Unless you are a business owner, people believe all business owners are rich and that the business owner just sits back, makes big bucks, and commands the show...
There is 10 percent truth in most statements. So maybe there are some “lucky” business owners doing just that! All I can do here is give my account as to why I own a hair salon. My number one reason is job security, second, control of my workplace.
I’ll start from the beginning. I was fifteen years old and worked in my cousin Franny’s salon in Westville, “Guys and Dolls.” I could only work there on weekends and during occasional holiday breaks from high school. She had a small shop and she saw raw natural talent in me. Primarily because I liked to CLEAN -and play with hair. I guess some thing’s never changed with me.
There is where I understood that I could do what comes naturally to me and never “work” a day in my life.
The greatest concept to me was owning a PROFESSIONAL LICENSED salon in my home, so never to be absent from my children (who didn’t even exist at the time) especially in their formidable years. What was most important to me then, was never leaving my children to work outside of the home. I knew owning a salon in my home would be the answer to all of my dreams!
Eureka!
After going to Cosmetology school for 600 hours, I was hired to a very new salon, “Magic Hair,” in West Deptford. I was an assistant at $2.50 an hour. There I learned the ropes. The 3 years I worked there gave me the nucleus of clients I have now 40 years later.
Fast forward.
After 16 years of a successful salon in my home under my belt, and 2 beautiful sons, I make the decision to leave an unsuccessful marriage.
I temporarily worked again for someone else, until I could rebuild financially. I started again, but, this time it would be my own salon in a rented space, with overhead. This was a BIG game changer. So I hired help. That’s when I had to grow faster than the hair on your head to stay in the red!
I have had a lot of different stylists in the last 20 years working with me at “Bella-Bella.” I want to believe I have grown much more patient and kind over the years. I am entering my 40th anniversary of being a licensed stylist in 2021. Of those 40 years, I have been an owner for 35.
Am I rich?
Yes.
Not in millions, albeit in stories, confidences, relationships, and respect that have lasted 40 years.
My blessing is that I naturally want to please my clients and create a clean, fun place to practice my craft, with a team that brings in good energy. Every day isn’t perfect. I can control and make things right at the end of the day if needed. I can’t trust anyone else to have my strong desire to please.
That is why I own a Hair Salon ❤️