since high school and when she hit 30, she knew something had to change. Researching career options, she landed on massage therapy. Immediately after passing her license exam (after one failure), she gained work at Massage Envy and began helping a friend with her own business. Holyfield realized she wasn’t making as much money as others, so she asked the secret.

Groupon.

Holyfield gave it a try and quickly discovered – after a brief pay cut as she built her reputation on the app – that she’d hit paydirt. “I was brand new, and I didn’t know enough people. But then everybody who bought it came back, and I made like $6,000 in three days. I had never made this type of money. It was a really big deal to me. So that’s how I made my first six figures.”

She soon opened her own spa, brought over coworkers from Massage Envy and taught them the ropes of Groupon. Others came along, seeking tips. Eventually, she began charging a minuscule consulting fee and wrote an ebook. She made more than $300,000 from Groupon-led business alone before stepping away to other things.

Now, as Holyfield finds continued success, she continues sharing the wealth of knowledge and experience she’s earned through her various organizations and consulting firm. She’s also happily given interviews in which she’s offered a few specific tips like treating your Groupon clients like royalty (“That’s how they’ll come back,” she says), and only letting clients use Groupon once instead of repeatedly.

Holyfield’s made a million-plus dollars, so she could easily hand the reins over to someone else and pursue other things like so many CEOs and founders do. However, she loves what she does and celebrates the successes of every client who succeeds. Every success is “Really, really big deal,” she says – and that’s what keeps her generous spirit fed and fulfilled as she assists others reach their potential, too.