We were lucky to catch up with Tammy Ash recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tammy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

If I had the chance to go back and do everything sooner I think I would but at the same time like my youngest son tells me everything happens when it’s meant to be and not a second sooner.

I had to wait until the right time and that was not until my boy’s were thru school and into college. At that time I had more time to focus on exactly what I wanted to do and how I wanted to execute it and make my dream come true. It was something that I have always wanted my whole life and honestly never thought that it would ever be able to happen. The only thing that I would change would be that I would have more confidence in the beginning like I do now and not let people walk all over me when I first started because I’ve always been a people pleaser but sometimes that gets you taken advantage of and I would change that part because now after 11 years I have confidence myself finally for the first time in my life.

Tammy, 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 own Designs by Ash, LLC, where I specialize in providing mobile styling and medical nail services. Outside of being a hair stylist and nail tech for 36 years, I’m also a Medical Nail Technician in born Missouri & Kansas.

I specialize in severe disabilities, hospice, dementia, autism, homebound or limited mobility in the comfort of their homes, facilities or extended hospital stays.

At Designs by Ash, LLC, I have dedicated my life to providing quality mobile styling and nail services to individuals who may have difficulty leaving their homes or accessing traditional salons or podiatrist.

I am highly trained certified in intellectual disabilities & mental illness, dementia care, autism awareness, and health & social care. I have over 115+ companies backing me, and I’m considered an essential company by the governor during a pandemic sa hospice stylist. I have been featured in 5 magazines not counting this one, on Great Day Live KC TV show and This is KC radio show! These are some of my biggest & proudest accomplishments.

This isn’t just a job for me, it’s my life and I’ve dedicated it to helping those who can’t help themselves!

Becoming a medical nail technician was a no brainer for me as I wanted to offer more services to my clients, most of which can’t make it to a podiatrist, so I bring the services to them. I love making sure my clients know that no matter how bad their feet are, they are safe with me, I went judge anyone I’m there to help.

If I could emphasize anything in this article it would be my desire to be able to reach more people that need help with their toenails and feet. So many of my clients have gotten to the point that they are at which is almost to the point for some of them where they could lose their lives from an infection because they were too embarrassed to ask for help. Nobody should ever feel that way, that’s where I come in, I’m here to help.

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

When I started my company I literally had no money just a drive to succeed that overcame anything else. I was supposed to go to work helping a lady in a salon and a facility and the day before I was to start she told me that she had changed her mind that she was no longer going to to do it but if I wanted to take over for her she would sell me everything she had for $200 including the contract to the facility. Well this is an amazing opportunity for anybody, I literally had no money and it was the worst feeling in the world for me because I was watching my dream be handed to me and there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt like the entire world and everything I ever wanted was being handed to me and all I had to do was reach out and take it but at the same time I felt like it was being pulled away from me for not having any money. As luck would have it I was eating lunch with my best friend of the time before I lost him to an illness. He heard me talking on the phone to this lady and just very quietly said $200 across the table and said tell her yes you will take it! He said I don’t want you to repay me all I want is for you to be successful and the rest is history. This was 11 years ago and not only did I start with no money I had no clients and I went from that to what I am today.

I lost my best friend not too long after that to his illness but I like to think that I’m still making him proud because I did make something out of myself and I not only fulfilled my dreams but I’m out there helping people in ways that I never dreamed possible because I always swore I would never touch people’s feet but here we are. 🤣

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Not too long after I started my company was when covid happened and the world shut down. To say I was devastated was an understatement because I knew regardless of what they were saying that it wasn’t going to be just a two-week stint I just knew it was going to be something worse and longer. At the time I did hair in five facilities and I went to two of them in one day just so I could do hair. I didn’t particularly like it and it wasn’t what I wanted to do I wanted to own my company but I didn’t want to be stuck in a facility all the time I always felt like there was something more and that wasn’t it but I didn’t know exactly what it was.

The day that they announced covid I called the governor’s office in Missouri with 15 minutes left of the day in the middle of the biggest announcement of our lives that they were shutting the world down. Looking Back Now I know that it was an act to desperation and I don’t know that I would do it again but I was convincing enough when they answered the phone or maybe they just felt sorry for me when they heard my story of how I’d waited 25 years to start my own company and how I’ve been working so hard that I couldn’t give up now. I knew that if I didn’t keep going I was going to have to start all over. So I basically begged them to let me continue to do hair when everybody else had to stop.

Not only was I allowed to continue but I left the facilities who would not let me come in and I went strictly mobile into strangers homes in the middle of a pandemic just praying and hoping that I was not going to get sick. I had a 3-year-old granddaughter a two week old grandson and my family that I had to protect but at the same time I had to protect my dream too and I could not let something like a pandemic take that dream away from me that I’d worked so hard for.

If that is not resilience I don’t know what is. I literally put my own life on the line and possibly that in my family’s subconsciously on their part because I knew in my heart that this is what I was supposed to do for a living that this was what I was supposed to do to help other people. I knew that if I just followed my heart that God was going to open the doors and lead the way and that we would be safe. I’m not somebody that gives up very easy and I think this proves that if I’m willing to go into strangers homes during a pandemic I think I can do anything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.designsbyashllc.com

Image Credits

I certify that all pictures were taken by myself.