We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kassandra Chavez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kassandra below.

Kassandra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I were to start over, one of the things I would do differently would be to educate myself more on how to become a successful independent stylist and truly believe in myself. In beauty school, they don’t teach you how to really work for yourself successfully. They encourage you to work as an assistant for 2 years and then maybe you can start working as a booth renter or commission based stylist at a salon. That is exactly what I pictured my career to be when I graduated. Little did I know, I had so much more potential than that. I would’ve been able to become an independent stylist a lot sooner if I would’ve just believed in myself more and did my research on how to become a successful independent stylist rather than how to work for someone else whether it was as a booth renter or commission based stylist.

Kassandra, 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?

My name is Kassandra Billiet Chavez, my Instagram is @kassyblends. I have been doing hair for almost 4 years now. I came into the beauty industry in 2018, with little knowledge about hair to be honest. Before that, I had just graduated with my Criminal Justice degree in hopes of becoming a Probation Officer or CPS Agent. Things turned around real quickly and I went to beauty school soon after and I fell in love with it. Right after beauty school I started working at a few salons that I just couldn’t fit into. One of my closest friends pushed me to going on my own but I was too scared. She believed in me more than I believed in myself. An incident then happened at the salon I was working at that I finally made the decision to move into a salon studio with my friend. At that moment, I had to hustle more than ever because I didn’t have a backup job and I was not getting paid hourly or have walk-ins anymore. I was only 6 months fresh out of beauty school with only a small clientele. I started using Instagram to my advantage by posting consistently, I did giveaways, hair service promotions, left business cards everywhere, and went to a few education classes. I took in every client I could at whatever time of the day. There were times where I wouldn’t finish until almost midnight. I would be exhausted but at the same time I became more consistent and obsessed with the craft. One of my favorite services that I provide are definitely hair transformations. I love the correcting, lightening, foil work, formulating, and seeing the results and the happiness it brings my clients after the work is finished.

I am so proud on how far I’ve come in a short period of time and the amazing people I have met along the way. I am happy I get to do something that I love and make people feel and look beautiful!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think one of the things that has helped me build my reputation in my career in a short amount of time is my craft but most importantly I feel like it is also my work ethic. Being on time for your clients, reliable, organized, making your clients feel welcomed, being kind at all times, and having good communication with your clients play a huge role on being able to run a small business successfully. I also think I am blessed with such an amazing and kind clientele on top of all that.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients has definitely been Instagram. I think about 90% of my clientele are from Instagram. When I ask my clients how they found me on Instagram, they either say through hashtags, people sharing my work, or even through just the explore page. Instagram is honestly a huge part of my career. It’s a great place to post your work for everyone to see. I suggest to use it to your advantage now that we’re are living in the Social Media age.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Kassyblends