![]() “Two years later, people still don’t feel like going to the salon, especially with gas prices the way they are,” she said. Her slogan, “Don’t feel like heading to the salon? Let the salon come to you,” seems to be the reason, she said. And business has been “going crazy,” Williams said.Īlong with the regular customers she has had for quite some time, Williams said many new ones are showing interest, noting she gained seven new clients in the past two weeks alone. Now, about two years later, Elite Studio Mobile Hair Salon is on the road, offering the same services customers receive in customary salons, everything from hair cuts and color to waxing. In addition to her brother and sister-in-law, Williams credited her husband Ryan for the support he has given her throughout the journey to bring this project to fruition. ![]() The remodeled motor home includes shampoo chair and other equipment. It is decorated in the popular farmhouse style with white shiplap, barn doors and some southwestern touches in the throw pillows and rugs. Complete with a stylist’s chair and requisite mirror, the salon is also equipped with its own sink and shampoo chair, restroom, hot water supply and generator for electric, although customers can allow hookup to their home electrical service. It was getting frustrating and I was thinking this wasn’t going to happen.”Īfter locating a willing insurance company, Williams’ next step was actually finding an affordable recreational vehicle and remodeling it to suit her business needs.įor this, she credits her brother, Bryan Baublitz and his wife, Jackie, who did the demolition and construction on the 26-foot-long 2013 Ford Fleetwood Tioga Montara, transforming it from a motorhome into a beauty salon. No one in Ohio was willing to help me,” she said. “Finding insurance was hard, because of bringing customers in and out. So she went it alone, buying her unit and equipment and then tackling what turned out to be the hardest step: obtaining insurance. However, she didn’t qualify for any of the funding sources. “She looked and looked and looked she was trying her hardest, even trying to find money for a woman-owned business,” Williams said. Williams said Traina went out of her way trying to locate grant funding or loans that could be used to help purchase the RV and equipment, saying, One of those who favored the idea and tried to help obtain funding to make it happen was Penny Traina, executive director of the Columbiana County Port Authority. That’s when the idea for Elite Studio Mobile Hair Salon was born. “The more I talked to people about a mobile home, the more they said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to do this.'” “I decided I needed to get a mobile home, and to make sure I could drive it,” she laughed. After a Google search for “mobile salon,” she learned they were popular in larger cities, as well as in California and the South, she said. ![]() She got the idea to expand her in-home service to an actual mobile service complete with a beauty station on wheels. ![]() Crystal Williams works on Ashley Wain’s hair in her Elite Studio Mobile Hair Salon. ![]()
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