Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in beauty and cosmetics but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Chevon Sharp - Langston, Founder of Sharp Beauty Lounge INC., located in Torrance, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Sharp Beauty Lounge INC. is a conglomerate of beauty industry-focused brands. Sharp Beauty Supply is our flagship store, providing all the latest beauty essentials in boutique-style fashion. Our service ambassadors are beauty professionals and can provide customers with advanced product advice and knowledge. Sharp Beauty is our brand of beauty products; our catalog consists of Extensions and hair care. The main line of beauty products, VonGo, was created specifically for our stylist students because we also offer education in hairstyling skills and business training. Sharp Beauty University, the virtual HBCU (Historically Black Cosmetology University), offers courses, products, and private coaching to aid stylists in building legacy businesses that not only offer 5-star service but build freedom & wealth for beauty professionals.
Tell us about yourself
I'm a Retired Master Hairstylist & salon owner of 20 years turned Beauty Supply owner. I'm also a 6 Figure Coach exclusively for hairstylists and salon owners that not only want to earn more but build the beauty business they've dreamed of since beauty school. My signature Big 6 Blueprint training focuses on all the "major key" elements of the front and back end of a successful beauty business.
I was able to create Sharp Beauty University based on my very own experience over the course of my 20-year career. After Cosmetology school, I, like most new stylists, wanted all the glitz and glamour of being The "IT" Stylist. I soon found out that it would take a lot of mistakes, struggle, quitting, and falling back in love with the beauty industry to get to the level I desired in my career. I opened my first salon about ten years ago. I quickly learned that carrying a ton of products to perform the services I offered was not only a waste of money but also a waste of space. I began niching down on products and services soon after. I became laser-focused on what I was doing, and that's when the real mastery began.
As a salon owner, I started filling booths; training was natural; it flowed from me! I was teaching and coaching what I had lived through and succeeded. But the lessons for me weren't yet finished. After losing my first salon due to a business conflict with the property owner, I was back at square 1 in a new salon rebuilding, but this time social media and online booking catapulted me into the expert arena of ponytails. I became the go-to for anyone in Los Angeles looking to book the service. Two years later, I opened the salon I've had for the past seven years, now turned into Beauty Supply. I'm not only a retired multi 6 figure stylist and salon owner. But I am a business owner who built and created a beauty business that could survive Covid and being shut down for eight months. This has also become a chapter in my story!
What motivates me each day... I'd say, my stylist students, I love reading their messages and seeing photos of their work. Knowing that I am helping and paying forward all the blessings this business has bestowed upon me.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I'd say surviving COVID and being able to pivot my service-based business to a multifunctional beauty conglomerate is my biggest flex. I am definitely blessed with a mind that's creative even when under extreme pressure. The first online course I created was during lockdown; it's called "The Perfect Ponytail," it had helped over 3,000 stylists worldwide prepare to boost business, especially when we as a world came out of the aftermath of COVID.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The hardest thing as a business owner is openly failing forward and the patience that comes with building a legacy business. Since stepping from behind the chair, everything that I do now is something that is either foreign or challenging to my current set of skills because I came from a space of hands-on physical work. Things like inventory, purchase orders, contracts, spreadsheets, and there are too many other things to mention are the polar opposite of performing a hairstyle. But I always remembered 20 years ago, I had no clue how to do every hairstyle I retired from doing, and then I relaxed and learned and continued to grow!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
First, I'd ask, is it your passion? Do you love it? Is it something that you can see yourself doing in the long run? Those answers need to be yes if they're not, I will go back to the drawing board not about opening a business but the business type. Tip-wise, if those answers are yes...
- Have patience with yourself & learn to take all experiences, positive and negative, to shift and or improve.
- Start Now; don't wait until it's perfect or for perfect timing; there's no such thing.
- Research and select the backend setup LLC, C Corp, Sole Proprietor, etc. I waited a little too long to do this step, and it didn't hold me back, but it prevented me from receiving certain benefits.
- A P.S. tip gets advice from other business owners; they are really the only people who will know exactly what your challenges are and or will be.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.sharpbeautysupply.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialchevonlangston/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chevonlangston/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChevonLangston
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.
