We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their story in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life. We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves, we’re not holding back.

It’s one thing to set a goal, and it’s another to follow through and achieve it. To say that Jenny Strebe is goal-oriented is a drastic understatement. Two decades ago, Strebe made a commitment to molding her own career path in the world of haircare and styling with her popular blog and YouTube channel, The Confessions of a Hairstylist. The demand for her styling grew so much that she took TCH on the road teaching educational classes at hair salons across America. She also managed to publish three books during that time—talk about drive!

But Strebe’s real strength lies in innovation. While cultivating her dream career, she also started ideating her own product line, infusing earth’s natural resources into haircare. So, two years ago, she finally decided to self-fund and develop her own high-performance haircare line called AIIR (they even have their own merch!). Using crystal energy and other natural earthly materials, AIIR’s products are holistic, effective, and revolutionary in the world of beauty. There’s nothing like them on the market, which has also proven to be part of the challenge in launching them, but that just made Strebe more determined.

In this edition of From Scratch, Strebe sits down with us to talk through the beginnings of her brand, the role that intuition plays in making business decisions, and the power of staying focused on your goals.

Did you write a business plan? If yes, was it helpful? If no, what else did you use instead? Why did you not take that approach?

“I didn’t at the beginning. I just went with my inner tuition but when I got to the point that I needed to pitch the idea to distribution I buttoned it up and created a business plan to help define our targeted audience.”

How did you come up with the name? What was the process like? How did you know it was the right name? What are some of the things you considered during that process?

“I knew it had to be some sort of holistic element just due to our innovation with playing around with holistic elements of mother nature such as crystals, lions mane mushroom, marigold, aloe vera... etc. I started also looking into Greek mythology meanings and was really attracted to the word aether, but felt it didn’t fit for a name. But when looking into the meaning of it and in Greek mythology, aether is the pure air that the gods breathed in the heavens as opposed to the normal air breathed by mortals on Earth.

“After reading that I knew I wanted it to be some sort of spelling of air because I’ve spent many times on my flights gazing into the sky; dreaming of the possibilities of life and all the lands the clouds touch. My story is defined by reaching my dreams despite the odds. The ebbs and flows of life are a wild ride and amazing hair is just one detail of our everyday. A detail which I focused on to prove we can incorporate nature and positive energy whilst having great hair.” 

What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the business? (Website domain/setup, trademark, name, business name listing social channels, etc)

“Haha ummm… everything. Literally everything. I started with the development first, finding out if crystals in haircare was a possibility and conducting my own research with local gemologist. The name was second, I went through three trademark applications for different spellings of air and AIIR was the only one available but I honestly think its perfect. Then came buying the domain, and setting up the social channels.” 

What research did you do for the brand beforehand? Why would you recommend it?

“I researched who I felt our competitors were. Why I recommend it is because we wanted to see what other premium brands were doing for deals, bundles and marketing so we could compete with competitive prices and deals.”

How did you find the manufacturer/production facility that you use? Did you have any bad experiences? What did you learn? What advice do you have for other founders looking for a trustworthy manufacturer?

“I found the facility through a referral in the industry. We did have a few harder experiences communicating with some of our facilities only because our innovation is so different and new—we needed to ensure the manufacturer was on the same page with high integrity ingredients that were responsibly sourced, and unfortunately its not overly  standard in the beauty product community. So we had to fight for great ingredients that meet our ethos.”

Did you self-fund the company? Did you raise seed money or initial investment money? Why/Why not? What would you recommend?

“Yes, this is a 100% self-funded project. I didn’t raise seed money but invested my savings. I first started small and sold two products at the beginning to build working capital. While I did pitch to several investors a lot of the seed money comes from guys in business suits that don’t have a current pulse on the industry so my concepts were too new to them and it intimidated them. I do recommend trying to fund your own project so you have complete control, it’s a hard situation to be in if you have a family like myself but we made it work.”

How much did you pay yourself? How did you know what to pay yourself? (You don’t have to give the $ value, just the percentage)

“I haven’t paid myself anything yet. I hope to be on a salary early next year. What comes first is building a great team and making sure they are taken care of. Leaders always eat last.”

How big is your team now? What has the hiring process like? Did you have hiring experience? If not, how did you learn and what have you learned about it along the way?

“Our team consist of four people right now. The hiring process for me is more intuitive as well as people had to prove to me that they believe in the brand enough to be on board. A lot of the team consists of beauty industry leaders who are taking pay cuts because they believe in AIIR so much and see the big picture.” 

Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and set up? What do you recommend (programs etc) / advice do you have for that?

“I use Quickbooks for accounting and have been advised by my personal accountant on how we needed to be set up. I do use an excel sheet for budget to properly define our growth and apply funds in areas we may need such as marketing, social ads, etc. That has been helpful.”

What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing a business?

“I don’t know, that’s a trick question. I think for me as a CEO is to learn every aspect of the business and getting out of my comfort zone. I’m a hairstylist at trade and and entrepreneur at heart so the business aspects were very difficult for me, but I’m happy I know every element inside and out.

“Another difficult part has been getting the right people. I did go through a couple employees who were amazing on paper and in person but didn’t fit the bill. We needed go getters and leaders not someone who just wants to be paid. Ripping band aids off when someone wasn’t the right fit was really difficult as I want to always give people tons of chances.” 

How did you get retailers to start stocking your product? Were you told no? How did you handle that rejection? What advice can you share?

“I went for the company who I had the best relationship with already and that was Salon Centric who is a hairstylist distribution company. I have worked with them on a charity basis (for a charity we both endorse), and I have worked several hair shows with them as a professional hairstylist so I thought that was the perfect fit for the beginning.  We are pitching to regular retailers early 2020.” 

Do you have a business coach or mentor? How has this person helped? Would you recommend one? How do you get one?

“Over the years I have made many connections. I have several people I can lean on regarding a lot of different challenges. Sometimes it’s just having people like Gordon Miller, CEO of Hairbrained just believing in you and that can make all the difference. I also have a business partner Devin Graciano who is a huge positive force and a sounding board with process which has helped me a lot.” 

How did you promote your company? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz? Did you know anything about marketing before this venture?

“I promote the company via social media. Since I’m a hairstylist with over 468k followers I really targeted my audience there first. I also am personally working with loads of hair influencers that I adore and have built a relationship with who we partnered with to help build the buzz through social media platforms. We also do a lot of educational newsletters to help educate our audience on not just our product but how to create gorgeous looks that are trending.

“I don’t know much about marketing, I’ve just learned a long the way through the hustle of being a social media influencer. I try things, watch to see if it works or fails and tweak if needed.”

What is one thing you didn’t do in the setup process, that ended up being crucial to the business and would advise others to do asap?

“I encourage everyone to do a trial hire basis. Don’t overpromise until you know an employee or partner is 100% the right fit for your brand. A lot of people talk the talk but when it comes down to work they aren’t as hardworking as you thought they might be.”

For those who haven’t started a business (or are about to) what advice do you have? 

“Don’t give up. Surround yourself with people that believe in you and take risks. If you have the people in your life that don’t believe don’t listen to them. It’s a lonely road to success but you just have to keep believing in your vision.”

Anything else to add?

“I think the biggest thing to add for me is be different, do things differently. Don’t be scared of what people might say, push your product developers and do your own research if you have to.”