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

Tonya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Nailicious Little Divas is a family-run business. My husband operates our bus, my very own little diva is our party assistant and I pamper the little divas with manicures, pedicures and lots of glam fun. This business is our 3rd family-run business. We’ve had our children assist us in each business. I believe having them involved at such a young age has encouraged them to want to become business owners themselves. It has also helped build their confidence, develop a sense of responsibility and has taught them to manage money. I like to think of my family as a close ” I am always here for you kind of family” and running a family business keeps that togetherness going. We each have our specific roles and have learned to balance our family life and business. It is not always all fun and easy like any business it can be stressful. So I found learning to separate the two is extremely important. While operating a family business may not work for everyone, I truly believe there are lots of potential rewards for running a family business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Nailicious Little Divas is a mobile nail salon party bus for children. We provide glam parties for little divas. It all began in 2016 when my husband held a community block party for his non-profit organization. He was bringing together event activities for the children of the community. We had owned a nail salon previously. I had my nail technician license for quite some time but was not putting it to use. A few nights before the block party event he asked if I’d like to set up an area at the block party and offer manicures for children. I immediately began to envision a manicure booth at the block party. I was so excited I could not sleep. Manicures, nail art, nail polish and anything related to pretty nails has always been a passion of mine. The next morning I went out and purchased all the necessary supplies for my manicure booth. Upon the success of the the manicure booth at the block party Nailicious Little Divas was mentally envisioned. My original thought was to offer a nail salon experience at the convenience in one’s home or place of venue. Similar to how someone would hire a clown or magician for their child’s party. I planned to have a mobile set up and began setting up my business plan. I set up the business name, my social media accounts and a business email address. At that time I was running a printing business with my family and homeschooling my daughter. Nailicious was put on hold due to my everyday life happenings at the time and FEAR! Though I was an experienced business owner at the time fear still managed to wiggle in. A few years had gone by. In December of 2019 I was ready! I began looking into setting it all up and new this time Nailicious was going to be a go…My darling husband then throws my entire original train of thought for Nailicious into a completely different incredible creation. He surprised me with a bus! At first I thought this man is crazy. I thought it was going to cost us everything we had to convert a shuttle bus into a mobile nail salon party bus and just be another set back allowing fear and time to wiggle in again. However, I must admit I was wrong. That gesture made us go into full speed and get that business going. I am proud to say that this business is the most fun and rewarding business I have ever had. We have so much fun servicing the little divas. It allows them to feel as though they are receiving an adult, salon-like treatment while having tons of fun. All while encouraging them to embrace a positive self image. It is truly an honor being able to make a little diva feel special on her birthday and make her smile.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I believe I had to unlearn or rather unlearned through my experience is that the traditional go to school, train for a career mentality isn’t always the way to go. While I am all for education, operating Nailicious Little Divas has proven to me that finding your passion first and making a career out of your passion can be equally as successful. I enjoy working, I like polishing nails, I enjoy making others feel happy and special! It does not feel like work. It is happiness. I now measure success by happiness and am proud to say that I am very successful. I encourage my children and everyone to discover their passion and make it their profession.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clientele has been the bus itself and referrals. So our bus is pink! It is beautifully wrapped in pinkalicious décor that attracts so much attention. One of our marketing strategies is to utilize the bus while we are not working a party to gain exposure. We will park at random locations, drive to the mall or supermarket. Now, during the spring and nice weather days approaching we will drive ourselves to the park in that oh so pink bus. Another major source has been referrals. It makes me happy to receive a call from all of our diva moms, however when they tell me their daughter attended so and so’s party and now wants a Nailicious party of their own or so and so’s mom referred me, that brings on a completely different type of heart warming smile to my face!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nailiciouslittledivas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nailiciouslittledivas/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nailiciouslittledivas