Don’t Panic - Self-confidence and resourcefulness can overcome the fears associated with an entrepreneurial endeavor.

"'Not panicked' pretty much describes me. When I started out in this industry, I worked for a large department store, and when I came back from my honeymoon, they gave me and four other girls out two week notice. I panicked, and the four people who worked with me panicked. But my vision had always been to run my own salon. So I, along with those four people, went to work for a chain [salon] that had just opened. A year later I hadn't saved much money [to open a salon] but I saw how successful we had made this chain.

I decided to take a week of vacation, find a building and secure a small-business loan. Well, the guy I worked for found out and he fired me and those four girls, all of whom were planning to leave and work for me. But this time, I didn't panic. Instead, I borrowed money from my brother, Joe Sullens, and made him my business partner. I then borrowed the the rest of the money that I would need fomr my mother-in-law and opened a one-chair salon that had three tanning beds and a reception desk.

In 90 days, I'd paid back my brother, and in six months paid back my mother-in-law, while meeting all my costs and making investments in new equipment. We've expanded three times since then, and I know if I would have panic back then, I'd probably be working for someone else's salon today.

If I could put a new title on my business card, I'd take off “president” and replace it with “day-maker”, because I love making everyone's day and making them feel better. If you do something you love, then you don't panic about all of that other stuff and things will work themselves out in the end.

As businesspeople, you have to comfort your staff. Right now…people need a dose of self-confidence and to know that things will be OK. And this starts with you, because it trickles down from you to your people. If you show panic and fear, that's exactly what they'll feel. Right now people - more than ever - need that sense of comfort and reassurance. That means, no matter what, you need to keep reinvesting in you staff. And you have to become creative in order to keep up your morale. What you give [your staff] and what you put into your business, you'll get it all back over time."

Jennifer Pealer founded Jenniffer & Co. nine years ago. The salon, which employs 52, provides hair, nail, tanning, massotherapy and spa services. With the assistance of her brother and business partner, Pealer has expanded Jenniffer & Co. from a single salon chair and three tanning beds to 17 chairs and 13 tanning beds.
Jenniffer & Co. also is active in the Florida based charity, Locks of Love and exchanges free haircuts for any donation of hair more than 10 inches in length. The hair is then converted into wigs for cancer patients. Over the last three years, Jennifer & Co. Has cut 288 ponytails (about 730 feet of donated hair) that have been made into more than two dozen wigs.

MZ - Inside Business (Champions of Growth)press section