Maria Gonzalez came to the United States from Ecuador 12 years ago with a dream of starting her own business here. After owning her own business in Ecuador for more than three years, changes in the economy lead her to leave everything and move to the United States. She started to work at other salons gaining valuable experience, but always kept in mind that one day she would be an entrepreneur here in the United States, just as she was back in Ecuador. For ten years, she and her husband saved money to fulfill their dreams. At the end of 2015, they found a location, however, they didn’t know what to do or how to start. Through a friend they were referred to our SBDC center, scheduled an appointment, and started to outline their dreams.
Our consultant, Henry Pulido from EPS Accounting, helped them through the process of developing a plan, reviewed the property, business and cosmetology licensing registrations, helped them with budgeting, finances, and purchasing equipment.
As a result of this endeavor, other Spanish business owners were also referred by the SBDC to help them with this project. Renovations were done by Luis Barboza, owner of Saint Joseph Contractor, all planning and salon design was done by architect Alfredo Trevino from Alfredo Trevino, AIA Architects, and all electrical and plumbing was done by German Ortiz from Atlantic Alarm Electrical Work. The salon’s marketing and publicity was handled by Marino Posso, owner of Advertise It, and video & photography was done by Luis Zhingri from Infinity Productions.
Mary’s Beauty Salon Ribbon Cutting December 2015. Photo by Luis Zhingri from Infinity Productions.
“The SBDC, through Henry Pulido, has helped us during every step of the process in opening our business. We had no idea what to do. We just knew it was the time to open our salon. We found the location and decided it was about time to fulfill our dreams. Henry made his recommendations, taught us how to make a plan and a budget, assisted us with the lease, helped us to negotiate with the landlord, connected us with furniture vendors and helped us obtain our cosmetology license. We really appreciate all assistance we received and thanks to the SBDC, we officially opened ‘Mary’s Beauty Salon‘ on December 12, 2015. We can say we did it!”
Find out more about Mary’s Beauty Salon at http://marysbeautysalon.net