womenSIA stewardess to hair salon proprietor: How this 30-year-old entrepreneur revived an previous hair salon in Chinatown

To mark Worldwide Ladies’s Day on March 8, AsiaOne shall be spotlighting inspiring girls from totally different walks of life in a sequence of tales launched all through the week. Yow will discover all of them right here.

From having zero data on hair-styling and working a enterprise, to raking in a five-figure sum month-to-month – Priscillia Wu is an inspiration to many.

Nevertheless it wasn’t an in a single day success.

“Let’s simply strive lah!”

As soon as a Singapore Airways stewardess, Priscillia, 30, shares how she confronted “nasty” feedback from her prolonged household when she determined to strive her hand at taking up her mum’s 40-year-old hair salon, Jin Hair.

“Some regarded down on hairdressing as a result of it isn’t a really ‘aspiring’ job,” she stated.

Priscillia’s grandmother and aunts even questioned her: ” [why] take up a job that it’s a must to stand for lengthy hours, do not make good cash, [and] haven’t any time for your loved ones”.

The then 25-year-old, who was working in a well being display screen firm after flying for 2 years, took no discover of their well-meaning recommendation and caught to her weapons. The true motive for taking up the salon? It was valuable to Priscillia’s mum as she has been working it for a few years she stated.

“I believe it would be very unhappy to see it shut down as a result of lack of digitalisation.

“I used to be like, ‘let’s simply strive lah, who is aware of, it might be very fulfilling?’ And I believed I might be happier doing this than being caught in an workplace job, which I’ve tried doing earlier than.”

5 years on, Priscillia has proved her naysayers, and society mistaken.

This mom of two – a two-year-old and a brand new born youngster – has expanded her crew of hairstylists. She has additionally virtually doubled the dimensions of her salon in Chinatown in addition to gave the area a complete facelift.

The salon now homes a brighter inside, an Instagrammable vertical garden-like wall, and a cute neon signage within the form of the mother-daughter duo. It is a stark distinction from the remainder of the shops at Individuals’s Park Centre.

Essentially the most spectacular half? She did all of it late final 12 months whereas the world’s financial system was stuttering as a result of pandemic.

“Covid did not make issues troublesome for us. In reality, a whole lot of new prospects (have been) coming in as a result of they cannot go into Malaysia!

“Really a whole lot of Singaporeans do their hair in JB (Johor Bahru)! I did not know till this Covid factor occurred and I chatted with the brand new prospects,” Priscillia shared.

Zero returns in her first 12 months

Whereas this #girlboss is having fun with the fruits of her labour now, she revealed that she truly had zero returns in her first 12 months.

“Once I first stepped into this line, my mum already gave me all of the authority. She made me pay her lease (her mum had purchased the store), and provides her slightly wage, so the primary 12 months, after paying lease, salaries and all, I had just about nothing left!”

Her mum had informed her: “For those who do it nicely, you will get income. If not, you’ll be able to endure by your self.”

And that, Priscillia shared, stays how the mom and daughter have had no main conflicts for the reason that begin.

“It is a blessing”

“We’re each not very strong-headed type of folks, and he or she’s semi-retired now – she is available in at 2pm and leaves about 6pm. It is a fairly good life for her now,” shares Priscillia with a chuckle.

The filial daughter even went on about how it’s a “blessing” to be working along with her mum.

“I’m pleased to work collectively along with her as a result of in the future, she would most likely not be working with me anybody.

“It is a blessing that I get to see her, work carefully along with her, and study from her day by day!”

“I nonetheless make errors”

For Priscillia, the educational by no means stops.

“Once I took over Jin Hair from my mum, my talent was most likely fairly horrible as a result of I used to be very new, and hairdressing is one thing that actually requires expertise,” Priscillia, who studied at Kimage Hairdressing Faculty for a 12 months earlier than taking up the reins, stated.

Her mum, her-then-boyfriend-now-husband, and some of her cabin crew batch mates had been all her hair fashions.

Priscillia’s mum – her greatest fan and critic – would maintain a mirror to see what she was doing, and level out her errors when the then inexperienced hairstylist minimize her hair for the primary few instances.

“Even till at present, I am nonetheless studying, and naturally, I nonetheless make errors.

“When prospects are, say, not proud of their color (job), and if they’re keen to come back again for a retouch, then it is an amazing studying expertise for me,” shares Priscillia, including that ‘repairing’ is likely one of the hardest and most fulfilling jobs.

“If I handle to make them (her prospects) pleased, that is the most effective [reward for me].”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1QuQA5nA6o/

Happiness – the one factor Priscillia desires for her prospects, in addition to for herself. 

“I’m pleased the place the hair salon is now.

“I haven’t got the additional power to develop and increase the enterprise proper now,” Priscillia stated with fun, citing household time as a precedence.

“What I’ve now’s adequate.”

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