Today we’d like to introduce you to Misha Strickland.
Hi Misha, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started my first business Misha’s Beauty bar back in April of 2017, but I have been doing and interested in hair just shy of eleven years old. I went to J.F. Drake technical college but I had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances and started working. The kick start for me to do hair full time was when I was working third shift at the local hospital and noticed that my check was $500 but the previous weekend before payday, I made that same amount or even more. I asked my husband about the “what if’s” of quitting my job and he came back with if I could make enough money to cover bills and be comfortable go for it, that was all she wrote and I haven’t looked back since. Fast forward to when the pandemic hit hard April 2020 and the world was shut down, I still had to pay for the building I was renting for my salon as well as my household bills. I was still grinding and doing hair and realized that the hair stores were closed, so I did my research and low and behold, they sent us a stimulus check and I spent my part on my new business SB3 beauty supply store. SB3 stands for my three baby boys (Strickland Boys 3).
During all of that downtime, my husband and my three boys would go around town and would deliver hair products to people from social media and I was able to move into a bigger salon in august. This salon was twice as big as my salon I just moved from and I was so grateful that I invited other black-owned businesses to sell their products out of my display cases. So now here it is January 2021 and I am outgrowing this new, three suite salon space (HOW SWAY) so I have to find something bigger, but I needed to go back to school to handle some unfinished business. I went back to school at Drake May 2021 and finished in August but I needed to either renew my lease or find another building. I knew I was God’s favorite because out of know where I got a phone call about a place I had looked at but I never gave them a call because this place was really out of my budget and I’m fresh out of school with no money saved. When I got the phone call on a Wednesday, he asked me to pitch him my idea for the building because it was an old cleaners and I was competing with another young lady for it. The plan I pitched him was I wanted to turn the cleaners into my salon with a drive thru beauty supply store. It’s Covid-19 friendly and because Huntsville is growing in that area, it will be a lot of foot traffic for the other business owners around in the plaza.
I got the call that Friday that they wanted to go with my ideas for the building and now me and my boys are now the first owners in Huntsville Alabama to have a drive thru beauty supply store. I went from a 500 square foot space to now having 2,500 square foot open floor plan.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle with living in a smaller town I am amongst a lot of really good hairstylists so how do I stand out. What can I do to make more money to make the moves I need to even stand out. And don’t even get me started on support from family or peers. Even though I grew up in Huntsville I don’t know a lot of people so I felt like no one knows how good I am or how great my hustling skills are.
We’ve been impressed with Misha’s Beauty Bar & SB3 Beauty Supply Store, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My first business is Misha’s beauty bar and I am a Natural hairstylist and makeup artist, and I am the “Jill” of all trades when it comes to the beauty industry. I do not specialize in just one thing because I want my clients to feel like they have options when they come get a service from me.
My second business that I co-own with my three boys is SB3 beauty supply store. We are Huntsville’s first drive thru beauty supply store and we encourage every blacked owned business in our area that is in the beauty industry that sells bundles, body butter, wigs, press on nails, lashes and makeup to sell out of our store so that they are getting just as much traffic.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Make sure you have a savings, reading is fundamental, and lots of prayers. A lot of things are out of our hands and I feel like you have to have faith in everything you do. I feel like I was chosen to help people so I just follow my calling.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Mishasbeautybar.As.Me
- Instagram: Mishasbeautybar
- Facebook: SB3 beauty supply store
Image Credits
Fox 54 news Huntsville Marcus Vaughn productions
