We were lucky to catch up with Chrishara Richardson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chrishara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I got the vision to start a hair company back in 2016. I did not know anything about the hair industry. I did some research on Youtube, Tiktok did not exist then. I took away what I thought was great to start. That was make a $600 investment on selling hair. Without proper knowledge, marketing, or resources I did not make a return on that investment. I gave up for four years. The vision came back to me and I moved from Mississippi to Florida to attend cosmetology school. What most do not tell you while in cosmetology school you need a steady income and a great support system. I did not have either so it was really hard for me. A little backstory I was a Pre’K teacher making $1,000 a month in Mississippi. I could not do that anymore. I moved to Florida with my mom. My first job was only paying $12 an hour, I was 25 years old living with mom. She wanted me to have my own, so while I was in cosmetology school I was on a tight timeline and budget. I couldn’t seem to find a job that would pay me enough and work around my school hours. So I did what some people would call “hustle ”. My initial start was posting on Facebook Groups.I started marketing that I was doing a popular hairstyle for only $50. I got a couple clients from Facebook groups. I drove all around Florida doing hair for only $50. I did hair outside on my moms porch,inside my bedroom of my moms house. I even did hair at my aunts house. Three things I did every time no matter the location I provided: Great customer service, I was always professional, I was prepared, on time, with those things I accumulated a small consistent clientele, Business so going great while in cosmetology school I was not expecting twists and turns. A few months later my car transmission. I had to drop out of school, this crushed my dreams. I got unmotivated and fell into a depression. By the grace of God I gained motivation back in a few months. I applied to cosmetology school and made a post on Facebook. I was looking for a model. I received a message from a Salon asking me to work there. I was so happy considering the months of sadness I went through to recieve a opportunity like this. She told me my work looked great. I took a leap of faith and I started my journey of building clientele. I originally started off with about 5 clients. The first thing I did was record content from all 5 clients. I started growing gradually. Business was slowly increasing. I went from 1 to 2 clients to 2 to 3 clients a day. I was so happy with the growth. Things were finally looking up. I was back in school and my clientele was growing. I had 2 clients before sc
hool one day when I went outside to crank my car it wouldn’t crank. I began to cry because things were going so well and here I am again with car trouble. I took a Uber to the salon. My clients began to see I was dependable. Despite my circumstance I still came in to do hair. I found out later that week that my car could not be fixed. I cried so much because I had to quit school again. Uber would be expensive but hair was providing me with a little extra income so I could not give up on it. In that situation I learned life will get hard but you have to figure it out and keep going. I am a woman of prayer, I believe prayer works. I had to uber to the salon for about 2 months and I had a positive attitude about it after crying. I was grateful that my clientele was growing through consistently posting and I at least had the money to Uber. Before I knew it I was blessed with a check from school due to Covid. I was able to get a car and start back school. One I started back can you believe I caught Covid not once but twice. I did not let that stop me. I sat out for 14 days and went back to finish. On this journey I was without transportation, no support system, lost 2 family members, and caught Covid twice. I did not give up.

How I scaled up?

Earlier I mentioned how I started posting in Facebook groups and I provided great customer services. I made a few mistakes when it came to customer service. I lacked communication skills and bookkeeping was terrible. I forgot days I booked clients and I would have them outside of my house waiting. I put partying and fun before my business and when life hit and I needed the extra funds I instantly regretted it.

Learning from my mistakes I took a professional route to run my business. I stayed on top of bookkeeping, I communicated everything I put my business first.

While working in the salon I had about 5 clients that stuck with me. When they came in I recorded content for instagram. Instagram was/is very important to me growing. I recorded great quality videos. Those videos drew clients to me. Social media is essential to drawing customers in.I stayed consistent with posting and reaching out to my target audience. It was hard to post every day but my business was a priority. Even though social media was drawing clients to me I had to ensure my clients would come back. I made sure my customer service was 5 stars . I always worked in fast food where customer services wa key. Sonic Drive inn was one of my high school jobs. Getting tips was key so I applied to my business. I also used to work at ChicFilA I carried that over as well. I implemented consistently posting on Instagram along with great customer service. Clientele began to grow, I finally got finished with cosmetology in September 2022. By January 2023 I was leasing my own salon suite. It was a scary step but I did it.

Consistency is one of the biggest strategies I’ve added to scale my business to go to the next level. The next thing was prioritizing my business. I had to miss out on a lot of “fun” to go to the salon to do hair but once I did I started to enjoy it. Being creative was another big strategy. It’s a lot of businesses out here being creative that allow me to stand out. Professionalism also went a long way my clients really appreciated the professional tone.

I’ve had many rainy days on this journey but I endured the pain, got back up each time it got hard, stayed consistent with the tools I was taught and led me to fully booked books and a salon suite.

Chrishara, 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?

I was in college about to graduate in 2017 I did not know what to do with my life, I had teacher who told me to be a teacher, I had an advisor whom told me to write down what I wanted in a career he told me start a business I thought this was nuts. I heard this video on Facebook about starting a hair business. I knew nothing about so I took the teaching route. I taught Pre-K for 3 years and found myself under Paid and miserable. I took a leap of faith to move to Florida and start cosmetology school. I’m now a healthy hair stylist and a salon owner. I help clients who have damaged hair obtain their hair goals to have long healthy hair, My clients leave my chair feeling great about their natural healthy hair. The thing that makes me the happiest is clients coming in knowing their hair is not in the best condition but leaving out feeling confident about their hair cut. Trusting me that their is going to grow back healthier and longer is the best part of this journey. I also provide my clients with products to take home to make sure they are taking care of their hair at home.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social Media is a large platform to grow on especially with many competitors. I started a new business page in 2021. I had around 10 followers with family and friends. I started posting a few pictures of my dolls from cosmetology school, I did not get very many views. I started scrolling on Instagram and I noticed reels were getting popular. I made my first reel. I got a few views. I did some research on reels. I started using very specific hash tags and I got few more views. I then began to get creative with my reels and I started filming content from beginning to end with a good cover photo. My content then Began started to bring in views and customers. From there I posted every single day until I could not bring in any more clients. My advice would be invest in a ring light. Lighting is very important when making content. Start filming content. It’s very important to get the beginning and the end. Center alignment is recommended and focusing on the product will sell. Great content sells.

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

Doing hair was definitely started off as a side hustle for me. I moved from Mississippi to Florida knowing no one. I was working from Home making $16 a hour. I started gaining a few clients from Facebook groups. I set up a portion in my living room to do hair. I always tried to provide the best service. I was prepared, on time, my tools were clean, and I let pick whether they wanted to watch tv or listen to music. From there, I was given a chance to work in a salon. With that opportunity I was able to provide a better experience for my clients. With consistently posting on Facebook groups and making Instagram reels. I was slowly pulling in clients. I noticed that doing 1 or 2 clients a day equaled up to the amount and even more that I was making from my work from home job. I started writing out my bills and how much I made monthly from my work from home. I made a goal and I saw how many clients I needed to make my paycheck. With consistently posting and providing great services I quit my 9 to 5 job. The biggest part of making your side hustle to your main hustle is all numbers. Writing down the numbers helped me. I’m a visual learner so seeing the actual numbers helped me. Once I found that out. I had to find the strategy to bring in those numbers. I saw Instagram was helping me. Anytime a customer can in I asked them how did you find me, and they would tell me. While doing hair I kept telling myself I am not just a hair stylist I am a business owner. Implementing marketing was the next part to take my side hustle to my main hustle.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: cece_collections