Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashlie Sutton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ashlie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I did hair professionally for 14 years and heard the same version of complaints from the majority of my mom clients. Haircuts were inconvenient, it was tricky to fit them in to an already busy schedule, they were expensive, and all around not a good experience. As a mom of 4 I totally understood and related to what they were saying. I was passionate about a few things but nothing felt right when I stepped in that direction to take it further. I loved making memories with my kids, I love budgets and finding frugal ways to buy and do the things we want to do, and I was pretty dang good at doing hair. I remember when I realized that I could marry them all together. I could teach how to give cool home haircuts and in turn give other families the opportunity to save for the fun stuff and create memories with their people. Even if someone had 3 kids they could potentially save $60-$100 bucks a month and as a mom how fun would it be to have an “extra” few bucks to go to the movies, get ice cream, but kids baseball cleats, etc. At this point I was pretty sure the idea would work but it was still unknown. I ended up doing a national survey and asked a series of questions to test the level of interest and to find pain points. When the data came back I knew it was going to be solid. The pain points were so real and relatable and being in their exact shoes I was able to create something that would genuinely help solve their problems. This idea was so unique and no one was doing it which meant I didn’t have a blue print to follow. I just kept thinking of what I would like as a mom of 4. Not having another business definitely had its challenges and also made it so I could create this system exactly how I wanted to.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Ashlie Sutton and the creator of The Haircut Box which is a box full of salon quality hair cutting tools and instrucitons to teach you how to give cool haircuts at home. Our boxes have everything you need from high end clippers and trimmers, scissors and texturing shears, cape and water bottle, and even step by step instructions. We set you up for success by having the correct tools for your haircut to look good plus we have broken down multiple haircuts into very do-able steps. We know you want your kids to look cool and we want them to look cool also. We are changing the home haircut game. I have taken my 14 years of hair knowledge and put it in terms that anyone can understand and made haircuts easy. We have thousands of Haircut Box families who are succeeding and quite honestly shocked by how good their home haircuts look. Sure there is a learning curve just with everything but typically it is a very short curve and in no time the haircuts look so good. Yes we teach how to give cool haircuts but our boxes provide so much more. Its a chance for families to decide on something they want to do with the money they are saving–whether its big or small and will actually pay themselves the money after every haircut and watch the money grow until they have reached their goal. I’ve had one mom save enough on haircuts that she was able to take her family on a cruise, one mom uses that money to get her hair done, one mom said they go get ice cream afterwards. Another amazing thing about learning this skill is that you get one on one time with your kids during the haircut. Yes I am so proud of the haircuts that people are giving but even more than that is how they are using this box and skill to literally change their lives.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting and growing a business from the ground up has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I am a mom of 4 very active kids who are involved in a lot of extra curriculars and we love to play as a family and have a full schedule. I would find myself waking up super early and staying up super late just to try to do the things that I needed to do. It felt like I never got a break and since we were just starting out we didn’t have the funds to pay for additional employees. As amazing as the first year was it was also tough adding such a massive load to my already full plate. I remember hearing a statistic about how many businesses failed in the first year and I was determined not to let that happen so I pushed through. I put in the time to grow a solid foundation knowing that because of that I could eventually afford some assistance.

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

A big lesson I learned and am still learning is that we put the most pressure on ourselves and a lot of times it is unnecessary. Being the owner of my own business I determine when we run sales and promotions and deadlines. In the past I’ve set some pretty lofty goals and deadlines which has put stress on me and the business. If we can learn to take the unnecessary stress out of such things the whole business will be more enjoyable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehaircutbox.com
• Instagram: @thehaircutbox
• Facebook: thehaircutbox
• Youtube: thehaircutbox

Image Credits
Clara Stegelmeier