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

Bria, appreciate you joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Through the support of my friends and family, I was able to start my business. I believe that when you’re able to reach out to your circle of influence before starting your business, they can support you through it. Growing up, I did all my friends’ hair – from doing sew-ins in their bedrooms after school to getting them glam-ready for prom; I was the neighborhood stylist. In college, I donated my services to fundraising programs. For a long time before starting my hair business, I worked for free with my friends and family to build a reputation. Luckily, they always came back and recommended me to many people they knew. They believed in me because I believed in myself.
Once I started my business and officially set prices, I did lose a few frequent visiting family and friends, but I knew that would come. It wasn’t hard for me to accept that some people were just too comfortable getting services for free, and they didn’t want to pay the full price of my services. And that’s okay! Some friends and family are not your target audience. Because I refrained from offering discounts, my clientele grew tremendously with clients who were willing to pay the price. So my advice to anyone is once you get serious about your business and set your prices, don’t change them until you’ve built a clientele that is willing to support you and pay your price. They are out there!

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

My name is Bria Ball. I am a 24-year-old entrepreneur from Delaware and a graduate of a small HBCU, Delaware State University. In 2020, I started my hairstyling business on my college campus after years of doing hair for friends and family. I finally decided to fully step into entrepreneurship. During that year, I set up my business to cater to young, busy women who needed help caring for their natural hair.

At an HBCU, students wear a variety of hairstyles, but at that particular time, I didn’t see any hairstylists servicing the natural hair community. I wanted to fill that gap and be that stylist for those with curly natural hair. And I did. In January 2020, I started my Instagram page, Pressed.hd, at a student-owned business fair on campus. Students were able to showcase their businesses and offer their products and services. Before that day, I didn’t have an Instagram account, but I gathered pictures and videos of hair I had done recently and advertised my services at the fair. Anyone who followed my new page would be entered into a raffle to win a free service. This is how I built a small following in the very beginning.

Currently, I am offering my signature service, the silk press – a smoothing/straightening service for naturally curly hair. I also offer trims, haircuts, and product recommendations for hair health. Through my social media presence, I engage in conversations with my following about how to keep their hair healthy, and I equip my clients with the information and products they need to maintain healthy hair beyond their visit.

Years went by, and I graduated from Delaware State University in 2022 with a full book of loyal clientele. Social media played a tremendous role in the initial stages of my business. I grew organically as my followers shared my page and posts. Additionally, I ran ads on Instagram, specifically targeting my dream client – a young, busy woman in the Delaware area interested in beauty. Social media not only brought me Delaware clients but also clients from surrounding states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. By 2022, I was servicing clients from at least four different states.

What I am most proud of in my business growth is the number of clients who returned after their first visit. There weren’t many who didn’t come back. Many of their testimonials mention that they haven’t been to a professional who took such great care of their hair. I am proud to say that I take my clients’ hair care very seriously – it’s one of the core missions behind my business. Hair care is what I’m truly passionate about, and my ability to convey that through my services has been the number one reason for my success behind the chair.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Doing hair was a side hustle for me starting out; I was in college and just wanted to do hair for some extra cash. My side hustle turned into a full-time business when I started reinvesting my profits into growth. I got serious about expanding my Instagram presence, ensuring that I connected with my audience by directly talking with them and holding Q&As. As a result, my Instagram account grew organically. I also ran ads specifically targeting young women in my area to showcase my work to them.

I remember reaching a point where I felt I had the knowledge, but I wanted to sharpen my technique. I followed master stylists who were passionate about teaching new stylists. I frequently took their classes, attended webinars, and invested in exclusive training. In 2021, I came across an ATL stylist named Shee, who would soon become my mentor. She offered an extensive training program for stylists that spanned over the course of 3 months. During this period, she focused on developing me personally, and we practiced a lot of personal development and learned how to set up a legitimate beauty business. The program covered topics such as business credit, taxes, and setting prices for my services. Thanks to this mentorship and the knowledge and confidence it gave me, I was able to significantly raise my prices and attract more clientele to my business. I always recommend new stylists to find a mentor they can trust to guide them in setting up their business properly and ultimately set them up for success. To do that, sometimes you have to put yourself out there and ask for mentorship. I didn’t always have success when reaching out to master stylists I wanted to learn from, but the act of putting yourself out there will get you closer to the right mentor. Don’t give up!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Many people don’t know this about me, but I had never been to cosmetology school until after I had built a full clientele. While in college, I wanted to quit to go to cosmetology school because I had started doing hair, and I knew I wanted to pursue it as a career. However, I didn’t want to give up on my business degree, so I stayed enrolled in college and ultimately graduated with a bachelor’s in Business Management, of which I am very proud.

Upon graduating undergrad, I faced the reality that I needed to go to cosmetology school and become licensed if I really wanted to pursue my dream of owning a salon. Another reality I had to face was that I no longer desired to live in Delaware. I had grown up there, pursued my undergrad in Delaware, and was ready for a change. The opportunity to relocate to Raleigh, NC arose a few months before college graduation, and I applied to Paul Mitchell School of Raleigh. I got accepted, moved to Raleigh weeks after graduating college, and started cosmetology school shortly after moving in. Things were moving fast for me, but let’s talk about what a major pivot in my business this was.

I had built my social media presence as a Delaware stylist, and I had clients traveling to see me. I felt like I had just reached the peak of my career. When I factored in the year it would take me to finish cosmetology school, I felt like I was taking several steps back in my career – leaving my clients, moving states away, and having to start completely over. Regardless of how daunting it seemed, I knew it was the next step for my career. I did it scared, and now I have completed a year-long cosmetology program at Paul Mitchell School of Raleigh, and I am committed to restarting my career as a hairstylist in the Raleigh area, with hopes of opening my own salon within the next 5 years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Pressed.hd
• Facebook: Pressed.hd
• Youtube: Pressedhd
• Other: Tik Tok: pressed.hd