We were lucky to catch up with Aryah Manor-Lair recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aryah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.
Being a new business owner, I believe that within itself is the risk! I also believe that where there is no risk, there is no reward. I have been in business for myself since I was 21, I am now 23 soon to be 24 years old. The first step to knowing I was headed toward taking a risk was realizing that at my last semester of my sophomore year of college, my retail job wasn’t paying me much of anything. I asked myself, “Am I not managing my money correctly, or am I just not being paid enough?” Two and a half years later I have my answer, I wasn’t being paid enough! In the midst of my decision making, I took a leap of faith and took a hair class and I’m here today still in business and in good faith that I will continue to elevate as well as press forward. Taking this risk wasn’t easy but with God and perseverance my business will make the 3 year mark in March!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Well as you may know by now, I’m Aryah – the business owner of The Manor Effect. I am also a 2023 Magna Cum Laude graduate from the Illustrious Texas Southern University. Growing up as a girl I’ve always gotten my hair done and of course, I fell in love with the process, but I never knew I would be behind the chair one day like the ladies I always witnessed growing up. I got into the business and my interest pointed towards ponytail services only and now I’ve grown into weave services such as quick weaves and natural services such as silk presses. As mentioned in my previous article, customer service is the number one ingredient that’ll make or break your business, and with my southern hospitality it has carried my business! Sadly enough, this is what clients complain about the most, how they’re being treated as well as having their time respected and where there’s a problem, I want to be the solution. When booking with The Manor Effect, you will be serviced at your appointed time and communicated with, we don’t do the “Hey boo!” cancellation text over here! I take pride in giving great customer service because why not? It’s easy and it makes the space comfortable for my client as well as me. I want all the ladies to know that in my chair there’s nothing but love and respect.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Starting a business sometimes means starting with nothing whether that’s capital, no location to run the business, or just nothing at all – from scratch. I was the “no capital” business starter but it didn’t stop me. I planned to stay at my job for about two more months before quitting to save money just for myself because I knew I wouldn’t start off booked and busy. No one does! Some weeks I’ll only have 2-3 clients and I was okay with that because I knew that wouldn’t be my story forever. So here I am today still in business because of my willingness to press through the fears of being a new business owner starting from scratch.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
There weren’t too many things to unlearn when I started but there was something I had to learn and that was effective communication. I noticed early on that the way I was communicating with my clients wasn’t conducive for everyone, so I had to change. I adjusted the way clients booked, I added a site, a hotline to text them directly and so that they can text me and I also have a business email. All these forms of communication put trust in me from my clients concerning my offerings and customer service. Ever since I’ve learned this lesson, I am organized at all times and my clients don’t have to run in circles trying to communicate with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://themanoreffect.as.me/
- Instagram: Themanoreffect
Image Credits
Graduate photo: @dmbphotography96