We recently connected with Alisa Gull and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alisa, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of my business is Beautiful U. I picked that name, because the reason I got into this industry to help people feel beautiful. There is nothing more beautiful then cutting or coloring someone’s hair, because for the first time in over a year they had time to do something for themselves. And when they look in the mirror, and feel beautiful for the first time, that’s why I do what I do. So I named my Salon Beautiful U.

Alisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I was a senior in high school, I realized I needed to get a little more focused on what I wanted to do. I explored options from working for the FBI, to a librarian. My father asked me if I ever considered doing hair, and the more I looked into it, and the more research I did the more I knew that doing hair is what I wanted to do. I had this dream in my head of a place that I could work and be a Mom at the same time. Now may years later, I own my own hair salon in small town America, pop 800. I have a room in the back for my kids, so I don’t have to chose between staying at home, and working. When My husband and I first bought the place my kids were 4&5. They have grown up their. I had a third kid in 2020. She does everything there.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I would have to say the hardest year for my business was 2020. The government shut all salons down as an unnecessary to stay open doing the pandemic. So even though my business was closed, and I couldn’t generate any income, I still had bills to pay for the business. Mortgage payments, utilities, insurance, etc… Then the day before the government was going to let me open again, my baby was born 2 months early. So for an additional 10 weeks, I was traveling a round trip of 100 miles every day to visit my baby in the NICU. This meant I still couldn’t work, or I would run the risk of getting sick, and not being able to visit my baby in the hospital. Doing this time, I had to put a lot of things on the credit card, towards the end, I would come in and work for about 5 hours a week, just to make a little income. Things were incredibly hard, but I just kept hanging on, one day at a time. At the very end of the year I was able to qualify for a grant that helped pay off a lot of the credit card debt, the rest I just payed off as I could.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my business has hands down been great customer service. In a small town you live and die by your reputation. I knew, that I had to have the best customer service every single time, if I was going to make it. People talk about your business all the time, and I wanted to make sure they only had good things to talk about. I also did a lot of service in the community, help out with the library things like that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beautiful-u.biz