We were lucky to catch up with Desiree’ Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Desiree’, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

Being a business owner is tough, you are literally in charge of everything! Marketing, sales, pricing, customer service, phone calls, emails, and in my field booking and performing appointments. There is no one else there to make any decision for you or for you to turn to when something goes wrong, it all falls on you; the good and the bad! Everyday I get to make my own schedule, pick and choose what type of clients I want to see and services I would like to perform, and I have extreme flexibility by being my own boss and 99.9% of the time I would choose it again day in and day out. However, as of recent I did have an incident where for a split moment I thought that having what one might consider a “normal” or “regular” job would be easier! I had a difficult client that didn’t understand the circumstances of the situation or outcome that we got. She wanted a refund and didn’t understand that was not an option, but I was willing to adjust or fix anything that she was unhappy with completely free of charge. Later it came out that she only wanted the refund and was “unhappy” because she really didn’t have the funds to afford the service she had received and was trying to get it for free. In that moment I felt extremely defeated and wanted to just throw in the towel and “get a job”. I let it get to me for probably about a week. Let’s just say in the beauty industry imposter syndrome is alive and well! After about a week of being extremely hard on myself, some chats with mentors, other industry friends and professionals, my parents, and my partner I realized that I was the professional, I was the one with the knowledge and I was the one who had spent over seventy thousand dollars on my education and business and had tons of others who would pay top dollar to sit in my chair. It was in that moment that I realized how amazing it is that I get to work for myself and run my own business and that I get to set the tone daily of how I am going to earn money! Being able to be your own boss is truly a blessing and I would not trade it for the world.

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.

Oh gosh my story! It’s a long one so buckle up! I am a hairstylist in the Atlanta and North Georgia area with over 15 years of experience and over 9 years of experience educating in the industry. I specialize in blondes, low maintenance or lived in color, low maintenance cuts, and extensions. I also have just started to incorporate scalp therapy and hair restoration services to my menu as I have been seeing a lot of hair loss the last several years and hair health is extremely important to me!

How I landed in the industry was actually a bit of an accident though, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I was in college studying exercise science with once semester left when my financial aide was taken from me. My parents had already paid for four years of my education and I was in my seventh year (can you say career student) I had two degrees and I was unable to get a job as we were starting to head into a recession. I was freaking out I couldn’t finish school and I couldn’t get a job and I was so sad. One night my parents and I were chatting about possible careers and they suggested massage which was an absolute no for me I couldn’t see myself rubbing down bodies, but I immediately thought of hair. I immediately went and toured a Paul Mitchell School the following week and signed up that day! My intentions were to use the money I made doing hair to pay my way through finishing my degree. I had no idea at the time I would fall so in love with it that it would be my life long career. I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to share my love and passion with others and went back to school to get an additional license to educate.

This career has given me amazing opportunities that I never thought possible and brought me amazing relationships and friendships. I have gotten to travel the world and study in Paris and Belgium. I have been able to educate for well known hair brands and in local schools. I have been able to make amazing relationships with growing hairdressers that still to this day reach out and ask for help and are friends. I am multi color line certified, multi method and brand extension certified, Brazilian Blowout and keratin certified, and I am constantly taking classes. I have already taken 5 continuing education classes this year alone. My next adventure is to become a certified tricologist.

I am truly in love with my career and this industry! No day is ever the same! I get to create something beautiful daily, hear stories of happiness and sadness, I get to make people feel beautiful and special. As much as I get to help change lives my clients also truly change mine!!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is hard!! And I honestly am still learning and growing. I am by no means social media famous or a social media guru, but I show up EVERYDAY. I tag local businesses and clients and I always share onto my stories. I also study and learn about the algorithms and what is and is not getting pushed out in front of audiences. And I am always looking at my professional dashboard. I would say for the small following of about 1750 followers that I have I consistently get about 10k reach/looks on my profile every 30 days and almost every post I make gets over 150 looks. I try to post three times a week and when I do post I try to post “carousels” or multi picture posts, add music to my posts, and share my posts to my stories. I also have my accounts set up that everything is cross posted! I would say that by having incorporated all these things I get about 4-5 organic new client reach outs a month. Now I need to start incorporating videos or reels once I do that I know I will skyrocket! But social media is definitely a commitment and a second job, but it’s worth it!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Growing my clientele has all come from social media and word of mouth. You have to put yourself out there, but you also have to ask for the referrals. If people don’t know you want the business they don’t know to share! Start and affiliate or ambassador program, market yourself in local FB groups of allowed! Moms groups have been the number one place I have grown my clientele since Covid!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msha.ke/desireealyshair
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/desireealysoffical
• Other: Products: http://jackwinnpro.com/desireealys