We recently connected with Terri Hoover and have shared our conversation below.
Terri, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.
Since 1989 I took over the salon here in Lake Highlands and we have been coloring and cutting the youth of this neighborhood, their parents and teachers ever since. The first 10 years I was truly in survival mode. Just getting the doors open everyday was both exciting and exhausting and then I still had my little boy and a second job. As I educated myself and hired my way out of the negative I began working more closely with professional product reps. Meanwhile as a small business in a vibrant family friendly neighborhood we were inundated with requests for donations to local schools. Side note, most large corporate stores do not donate to the locals. The first 10 years I could not see past my “Hunger Games business’ mentality to see that we could work together for a common goal. At about the 10 year mark I began to hire my Dream Team; I could now see the Light at the end of a very long tunnel. So we began to tie our product sales to the donations. We now have a rewards program called AE Rewards. With every purchase the guest earns points to be redeemed for their next product purchase and that gives us the funds to reinvest into the community. To date we have been able to donate something consistently to every school request in the last 15 years. Not only do we use Pureology, Redken and Aveda but we retail the full line of each and we have boutique items also.
16 years ago my oldest son Jake was killed in a car accident. He was not wearing his seatbelt, it was shortly after that that I found out that about half of teenagers killed were not buckled in. In 2019, 1,603 young adults (ages 15-20) died in motor vehicle crashes on US roadways, with nearly half (46%) not wearing a seat belt. That was the beginning of Clickit4life.net. Our friend and philanthropist Nancy Pfau who lived here in the neighborhood for years began painting for charity, Clickit being one of the lucky ones. And she has added beautiful artistic, 1 of a kind jewelry. Pieces that you will not see anywhere else. All of the proceeds going to Clickit and sold right here in the salon.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Terri Hoover, after years of bartending and waiting tables I went through an ugly divorce and had to make some changes so I went to cosmetology school. I bought a little hole in the wall hair salon on the edge of Lake Highlands right out of school and floundered around for the next 10 years, because apparently there is more to owning a hair salon than showing up and looking cute! I began teaching color and product knowledge for Redken and met Anita, the beginning of my Dream Team. She taught me to step up my game. Then one of my mentors sold her salon and came to work and a year later Rebecca came in as my very first apprentice and the Dream Team was complete! It did not feel like a dream everyday, some days were a nightmare but we all learned and taught each other so much. Rebecca Roberts is now an co-owner, Anita is our top producer and well Marsha has gone on to that great salon in the sky. We have a new Dream Team and if I were honest we have had many teams over the last 35 years.
About 20+ years ago we were struggling and were introduced to a company that teaches salon owners to train their way to a future. So we stepped into the next chapter and have not looked back. We have trained MANY hairdressers to not only do hair but to do business, to have a pathway to success.
How’d you meet your business partner?
In 1996 I was doing an older lady’s hair and in walked a tall beautiful black woman/child. She asked for an application. After she left the older lady informed me that hiring a black girl would be ‘bad’ for my business. She came back 1 time after that to find that that ‘black girl’ was now my first apprentice. She never came back and I never looked back! It was the best trade off I have ever made. Rebecca has been the best apprentice, coworker, friend and now business partner I could have ever hoped for. We have been through walk-outs, personal highs and lows, ups and downs in business and now a damn-demic, I mean a pandemic. She is by far a better business owner than I have ever been but we have grown together to make a dynamic team.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
As I said before about 20 years ago we were struggling and had heard about a company that was making great promises of amazing come backs so we charged about $6000 on a card that wasn’t completely maxed out, flew to Minnesota and began a terrifying journey of change! The night before Rebecca and I wondered if we had just spent out last dollars on pie in the sky. She finally asked me ‘ Where’s your faith?’ The next morning I flipped on the TV and a televangelist yells out , WHERES YOUR FAITH?’ It was a sign from above for us! We continue to use the same coaching company to this day and have survived losing 11 hairdressers during the damn-demic and are working on our next act!
Contact Info:
- Website: artistikedge.com
- Instagram: artistikedge
- Facebook: Artistik Edge hair studio
- Yelp: Artistik Edge hair studio
Image Credits
Ann West photography