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

Alright, China thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

One of the best things I’ve done for my clients is show my appreciation for hard working mothers by having a free Hair Style Giveaway. I wanted to give some love to some special ladies to let them know that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed and I want to do these giveaways every year. What I do for all my clients though to show I appreciate them is simply listen to any of their concerns and/or wants and strive to achieve what they want while keeping their hair healthy and always doing it with love.

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 am from Inglewood, California and a mother of two beautiful girls. I’ve always been a go getter and hard worker with an entrepreneurial spirit that I feel I inherited from my parents and grandparents. After high school, I went to school for a few different things, but once I started Cosmetology school I knew that was the place for me. I became a Licensed Cosmetologist in 2015 and in 2017 started my own salon, The Hair Bar of Beverly Hills, in a salon studio in Beverly Hills. My specialty, especially in Beverly Hills, is styling and taking care of textured hair. Although I style EVERY texture, I feel like I’m one of the very few hair stylist in the area who focuses on making sure the textured women are taken care of also. In 2020, the lockdown caused me to focus on another idea I had which birthed my company The Hair Bar Collection. It is my line of titanium flat irons, heat resistant mats and parting combs. Business has been great thus far and it brings a lot of joy to not only make my clients and customers happy but also be proud of my self for everything I’ve accomplished so far. But for me, the hard work is never done because I always strive for more and want to keep hitting new success goals.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think a few different things helped build my reputation. I believe it’s my skill, hard work and love for my career and clients, but also the energy and space I provide in my salon. Some people don’t understand how the energy you put out and aura is everything. A client would rather go to a stylist that really cares for their needs and makes them feel good in the inside over someone with a bad and careless attitude who makes them feel like an annoyance, no matter how sought out a stylist may be. So I make sure to not only keep my skill up and keep learning new ways to do that but also appreciate my clients for supporting and trusting me.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell The Hair Bar Collection products on my site TheHairBarCollection.com and on Amazon. My actual site is set up through Shopify. I recommend it to most people for selling products, they are user friendly and easy to figure out if you’re computer savvy and if not, their help section can pretty much guide you through everything. Amazon is little harder and requires more documentation when selling your own brand of products. I’m still working on building my presence there. From my experience selling on Amazon, is if you’re comfortable sending your products to them so that it can be considered prime, you will most likely start to see sales a lot faster than self shipping. One, because prime is free shipping and two, your products will show up sooner on a search page. Although I’ve had some sales, I have not sent my products to them because I feel like I’m still figuring out the ins and outs of Amazon. I do want to mention that they do have help guides and videos as well. This is why as a business owner, I still feel like there’s always more to learn to better your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: thehairbarofbeverlyhills.mysalononline.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thehairbarofbeverlyhills
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHairBarBeverlyHills
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thehairbarofbeverlyhills
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/oRWIGsf1eo
• TikTok: TheHairBarOfBeverlyHills
• Other: TheHairBarCollection.com Instagram.com/thehairbar_collection