Hidden Gems: Meet Ashley Smith of Vidni Salon Suites

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Smith.

Hi Ashley, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am the managing member of Vidni Salon Suites in Smyrna, GA. Vidni Salon Suites opened in the fall of 2022 out of a passion to bring a sophisticated, secure, aesthetically pleasing, and affordable salon suite community to the Metro Atlanta Area. Prior to opening Vidni Salon Suites, I was a hairstylist who also operated a salon in a chain-style salon suite community, however, I felt the owners were only interested in money. They didn’t care about the success of their tenants and their ability to be successful in the business. So after closing my personal salon suite in late 2020, I decided I would open my own. At Vidni Salon Suites, we are different in that we carefully select our applicants, to ensure a cohesive work environment for all, and offer business marketing assistance free of charge.

But getting back to my personal story, I have always been enamored with the beauty industry since I was in middle school. I started off as every little girl by styling my own hair and then moving on to “do hair” and provide other beauty treatments to friends and family. In high school, I attempted to attend cosmetology school, however, no one would admit me without a high school diploma. I moved on and went to college and then law school but I was never able to shake my desire to get into the beauty industry. So in 2018, after being a practicing attorney for 6 years, I enrolled in cosmetology school and took evening classes to become a licensed hairstylist. After graduation, I began to study the industry not only from a practical side but a business side as well. I started doing research on what worked and what didn’t and to better understand beauty professionals, all to one day open my own salon suite community.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This definitely has not been a “smooth road” at all. I am a new entrepreneur and a first-generation one at that. I grew up in Miami, Florida, as a descendant of Caribbean immigrants. I started my journey in adulthood with literally $100 to my name, a boatload of hopes and dreams, and a work ethic like no other. Everything I have learned thus far in my short period of time as an entrepreneur has been the result of God-given connections or as some refer to as “divine intervention” and trial and error. Everyone glamorizes being an entrepreneur but I have always believed in keeping it real with folks. When you start a business, you will not get to the “good part” for a while. You have to continue to work at it and if you stay consistent, you will get to the good part eventually. The struggle in my journey has not scared me only because I have always had to work VERY hard for every achievement I have attained in life, so I thought of the journey of opening a salon suite community as no different. In my role as managing member, I’ve had to be marketing, accounting, digital media design personnel, negotiator, day laborer, janitorial, and so much more. At this point, I think I have literally done every job vital to my business and, to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel like going through the hard times, will help me appreciate the good times when they do arrive.

One of the largest struggles I have had in this business is making people take me serious. I am a naturally caring and concerned person so that side of me initially began to creep over into my business persona. I thought if I came across as professional and of good morale, people would just do right by me and I was quickly proven wrong lol. So I had to tap into the professional litigator side of me, and that’s how I have begun to earn my respect and substantiate that I am businesswoman to be taken serious. I decided that I didn’t have to be mean but be firm and that has been working for me tremendously.

As you know, we’re big fans of Vidni Salon Suites. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Vidni Salon Suites is the newest collaborative salon suite community in the Cobb County Seat in Smyrna, Georgia, with close proximity to Truist Park and the I-75 and I-285 corridor. We are a secure and SMART Technology space with large spacious suites with sophisticated facility decorum. We are a facility that provides an aesthetically pleasing environment for beauty professionals and customers the like, and we house professionals specializing in most modern-day beauty treatments including luxury extension services, natural haircare, eyelash extensions, and much more. Think you provide a service that would be a great addition to our community, apply on our website today at vidnisalonsuites.com/apply-now.

What’s next?
My future plans are to become more familiar with the salon suite community industry to learn ways to better serve Metro Atlanta beauty professionals. While this is my first location, I look forward to opening a second and more advanced location in the coming years.

Pricing:

• Our Large Spacious Suites Avg. $250/week

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.VidniSalonSuites.Com
• Instagram: Vidni Salon Suites

Image Credits
@choldenphotography