We were lucky to catch up with Antonia Gambrell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Antonia, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

For 19 and a half years I owned a beauty salon name Antonia’s Full Glamour Salon in east memphis, where I created a place of booth rental employment for over 35 individuals in that time span. I always wanted a Salon/Spa where you could get a variety of beauty services all under one roof so in 2016 I took a leap of faith and opened up SUGAR’S Hair Gallery and Spa in Collierville TN. I sold my old beauty salon(Antonia’s Full Glamour Salon) with 6 booth renters and opened up SUGAR’S. I stepped out on faith all by myself not knowing if I would have employees or not to pursue my dream of owning a spa. I jumped and I let God handle the rest. I opened SUGAR’S on December 21, 2016 with 4 employees and went on to hire 12 more employees from 2016-2024. Taking that leap of faith was well worth it ! I didn’t know what the outcome would be but God truly enlarged my territory and has kept me through it all! It was one of the best decisions and business risk I had ever taken and I’m glad I did! Sugar’s is in our 8th year of being opened and I am looking forward to opening many other locations so stay tuned. Trust God and never doubt yourself if you can dream it you can achieve it! Hard work and dedication pays off all the time!

Antonia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, I’m Antonia Gambrell and I grew up in the Whitehaven/ Westwood area where I attended Fairley elementary school and went on to proudly graduate from Westwood High School with the awesome class of 1989. Throughout my school years I excelled academically. In my elementary school years I was a majorette and cheerleader and when I entered junior/high school I played basketball from my 7th – 12th grade year, I had a dance team named the kams and we competed in talent shows all around the mid-south as well as at westwood and we always won first place in any competition we entered in. I was a member of one of the best marching bands in the mid-south (Westwood marching band) for 2 years of which I was in the flag corp. I was the captain of the flag corp my senior year and I won best dancer for our senior class superlatives. I attended State Tech college after graduation for a year and a half studying hotel/restaurant management and became a wife and mother at the age of 19-20 years old. While going to college and being a young wife and mother I developed a friendship with my beautician at that time and we became best friends. I started shampooing for her at her apartment and she developed so many clients that I told her she needed to go to a beauty shop and that my aunt owned one and so she did. I continued to shampoo for her and being around the beauty element I developed a love for it. One night after work we were at her place and she got a shoe box out from the top of her closet and she opened it up and turned it over on the bed and money was everywhere! She began to count her money and I said girl you make this much money doing hair and she said yes at that point I was sold. I said I want to do hair and she told me, girl go to hair school and I will show you how to do hair because you practically doing almost everything now since you have been a shampoo/tech for me it will be easy . At this time I was going through a divorce and living back with my mom me and my son. I told my mom that I no longer wanted to go to college that I wanted to do hair and she said ok I don’t care what you do as long as you do something. So I quit college and enrolled in cosmetology school and that’s where my hair career began. In 1992 I started working at LaShun’s Professional Hair Design and I managed her salon for 5 years . She taught me all about the business side of the beauty industry and in June of 1997 I opened up my first beauty salon Antonia’s Full Glamour Salon in east memphis on knight Arnold rd. In January of 2000 I had my second child (daughter) and moved my location to Winchester rd which I was at that location until December of 2016. On December 21, 2016 Sugar’s Hair Gallery and Spa was born! I have been in the Cosmetology industry for 32 and a half years now and and I have owned my own Beauty Salon business for 27 and a half years now. In those years I also have had other business ventures such as restaurants and trucking companies . Through it all it has been ups and downs, highs and lows, wins and losses but all of these experiences have made me the woman I am today . A much stronger and wiser person that is a risk taker and will be until the end. One thing I have learned on this journey is the importance of great customer service! I pride myself on customer service. We cater to our clients, we pamper them, we have created a pleasing relaxing atmosphere for our clients to come in and take the weight of the world off of their shoulders so they can relax, relate, release and rejuvenate. Sugar’s is a one stop spa. We offer a variety of hair care services natural and relaxed, we have a Infrared Sauna, manicure and pedicure services, facials, a wide variety of massages, eyelash extensions, full body waxing, facial skin tightening, cellulite treatments, eyebrow tinting, make up application, butt and hip enhancements, spa bundles, barber services for men at A Vibe Studio suite. Complimentary snacks, candy, fruit , cheese and crackers, wine, water, coffee, tea and cappuccino. We have been featured in the Tri-state defender news paper and Antonia’s Full Glamour Salon won salon of the year in 1998. I also have my own all natural essential oil line of products. The Sweet Hair Serum helps to grow hair for both men and women (beards included), stops itchy scalp, helps heals eczema and psoriasis, and heal burns. The Ease oil helps with anxiety, stress, headaches, panic attacks, lack of sleep (insomnia) and chronic pain like lupus, multiple sclerosis and etc. These oils were created by me and is sold at SUGARS as well as online at sugarshairandspa.com. My clients will always be a priority and making sure that they are satisfied is a must. My relationships that I have encountered with clients and people in general has sometimes turned into being a therapist (lol) , a listening ear and sometimes just a shoulder to cry on and I wouldn’t change that for nothing in the world because it’s very therapeutic to me and for me. Being able to help others navigate through trials and tribulations in life helps because, as I help them I’m also helping myself! Often that warms my soul at the end of the day knowing that I’ve help lighten someone else’s load in this thing called life. What set’s me a part from others is that I don’t take anything for granted and I don’t take the credit for anything that happens in my life because I know that it’s all GOD! Without God none of this would have been possible. God has kept me and has made plenty of ways out of no ways for me and for this I’m eternally grateful and will always give God all the praise and honor deserved!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

What I had to unlearn in business was to never break your rules and requirements for your business, never desperate hire people and do not promote people to a position if they are not qualified for the position out of loyalty! I’ve learned that if you bend your rules for people they will take your rules and break your rules and when this happens you will lose control of your environment creating a toxic place of employment so never stray away from your rules you have set in place for your business! Require everyone to follow them or replace them immediately before they create a environment you yourself will no longer want to work in ! Never desperate hire people, when you do this you may bring in the wrong person and that person may turn into a cancer at your place of employment and contaminate everyone there and the employees may turn on you and join together with them against you and when this happens it’s over. So never hire people out of desperation. Wait until the right person comes along that’s good for your business position and hire them. Even if it means your business has to struggle for a while get the right person to do the job or you will be miserable and find yourself starting over from scratch. I did both of these and it caused me to have to start over and rebuild and rebrand myself again. Last but not least never promote anyone to a position out of loyalty if they are not qualified for the position. I did this and it was a terrible mistake because they didn’t take the position seriously because we were friends and had been working with each other for the longest out of everyone else, so out of loyalty and trying to build up someone else so I could move forward with multiple locations it back fired on me and cost me my business in the end.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

How I put together the initial funding for my business was saving up my money not spending it on unnecessary things, and using credit cards.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.Sugarshairandspa.com
• Instagram: Sugar’s Hair Gallery & Spa
• Facebook: Sugar’s Hair Gallery and Spa

Image Credits

Bruce Polite