Growing Side Hustle to 45 Locations with Courtney Claghorn, President and Founder of Sugared + Bronzed
Dear FoundHer...Real Founder Stories for Women Small Business Owners
Lindsay Pinchuk
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Join us for the FREE Dear FoundHer… Forum Open House + Networking (virtual) Event on January 28th. RSVP HERE we won’t host another Open House until later this spring.
This female founded business began as a side hustle in an apartment and grew into a 45-location, company-owned beauty brand by staying grounded in reality.
Courtney Claghorn, president and founder of Sugared + Bronzed, a natural sugaring and spray tan company shares how the company took shape while she still worked full-time, learned the service herself, and paid attention to what customers were actually willing to buy. Early decisions focused on cash flow, reinvestment, and keeping costs manageable. Profitability set the pace from the start and made it possible to scale without franchising or giving up ownership.
The conversation traces what changes when a side hustle demands more than spare time, how standards hold up as scale increases, and why systems replaced intuition as the business grew. Courtney also talks through choosing when to raise capital, adjusting during COVID, and building something that could keep growing without depending on her presence in every room.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 From Side Hustle To Growth At Scale: The Sugared + Bronzed Story
03:10 Identifying A Market Gap In The Spray Tan Industry
06:00 Early Customer Acquisition Without Social Media
07:00 Leaving A Corporate Job When Demand Takes Over
08:10 Bootstrapping The First Store And Prioritizing Profitability
14:50 Scaling Without Franchising Or Losing Control
16:10 Raising Capital After Proving The Business Model
17:30 Surviving COVID Through Creative Pivots
23:00 Maintaining Quality And Culture At Scale
34:00 Founder Advice On Moving Fast And Avoiding Overplanning
Connect with Courtney Claghorn:
Visit the Sugared + Bronzed Website
Follow Sugared + Bronzed on Instagram
Subscribe to The FoundHer Files
Follow Dear FoundHer... on Instagram
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Dear Founder, the podcast for women business owners over 40 who are building their next chapter on their own terms. |
| 0:09.6 | I'm your host, Lindsay Pinchuk, award-winning entrepreneur, community builder, and one of the less than 1% of female founders who have led their company to acquisition. |
| 0:18.4 | I bootstrapped my first business from $500 to seven figures, sold it, |
| 0:22.6 | and learned that success isn't about hype. It's about smart strategy, strong relationships, |
| 0:27.5 | and real support. Deer found her was created for women who are pivoting, rebuilding, scaling, |
| 0:32.9 | and finally betting on themselves. Women who want real conversations, practical advice, and a community |
| 0:38.3 | that actually gets this season of life and business. Each week, I sit down with some of the |
| 0:43.3 | most influential female founders and industry leaders to talk about what it really takes to grow a |
| 0:48.4 | business, the wins, the setbacks, the pivots, and the lessons you can actually use. No fluff, no gatekeeping, |
| 0:55.6 | just what works. You'll find honest conversations, actionable strategy, and a network of women |
| 1:00.5 | building businesses together. This podcast is the heartbeat of the Deer Found Her movement. From our |
| 1:05.8 | live events to our online community, the Deer Founder Forum, where Women Over 40 come together |
| 1:10.5 | to grow, connect, |
| 1:12.1 | and stop doing business alone. If you're ready to build a business that fits your life, |
| 1:16.7 | not the other way around, you're in the right place. Welcome to Deer Fountain. |
| 1:24.6 | Welcome back to another episode of Dear Fountain. I'm your host, Lindsay Pinchuk, and today's guest built one of the most impressive |
| 1:31.2 | beauty service brands in the country. |
| 1:33.4 | And it didn't start with venture capital, a pitch deck, or a five-year plan. |
| 1:38.0 | It started as a side hustle. |
| 1:40.4 | Courtney Claghorn is the president and co-founder of Sugared and Bronze, a company that she launched while working a full-time corporate job, testing the idea out in her apartment, teaching herself the craft, and saying yes, before everything was perfectly figured out. |
| 1:55.1 | What began as a scrappy solution to a very real problem has grown into a multi-state company-owned brand with dozens of |
| 2:02.4 | locations and hundreds of employees. In this episode, Courtney walks us through what it actually |
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