When I get asked why did I start the @blackownedsouthfl instagram page to support Black owned businesses, my answer is always, “nail technicians.”
The response is usually always the same. “Really? Are you a nail tech?”
It was a random Saturday morning in September of 2019 when I woke up and of course I immediately grabbed my phone to see what my friends on Facebook had been up to. As soon as I opened the app, this video showed up on my timeline and it drew my attention. This wasn’t the first time it was reposted so I decided to click on it. I mean, a few people shared it so there must be a reason for it. It was a video of a black lady who returned to a salon two days after two of her nails broke. Allegedly the situation escalated when he asked her to wait. It all went downhill from there. A man putting his hands on a woman should never be acceptable.
Black women frequent Asian nail salons and I have always felt at times, the respect was lacking. Now this was not always my case when going to nail salons but there were times I felt there was a lot left to be desired. I must say I have come across exceptional nail techs but I felt like we have such talented black nail technicians, why aren’t there black owned salons all over different neighborhoods?
Watching this video frustrated me so I decided to do a quick google search for “black owned nail salons Miami.” Nothing. Well I did get results but they weren’t black owned. For 10 minutes I tried changing the keywords to see if I could find anything. The only results I received were the nail salons around me which were not black owned. I decided to text my best friend and tell her how annoyed I was and said I need to do something. I think I’m going to create an Instagram page so others can find black owned businesses of South Florida easily. She said it was a great idea! And so it began.
I created the instagram page not knowing where to start or how to even find these businesses. So, I asked my friends to follow and send their business owner friends to me. I started using hashtags to see if I could find some B.O.B. and it worked! I said the only way I can grab their attention is to send them a message. I started writing everyone one by one and they started following back. I was surprised and excited. They were too happy to have another form of promo for their business and I was too happy to help.
I once watched a video on entrepreneurship and I remember the gentleman saying, as an entrepreneur, you will sometimes have to work for free and I couldn’t agree more. The knowledge you gain is more important than making one sale. Because if I don’t understand what I am doing, how can I continue to gain a profit? I knew I wanted to start a business but couldn’t figure out what I really wanted to do. I love doing so many different things and that was my problem. I needed to narrow it down so I could give 100% of my time to focus on my goal.
But now I feel like I’ve found my purpose in the business world. I don’t have a physical product to sell. I’m just start out and still growing. I am proud of where I am at the moment and I’m excited for what can come out of this. I appreciate those who I used to “slide in their dm’s” and they still support until this day. I promise to continue my goal of getting these businesses more exposure.
The goal is to make it and bring everyone else with me.
