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

Hi Ranay , thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In my opinion it takes passion, hard work , dedication, focus ,and meeting God in the middle to be successful. Over the years I have truly been able to see how these things have affected my business for the better. When I first started Touchedbynay_ it was off of passion. I have a passion for doing hair and making whoever sets foot in my chair know that they are valued and seen ! Doing hair day in and day out consistently talking to new people ,passing out the business cards, posting the promotion flyers and allowing God in all contributed to how I got to where I’m at today . As time went by I noticed that the more I did those things the more people I attracted and more revenue came in. But I also noticed the second I stopped having a passion , and stopped being dedicated to the craft and not meeting with God things began to crumble.

Ranay , 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 started doing hair at the age of 9 . Beginning with doing the kids in my neighborhood’s hair to doing hair in my Mother’s house , to having a suite , to become a luxury mobile stylist ! I provide a various amount of protective styles such as braids , faux locks , quick weaves , retwist and more ! In my opinion offering a mobile service only , especially after Covid set me apart from other stylist . I am most proud of how far I have came in this craft along with all the different things I learned about how to run a business. I work with clients who need to revamp their hair along with clients who simple want to grow out and retain length . My slogan for my business is “growing hands” meaning I help clients with growing and keeping their hair healthy !

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn is that everyone does not do things differently even if they are in the same field as you. What may work for someone else may not work for you and it’s important to find out what best fits YOU. And to know that it’s ok to be different! For my industry it’s so popular to get a salon suite . Trust me I tried a few times and failed each time . You know why? Because it was NOT for me . And some days it did make me feel bad because every stylist I know has a well functioning suite but every time I tried to have a suite and maintain the clientele I just could not keep up with it . I found my self loosing money by the week trying to keep up with the expenses along with just loosing myself in the hype of it . That is when I finally came to the conclusion that it just simply was not for me and that I needed to find a way to service my clients MY way . So I started becoming Mobile and that really hit off ! I saw so much turn around from when I had a suite to becoming Mobile.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When I first started my business all my revenue that I was making from doing hair around the neighborhood I put into savings to buy my products and the things I needed to keep the business afloat . As I got older I worked at beauty supply stores and the money I made there I used to continue with buying things to fully start and promote my business !

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tbnscheduling.as.me/
• Instagram: Touchedbynay_
• Other: @thatdollnay on TikTok

Image Credits
All images belong to touchedbynay_