We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alysia Holmes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alysia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

It all started when I took my own hair seriously, as far as its health and maintenance of it. I received many compliments from various people during my high school and college years. The compliments expanded to receiving numerous questions on hair care. I was taken aback and appalled that people were coming to me asking and wanting them to do their hair. People wanted tutorials on my hairstyles via Instagram and YouTube. Covid-19 came, and it came hard. During 2020, many businesses shut down. The significant number of closures across the United States affected a lot of people receiving goods and services. In reference to that, I started doing hair as a side business, but I wanted to take my talents to the next level. I decided to create a YouTube page and provide natural hair content on my Instagram. I saw how those hobbies were taking off and decided I needed to take another step and create a business out of this success. So, with much thought and process, I decided to work on the name and logo first. I wanted to at least start the process of how I wanted my business to lay out. Lysii_hairstyles was created from my name, “Alysia.” I also decided to not limit myself. Because of this, I include hairstyles at the end of the business name. The business name and logo were not necessarily, difficult. Creating the website and services I would provide for my business became a small challenge, I must say. I wanted to make sure my website stood out from others and that my prices for my services made my clients feel comfortable to pay. Creating my own business and finalizing it took several months to a year; I wanted to make sure that this was something I wanted to pursue moving forward. I also had to be confident I had consistent clients who enjoyed and liked my work enough to pursue this business. With consistency and pursuit, I launched my hair business, in August of 2022!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My hair business specializes in natural hair services for women and men such as two strand twists, braids, and cornrows. I provide faux loc extension and braiding services as well for women. My business is known for authenticity. I am charismatic to my clients to ensure they have the best experience. This is not to benefit me personally, but to show and brighten their day in any way I can. This is the brand I am most proud of. I am content that I was able to create a logo, brand, and business out of something I like to do for others in general. I offer low costs hairstyles because I am still learning. I never want people to feel uncomfortable paying a large lump sum for a hairstyle. My services are affordable and well-crafted for my clients.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing clientele is the passion to offer hairstyles to clients has been an effective strategy for expanding my personal clientele. I believe in being intentional with what I do in my business because it helps to show my clients the passion and devotion I have so that they can continue to come back and receive hair services. Another outlook to helping grow my clientele is my hair page on Instagram and providing my own business website for my hair page. I believe that having a professional avenue of something you create or are passionate about helps to bring clientele as well.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I first started my business, I moved to a new environment. I did not think my business would take off or bring in clientele. Instead of becoming more discouraged than I already was, I decided to work on my business website and my social media content. I worked on establishing specific hair services for my clients and posted hair videos on my social media to advertise more. I created fliers to post on my social media and told people around me about my business. I really focused on advertising and saw some people were taking of interest. I asked other people with similar avenues what helped them to grow their businesses. I told them what I was in the process of creating currently, and they gave me some tips to keep growing my business. The two takeaways I received from those conversations I had with other business owners; were consistency and devotion. Consistency; means being able to make time to assist people and my own clientele. I would say; staying consistent helped to build my audience because people saw the magnitude of dedication I have toward my business. The second concept I took from the conversations was devotion. Devotion comes into play after consistency because with consistency comes loyalty. To expand a business, I had to be faithful to my clients as much as possible, so they could see the charisma in me and be comfortable enough to come back. It is not just about the services you can provide for your audience or clientele. It is also about how consistent and faithful you are as a business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.styleseat.com/m/v/lysii_hairstyles
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lysii_hairstyles/