Within the coronary heart of Atlanta, the place entrepreneurial goals typically collide with market realities, Juanda Roberts has crafted one thing extraordinary. Her enterprise, Princess Hair Pizzazz, isn’t simply one other chain of hair salons, it’s a testomony to what occurs when objective meets precision in enterprise planning. As an Atlanta native and Spelman School graduate who spent 18 years in know-how consulting, Roberts has managed to remodel a private frustration right into a thriving enterprise that’s reshaping the panorama of youngsters’s hair care providers.
Constructing luxurious in underserved communities
The story of Princess Hair Pizzazz started with a 24-hour ordeal of doing her daughter Journey’s hair. “I seemed up and thought, it’s worthwhile to pay anyone to do that,” Roberts recollects. However she needed greater than only a service, she envisioned a protected, luxurious house the place younger women may really feel valued. Right this moment, with 4 places throughout Metro Atlanta together with Cascade, Cumberland, Stonecrest, and Stockbridge, her imaginative and prescient has materialized into far more than only a enterprise success story.
Roberts’s resolution to determine luxurious salons in historically underserved areas was deliberate and significant. “I’m South Fulton, I’m Stonecrest, I’m Lithonia,” she declares, emphasizing her deep connection to those communities. Her method challenges the standard knowledge about the place upscale companies can thrive, proving that excellence and luxurious have a spot in each neighborhood.
Excellence as a enterprise basis
What units Princess Hair Pizzazz aside isn’t simply its deal with kids, however its unwavering dedication to excellence. Roberts attributes this mindset to her HBCU training and company background. “I don’t wish to be good, I don’t even wish to be nice. I wish to be glorious,” she emphasizes. This philosophy manifests in each facet of her enterprise, from the salon’s upkeep to employees coaching and customer support.
The eye to element extends to the bodily maintenance of every location. Not like opponents who may let their services deteriorate, Roberts maintains a strict renovation schedule. “Each two or three years, it’s worthwhile to paint. That chair that now could be completely stained and torn up, it’s worthwhile to substitute that,” she explains. This dedication to sustaining an opulent setting sends a strong message to shoppers about their price and dignity.
Creating influence past magnificence
The influence of Princess Hair Pizzazz extends far past offering hair care providers. Roberts has created what she calls the “Shero wall,” that includes influential Black girls to encourage younger shoppers. She’s intentionally established her luxurious salons in communities that sometimes lack entry to high-end providers, difficult the notion that high quality have to be sought elsewhere.
One notably shifting success story entails a younger shopper who was experiencing bullying in school. Roberts sponsored her visits and instructed her employees to construct up the lady’s confidence. “From that one go to, her household says she was strolling extra confidently, talking extra, being extra assertive,” Roberts shares. These transformations show the profound influence {that a} supportive, affirming setting can have on younger lives.
Nurturing sisterhood and development
Maybe most outstanding is Roberts’s method to group constructing. She’s created a family-like environment the place stylists assist one another past work hours. “These girls preserve one another’s children,” she shares, describing how group members have advanced from stylists to managers, from renters to owners. Her enterprise mannequin isn’t nearly revenue, it’s about creating pathways for financial mobility.
The corporate maintains this household environment even because it grows via quarterly group occasions and common native gatherings. These events serve a number of functions: sustaining firm tradition, fostering relationships throughout places, and guaranteeing that Roberts stays related with each longtime staff and new group members.
Weathering challenges with grace
The journey hasn’t been with out its challenges. When Covid-19 hit simply because the enterprise was turning into worthwhile, Roberts confronted the tough resolution of closing doorways briefly. But, her dedication to her group’s and neighborhood’s security prevailed. She’s additionally navigated the complexities of sustaining excessive requirements whereas scaling, implementing quarterly group occasions to protect the corporate’s tradition throughout a number of places.
Roberts acknowledges the emotional toll of entrepreneurship, notably when coping with employees transitions and occasional betrayals. Nonetheless, she’s discovered to stability her naturally large coronary heart with enterprise requirements, making robust selections when group members not align with the corporate’s values whereas sustaining compassion and professionalism.
A blueprint for community-focused entrepreneurship
Roberts’s recommendation to aspiring entrepreneurs is grounded in sensible knowledge: begin with a stable marketing strategy, clear up an actual downside, and be strategic about development. “Don’t bounce right into a brick and mortar in the event you don’t want it,” she cautions, emphasizing the significance of phased enlargement. She advocates for sustaining a day job till the aspect hustle can turn into the principle hustle, a method that proved essential throughout difficult occasions just like the pandemic.
The success of Princess Hair Pizzazz demonstrates the viability of companies that prioritize each revenue and objective. Roberts has created a mannequin the place luxurious service turns into accessible to communities that traditionally lacked such facilities, whereas concurrently creating financial alternatives for her group members.
As Atlanta continues to evolve, Roberts’s imaginative and prescient of mixing enterprise excellence with neighborhood influence presents a blueprint for entrepreneurship that transforms lives. Her journey from company govt to neighborhood champion demonstrates how enterprise success and social influence can go hand in hand, creating ripples of constructive change that reach far past the salon chair.
In an period the place companies are more and more anticipated to contribute to social good, Princess Hair Pizzazz stands as a shining instance of tips on how to do it proper. Roberts’s dedication to excellence, neighborhood service, and worker growth has created not only a profitable enterprise, however a motion that’s altering lives one coiffure at a time. As she continues to develop her empire, her influence on Atlanta’s communities grows, proving that when enterprise is finished with objective and coronary heart, everybody wins.