LET’S TALK BUSINESS – NATURAL HAIR PROFESSIONALS LUNCH MEETUP
WORLD OF BRAIDING & EXTENSIONS ALUMNI NETWORKING & BUSINESS MEETUP – WANBU
Have you trained with us? Is your business growing as you hoped? Would you like to add more to what you know? Do you want to meet with others like you and bounce ideas to support your business? Do you want to learn from others?
networking events
Networking events
Then you are invited to this event.
Because you have trained with us; we want the absolute best for you.
Content:
Find out how to Grow your Business with a 90 Days Marketing Plan.
Increase your hair business in 2014 when you know the secrets to Social Media.
Interact with other people in your industry to share ideas, life experiences, case studies etc – the excitement and the woes of dealing with clients.
Take this chance to be among the first group to become a member of Joy Phido’s Hair Business Coaching Programme and gain over 20 years of business expertise and support to help you grow & many more.
DATE: Friday 23rd May 2014
TIME: 11am – 4pm (please keep to time or you will miss out on the buffet)
PRICE: £20.00 (copy & paste or click on the link below to pay by paypal)
IS THE MODERN BLACK RACE AN ANTI-BUSINESS COMMUNITY?
This is a topic I have always found interesting. Too many incidents have brought me to question this issue.
Vietnamese student in training
Last week, my Vietnamese student came to start her training with us and as is customary of our training, we wanted to find out why she chose our Course and how our training could help her achieve her dreams. These questions help us understand how we can be supportive to our client’s needs and help them to succeed. We started talking and it transpired she has been experiencing very difficult times with her employees. She is Vietnamese and generally hair braiding and weaving will not be her strongest skill. She explained she had set up a hair and beauty shop in a busy location in Portsmouth – UK. She specialises in nail beauty and to keep business moving, she had employed black girls to take over the hair beauty side of her business – division of labour; outsourcing etc you would say.
Great business plan you would think. Far be from it. This is where our story starts. Prior to Christmas; these Black girls had stopped work for 3 weeks – claiming their children were ill. Continuously, they have become consistently unreliable. This is why my student Thao has come to train herself to gain a skill that otherwise she would not have considered in order to take control and avoid losing her business. This then made me question why Black girls complain about unemployment or lack of business opportunities in the economy.
Someone will say to me that braiding and weaving is a black people’s skill. But with behaviour like this constantly being reported by Salon owners and people from other races we at World of Braiding & Extensions encouraged everyone with an interest in these skills to come and get trained. This however does not take away the fact that braiding and weaving is a skill that comes natural and is practiced more in the black community.
But why do the black community find it difficult to understand that hair beauty is a business that should be taken seriously? Research has shown that the Black community is an appearance –obsessed culture which spends 6 times more on hair beauty than any other race. It is estimated that by 2013 the ethnic hair industry will spend $4.2 trillion. www.marketresearch.com. My personal interviews with people in hair industry confirm that black women will rather look after their hair than feed themselves; take up training to invest in themselves or pay their bills. Yet the Black community is happy to let other races take up a skill that comes natural to their race while they fold their arms and wait for office jobs that do not exist or on the other hand, take up meagre or cleaning jobs instead etc.
This is my personal sentiments. The Black community knowing that this is a skill they can practise easily have de-valued the skill.
A Black girl in training
They choose to work on clients without training and mentally believe that it is a short time position as they wait to go to University or take up low earning jobs. Black race and African society in particular place too much emphasis on academic education while they show no respect towards vocational trainings. While I may have nothing against people’s choices, these people turn round and complain about all races for taking up their jobs or businesses. I find other races such as the Indians, British, Chinese etc races differ from the Black race as they give everyone the opportunity to choose what they are naturally gifted with. They have respect and regard for every skill based jobs. They encourage anyone who has natural affinity to work with their hands to do what they can do, help the community and create jobs for others invariably enriching their societies. This is why the African Society in particular is still struggling with the highest level of underdevelopment and unemployment among its people. We will get into the plane to these developed countries in search of a good life rather than grow our own continent or country.
Fact from my 8 years of training people in natural hair business, I have noticed that Black people do not take skills’ training seriously. Thaos’ experience with her stylists is only but a minor story we have heard in our years of training Salon owners in natural hairstyles. There are instances where the stylist will chose to sit at home and the salon owner will beg her to please come and earn some money in the shop. There are instances where they will agree with you to book in a client then simply not show up for the job. There are instances where when they work freelance, they book a client and do not show up to offer the service. There are instances where salon owners get so frustrated and simply close their shop due to lack of stylist. This is also not counting when they give the clients their private numbers to come to their home instead as they will be cheaper than the shop thereby giving unprofessional service. My personal experience is that students from other races go out and succeed quicker using the same training and information given to them. Is this lack of seriousness based on family and friends influences or just a lack lustre attitude in us? Is this something we can look at and solve at some time in our life?
This is my question – What is the logical reason why the black community is anti-business? Is it due to years of mental brainwashing through years of slavery to imagine that any skill not taught in the classroom is wrong? Is it through years of looking up to our neighbours who have all been to the best Universities and work in a fancy office that makes us think we should all be like them? Is it that feeling of being laughed at by your friends if they find out we do not work in an office that causes our lukewarm attitude to skills and business?
This question has got me searching and re-searching. I come from an African country where there is untold stock of natural resources yet my country imports everything. We don’t think it is our duty to use our skill to create anything. We happily see everything from other countries as superior to ours. While we may conveniently blame slave trade for our problems and the continuous brainwashing from other races and bad corrupt governments etc, I know from my research about our ancestors that there existed entrepreneurship in the Black community even in the midst of slave trade – Madam C J Walker, Madam Anie Malone, Johnson & Johnson Products (which held 80% of the ethnic hair market in the 60s and was the first Black owned company to trade on the American Stock Exchange).
Take for instance Madam C J Walker (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) who is one of my heroines. She was the pioneer of modern cosmetics industry. She was one of 6 children born to a former slave family in the height of discrimination and racism. Was orphaned at the age of 7 and was raised by her elder sister. She ran away from her abusive brother-in-law, got married at the young age of 14 and was widowed at the age 20. Left with a daughter, she struggled as a washerwoman. She had no formal education but driven by her own struggles with hair loss in the 1890s, Madam C. J. Walker began experimenting with different hair care treatments and products. When the average Black woman made less than $10 a week, Walker built herself a $250,000 thirty four room mansion, owned four automobiles, and two other homes. She was a frequent donator to various charities and also erected a community center for Black residents in Indianapolis. At the time of her death, Madam C. J. Walker was sole owner of her business, which was valued at more than $1 million. Her personal fortune was around $600,000 to $700,000. My favourite lines from her are “I got my start by giving myself a start. Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come, you have to get up and make them”
If there are any lessons to be learnt from this great woman who was later commemorated with a stamp in 1998 by the American government is that you do not use your situation as excuses rather use it as a reason to change your life.
According to Booker T Washington – founder of NNBL in 1900, “if we do not do our duty now in laying the proper foundation for economic and commercial growth, our children and our children’s children will suffer because of our inactivity or shortness of vision.” “No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracised.”
It is time the Black man and woman help themselves and get on the ladder of entrepreneurship as was practised in the past? Be assured that you will never get rich working for anyone. You will leave your unborn generations into beggars if nothing is done about this. The time is now to start creating the best foundation for your children and to leave them as owners of businesses by the time they grow old. Get training and make your business a professional one so you can attract clients and grow. In the process of doing this, you will help your community and your race.
If you have had any experience with anything written in this blog, will like to share your experiences, make your contribution or need help in any of the issues raised, we will like to hear from you.
FEATURES OF BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP
taking control of your business
What is a business? A business also known as enterprise is an organisation that sells goods or services and sometimes both to people for a profit. I personally think you have a business when you have something that people are happy to pay you to have. Businesses are sometimes run not-for-profit. Some businesses are privately owned aimed at earning wealth for their owners. They are also sometimes owned by the State or a group of individuals or a community. Entrepreneurs take risk and most times fail, sometimes they fail more than they succeed. They don’t however lose heart over failure as they stand up and do again. Entrepreneurs take failures as just lessons on the way to greater success. People go into business most times because they have decided to do something more with their life than just continuing as a wage slave.
Are there Different Types of Legal Business Ownership? Yes. They include:
Sole proprietorship: Business owned by one person and usually for-profit. The owner can run the business alone or can employ others to help him. The owner has unlimited liability to debts incurred by the business.
Partnership: Business owned by two or more people usually for profit. In most forms of partnerships, each partner has unlimited liability for the debts incurred by the business.
Corporation: Business that has a separate right as a legal personality different from its owners. Corporations can be privately-owned or government-owned; can be for-profit or not-for-profit.
Cooperative: Also known as a “co-op” is a limited liability business that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative differs from a for-profit corporation in that it has members, as opposed to shareholders, who share decision-making authority.
Who can own a Business? Individuals, groups of individuals, Governments, Communities etc.
What are the reasons for starting your business?
Freedom – To be able to do your desires. To right a wrong in the society or to fill a gap.
Control – To be in charge of your own destiny.
Work & life balance – You are able to balance work commitments around your chosen lifestyle
To earn a good pay and create wealth
To pursue your dream or passion.
To create self-employment income after losing your job.
To create a second source of income.
To diversify a risk of losing your job or to avoid losing your job.
To create a family business and protect a future for your children.
To become a stay at home mom and still earn extra income.
To develop a business as an investment you can sell one day.
To develop a retirement asset etc, etc.
What are the Benefits of running your own Business?
Vision – You want to leave your mark on the world and change something. Running your own business helps you to achieve this.
Choice– There are no policies that dictate what you can do. The choice is now yours. Your business reflects your personal taste and style.
Ambition – Your ambition is only limited by your ability to grow your business. You can grow big or decide to stay small.
Safety net– There are lots of insurance products out there that can provide you with a financial safety net. Long term sickness or your sudden death need not mean poverty for your family.
Work at home – It’s likely you’ll start a new business from home. That means you can get up at a time that suits you.
You choose your team – As you’re the boss, you get to hire the people you want and not be stuck with who the boss hires to work with you.
Long holidays – Providing you can organise your business to allow it, you can take as much time off as you want, whenever you want.
Flexible – You can adapt quickly to new opportunity. You no longer have to feed ideas up the line for other’s to make the decision.
What are the skills required to run a successful Business? If you are willing to build a business and make a success of it, instead of just a hobby, then there are skills you should either have or learn to make them part of your entrepreneurial priority: Just like a footballer practices every day to be good at what he does, an athlete, a boxer etc, a business owner has to learn to be good at making a success of his business. “I wanted to be an editor or journalist. I wasn’t really interested in becoming an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to be an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.” – Richard Branson. These are some of the skills you have to learn:
Take control with good image
Personality traits & skills – be ready with the right mindset, have great personal traits – talents, character, attitude, passion & energy, dedication, hard work, integrity, drive & persistence, values & believe, optimism, resilience, ability to work under pressure & uncertainty, ability to think on your feet, self-belief, willingness to take responsibility etc, etc.
Interpersonal Skills – Management, Leadership, Communication & listening, Negotiation & persuasion, Ethics, People Management & HR, Continuous Professional Development – willingness to constantly invest in yourself in order to stay current etc, etc.
Business skills – Skills of your trade, Planning, Sales and Customer Relationships, Marketing Skills, Finance and Accounting Skills, Organizing, Inventory, Create your unique selling point, Stay on top of technology, Project a professional positive image, Be accessible, Design a successful workspace , Research & Development etc, etc.
These are only but a few but they get you started on the right part and you learn as you carry on.
As part of continued business success and growth, you must continuously innovate. The continuous developments of new and better
getting rich in business
ways of doing things are keys to help you grow. There are no in between places, no middle ground. You must always be innovating and improving. Whether it is in your product or service that is delivered to your customer, or whether it is in how you do business, it is vital. When you stop innovating, you start dying, it’s that simple.
What are the statistics on failure rates in Business? Statistics suggest that most business in America will fail in their first 2 years of existence. According to the SBA, about two-thirds, or 66% last past the first two years, leaving only a third of businesses that fail within these two years. Extended to four years, the number of surviving businesses decreases to only 44%, meaning that about 56% of businesses fail at the five-year mark. Primarily, businesses have a difficult time making a profit for their first years of business. Almost all businesses experience a loss when first beginning and it is often several years before they can show a profit. New investors may not be willing to deal with these losses, and the business may not have enough capital to weather these first trial years.
What are the reasons for Business failure: Lack of experience, Insufficient capital, poor location, poor inventory management, over-investment in fixed assets, poor credit arrangement, personal use of business funds, unexpected growth, competition, poor marketing, poor business planning, poor management, poor human resources, failure to embrace technology and development, government legislation, lack of clear objectives, owners may not have the passion or persistence to keep running the business efficiently and learn from their mistakes
If we avoid getting into Business, what options do we have: Here are some amazing words of inspiration from great business men and women past and present:
“Anything is possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” – J. K. Rowling
“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.” – Madame C. J. Walker
“The greatest failure is not to try. Had I listened to all the people during the course of my life who said, “You can’t. You’ll fail. It won’t work. You don’t have…,” I wouldn’t be here today.” – Debbi Fields
“When my company started really growing, I didn’t have any help in my house at all. I had the upkeep of my daily life, I had a one year old and a three year old, and I had my house. So I had to prioritize.” – Julie Aigner Clark
“It was a risk. I had a husband and I was pregnant with my oldest son. But I don’t look at risk the way other people do. When you’re an entrepreneur, you have to go in feeling like you’re going to be successful.” – Lilian Vernon
“I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.” – Martha Stewart
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder
“There is no such thing as high returns without risk.” – Gerry Schwartz
“You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea. You’re going to have to work like crazy to bring that idea to the attention of people. They’re not going to buy it unless they know about it.” – Herb Kelleher
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” – Jim Rohn
“When my company started really growing, I didn’t have any help in my house at all. I had the upkeep of my daily life, I had a one year old and a three year old, and I had my house. So I had to prioritize.” – Julie Aigner Clark
“Above all, you want to create something you are proud of. That’s always been my philosophy of business. I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive, then I believe you are better off doing nothing.” – Richard Branson
In addition to Skills in Natural Hair, Weaves & Extensions, World of Braiding offers Business Trainings to Micro Businesses in order to help you grow. Contact us if you want to be part of our training.
Joy Phido
ABOUT JOY PHIDO
Joy Phido (SRH) is the CEO of World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd. Joy is a Natural Hair Specialist, Designer, Consultant, Educator and Coach.
Joy has a BSc. Degree in Business Administration, Qualified Cosmetologist, various other trainings in Legal Secretary, NLP Practitioner, Natural Hair & Extensions, State Registered Hairdresser (SRH).
Before going into hair business, Joy has had years of various career experiences with varied organizationsincluding Corporate Nigeria, Lagos city banking career, to Corporate England, London city telecomms career. Joy’s mission is to help career women look good by designing on them Professional Natural Hair & Extensions image as well as help ordinary women succeed in micro businesses with natural hair & extensions training & coaching.
World of Braiding is World’s No 1 PROFESSIONALLY ACCREDITED NATURAL HAIR & EXTENSIONS ACADEMY.
INTRODUCING MY BUSINESS – WORLD OF BRAIDING & EXTENSIONS
Hi friends,
What a great opportunity this is to talk and share information about my business.
My name is Joy Phido. My business is:
WORLD OF BRAIDING & EXTENSIONS LTD –
…the Natural Hairdressing Professionals.
Our services are mainly two folds.
1. NATURAL HAIRDRESSING ACADEMY –
…helping people into employment.
We do this through Education, Information and Skills Training in natural hair business. We turn our students into Professional natural hair practitioners across the world. We are the only certified Natural Hair Academy that teaches practical skills, theory and business knowledge to our students in order to get them ready for the real world after our training. We have put years of research, experience and knowledge together in order to achieve this way of teaching. This system of educating our students has proved hugely successful as our students finish the training and set up their businesses. This has been proved over and over and we have series of testimonials and continuous references from our students to confirm this. Another reason this has been very successful is because we never leave our students to struggle on their own. We continuously stay in touch and support them until they become confident. Our VISION for our students has always been PROSPERITY WITH NATURAL HAIRDRESSING BUSINESS.
2. NATURAL HAIR COUTURE SALON –
…professional natural hair glamour.
Our Natural Hair Couture Center is the ultimate premier place for natural hair glamour and professionalism. This is our natural hair beauty center where our focus is CHEMICAL-FREE natural hair beauty. Here we encourage, support, consult with and design our clients to feel good and look glamorous with their natural hairstyle choices. This has also been shown in the satisfaction our clients receive as well as the various photo-shoots we do and the images of our work that we present.
WHAT INSPIRED ME TO START IN THIS BUSINESS?
A) Ignoring and overlooking natural hairstyles. I lost my hair to chemicals. Lots of people have suffered similar fate and do not know where to go for help. This is because Natural hair styling has been ignored and overlooked by mainline hairdressing /cosmetology for centuries yet this way of styling hair is as old as humanity. This is one of the oldest methods of grooming and glamorising hair as has been seen from glamorous women of old – Ancient African Queens – Cleopatra, Queen Nefertiti, Queen Sheba, Queen Amina, Queen Candace to name a few. If these women who looked so beautiful and elegant with their nicely adorned natural hairstyles could wear them so proudly then there is no excuse why these hairstyles should be ignored. World of Braiding aims to bring back this glamour.
B) Damaging effects of chemicals. The continues use of chemicals on our hair just like the pollution in our environment; genetically modified foods etc is causing us a lot of harm and serious health issues. Just like we are thinking green in our environment, organic and free-range foods etc, so also should we be thinking healthy about the chemicals we infuse into our body through hair and skin. Our skin is a living organ and the more chemicals we infuse into it, the more harm we cause ourselves. The lack of hair growth and most of the hair loss experienced among women generally and black women in particular can be traced mostly to the poisonous chemicals we continuously put into our hair to our blood streams. In addition to the hair loss issues, there are also various health conditions we suffer from these chemicals among which there has been several reported incidents of deaths, dizzy fainting spells etc from application of colourings, dyes, relaxers etc on heads. World of Braiding would rather have clients worry about other things in life than problems that are self-induced such as chemicals.
C) Lack of professional training centers. For the fact that natural hairstyles have been ignored and overlooked, there exist little or no professional formal training centers and this has led people with the passion to offer crude, primitive and un-regulated services. People lack knowledge on the right products, extensions, equipment, know-how, educational books and materials etc to practice professional natural hair service. World of Braiding is therefore the solutions to these problems.
I am very happy to respond to questions regarding our services and thank you for taking the time to understand our business. We are available if you need our services or professional advice to any of the issues raised in this write-up.
Joy Phido (SRH) – BSc Hons – Business Management, NVQ Level 3 Hairdressing
ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET? THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!!
Have you found yourself frustrated with the ever increasing cost of living? I have found myself struggling with the same problems as well. This is not going to get better in the nearest future if the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s Autumn statement is anything to go by.
MORE BILLS, LACK OF JOB/MONEY ETC IS CAUSING YOU TO LOOSE OUT ON QUALITY LIFE?
When did you last go out to have fun? When did you last take your loved ones/ children out for a fun day out, party or go out with their friends? Do you find this impossible or nearly not possible? Do you find you don’t know your loved ones / children enough as you are never with them or when with them, you are not mentally with them due to the constant worry about life?
DO YOU FIND YOU ARE WORKING JUST TO PAY BILLS?
Bills, bills and more bills. How would you like to say goodbye to your unending ever increasing cost of living and bills – Telephone bills – mobile, landline, internet broadband; food items, water, bills, gas, electricity, rent/mortgage, council tax, car/transport, insurance, petrol, children’s needs – after school clubs, school trips, birthdays, holidays etc etc.
There is a solution with:
YOUR SUCCESS IS IN YOUR HANDS
Did you know that the answers to your problems are in your hands? You are not alone in your circumstance. We are all in this together. Like successful people, we are going to learn how to overcome our difficult and challenging circumstances.
You will either let your circumstances motivate you into action or depress you into inaction. The choice is yours.
Come and find out how Joy Phido – mother of 4, immigrant, made redundant, lost all her money to a pyramid marketing scheme etc – is now an International Business woman. The creator of World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd – the World’s only HABIA accredited Natural Hair & Extensions Academy – training students from all over the world – helping and coaching them to set up their own businesses etc. Joy is willing to share her experiences with you and help guide you to the part of success with her programme YOUR SUCCESS IS IN YOUR HANDS – an 11 point success guide to accelerate you into clearing your thoughts and putting you into action for success.
If you think things are not happening the way you want it and you need help then you are not alone. Make this seminar a must attend event to hear how Joy has been able to cope with her circumstances and now wants to help you overcome yours.
With coaching, guide and support, we know you can turn your situation around like Joy.
Remember we cannot control the environment but we can control what we do in it.
If you want to start 2012 with the right frame of mind, then make this one event you will not miss.
Date: 20th December, 2011
Time: 11am – 4pm
Venue: Unit C, 219 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ
Price: £19.99
This event is only for a closed group of people who have the desire to make changes to their circumstances.
Please call now to book your place. Seats are available only on first come first served basis.
Do you sometimes wake up and feel there is something missing in your life? Then there is! You are not yet fulfilled and that part of you missing is trying to remind you to do something about realising the missing part. Welcome to join the billions of people (world population now7billion) who simply walk the surface of the earth without a purpose. Most of us simply exist; we do not design our lives. There is some good news in our sudden realisation. We unlike the other billions at least have realised there is something missing. This shows there is hope for us as we have gone one step ahead of others who may never know there is a part of them missing. Realisation is one of the first steps to do something about our situation.
This is where I found myself in the past months. Going through series of soul searching, while attending to a variety of women in my line of business. I have questioned and wondered why things happen in particular ways with some of us and not with others. I have taken it upon myself to search for answers and this has been a long journey of searching and researching. I have taken on as much as I can to contribute to as many lives as I can. Some of the ideas I found may be useful to someone out there as when I found them, I realised I could not just keep them to myself alone but to share to as many people that are willing to use it. These are my personal compilation of discovery from a variety of trials and errors, working with clients, NLP books, Personal Development CDs, Videos, mental development books etc.
11 NECESSARY INGREDIENTS TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE
DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL BRAND /IDENTITY, CONTROL AND PROTECT IT.
Know who you are and what makes you a person. You are unique and there can never be another you. Take time to find out who this person called YOU is. What makes you feel good, content, happy, excited and sad? What do you bring on the table in every relationship? What would you like to do? Write down all your dreams, wishes, hopes etc. Once you discover who you are, start by taking control of your brand and protect it. This is important as when you lose control, someone else will take control. Whatever you do, avoid handing over control of your life to someone else. It leads to nothing but heartache and pains. When we forget who we are, we start getting a feeling of emptiness, and a part of us missing.
2. SEARCH AND RESEARCH WHAT YOU WANT.
Now you know who you are and what you want. Start by searching for information and knowledge. It is believed that every child is born with a blank slate of mind (Tabula rasa). According to Wikipedia, Tabula rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. If we are to agree with this, then we have to work on making ourselves a better person. How can we become good at what we want? How would we gain knowledge in our chosen field? It is the process of searches and re-searches that will guide us to know what we want. Do not allow any one person to feed you with loads of hocus pocus. You have to search from a variety of sources and never stop seeking knowledge. The Bible has it very clearly – seek and you shall find.
3. GET TRAINING, EDUCATION, INFORMATION.
You have found out a lot of things from your research. Do something about it. Information is the key to knowledge. Take up training and education to get yourself ready and to be good in what you want. “It is easy when you know how”. If you don’t train, you will never know how it is done and you will probably struggle for years to find a solution to a problem that could have taken a day or a few weeks because you refused to take up training. Your training /education is your investment into your dreams. Other ways of getting information is to read, read, read. Read up on other people’s experiences, successes, failures etc. There are books on every experience in life. Develop a habit of reading to prepare your mind for success. While food nourishes the body, books nourish the mind with ideas. Ideas are what we want in order to grow. Ideas are what differentiate us from animals. Ideas are what keep us thinking and we are what we think. Give your mind the wrong idea and you turn out with wrong reality.
4. PRACTICE THE KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING YOU HAVE GAINED.
Practice the skills, knowledge and information you have gained from your training. Apply it constantly. Repeat it over and over again. It will feel awkward at first. This is normal. Remember every expert was once a beginner. This is your route to gaining experience and no one sells experience. You have to practice, repeat, fail and continue to repeat to become perfect. Imperfect practice brings perfection. Repetition is the mother of perfection. Remember for every new role you take on in life, you are a baby in that role. You must remember your baby steps in crawling, standing and falling to become an adult. This applies to everything. There will be challenges, obstacles, difficulties, hurdles etc. Your willingness and determination to carry on is what will help you achieve success. Never give up – follow your dreams wherever it is or with whatever it takes. Remember, the only way to fail in life is to give up.
5. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH.
Watch what goes into your body as food. In order for us to achieve our dreams, we have to be physically and mentally healthy. We are responsible for what goes into our body and mind. As mentioned earlier, take absolute control of what you expose yourself to. In order for our life to progress forward, we have to be in good health and we cannot be in good health if we are not watching our food intake, exercise, relaxation etc. Only a healthy body, mind and soul can think, plan and act to achieve success.
6. MAKE PLANS / GOALS – IMMEDIATE AND LONG TERM.
Now you have perfected your dreams, skills, education etc. Write down clear goals of what you want to achieve in an order of preference. Be very clear and specific. Break them down into immediate goals and long term goals. A clearly written planned out goals leads to achievement. Take lessons from whenever you plan something and how you end up achieving it – a wedding, a birthday party, a naming ceremony etc. The same way you organised and planned out how you were going to achieve those plans should also be the same way you write out your LIFE PLANS. Work with yourself and write this out clearly. It takes away the guesswork from life. This is where life then throws things at us and we start becoming frustrated and feeling lost. This is where experts teach us to DESIGN OUR LIVES instead of LEAVING IT TO CHANCE.
7. TAKE MASSIVE ACTION TOWARDS ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS.
This is one of our biggest roles in life. This is one of the biggest laws of nature. You shall only reap what you sew. Turn this saying around and look at your life again. Whatever you are today is a direct result of what you have sewn. If you want to reap more, you sew more. Lots of us today want to reap where we did not sew. We also want overnight success where we will do nothing and get amazing results. There is a difference between cheating to achieve overnight riches and growing sustainable wealth. Overnight riches achieved through cheating disappear within a short time and leads to frustration and depression while sustainable wealth grown from continuous sewing of knowledge, skills and ideas remains and prospers. Examples such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Richard Branson etc comes to mind.
8. BE PREPARED TO ENCOUNTER CHALLENGES AND OBSTACLES.
Obstacles and challenges are a necessary part of life. These are the things that prepare you for a more difficult life ahead. These challenges test your resolve, resilience, capability, strength etc for a more fulfilling life. There are lots of saying that demonstrate this “no pain, no gain”; “to whom much is given, much is expected”; “when the going gets tough, only the tough gets going” etc. Life is definitely not meant to be trouble-free. Successful people are people who have learnt to overcome obstacles. Lots of people think successful people are a different breed who never encounters problems. This is wrong and the sooner we learn that we all have our fair share of issues and obstacles to deal with, the sooner we will stay strong and face our problems head-on. For every opportunity we meet, there will be countless obstacles to overcome in order to succeed. Success is therefore our ability to overcome obstacles.
9. STAY FOCUSED.
No matter what situation you find yourself in, never lose sight of your goal. This is another area where lots of us are getting confused. We allow our present situation to distract us from the major goals we have set for ourselves. Remember – what you think about, you bring about. Our mind is an amazing machine and will only work on the instructions we give. If you constantly worry about your personal circumstance, instead of looking at ways to move forward, your situation remains the same if not worse. Things will only happen when you snap out of what is going on and think way ahead of yourself – “those who think ahead stay ahead”. Let go of what is going on and focus on what you want to achieve and how to achieve it. This is what the actions you take will bring about. And this is what will bring you out of your present circumstance.
10. MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
Time is one of the most precious gifts we have from nature. We do not pay for it and we all have the same amount of hours each day. My question is, how do successful people achieve so much with the same 24 hours and unsuccessful people remember to claim they have not got enough time to do what they have set out to do. Check your day, get a diary, write out what you want to achieve in a day and follow your plans religiously. Do this for 90 days and check your results. You will find that you can create time. Value your time and use it positively. Avoid wasting your time on things that will not bring any positive results in your life. Once time is lost, it can never be retrieved. We each have an allocated time to be on this earth. We have no control over this part of our life. Make the best of each day.
11. DEVELOP A GOOD MENTAL ATTITUDE.
The world responds to you. We need people to perform our daily chores. What we give out is what we get back. Make life interesting. Introduce what I call the PEEL philosophy. (PASSION, ENERGY, EXCITEMENT, LOVE). Lots of people who succeed attract people to themselves. How do you fit into a crowd? Are you known as the boring, chip on shoulders, negative aura personality that everyone wants to avoid or the bubbly, full of life, exciting person who is going to brighten a person’s day no matter what they started their day with. Bring love, passion, excitement and energy into your day and watch people flock to you for help. Be prepared to help people you meet on your way at all time. Ask yourself how you can contribute positively to your community. The more you contribute to making other people’s lives better, the more the universe will pay you back in the form of reward.
Help make life exciting and a good experience for the next person you meet. Make your natural gifting edify others you meet in your life and you will discover you would have achieved your life’s purpose and no longer feel the vacuum in your life.
My personal purpose is to share my knowledge with you in order to bring you success.
For comments, advise, information etc on this article, please feel free to email me.
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(PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE AND GROW)
1. DEVELOP YOURSELF.
This is called personal development. What kind of person are you. What personality do you possess? In order to be in a position to offer anyone guidance or be there for anyone, you have to develop yourself first. Your business is you and to grow your business you have to grow yourself first. To get started, do a thorough analysis of yourself:
a. Find out your strengths and weaknesses. Grow your strengths and work on your weaknesses.
b. Take care of your health. There is a saying –“Health is wealth”. Without health, nothing you own means anything – you simply do not exist. To look after your health, be careful what you put into your body – foods, drinks, medications, exercises etc.
c. Appearance. Image is everything. People judge you on what they see. They world judge a book by its cover. Do not give people the opportunity to judge you before they know you. Let them see you the way you want to be seen.
d. Be open to learn and willing to share. This is called give and take. Learn from other people’s mistakes and experiences. This gives you a short cut to success and takes away years of struggling. Learning is continuous as you are never too old to learn. Learning is not academic education. You gain education in schools, colleges and universities. Education gives you standard life but learning gives you sixth sense, street sense, life sense and this is what gives you the secret to success in life. Your refusal to learn will stop you from achieving success.
e. Networking. Learn to interact with others in order to share knowledge. Remember we sell /do business with people and the more people you know the more people you can sell to.
2. ATTITUDE:
You get back what you give to the world. What happens to you is a reflection of what you have given to people around you. Be kind to people as people respond to kindness. When you reach out to people, remember the attitude you give people is what they will give back to you. “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.
3. TRAINING /EDUCATION
Get training to understand your industry and business. Be on top of all the activities in your industry. Know the products and materials you need to work with that makes your work easier. Understand what you are working with so you can educate your clients as well. To get you started in this area:
a. Attend formal training to be qualified to practice your skill.
b. Read books on your industry, subject areas, and successful people in your industry and life topics generally.
c. Attend events, shows, fairs, seminars etc to keep your knowledge up to date.
d. After your training, you have to practice what you learnt continuously.
4. DISCIPLINE, PERSEVERANCE & PERSISTENCE
Learn to come out of your comfort zone. Do whatever it takes to achieve your dream. Nothing can be achieved without discipline. Discipline helps you stay up all night and wake you up first thing in the morning to pursue a dream. There is a saying “No pain no gain”. Nothing can be better said about discipline. It takes you to places you don’t want to go if given the choice. It is that freedom of choice to take on what is best for you as against what you need. Discipline is the actions we take to achieve a dream no matter the inconvenience we undertake on the way to achieving it. Discipline is the painful, uncomfortable encounters you experience on your way to achieving a dream. How desperate do you feel about your dream and how far would you go to achieve that dream? Persistence and perseverance are the continuous action you take to achieve your dream. Your practice, your tenacity and your refusal to give up helps you achieve the dream.
5. PASSION & VALUE
Do you have love for what you are offering the world? Are you in it because you have something unique to offer or because everyone else is doing it? Are you doing this because you will make quick money or you genuinely want to offer the world something special and you do not care about the obstacles and hurdles you will encounter on the way to achieving your purpose. How much value are you willing to share with other people? What difference will your passion add to other people’s life? Is there a problem in the community that you think your passions can solve? Follow that dream and be a solution to the problem.
6. ASK FOR HELP
When you are not sure about what you are doing, ask others for help. Lots of people spend time and years groping in the dark. This is where you need a mentor who can guide you on the right track. The Bible says “Ask and you shall receive”.
7. CURIOSITY
Be curious about anything going on in your industry. Curiosity pushes you to seek. It pushes you to find solutions and this leads to searches and researches. The Bible says “Seek and you shall find.”
8. TIME
Create time to find solutions to your problems. Rich and poor people share same time in the world. It is what you do with the time you have that makes the difference to your day and your life.
9. FLEXIBILITY
Be flexible about everything you do. When things don’t happen the way you want, learn to change it and do it differently. It is not a perfect world. There are times when it will not happen the way you want it. Sit back, reflect, take stock and try it differently. Do not be afraid to take a risk, adventure or a challenge. If it works, congratulate yourself; if it fails, learn from your mistake and move on. .
By
Joy Phido
CEO & Founder of World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd
Joy is a Natural Hair and Extensions Specialist, Consultant, Designer and Educator. She is a Hair Business Coach, Mentor & Adviser etc. She has been practising Natural Hair and Extensions for over 25 years and has been in Hair Business Education for over 7years. With careers span over various industries, Joy is a well-established business woman, a Professional NVQ Level 3 Hairdresser and a member of the UK Hairdressing Council. Joy has undertaken training in Natural Hair and Extensions from USA, UK & various African Countries. As hair plays a major role in the Black Community, Joy is an advocate and supporter of growing and developing this industry for the benefit and enrichment of the Black Community. She is a firm believer of glamorous healthy natural hairstyles for Black Women
This was a speech given at the International Black Hairitage Month in Paris on 8th October 2011.
LOVE YOUR HAIR – YOU WERE BORN THIS WAY
7 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN WORKING WITH NATURAL BLACK HAIR
1. UNDERSTAND THE NATURAL BLACK HAIR BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO IT:
80% of the world population are people of colour – Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and yet the textbook and scientific understanding of hair – its structure and function comes from research that has been done on Caucasian people.
The Black Hair industry is a huge industry as statistics show –
Population – USA Black Americans 38,929,319 as at 2010, in the UK 1,148,738 as at 2001, in Africa 1,022,234,000 as at 2010 etc etc.
Revenue – UK in 2004, the Black Hair industry was worth £60million. South Africa in 2002 it was $90million, USA in 2008 it was $14.7billion By 2013 it will be worth $4.2trillion in the USA.
Who owns this industry – Blacks have no control of this industry. They only own about 30% while the World leader in hair care generally and black hair care in particular is Loreal – a French owned company. In 2000, the company invested $11million in the multi-million dollars Loreal Institute for Ethnic Hair and Skin Research. Based in Chicago, this centre is to better understand the distinct properties of the hair and skin of people of African descent – fusing science and beauty to develop a wider range of products to sell to people of Black and mixed race across the world.
Why do we need this information? For us to better understand the scale of what we are dealing with. The biggest problem we face within the Black Community is to understand our natural hair and skin. We have refused to take on our role but have given have passed on this role to people of other races. How can we address this problem?
We have to start by taking stock and asking the most basic questions like - What is natural black /Afro Hair? How can you care for it and maintain it? How does it grow? What causes damage? What are the best products for it? What are the best tools that work with it? How do we style it? etc etc.
Black hair is different from all other races in shape and composition. It is vulnerable, fragile and requires extra care. It is naturally dry and requires extra moisture.
The number of heads that we can help with products, tools, styles, education, information, accessories etc are uncountable according to statistics. Currently there are no schools teaching Virgin Black Hair. We educate ourselves on Hairdressing /cosmetology schools run by people of other races whose teachings are based on other hair types excluding our hair type. The research and education these colleges use are based on Caucasian hair information and knowledge and when they mention the Black hair, they call it the most difficult and bad hair type. But we believe there is a reason we were created with this hair. Our first role is to understand how to work with it – afterall our great great grand mothers worked with it – Madam C J Walker. This is where World of Braiding has taken on the current challenge of understanding the virgin Black hair. Our trainings incorporate understanding Afro Hair and how to work with it without altering its natural state. Finding out how to glamorise, style, beautify and make it wearable for everyday life. We encourage you to understand your hair before you do anything to it.
2. GET TRAINING BEFORE YOU START:
No one should undertake working with anything without understanding what it is and how it works. This also applies to hair. As a hairdresser, you attend a college and get training to do your job. This rule should also apply to Virgin Black hair. Our hair stylist should take up trainings on natural hair before allowed to touch our hair. This is what is causing the amount of untold damage in the Black hair community as everyone pretends to be an expert in Black hair yet giving the most unbelievable fraudulent advice. With training, you will save a lot of hair damage which is forcing Black people to buy products that do not add value to our hair but continue to drain our pockets and leaving us continuously poor while other communities get richer on our money. Time we stop being used as money making machines for manufacturers of damaging products for Black hair.
3. WORK WITH THE RIGHT PRODUCTS:
What products are you putting into your hair? Experience and lots of research is currently showing that the biggest problem the Black hair faces is the use of the right products. Reading the labels of shampoos, conditioners etc show that products targeted at black hair contains damaging chemical substances that further dry out the already naturally dry black hair. Knowing the right product that works well with our hair type will save a lot of hair damage which is forcing us to buy more products that continue to fill our bathroom shelves but do not add value to our lives.
4. WORK WITH THE RIGHT SKILLS / STYLING:
What hair styles are you wearing? Are the styles you work with healthy for your hair? Wearing your hair styles like braids, weaves, extensions etc on a base of natural black hair is very useful as your hair is protected and there are no pressures on your natural hair. This is where hair stylist need training again as presently, they are telling their clients to first apply chemicals on their natural hair before these styles can be worn. This is wrong information and it is based on ignorance. When braids, weaves and extensions are applied on an already chemically processed hair, this leads straight to damage as has been experienced in our community even among celebrities who have enough financial resources but because they are dealing with ignorant stylist, they end up with bald hair, patches etc where Naomi Campbell is a well-known example.
5. WORK WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS:
What hair tools are you using to work with your black hair? Do these tools work with your hair? What combs, clips, brushes etc do you work with.
6. WORKING WITH THE RIGHT IMAGES AND ROLE MODELS:
We need to support and encourage our celebrities who model and show off their natural hairstyles. Teyana Taylor, Jada Pinket Smith, Alycia Keys, Brandy, Solange Knowles are a few to mention. These images need to be glamorised and portrayed in magazines, newspapers etc. These magazines need to do more to encourage black women to love wearing hairstyles that are less damaging to their natural hair.
7. WORKING WITH THE RIGHT ACCESSORIES:
Black hair needs to be beautified and glamorised. What are we using to give us the look we want and need to look the part. Clips, pins, hair combs etc. We need to research more so as to see beauty from our point of view.
Nature did not make a mistake with our hair. We have the most versatile, creative and easy to work with hair type. Do not ruin it. Work well with it.
If you have been affected by wrong style, bad hair stylist, wrong information / advice, please feel free to contact us with your information. We are happy to advice you on your hair dilemmas.
By
Joy Phido
CEO & Founder of World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd
Joy is a Natural Hair and Extensions Specialist, Consultant, Designer and Educator. She is a Hair Business Coach, Mentor & Adviser etc. She has been practising Natural Hair and Extensions for over 25 years and has been in Hair Business Education for over 7years. With careers span over various industries, Joy is a well-established business woman, a Professional NVQ Level 3 Hairdresser and a member of the UK Hairdressing Council. Joy has undertaken training in Natural Hair and Extensions from USA, UK & various African Countries. As hair plays a major role in the Black Community, Joy is an advocate and supporter of growing and developing this industry for the benefit and enrichment of the Black Community. She is a firm believer of glamorous healthy natural hairstyles for Black Women as she knows it contributes to self-confidence. She has written and continues to write/ give talks on how to grow the Black hair industry.
JOY PHIDO IS PIONEERING EDUCATION IN THE NATURAL HAIR & EXTENSIONS INDUSTRY
Joy G Phido
WHO IS JOY PHIDO
A mother with 4 children – 3 girls, 1 boy
A wife married for nearly 20 years
Chief Executive of World of Braiding & Extensions Group of Companies
A business woman whose experience in business spans across various areas.
An educator who trains and teaches her students the skill of natural hair and extensions
A business mentor who helps her students get into the Business of natural hair and extensions
A natural hair and extensions Designer, Consultant and specialist.
A motivational speaker and personal development adviser.
Wears natural hair and all her children too.
Someone’s friend, sister, aunt, cousin etc.
JOY PHIDO IS PIONEERING EDUCATION IN THE NATURAL HAIR & EXTENSIONS INDUSTRY
Joy Phido is the CEO and Creative Director of World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd. She is an experienced business woman whose experience spans over various industries and businesses.
Joy is a licensed qualified Hairdresser/Cosmetologist, a Natural Hair & Extensions Educator, Consultant and Designer. As a Natural Hair & Extensions Educator, Joy inspires women and young people alike across the world to embrace not only natural hair and extensions beauty but to get into business and offer the service of caring for natural hair and extensions in order to prosper and create wealth for themselves and their family.
Her mission: 1. Protect and glamorise Natural Hairstyles 2. Empower women to gain skills for self-employment & create jobs for others 3. Grooming Body, Mind & Soul to genuine Financial success with Business Enterpreneurship skills
Joy Phido teaching natural hair styles in a seminar
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Joy’s interest for education in Natural Hair industry began in September 2002 when she wanted to gain more education in the natural African type hair beauty and realised there were no colleges that taught this hair type. She became more curious and wanted to know why education in this hair type was not offered in schools. On further research she realised that she had discovered an emerging untapped industry with so many gaps and missing aspects. This discovery led her to understand 3 major facts:
There were Hairdressing and Cosmetology colleges in the UK and USA but there were no academies or colleges that focused on teaching, educating and training on the uniqueness of the natural African type hair.
There were also no colleges that taught the creative art involved in natural hair designing and its glamour. She noticed celebrities and ordinary people alike were constantly adorning natural hair designs and wondered:
who was responsible for creating their hairstyles?
Are the people creating these designs professionally trained and if so where did they gain their training?
if a beginner had an interest and passion for the skill and wanted to learn or get into the industry, where would they go to get the training?
The industry attracted so much wealth but there was a great imbalance in the sharing of the wealth that circulated within. Her search on the industry had exposed her to discover there were a few groups of players in the industry which ranged from the salon owner/stylist, the product and hair extensions distributor /store owner (beauty supply shop) and the product and hair extensions manufacturer. She then discovered that among these major players in the industry, the people who worked hardest were the salon owner /stylist who stood behind the clients all day but yet got very little income from the huge amount of money that circulated in the industry. Continuous research into the industry shows such startling statistical population and buying power as:
Why? Black women love their hair as is part of the culture.
Black hair is unique and requires special grooming. www.highbeam.com,
Type 4c Coily Ziggly
– Black hair is coily, tight, lacks moisture and easily tangled. It is dry, frizzy and fragile to the touch which leads it to break easily thereby requiring constant attention.
As the natural Black hair is the opposite of society’s perceived notion of westernised beauty, there is the constant demand to manipulate and change its state to fit into the mainstream understanding of beautiful hair. This therefore is the reason the Black woman has to spend so much money in order to have the hair that is noticed in her society.
The above discovery strengthened, inspired and encouraged Joy to embark on a journey to educate her community, share her knowledge and empower stylist and salon owners to understand the politics in the industry in order to join in and tap from the financial wealth that circulated unnoticed in the industry. This helped Joy to set up World of Braiding & Extensions – the No. 1 internationally accredited Natural Hair & Extensions Academy with Habia CPD certification to act as the pioneer institution with the VISION:
To teach Professional Natural hair & Extensions skill
To guide students to set up and run successful natural hair and extensions Business.
To help students see the potential in the industry and to join in and prosper from the wealth within.
As a continuous way of sharing her knowledge, Joy can be seen actively conducting seminars, workshops, events, attending and participating at hair shows. Styling models at Special Beauty contest and shows etc. Miss West Africa -UK, Afro Hair & Beauty, Miss England 2013 etc.
Model showing Afro hair glamour3
Miss West Africa UK contestants showing off their lovely figure
Model showing Afro hair glamour1
across various continents of the world. She can also be seen on Youtube continuously sharing and educating her community with the knowledge & skill she has acquired. With over 2 million views and 8,000 subscribers tuned in to watch and follow her, she continues to perfect the knowledge of understanding the Natural Hair & Extensions industry. She writes e-books, blogs, creates
Joy Phido and beautiful family
home training DVDs etc to continue to educate and share knowledge.
PIONEERING NATURAL HAIR & EXTENSIONS GLAMOUR
As a natural hair designer, she is one of the industry’s most sought after Artistic Master Braids, Weaves and Extensions Consultant.
Zina’s glamorous tree braid weave
Like the rest of society, Joy believes that a woman’s hair is her crowning glory and should be treated with love and care so as to give her confidence to perform her best in whatever she does. It is with this knowledge that Joy is one of the pioneer hair designers who completely reject the use of chemicals on a woman’s hair to create beauty. Knowing that chemicals damage the hair structure thereby leading sometimes to irreparable hair loss situations, this has led Joy to encourage her clients to stop using chemicals in their hair and stay natural. While wearing natural hair styles has led so many women to believe that their hairs tyles have got to be boring and less adventurous, Joy has had to pioneer creative natural hair designs in order to give her clients the glamour and beauty they desire and deserve.
Stephanie Contestant Miss England 2013
Joy has pioneered and embraced many natural hair styles that empower women to value their beauty without chemicals. Joy’s niche in the industry is to create styles and designs for the professional business woman who is a style Icon – who not only stand for success in life, but appreciates glamour and health of her natural hair which helps to consolidate her image in society. World of Braiding & Extensions is the 5 Star salon for the VIP Natural Hair & Extensions client. Look fabulous and feel great with natural hair and extensions glamour. Natural and glamorous.
WHEN DID JOY’S LOVE FOR HAIR START
Joy’s passion for hair dates back to when she was 5 years old in her home country Nigeria where as a child in Ogoniland, started playing with grass blades for hair strands. The grass leaves could be seen as the Barbie dolls most little girls play with in modern society. In her secondary school she continued with her passion for hair where she was the most sought after student to design the hair on the senior students. To Joy this was an honour as she was spared a lot of dirty chores in place of working with something she loved – designing hair. Growing with the typical sentiments as is normal in Nigeria, her passion for hair was put in the back burner after secondary school for a glossier high University education lifestyle. In University, she studied Business Administration with the dream of setting up her own International Business at some time in future. After becoming a graduate, as is expected in Nigeria, she had to find a prestigious job to fit a prestigious lifestyle of the well to do Nigerians. Working in Banking satisfied this role and worked in various banks and rose to the position of Deputy Manager in the Treasury Department of a Commercial Bank in Lagos. She then set up her fashion and beauty business on the side as part of her plan of running her own business as was her initial dream.
STARTING LIFE IN ENGLAND
Everything was put on hold as Joy had to relocate to England in 1994 in the heat of a crisis that had taken place in her hometown Ogoni. She had to start a new life in a new country and a new society. To fit into the new society, she had to start life all over again with humble beginnings as UK work ethics did not rely on educational qualifications without local industry experience. Nigeria’s work experience was not recognised and so Joy had to go back to the beginning by taking on various trainings – starting with NVQ Levels 2 and 3 in Business Administration. After completion of her courses, she took on various jobs and eventually got a prestigious job in the City of London as a Circuit Designer working from Lloyds of London with one of the worlds’ top Telecommunications Company at the time – MCI WorldCom. Telecoms industry crashed and so did MCI Worldcom. Joy was made redundant and as she was expecting her third child, she had to find a way out to survive the expenses that came with family life. With childcare being very expensive, it had become apparent that paid employment with 3 children was no longer an option. With 3 children to feed, she took on various other roles – that failed and led her nowhere. The only choice left was to set up a work from home business. She researched work from home jobs on internet and came across Herbalife – a pyramid weight loss company that promised to help her achieve great things working from home. She invested all her redundancy money into this business hoping it will sort out all her problems. This proved to be the most expensive mistakes of Joy’s business and investment decisions. With 3 children, a mortgage, untold number of bills, a failed business that had put her in so much debt, stress and no hope for a way out, Joy had no one to turn to. Then she came across a book in the course of attending one of Herbal life’s marketing events – Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. She remembered her childhood dreams of running her own business. This inspired her to go back to her passion and dreams of working with hair. As she had always designed her 3 daughter’s hair, it was now easy to take this to the next level.
TAKING NATURAL HAIR EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL – WORKING WITH THE LOCAL COUNCIL
Joy joined the Local Council Adult Education Department to perfect her skills of setting up her hair business but realised that she knew more than her classmates and her instructor. She happily offered and shared her knowledge with her colleagues and teacher. As it turned out, her teacher was moving on to greener pastures and therefore suggested that Joy take over the job of teaching the class. The Council officially offered Joy the job based on her teacher’s recommendation and this was the beginning of a new route for Joy as she had no prior experience of teaching. While with the Council, she was offered a teacher training Course to help develop her teaching ability. She continued with the Council where her duties carried on for 5 years with 4 teaching centres. With various classes to teach,
HAIR BRAIDING CLASS
Joy decided to make her teaching more interesting by adding more knowledge to her skill which she did by researching some more and finding out about training organisations based in the USA. She then took various trips to the USA in order to compare and add more to her natural skills.
On her return from the US, she had made a good comparison between the braiding, weaving and extensions practices of Africa, America and England. Her comparison confirmed that while Africans could braid beautifully, they did not appreciate their skill and did not glamorise the hairstyles. They also lacked professionalism, delivery of good customer care and Health & Safety practices. On the other hand, the Americans glamorised braids but also lacked good customer care, professionalism and health & safety practices. While in UK and Europe, Braiding, Weaving and extensions was yet to take its roots and get recognised in the society. This comparison of knowledge and experiences empowered Joy to embark on various ways to make her training professional, introduce health & safety practices, glamorise and encourage theory education in the industry. She was now able to offer detailed, versatile, organised and professional methods of teaching which helped ease her dealings with learners from various races, backgrounds and across the world.
This was quite an exciting time for Joy and after teaching for 5 years with the Council, she had accumulated enough experience to set up Braid Creations – her first natural hair and extensions business. Braid Creations then gave her the confidence and knowledge to work from home around her 3 girls. After about 2 years as the business consolidated and settled down, she then moved the business into a commercial centre and later changed the name to World of Braiding & Extensions.
ACHIEVEMENT AND ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION
Joy has over 30 years’ experience of wearing and working with natural hair designs. Joy has the following qualifications – BSc Business Administration, NVQ Level 3 Hairdressing, NVQ Levels 2 & 3 Business Administration, City & Guilds Level 3 Certificate in Delivering Learning, ILEX Legal Secretary, State Registered Hairdresser (SRH), various Certificates in make-up, Hair Braiding, Weaving, Lace wig installation, Fusion Extensions, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP Practitioner) etc. In addition to teaching Natural Hair & Extensions, Joy is a motivational speaker who uses her training in NLP and personal experiences to empower other people to do more in life.
WORLD OF BRAIDING & EXTENSIONS LTD
As Braid Creations grew successful, it was later changed to World of Braiding & Extensions Ltd.
Joy’s comparison of natural hair and braiding practices from across the globe continues to provide her with a wealth of information which she passes on to her students thereby making them better informed and equipped professionals. Training to become a qualified teacher also helped immensely as Joy found out this was lacking with the American training centres she had attended. They knew their skill and could showcase the most amazing hair styles but could not share or translate their knowledge to a learner. They also lacked depth in their training as it was only based on practical experiences without background theory to make learning complete.
With the continuous search for knowledge, Joy took on the NVQ Level 3 Hairdressing Course. This was to gain a better understanding of the differences between what Hairdressing offered compared to the Natural Hair and Extensions aspect of hair. This was to become very clear and the major points Joy noted was realising that the Natural hair and extensions industry was lacking in professional services & ethics, health & safety and lacked theory education which included understanding hair, growth and what caused damage. Hairdressing therefore helped Joy to incorporate these aspects that were missing into the natural hair & extensions industry. World of Braiding now added these theory and other professional practices into its training such as Health, safety and hygiene in the salon, professional work ethics, client records, client care and communication, client consultation, retailing & displaying products & extensions, presentation and packaging of images in the form of photo-shoot etc helping to showcase the glamorous side of natural hair & extensions industry. All of these information is to help the student with the understanding of setting and running their own salon businesses.
A student’s shop in Ilford London
A student’s shop in Portsmouth England
These research, education and training has given World of Braiding better background information to teaching students the skills they need to set up their own business as well as firmly rooted World of Braiding as the pioneer institution that helps to get students into natural hair and extensions business.
Joy’s continuous search for knowledge took her on a trade mission to China where she had to meet with manufactures of hair
Attending international Beauty events
extensions and products packaging. Joy believes that the key to teaching is about continuous research, communication, flexibility, patience, passion, willingness to share knowledge etc etc. All these attributes have contributed to making World of Braiding a No 1 training Academy for teaching Natural hair styles and Extensions. Joy has used these positive attributes at World of Braiding & Extensions to successfully create thousands of satisfied students who have trained to become professional natural hair and extensions practitionersand have gone on to achieve their dreams by becoming self-employed in their own salons, working in a salon, adding natural hair skills to their careers, offering the skill to their loved ones etc. World of Braiding can do the same for you.
BRAIDING CLASSROOM TRAINING
One of Joy’s attribute to success comes from Personal Development. She is a huge practitioner and supporter of the fact that if you are strong mentally, you will be able to withstand the pains and stresses that life presents. She is an ardent reader of various great motivational speakers – Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, T.Harv Eker, Christopher Howard etc. The hunger for personal development came from the training Joy undertook in NLP. Without NLP leading the way for Joy to view life differently, the story may have been different.
In addition to other career experiences, Joy is well grounded and is willing to support and train others in the following areas:
Personal and Self-development to enhance success and growth in any area of life
General business advice and consultancy
Natural Hair image design, advice and consultancy
African hair braiding experiences
American hair braiding, weaving & extensions experiences
Teaching Adult learners of all races in Natural Hairstyles
Teaching young learners of all races in Natural Hairstyles
Starting and marketing a Natural Hair business
Fashion businesses
Joy’s attitude is that all hairs should be embraced and glamorized. All hairs can be designed into any style and this can be done by anyone irrespective of race, sex and age. This is a sentiment which has been proven over time by the cross section of students from across the world who have gained natural hair skills from World of Braiding & Extensions. World of Braiding & Extensions is determined to turn anyone with a creative mind and passion into a professional natural hair and extensions stylist.
Joy is available to talk at your next event – conferences, seminars etc – as she believes that one persons’ experience can become a catalyst that inspires another to success in business, personal life etc. Please contact us for details.
11 STEPS TO START & GROW YOUR NATURAL HAIR BUSINESS
1 PREPARE YOUR MINDSET:
This is a new field or area of business for you. Learn to prepare yourself mentally. Bible says you must sew before you reap. Olympics winners don’t just get on the field and win gold medals. They go through a lot of training and work hard to get what they want. You have to look at all the possibilities before you decide to start in this field.
2 INVEST IN A TRAINING:
To prepare yourself and become the best in this industry you need guidance. To gain guidance you need to invest time and money to get the best skill. World of Braiding is happy to offer you the best guaranteed professional and certified training you can find.
3 PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE:
Be prepared to spend time practicing your skill. Now you have the skill, if you stop practicing, you will lose it. Practice makes perfect and if you want to be perfect, you must practice. This helps to make you one of the best in the industry. Start with the Training head, then gradually grow to work with friends and family.
4 START BY OFFERING CHEAP /FREE SERVICE:
From your practice on the training head, you are now getting gradually confident and sure of what you are doing. You want to start working on clients so you can guage their emotions, requirements, opinions etc. Offer your service free or for very cheap prices to help you completely take control and gain your confidence. By offering this service, you will know what client’s expectations are and how they like their hair. This will help you build a client base as well. This gets you started on your way to become a natural hair technician.
5 BUILD A PORTFOLIO OF YOUR WORK:
Remember the hair and beauty business is very visual. People want to see what you claim to know. How would they see what you know if there is no proof in a photograph. Building a portfolio seals your capability and gives proof of what you are capable of doing. It also gives you a point of reference for your clients to have confidence in your work. Please avoid taking other people’s pictures from the internet or celebrities pictures as clients will not be fooled by this action.
6 START TO MARKET YOUR SERVICE:
Experienced business people say this is probably the most important part of a business and also the most hated. Your business works around people. People need to know that you exist. The only way for people to know about your business is when you tell them about it and this is what marketing does for you. Circulate your information around people. Some of the popular ways include: word of mouth, fliers, advert in magazines, brochures and the most current is the Internet – social media, website etc. World of Braiding is happy to give you tips on how to sell and market your business.
7 SET UP YOUR BUSINESS TO BE LEGAL:
Register your business as a legal entity. This helps you to network professionally with other businesses. It gives you corporate identity and the ability to become the boss of your own business.
8 GOOD CUSTOMER CARE & QUALITY SERVICE:
A stable business survives on clients multiplied by the no. of usage. Now that you have clients; how do you treat or attend to them? Do you give quality service that you are proud of? Remember the rule of life about “give and take”. You need to sew in order to reap. Do not take from where you did not sew. So to get your clients coming back avoid shoddy pretentious job. Give your best at all times – 200% where possible. Treat your clients well and they will keep coming back. This proves you have a going concern and that your business will survive. Do not take it for granted that your clients will always come back or that they do not have a choice. Your clients will go to somebody else if you do not give them what they want. Also remember to thank them always for choosing to come to you instead of your competitor.
9 CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: (KEEP UPDATING YOUR KNOWLEDGE)
You have to continuously improve on your knowledge. Beauty is in constant motion as is seen on celebrities. Continuous learning is one area where Black Salons are losing out on their clients. You need to continuously improve on your knowledge. No one has sole custody of knowledge in the world and you are also never too old to learn. You have to keep improving on your current skill as the hair beauty industry is constantly changing. Something you knew yesterday may have improved or changed today. There are so many ways of improving on your knowledge – Attend hair shows, workshops, seminars, networking events, buy magazines and read articles etc. Remember other professionals such as Medical Doctors, Accountants, Solicitors etc always constantly improve on their knowledge. You are a professional and you can only be the best if you keep your knowledge updated. You owe your clients their right to have latest hairstyles.
10 ADD OTHER RETAIL PRODUCTS TO YOUR BUSINESS:
Your clients always need products to keep their style fresh at home. You need to help them by stocking these products so it saves them travelling to the shops to buy fake products from ignorant people as they have no experience about these products and do not know what they are talking about. Most times they end us advising your clients to buy the wrong products. You are the expert and you are in the best position to advise your clients and give them the best products to meet their needs. We are happy to introduce you to suppliers that will help you grow your retail side of your business.
11 MAINTAIN A DATABASE OF YOUR CLIENT:
Keep records of your client’s activities with you. This way you will always know what style they had the last time they were with you. You also need this information to stay in touch with them. If you stop contacting them, they think you don’t care and will go to a different place for the service they want. You do not want to be forgotten.
Wishing you the best in your business start-up and growth.
World of Braiding is happy to support you with all the points mentioned above so you can grow and be successful.
LAURAYNE – LAURY’S HAIR & BEAUTY SALON – ILFORD – LONDON
For years Laurayne worked in the Social Care industry. She was tired and bored of working for other people and wanted to start her own business. She however had a passion for hair and had no idea where to start from. Her immediate purpose was “to learn different techniques in hair styles, to be professional and to introduce new styles”. She had taken a vacation from work and wanted to complete a short course that she could finish before her vacation was over. She confided in me “I simply do not want to go back to work”. But she also did not want to go to a college and take at least 2 years to complete a Hairdressing Course.
She searched for natural hair training on the internet and found World of Braiding’s Training and decided this was what she wanted. She came to us in 2009 and had a consultation with us where we explained all the various options in our skills Training Courses and the routes available for her to take after the training.
She chose the Foundation to Braiding Course and completed it in 10 weeks. She said to me “I will give my training the best effort possible as I have a dream and have no intensions of going back to work. I will start my business immediately I finish my course.”True to her words, after completing her qualification, she worked with an amazing Estate Agent from the Internet who found her a perfect position on the High Street in Ilford, London. She went straight on to start her Natural Hair and Extensions Salon. This is her testimonial in her own words “When I first came I was so excited about the trainings and worried to get better and professional. Now that I finished I am so happy and content with what I learned, I feel confident about hair and can start my own business. Joy is a wonderful person, very sociable and patient. I am very happy that I met someone like her and definitely will be missing her, but I will stay in touch.”
Since then she has not looked back. Today she is constantly busy with unlimited flow of clients and has now added other skills like Beauty treatment to her knowledge. She is currently taking another course in Beauty etc. This is one example of what you could achieve in a short period.
RITA – RITA’S HAIR & BEAUTY – PORTSMOUTH
When I met Rita in December 2006 she was already in the business of selling Hair Extensions. She and her husband John had started a small shop of 8 months old on a High Street in Portsmouth where they were servicing customers who needed hair extensions. The customers will buy the extensions and take it elsewhere to get their hair done. She had one stylist who decided when to attend to clients and when not to. This stylist was in charge of Rita’s shop. She enjoyed the fact that Rita had no skill and was capitalising on her ignorance. When Rita hinted the stylist that she needed training to gain skill for the business, the stylist was completely against the idea. She told Rita that no one will ever be able to train her to braid hair. She believed it was a natural skill that you were born with and could never be taught or learnt.
John thought about this and decided it was enough of helping other people make money so he searched the internet and found World of Braiding training courses in natural hair styles. John made the first call to us. Rita came 2 days later for a one day Course on strand-by-strand extensions using the Glue gun. When Rita joined the Course, her immediate dream was to gain more knowledge on hair extensions and the skill with the aim to grow her business. Rita was very hands-on and had no interest in writing notes even when I explained to her that she needed the information to assist her learning. She explained to me that she did not like taking notes and her brain served her better than paper notes. Before registering on the course, she had been brave and had booked a client to get her hair done on the Saturday while she came for training on Thursday. She promised me she will practice non-stop on Friday. The outcome of the hair service was excellent and Rita could not believe the skill she had locked away in her hands for so long.
Two weeks after the training Rita and John could see the big difference in the income they were getting in the shop. Rita had recovered the cost of taking the course from her very first client she booked on the Saturday and thereafter was simply making a profit. Their intake had gone from about £500 a week to £2000 a week in the same shop. Since then she has not looked back anymore. She later came back to World of Braiding to take up another Course in Introduction to Hair Braiding.
Rita now owns a huge shop in Portsmouth on two floors selling extensions, products and adding the skill of natural hair and extensions. She is desperately seeking stylist and is always asking for newly trained students who are happy to live in Portsmouth. Due to her amazing presence on the High Street in Portsmouth, Rita has been spotted and sponsored by various international products and extensions companies from the USA and other countries who want their brands to be showcased in her shop. She is constantly offered short training courses on these products and extensions.
Rita has now enrolled on a Hairdressing Course to further her knowledge on how to work with chemicals and service more clients.
You could be like her success story.
MAGDA – FREELANCER – POLISH
Magda came to us in 2009 with her husband. She had no idea what hair braiding was but loved to look at the intricate styles in natural afro hairstyles. She had amazing fingers that could pick up skills easily she explained to me as she confided that she had taken lessons in musical instruments as well. She had amazing passion for hair and wanted to use this skill on a freelance basis so as to free up time to be with her 6 year old son who needed her attention after school. After our consultation, we agreed on a Foundation Course to give her at least 10 different techniques in Braids, Weaves and Extensions to help her have various choices while working with clients.
She was nicely surprised to find that she was the only one in class most of the time as we work with individuals as well as workshops. She gave the training 110% as Magda still remains one of my favourite students. She was creative, tried different styles whenever she completed a technique, practiced her styles on her husband and son and was overwhelmed with the knowledge she gained.
Her testimonial – “this course is one of my best experiences in life. I still need more confidence to use my skills and start working from home, but even after the course I am always getting support from Joy and encouragement when I need it. You can study for years and learn nothing, but when you have a master (like Joy) you will get where you really want. It was brilliant!”
When she completed her training, her immediate worry was where to start practicing her knowledge so as to perfect her skill and gain life experiences. We sorted this easily. I contacted another student of mine – Vicky – who had set up a salon in the city where Magda was based – Hemel Hempstead and we agreed that Magda could come in and help out on Saturdays. This helped a lot as she told me amazing experiences that she encountered. She explained to me that the hair on the training head was a lot more difficult to work with compared to the afro hair on her clients. She also experienced that when clients noticed that she was not black, they were usually a bit sceptical about allowing her on their hair until they see her work. She also advised some of her colleagues on how to work with Caucasian hair as I had taught her in class. What an experience she had.
Magda to this day produced one of the best portfolios I have ever seen which I still show to other students who come to make enquiries.
You could be like her.
VICKY – SALON OWNER (BRAIDS’N’ WEAVES) – HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
Vicky came to us in 2008. Vicky like other students was unique. She was an immigration lawyer and had taken on the reality that the economy was changing. Immigration issues in the UK had taken a different turn and she was not prepared to wait until her business crashed. She had a passion for hair and knew she will be better off getting ready and prepared in this industry. But the issue was where to start from. She went on to the internet and searched for training in natural hair. She was also not prepared to spend years getting a new skill. We needed to get her started on a Course that will give her a lot of skill to enable her start her salon.
She chose the Foundation to Hair Braiding Course. Since then Vicky had finished her Course and set up her salon. In addition to natural hairstyles, she added another short course in working with chemical relaxers so as to give her more grounded approach to servicing her clients.
Vicky has also sent her 16 year old daughter and her cousin for training in Introduction to Braiding Course so they could help her in the salon.
Her testimonial “taking on the training is one of the best decisions I had to take. Joy worked with me to ease me into an industry that I was not sure where to start from. I will recommend this training to anyone who knows what they want in their lives. Do not wait for things to overtake you before deciding what you want in life.”
Vicky’s salon is doing great and she is a great resource for students who need practical experience from World of Braiding and live close to her location.
Vicky gauged the economic situation and did not want to be held back by the changes in the industry she was serving at the time. Now she is happy she took the plunge at the time.
You could learn from her experience.
FRANCESCA DE MORI – OWNER FREEDOM BRAIDING COUTOUR – AUSTRALIA
Francesca came to us in August 2010. She is still one of our star pupil as she was only 18 years old when she started with us and celebrated her 19th birthday with us. Francesca was an established name on YouTube with a huge followership. The amazing thing with her was that she was self-taught in all the different styles she was uploading on YouTube. She found me on Facebook. A great thing about Francesca is she is very inquisitive and is constantly on the lookout for the latest information or knowledge. She will search the world for whatever she wants and go the long mile to get it. This is a quality she has which I can relate to easily as I am like this in various ways.
We had months of consultation by emails, inbox etc from various sources – Facebook, YouTube etc. We concluded on what she will need. She wanted every knowledge she could gain as in her own words “I want to be the best in natural hair in the whole world”. We chose the International Braiding Course. This course gave her over 22 techniques but based on her hunger for knowledge, I gave her more than was planned and made it 28 techniques.
Francesca took on her training in her true Leo star sign style – she was bubbly, worked late, asked questions, sought information constantly etc etc. There was no dull moment with her. In the end, she excelled in every technique including the Theory workshop where she finished 2 notebooks. While in training, she was keeping her fans and clients up to date with her progress by constantly uploading pictures of her work.
She was like a sponge and soaked every information she was given. First thing she did when she got back home was to change the name of her business. Then she embarked on the photo-shoot I had advised her to do. This changed everything for her as she had presented to the world her professional side and that she knew what she was doing. She uploaded her new styles that she had learnt on her YouTube and Facebook pages. She started getting new bookings. Her testimonial “I could never have done it without World of Braiding”. Her testimonial is numerous. See her YouTube video on our channel.
She constantly video her work and her clients, she updates her YouTube account all the time and gives her followers up to date information on everything she does. They find the work great and call to book for their hair to be done in same style. Her followership has skyrocked on YouTube and Facebook, she now writes for a national magazine in Australia, gets celebrity stylist contacting her, attends meetings and events that concern natural hair styling and there is no stopping her. We did a Press Release on her progress recently where she confirmed how she is in such high demand and gets over 3 weave clients in a day giving her more demands than she can handle. She is always seeking experienced and trained students from World of Braiding to help her out. Coming over to get training changed her view on the skill she had started without direction. Now she is an expert in her own field and is coming up with her brand of hair extensions.
My experience with Francesca confirmed to me that it is not information and knowledge alone that makes the difference but what you do with it. There were other people in her class who are yet to utilise their skill. She has used technology to change the way skills and beauty should be seen.
The sky is the limit for this young teenager who at this age has no holdback and fear in the form of children and family tying her down.
Watch this space as she will probably become a millionaire by the age of 30.
You can be like her or join her in Australia.
FELICIA OWUSUAA – SALON OWNER – NORWAY
For Felicia, getting training from us was her last attempt at getting a professional training in braiding and understanding her skill. She had started her own salon and was already attending to customers with some braiding techniques but something was missing. She realised she lacked professionalism. Her clients will get her service and not come back again so she needed loyalty from them. This made her feel insecure and not sure of what was not right.
Being Ghanaian she thought it will be best to go home and improve her skill after all braiding was an African skill. She left her family and went back to Ghana for 4 months. This was a long time to stay away from her young family but being determined and staying focused to achieve a great result she took on the challenge.
After 4 months, she came back without achieving the results she wanted and still felt empty as if something was missing. She now went on the internet for more searches.
She found us in December 2007. I remember very well as this was during Christmas time and her young family was missing her again. We consulted by phone and agreed on the Foundation course for her training. We narrowed her training to techniques that she needed and focused to make her understanding clear and professional.
On completion of the Course, we went on to the unique part of our training – Theory to Braiding. This part to our training is our best part yet. This is the section of the training that Joy and World of Braiding has perfected and branded specially for her students and is the part that separates our students from experienced braiders who have been braiding in Africa. The theory encompasses understanding of the industry, professionalism, and running the business of natural hair. Everything that no one else will teach you is in this part of the training and is based on Joy’s personal journey into understanding the industry of natural hair. This is the Education and Information part that brings everything together and makes complete sense to our students. This is the part that differentiates World of Braiding from everyone else.
Felicia however thought she did not need the theory and was ready to go home to her children. She said she knew everything there was to know about extensions and products. We insisted to her that to gain her certificate, she needs this theory side of our training. Luckily for Felicia there was another student in the class – Sheena Daniels who insisted that she needed the training so Felicia had no choice. We took on our training and on completion, Felicia was in tears. This was shocking and we wanted to know what had happened. It transpired that her continuous search and numerous travels to gain knowledge was based on this information that she lacked. She had not known that this was the part that she was lacking and needed understanding to make her professional and educated in order to satisfy and be confident with her clients. She now knew why her clients were not coming back and being loyal. She now understood why she felt insecure and her clients were in control of her business. She instantly felt complete and realised that she now had a business to run and no longer a hobby.
Her testimonial“I am now very satisfied because now I have the knowledge that I needed to run my business. I am happy for the information I got from Joy and all the training that she has given me. Thank you so much”
On getting back, she sent lots of glowing report about how she had changed everything in her business and how she was now in control of her business. Everything had changed and she was a very happy business woman. She remains in touch and lets us know about her progress.
You could be like her and change your situation around.
THANDI SWARTBOOI – SALON OWNER – SOUTH AFRICA
Thandi is one of those dream students. She was hungry for knowledge and was willing to invest in it without argument. When Thandi came to us in 2009, she had a good knowledge of braiding and was attending to clients. Somehow she felt something was lacking. She needed to perfect her skill as she was going back home for good. She had decided it was time to go home and set up a professional salon. We had our consultation and concluded on Foundation to Braiding. We took her skill to the next level and when she was done her current customers where so grateful that she had taken training to better her skill.
Prior to this stage she was like most braiders charging ridiculously cheap rates for her time. After her training everything changed. All her new clients had to pay her new rate while she confirmed to me that the old clients who had remained loyal will still get the best service from her at the same old rates they were paying. She thanked me and could not believe that she had been so ignorant about the industry. She was so happy when she started shopping for all the things she needed to get back to South Africa.
Her testimonial “Everything I needed to know and learn I have learnt. I am satisfied with the way I’ve been taught and have achieved everything I wanted. The course was great; the teacher is very good and makes you feel you are in the right place.”
You too could be like her.
ROSE SISAN – FREELANCER – BRAZIL
Rose turned out to be a friend. She like the rest of the students was hungry for knowledge and had a great passion for hair. She had never braided before but knew this was something she wanted to do for a living. By this time she was working in Social Care and was working mostly at night in a home. She took on the Foundation Course in 2006 and embarked on gaining as many techniques as possible that was going to help her.
She had let everyone in her Brazilian community aware of her training because she wanted the market to be waiting when she was ready. She stayed focused. She gave her training all her energy as she practiced every night at work and while her clients were sleeping. This was because her dream was to have enough time to be with her two lovely boys and eventually take her skill back to Brazil.
While in training, we attended various events together. The great thing about Rose was that her hunger for knowledge and understanding encouraged her to be selfless and was always willing to help. She joined me to every event I attended and assisted in every capacity. We became good friends.
On completion, she let everyone in her community know as well and the most exciting part was when a celebrity musician from her country visited England, she was asked to go and do her hair in the hotel. She was so excited and could not wait to tell me the tales. She was chauffer driven to the hotel and was given the star treatment. She said the lady was so impressed with her work and they paid her amazing amount of money which almost covered the cost of her training. This was the beginning of great things for her as this has now become part of her CV. She was now a Celebrity hairstylist she told me. Since then everything had changed for Rose.
You could be like her.
MORGAN HUDSON – HOUSEWIFE – SOMERSET
Morgan came to me in 2008. She had no idea what braiding was but had a mixed race child. There were no salons in her area that attended to mixed race hair so she chose to train herself to be in a position to cope with her child’s hair. Her husband was black and never believed that she could be able to ever learn braiding.
We took on the Introduction to Braiding Course and she was very determined to surprise her husband. She completed the training with the skill completely in her hands. Her immediate testimonial“I really feel very confident to start braiding straight away and I am so pleased to have learnt a lot about products. This course was such a fantastic experience for me. Joy is a brilliant teacher and should be charging so much more. I would recommend this course to anyone with an interest in hair.”
She got back home and sent me glowing reports. Her testimonial “thank you so much Joy for letting me achieve 2 things in my training. I gained my skill which I now use easily on my son but in addition, you have been able to help me wipe the smug off my husband’s face.”What a great result for someone who never imagined she could achieve the skill.
You could be that person.
SHEENA DANIELS – MOTHER – KENT
Sheena was just a Mum who wanted to be able to do her children’s hair. Kent barely had Afro salons and she was tired of spending a lot of money on taking her children to the hairdressers. She was also fed up with the long wait, the too many questions from her children, the cries, the general inconvenience of taking them to the salon and especially the Health & Safety issues.
In 2007 she came to us and we undertook the Introduction to Braiding Course. All she wanted was just a simple course that will give her the skill to style her children’s hair and get them looking tidy for school. While in the course she met with Felicia – earlier mentioned and became more interested in the business. She wanted to know more and was willing to give the skill a lot more attention. She got really good at creating her cornrows and single plaits and was very intrigued. She then enjoyed braiding her training head which she had a habit of taking with her to everywhere.
Interestingly she went to a salon one day to buy some materials and while there a Mum walked in with her daughter who needed her hair braided. The salon had no idea how to go about attending to the needs of the client and were thinking what to suggest. Sheena promptly brought out her training head and asked the woman if she wanted a style like she had on the head. The little girl was excited and Sheena was asked to braid the hair. On completion, everyone was happy – Sheena had discovered the use she could put her newly acquired skill to while also working on her own children’s hair, the salon were excited as they could not wait to sign her on as a staff, the little girl and Mum were excited as their needs were met.
From then onwards, Sheena never looked back as she now came back to take on a Course in Hair Weaving and now became fully professional in natural hair designs. Her testimonial “Simply the best training ever. Absolute value for money and now I am looking forward to a better life.”
You could be like her.
ALENA HORNICKA – FREELANCER – SLOVAKIA
Alena came to us in 2009. She had travelled the world for a period and had decided to stop and do something she loved. She had passion for hair, had never braided before but knew she could use her hands to achieve great results. We chose the Introduction to Braiding Course as she did not want anything very complicated.
On completion of her course, her testimonial “I am very happy with my training course, information, knowledge and skill of hair braiding. I have gained a lot. I had a wonderful teacher who is willing to teach, share and help others to start their own business in hair braiding. Thank you.”
On travelling back home to Slovakia, she sent amazing testimonials “Joy I got back home and as you had advised, I marketed my braiding skill to the Council and offered to do children’s hair for the Children’s day celebration. They were excited and offered me the contract to braid over 1000 children on the day. What do you advice?” This was amazing. She had taken on the advice she was given. At this stage I advised her to work with other braiders in the area but this was one of my favourite cases.
You too could be like her.
CELESTE WITHFIELD – SALON STYLIST – USA
Celeste came to us in 2010. She loved braiding and had been doing this on her clients. She was self-taught and was very curious about the skill of braiding. She was married to a black man and this made her more curious about the skill of braiding. She had researched about training all over the USA and no one offered her the type of knowledge she was seeking. She found World of Braiding and contacted us. She was detailed and knew what she wanted. She was one of my favourite challenges. Luckily for her she had negotiated a training plan in her workplace and they had agreed to share her training cost.
We consulted and because she was coming from a long distance and had major interest in braiding, we agreed on International Braiding Course. She loved her skill. She concentrated and perfected every technique she was taught. My best student in Ghana cornrow was Celeste. She gave an amazing impression and I was very pleased with her training.
On completion, this is her testimonial “All areas of my training exceeded my expectations. I feel so much more confident and well equipped than I did before. It was an amazing training. I was given so much feedback and encouragement. It blew me away. Joy teaches on such a PROFESSIONAL level and is extremely in-depth.”
What a glowing report. She was good and since returning home, she had taken on a lot of projects including working in Los Angeles with the celebrities.
You could be like her.
UJU OZUMBA – SALON STYLIST – LONDON
Uju only just completed her training this year – 2011. She just missed one of our Weave workshops which was what she wanted. She then contacted us and wanted to be part of the next course.
She has been working in the salon but believed her skill needed to be made more professional and taken to the next level. She had a chat with her boss who completely disagreed with her. Explaining that she was okay and did not need any more improvement. She was naturally very curious and knew that an investment in a good training will change the way she was offering her service to her clients.
We consulted and concluded the Weave Workshop was good for her. Uju like most of my favourite students was hungry for knowledge. It excites me to see students who have done some research, have a lot of questions and want answers. Uju never stopped asking questions. She wanted to understand every style and every reason why a style is created in a particular way. She took on her training with one of the most amazing vigour I have ever seen. We completed a full cornrow weave and she got home and replicated the same style on another training head the same night. She came to class with the new head all completed and showed me what she had done in the night. I was in awe of her. She had sat up all night to understand what she had done the day before. What a woman.
Uju has 6 children and is a single Mum but she has refused to let her personal circumstance stop her from excelling and achieving her dreams. I absolutely respect her as in my many years of meeting many women who want to better their lives by gaining a skill that equips them to take control of themselves. However, Uju is different. She comes across as one of the people who not only wishes but takes action to make the changes she requires in her life. She did not only take on the Weave Workshop, she came back to perfect some of her braiding skills. She saved money and paid weekly on some of the techniques. She always came to the class with something new she saw in the shop as she loved sharing ideas and information with me. She made me see the good in human existence again. She never asked for anything but knowledge to better her life and in return gave back so much.
On completion of her course, this is her testimonial “I achieved perfect closure for my weave. This is the best investment I have ever made. I am so lucky to have had this opportunity. My confidence has improved and Joy is an amazing trainer and lady. God bless you.”
Since then on getting back to work, she has sent more testimonials “I just want to say thank you sooooooooo much for all your help. The teachings were all on point and there was no reservation. i couldn’t have asked for more. You have given me the confidence to believe in myself and to know that i can do it on my own. You are an inspiration and a great teacher and doing the training was the best investment i have made. There is a great improvement in my work and i can now say am proud of my work, thanks to you. Thanks again for everything and keep up the good work. God bless you x.”
You too could be like her.
ALEX BROOKS – FREELANCE – WALES
Alex joined our training in 2007. She was young and had a passion for hair. She loved wearing braids but realised that there was no one doing braids in her local area. This meant she had to pay a lot of money to get her own hair done. Alex saw the opportunity in this and decided to train so she could set up her own natural salon.
Her immediate worry however was the money to use in joining the Course. She spoke with her job center who was more than happy to sponsor her training. She took up the Introduction to Braiding Course and immediately picked up everything she was taught.
Her testimonial “everything was explained clearly and slowly which made it easy to pick up. I found the experience very educational and would recommend this training to anyone.”
Alex now runs her own natural hair salon in Wales, starting from home she created a lovely website and gets orders from the net. Breaking braiding to strands of single plaits, cornrows etc, highlights, lowlights etc. She has been very happy she took up our training as she now has her own independence.
You could be like her.
AND MANY MORE CASES TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION. JOIN THESE WISE WOMEN AND MAKE THAT CHANGE TODAY.
OUR MISSION IS TO EMPOWER YOU FOR WEALTH, GAIN FREEDOM AND TO LIVE THE LIFE YOU DESIRE.
PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU NEED OUR SERVICES IN YOUR LOCATION OR NEED MORE INFORMATION. WE ARE HAPPY TO TEAM UP WITH OTHER TRAINING PROVIDERS TO EQUIP WOMEN WITH SKILLS THAT WILL EMPOWER THEM.
Worldofbraiding Blog 
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