We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fantasia Pettway. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fantasia below.
Alright, Fantasia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think in order to be successful you have to have a vision , once you understand and see your vision , you have to set goals and complete them! Since my first day of hair school i knew i wanted to be a salon owner! Patience was the key and no matter what to keep pushing ! The pandemic felt like a set back put thats when i put my faith in God and took the leap ! And now im coming up on 3 years of being a salon owner !
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is fantasia pettway. I an 32 years old and I knew at a young age thats i wanted to pursue a hair career! At the age of 6 years old my mother bought me a play-set that was a salon chair and station and she would sit there a pretend to let me do her hair. She always told me she knew i was going to be in the hair industry ! I could not keep my hands out of a baby doll head or my two younger sisters heads(my personal mannequin heads lol) then as i became a teen (11-14) i would set up shop during the summer time and braid all the kids hair on the block on the front porch for 5$ -10$ . When i got to high school i decided my jr and senior year i wanted to go to scarlet oaks vocational school where i graduated with my high school diploma and my cosmetology license. Next chapter in life was college but i never finished because all i did was hair out my dorm room! After 1 year in college i came home and went into my first salon Studio 914 i worked there for 2 years were i learned a-lot and set my foundation today as a hair stylist ! My first year in the salon i worked another job to help pay bills until i built a full clientele, that was one of my difficult times in the hair industry, me working a third shift job then going in to the salon after working all night sitting there waiting on walk-ins was draining but all worth it Because i was able to build a full clientele within a year ! That let me know consistency is the key ! After 2 years there i worked at Refuge Salon for 7 years as a booth renter and that was home for me and help me find my self as a stylist and see my vision of becoming a salon owner and how i wanted my salon to be and also showed me hard work and determination pays off! 11 years later my buisness is still going and survived a pandemic (barley but we made it) All my clients i have met thru the years have made all the obstacles worth it … From seeing little girls smile being happy from there first experience at salon …. to seeing my brides cry on their wedding day feeling beautiful ! But honestly the best feeling is when they tell my IamTasia.P Hair Studio is their safe place and they can come relax and unwind !
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective way for growing my clientele was Social media!
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
So i do have a all natural hair growth oil that i make by hand. I choose to make by hand Becuase i wanted certain ingredients and with me being a small buisness i could not afford to manufacture my oil yet but know that my sales are growing i will be reaching out to a couple a product companies because i eventually would like them all over hair stores in ohio!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.iamtasiaphair.com
- Instagram: @iamtasia.p
- Facebook: @iamtasia.p
- Linkedin: Fantasia pettway