Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Largey.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ashley. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started beauty school in the winter of 2004, in the winter of 2005 I was diagnosed with an inoperable form of brain cancer and I was forced to take a break from doing hair in order to heal. Once I finished Treatment and regained my strength, I was Able to resume the career that I love. That was 2007. I worked in three salons between 2007 and 2014, each Salon giving me new insight and education, I’m so grateful for those experiences. In 2013 I was approached by an investor with an opportunity to open a hair salon with one other stylist. Once we really got the ball rolling it became apparent that not everyone is cut out business ownership and shortly after opening in November 2014, we went from a partnership of three to just two of us. After having an extremely successful first two years, I bought Out the investor and I am now the sole owner.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been anything but smooth! Besides having to take 2 full years off due to cancer, there have been many bumps in the road. Moving from Salon to Salon is tough. It’s similar to dating, you have to try a few before you find your match. I’m very happy with our setup as it is now… The first Christmas Eve that we were open, someone broke into the salon and did a fair amount of damage as well as stealing money and every electronic they could find. That was really rough but we pulled through. I’ve also had some unfortunate employee problems. Having to filter through the good and the bad is a very stressful challenge. Hiring and firing is part of the job and fortunately I have been able to put together an incredible staff despite having “kiss a few frogs” on the way there.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Darling Nikki’s Salon story. Tell us more about the business.
Darling Nikki’s is a Prince inspired Salon. It’s named after a Prince song, the story behind the song is a very cool one. “Darling Nikki” is the song that changed everything, it’s reason that albums have an “Explicit” label. The song was a risk for Prince, this Salon was a risk for me! I wanted to create an environment that paid homage to the purple one while being a relaxing oasis for everyone. We service all hair types and each stylist has their own strengths. As a whole, we are a very tight knit group and I’m very proud of the staff I’ve built. I would Say what sets us apart is that we are a Rock ‘n Roll Salon that attracts crowds from all ages, races, religions etc. we absolutely do not discriminate. Truly, from teenagers coming in for pink hair to seniors coming in for blowouts My personal favorite thing to do when I get stressed out is read our yelp reviews. We’re currently holding strong at a perfect 5 star rating and that feels damn good!
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t consider myself to be lucky at all. In fact, I’m notorious for having terrible luck. Because of that I have had to go into every venture knowing that I cannot Depend on luck to get me anywhere, and that pushes me to work as hard as possible. I refuse to lose and every bit of bad luck has forced me to improvise and power through, thus causing me to learn a lot!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1022 N Hollywood Way
Burbank CA 91505 - Website: Darlingnikkisalon.com
- Phone: 818-588-3262
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @darlingnikkisalon
- Facebook: Facebook.com/darlingnikkisalon
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/darling-nikkis-salon-burbank
Image Credit:
Abie Aguiar
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