This Business Called Beauty
After I resigned from my corporate job, I was forced to take on the management of our family’s business. It was a business held by my Mom as a sort of a hobby. She wasn’t really much in a beauty kind of endeavor. She was really more of a restaurant operator. . . but after having been in the food business for more than 25 years and only after contracting glaucoma, she decided to go easy and instead venture to a beauty salon business. Which wasn’t too taxing. Having said that, let me state, she started the business good and she passed it on to me, better than ever.
Reluctantly, oookeyyy?
When I assumed management my first question was, are we going to maintain salon operations like it was just a hobby as usual, or were we going full blast and offer the works, so to speak? And what new equipment did we need? Did we need business loans? Business was actually doing well, considered ‘hot’, even. The customers are all over because my Mom had great PR, public relations, you see. She also managed the personnel well. Our hairstylists, manicurists, and barbers were kind of satisfied with her laid back but disciplining management style. And so it was decided - - to operate full blast and along with that decision, our new salon service offerings – the herbal based body massage, spa and reflexology services.
To do that, I thought, it was time to get a small business loan. A loan to get new massage, spa and reflexology equipment. I consulted a friend who knew a reputable business loans consultant. What I gathered from the lengthy discussions and consultations that followed was, I needed a good personal credit history, a business plan that would give details on why money from a business loan was required, a credible business experience, and some education to gear things up.
It all seemed daunting. I had the education true. And yes, a pretty good credit standing. A business loans plan? Well, I have written countless business plans for my last employer, who I served for more than 8 years. She was in the software development business. That should account for something.
Deciding how much business loan I needed was a very important consideration. Despite our maturity in the beauty business where we were located, the business loan application required that we prove that business was good, steady, even and never lost any money since its opening. We were business operators for the longest time, at least my Mom was. I was busy being employed. Additionally, we needed to show that the business loan was for the purpose of taking our beauty service to to the next level. It was a loan for expansion to finance additional capital expenditures. A loan that the business needed to significantly improve the kind of service that we do.
Business loans or whatever. We were able to renovate and buy the equipment needed. Next thing I knew, we were cutting the ribbon for our new line of services. We were happy. And my, were the military guest officers ecstatic too.
