COVID-19

Never in all the years of owning a business, would I have ever imagined that I could work so hard for something and in a matter of days…lose weeks…months worth of work, because of a virus. That would have been the last thing I expected to pummel my business. Our entire industry shut down in the blink of an eye.

The first week I voluntarily closed my salon, for the better of our community and for the safety of my clients and staff. Like so many others, I had no idea what was to come, I was just trying to be a good person! Within a couple days we were slammed with emails pouring in from brides and then the news of the mandatory closing of my salon, until further notice.

I think I was on auto-pilot for a week straight, just trying to grasp this new reality. I had thoughts of this possibly being blown up into something bigger than it was. Quickly that rationality was wiped away as the days went on and the news came out. This was pretty bad. People were suffering and on so many different levels.

My emotions kicked in around day 8 of being home. I broke down. Am I going to lose everything I worked for? Will I be able to carry my salon through this time, until my girls can get back to work?

Thank God, I have been in great communication with some amazing women in this industry. Stylists & artists, coming together to just support one another, share, worry, pump each other up, laugh and vent. It really helped me, but it also opened my eyes to a few things.

1) There are far more really good people in my industry, than I even realized. From being burned so many times, I have built these walls, thinking there was not a lot of people that thought like me; people who wanted to help one another and support one another, without gain.

2) Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that do not know how to protect themselves in situations like COVID and structure their businesses in a way that will carry the through the hard times. There also isn’t a whole lot of information readily available to us, to even gain this knowledge.

3) We don’t see how far we have come, until we are forced to look back. That realization, is what prompted me to do this timeline.

I organize when I am happy, I organize when I have anxiety, I organize when I am bored…it has always been my stress relief! Today I decided to organize my folders for my contracts. I always keep hard copies of contracts from all the years I have been in business. Sure, some have just gotten tossed along the way, but for the most part I have them all. I have this plan to separate them by year and file them away. Anyway, it made me clearly see the growth I have had over the years. You can even see the dip in growth in 2018 when I had to stop working because I was sick. It made me realize that people need to know growth is not easy. It hurts, there set backs…I call it business related growing pains or BRGP lol. The outcome of growing pains is always growth! That’s what you want! Here is mine.

2014-2020…even with everything that has happened 2020 has already far surpassed every other year I was in business. I know we will all come out of this stronger than ever!!

Here is a glimpse of my journey to get to where I am. I still have so far to go, so much to learn and I know there are people doing way better then I am, but this is still growth. No matter the hardships or set backs, we must always keep pushing forward.

In 2012 when my first daughter was 6 weeks old I left my job at a salon I loved…thats when I had this idea to start this on location bridal company. There wasn’t that many people doing this at the time. Brides were still coming into the salon for these services. If there were people going on location, it was all individual freelance artists and stylists doing it on the side. Rarely anyone did this full time back then.

In 2013 I realized no one was going to look out for me and I had to look out for myself. That was a great disappointment, but taught me to take more chances and protect myself a lot more…make myself legit.

In 2014 I opened my first salon with my mom. I also walked away from one of my best friends from childhood and never spoke to her again. The last thing she said to me was that I was unprofessional and my business would never make it. That burned in me so deeply, that I was determined to not fail, no matter what it took. I was also diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease & rheumatoid arthritis late that year, I just felt so sick and that motivation was hard to maintain. I was just so worn out. I kept pressing forward. I kept telling myself, it didn’t matter how long it took me. What mattered was that I did not give up.

In 2015 I was pregnant with my second daughter and my salon was not doing well at all. Money was tight and all my profit from my bridal company was keeping my salon afloat, my mom and I were not agreeing on things...I was struggling. Any one that did help me during that time I paid to help me and at the end of the day, I was basically working for nothing. It was tough. Many times people told me to sell the salon.

In 2016 I worked 7 days a week. Literally. With two babies at home and my husband was working so hard trying to climb the ladder at his job. I felt like that year was a blur. I feel like looking back on that time, I was desperate to prove people wrong. I was so close to losing everything and that desperation fueled me to just give it everything I had in me. It cost me a lot of time with my kids…days I worked with the baby on me and my toddler next to me and nights I just never slept.

In 2017 I hired management to help, for my salon and Bridal Rush. I saw greater profits that year and instead of taking the money, I put it into the help I needed. We moved into our second home and I felt like we were finally getting somewhere, but although Bridal Rush was growing, my salon was still struggling. I made the choice to buy my mom out and take sole ownership. It also took any burden off her and I was going to give it one final go or I was selling. 

In 2018 I got pregnant again with my third girl. I get really bad Hyperemesis each time I am pregnant, but this time it was so bad I had to stop working for months. I saw the least amount of growth that year, because I had to step away so much. It also gave me a lot of time to think. I realized that I was working to please everyone else. I had to stop. I had to think of myself and what was best for me. As soon as I was physically able to get back to work, I was ready for change.

In 2019 I was determined to make every change necessary to only have the right people working for me/with me, to invest my money only in the things that would help me grow and help me make the most of my time. I hired full time management, I retired from doing cuts and color to make more time to manage my own businesses. We saw the greatest amount of growth last year. I had to make a lot of tough decisions, that in turn, helped me grow tremendously. If you keep your heart in the right place, then you can stand by your choices no matter what. 

2020 started out as my best year yet. I felt like I finally reaped the reward of years of hard work. I would say to my husband, is this even real right now? I had the team I dreamed of. Amazing women all working together, no greed, no competition. Just really good, honest people that I get to do what I love with. My salon was doing so well and my bridal company booked the same amount of weddings in the first month that took me the entire year to book my first and second years in business.

So you can imagine how the wind was quickly knocked from my sails this last week. Myself along with so many others in my industry. All of us torn between feeling so bad for our brides, so bad for people getting sick, but also so afraid for ourselves. What would we all do with months of no work? How would we make it?

I was shook last week rebooking my events, but tonight when I was organizing, yet again lol, I saw something amazing...growth. I had set backs, I had really hard times over the years, but I pushed forward no matter what. We all can do that. As scary and as hard as this is, we must be sensitive to the reality of this situation, but we have to remain hopeful. 2020 is still my best year and it’s not nearly over and it is not over for any of you! Bridal Rush, my salon, my team…we will come out of this stronger then ever! I know so many of my friends will too! When good people come together, amazing things happen. There is growth in numbers...power in positivity and we must always believe there is a perfect plan for our lives. A plan for us to prosper, a plan for us to have a great future. So for now…try and stay healthy, pray for those that are sick and those that are putting themselves on the line every day to help them and enjoy this time at home with family. Eventually everything will all be okay again. Sometimes we need reality to hit us, to really appreciate the lives we live and the people we get to share them with.

We have to stay hopeful and bring positivity to everyone xo