We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kylie Crinnian. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kylie below.

Kylie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

My answer may be controversial to some, but it’s simple: You grind. You hustle. You work until you’re exhausted, and then you push through it. Before I had a family, I never stopped. I hustled every day to build a name for myself in this industry (which took about 8 years). I worked six days a week, took tons of additional education, and when I wasn’t busy behind the chair, I was doing models and practicing using social media to grow my platform. Being a creative business owner, the success with my business is never steady. It’s either really amazing, or it can be tight and that’s just something you have to always be prepared for as a successful owner.

I believe being successful is a job that will never be finished, if I’m being honest. I’m always wanting to grow, whether it’s my mindset, new revenue streams, managing expenses, but at the same time trying not to disturb the quality. Success is subjective depending on who you talk to. For me, when I say I want to hang out with successful people, I mean I want to be surrounded by people who are passionate, real, who don’t let fear dictate their decisions, and who have had to grind to get where they are because those are my people. Success means capitalizing on opportunities and working hard to make opportunities, which I believe is key to success in anything.

I believe in the age of social media, people have this mindset that you get successful overnight and everything is perfect all the time. In reality that’s not it at all. Business is always fluctuating, whether it’s your team, yourself, your sales, your expenses, even how the world is handling a crisis affects how you have to handle your business.

You can have all the money in the world and still be a miserable person. So to be successful in the realist form means: Have a healthy mindset, set processes to help you save money, invest in the right people, invest in your business slowly and stick with your budgets, and get to work and most of all – know it won’t happen quickly. It’s the long game.

Kylie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always wanted to be a hairstylist – nothing else. After a couple years of college, I went to cosmetology school at Paul Mitchell The School, worked for a premier salon in KC, then went to a corporate salon before going out on my own. Fast forward twelve years, I’m now the proud owner of a Palm Springs-inspired salon, Moxie By KC. I built my entire brand on being one of the most sought out curly stylists and that is something that took years of work and sacrifice. On my 30th birthday, my family sat me down and basically forced me out of my two-chair suite and told me to build a salon. In the spring of 2020, Moxie By KC was built and opened after the pandemic shutdowns. Hands down the hardest year of my life…took a lot of grit, drive and a lot of work to get Moxie stable during that time, but we pushed through.

We have been open for two and a half years and I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a short time. In 2020, we had 3 employees; we now have 14 and a boutique! We’re an eight chair, fully custom luxury salon that I designed and built to be beautiful and functional, with an environment that is meant to be both fun and relaxing. We pride ourselves on being a safe, welcoming space for clients and cater to a diverse clientele – many of whom don’t feel comfortable at traditional salons because of prior bad experiences or just not being able to get the service they truly want. With our focus on providing an outstanding experience and service to our clients, it is not unusual to have clients fly in from across the country to see us, which I am incredibly proud of. Many of our clients proudly rave about their hair and where they got it done, which is the highest compliment an artist can receive.

We believe in being a great place to work and that our team’s satisfaction and engagement drives our clients’ happiness. As a result, we have a team that is incredibly close-knit, which is awesome to see in action because it shows itself on the salon floor. We provide industry leading commission to our stylists, ongoing training, incredible educational opportunities, and believe firmly that education and a healthy work environment is good for employees and guests alike.

In short, we’re just a different salon experience.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I love this question! I wish I would have had a mentor when I was building Moxie to give me real advice for this, but I did not have the money for a business coach when I was building. Statistically 80% of salons shut down with 18months of being open. That’s not good odds, when going to a bank and asking for a loan to build. Most banks or lenders will not loan money to small businesses because 50% of small businesses fail within 5 years and 80% of salons close.

To fund Moxie’s buildout, I had a high revenue stream coming in so my software company at the time offered me a loan based on the revenue I brought in. Square Business loaned me 20k, my parents loaned me 32k and a lot of sweat equity, my husband and I both took a massive pay cut for about a year and invested that back into the business, plus used our family’s savings. So my story is not as pretty as someone who may come from money, but it’s the honest truth.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective way to grow a great clientele is narrow down your scope and become the best at what you do. You can’t be great at everything, but you can be great at ONE thing. There’s a reason why sports teams have multiple players doing different jobs. You alone can’t do it all – so find something that you love and you’ll be better at it.

Find your dream clientele – find what they like, find what they want and figure out how to market to that specific client. For me, I know curly girls will travel long and far to have a stylist respect their hair. So, that’s what I became.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.babegotmoxie.com
• Instagram: www.instangram.com/curlsbykc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moxiebykc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2VG-mkNJfnuJP2fyEY31MA
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/moxie-by-kc-gladstone
• Other: Pinterest: https://pin.it/5fnmqRk Google: https://g.page/moxie-by-kc?share

Image Credits
Penelope Sloane Photo Makala Towner Photography