Meet Jenn Hix of The Queens Bees in San Luis Obispo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenn Hix.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
It’s funny, I get asked this question almost every weekend. I never thought this was the direction my path would take but I’m so happy it did. Growing up, I always thought I wanted to be a teacher or a lawyer and as I got older that changed to fashion and then hair. I always played around with makeup but never thought it would be my career. When I graduated high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do, one of my friends from church suggested I work at her salon to see if the beauty industry was what I wanted to do. A lot of people get into this industry thinking it’s all glamour and that you’re going to make it big right away, she wanted me to know how hard it was. Shortly into working there, I realized I didn’t want to do hair and felt lost again.

One of the owners noticed my talent for makeup and asked me to do my first professional photoshoot, I was hooked. Not too much after that she told me that they were going to let me go, she wanted me to pursue makeup and she could tell that I was someone who can get comfortable and would stay put, she believed more for me than I did at that time. It was 2008, the recession was happening and the beauty industry looked a lot different. I applied at Sephora and worked there for about three years as well as building my name, doing everything for free. In 2011, six months after my mom passed I met a woman that would change my life forever. She offered me my dream job and I was able to quit Sephora and move into freelance full time. It was so scary taking that leap, but I had so many people in my corner cheering me on. Those four years working under Reeda grew every part of me and for the first time in my life started having some financial freedom. In 2015, I was looking to move to New York. Reeda was looking to sell the company and I was looking to travel. She asked me if I wanted to buy the company and I turned her down, I never saw myself owning anything or anyone working for me. Not to mention I knew how much the company was selling for and I didn’t have that kind of money, I knew she has about five people who wanted to buy and had cash in hand.

During this time, my dad was packing up everything to move cross country and I was riding along with him and mentioned what Reeda had offered, I will never forget him saying, “why not? Banks give woman loans all the time.” So I called her and begged her to sell to me, I remember feeling this intense sense of urgency. She laughed and told me that she had been grooming me for the past four years. So we worked on the transfer and in October 2015 it was fully mine. I had never been so nervous. I kept thinking what did I do, are the artists going to stay, will brides book, will vendors remove us from their preferred vendor list? I probably made a million mistakes but just kept moving forward. That year grew my character in such deep ways. There was some drama and I had this moment of asking myself two serious questions, 1. What type of woman do I want to be, 2. what type of businesswoman do I want to be? That second year of ownership was probably our toughest year, we had three artists who had parents pass away from cancer. They were on weddings, specifically the brides and every week, it was checking in with them to see if they wanted to work or to be removed. I wanted to treat them with respect and compassion I didn’t experience when my mom died and I knew I never wanted to make someone feel like they had to pick between family or work. That time as a company bonded us in such a beautiful way, we weren’t just colleagues but a family.

A little over two years ago, we decided to open our own salon to house The Queens Bees. I wanted a space for creatives to work and have complete control over their careers and hopefully have financial freedom. We’ve grown so much the past few years, fast forward to the year of covid, at the very start of the shutdown I once again asked myself what type of business owner do I want to be? How do I want to be remembered in this time? I had to close two businesses and started working at a grocery store on my birthday which happened to be the first day of the shutdown, happy birthday to me. Haha. It was a crazy three months, I worked eight plus hours at the grocery store and then would head home to answer emails from panicked brides postponing their weddings. I’m beyond thankful for our brides, clients, and community in this time. We sold products with our doors closed to services, we sold raffle tickets, and received a few donations from a few friends, this helped pay for our salon rent and helped get us through. We never received the SBA or the PPP loan, but we survived and I’m still not sure how that all worked out. But I am a big believer you get what you give. Our business is thriving and we have such a strong, talented team and I couldn’t be more thankful for my business and life!

Great, 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?
Oh gosh, anything but smooth. Don’t get me wrong the things that everyone told me that would be rough were extremely smooth, the struggles would be the crazy timings of things and just having to power through and juggling so much. I feel like most of the struggles have been more challenging my attitude and character at times to grow my capacity. And like I’ve stated I just tried to trust, move forward, and never lose sight of who I am and who I want to be. I hope that makes sense. I mean life can be hard sometimes, mix that in with owning your own business then yes there are struggles, but I think most of business is standing between two roads and deciding which road to go down. I’ve been questioned about my business model and why don’t I charge more, why don’t I look after myself more, but at the start of my career, I was told a few good pieces of advice and I think they have been what have made me “successful.” Keep your eyes on your own books and there is enough work to go around. So basically, don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing, but forge your own path and do something different, stand out that way. And there is enough work to go around so don’t get greedy. Community over competition.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Queens Bees – what should we know?
We specialize in hair and makeup for weddings and special events. I have a large team and I work at trying to place artists with the clients that will best suit their needs based on the looks they want and we make sure we can service any tone of skin or texture of hair. We want everyone to feel beautiful, so I work at trying to figure out their style and personality to place them with their best fit. Do I get it right every time…no, but I try my best and also let the client know that they can come to me and we can chat and work at trying to get it right! We want everyone to leave our chairs feeling beautiful and want our clients to know that they are able to let us know if they aren’t happy with something and we can make adjustments. I always tell my clients that they are allowed to not like something as long as they don’t tell me I suck we are cool!

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Oh gosh, my favorite. I think it’s more the feeling of certain moments of childhood. Christmas was always special in my house, we experienced a lot growing up but my parents always did a perfect job of just making it magical. We had special traditions and everything just felt okay around that time of year. We had this one home that we lived in before everything in our lives were flipped upside down, those 2-3 years are my favorite. We planted vegetable gardens, adventured down to the creek by our house, silly danced, climbed trees, played dolls, had chickens, rode bicycles, my early years were perfect. My mom had epilepsy and when I was about 4-5 years old, she had a bad seizure that caused her to hemorrhage and sadly, she wasn’t the same after that, it took her many years to make it back. She wasn’t all bad, but before that accident she was the perfect mom and I will always cherish those early years. I know that answers the question and not all at the same time, but I can’t pick one specific thing.

Contact Info:

• Address: 570 Higuera st suite 140 in San Luis Obispo CA 93401
• Website: www.thequeensbees.com
• Phone: 8058065609
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @thequeensbees
• Facebook: thequeensbees
• Other: The Queens Bees

Image Credit:
Michelle Roller, Kelley Williams Photographer, Ashley Ludaescher photo, Jen Rodriguez, Milk and thistle photography, Hannah Kate Photography

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