No Filter: The Real Tea on Building a Beauty Biz

In this episode, Mahima sits down with Sri (pronounced “Shree”) Rejeti - the co-owner of and a powerhouse behind Beaulogy, a buzzing salon in Fremont, California. Sri spills the tea on what it’s actually like to chase your passion, from stressing over money and pricing to keeping a solid team that doesn’t dip.

It’s not just glossy beauty talk - it’s the behind-the-scenes grind, the lessons you don’t hear on Instagram, and the kind of inspo you need if you’ve ever thought about turning your side hustle into something real.  No gatekeeping, just real talk.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:06 Beaulogy: Sri’s Glow-Up Story
• 3:05 The Passion That Sparked the Hustle
• 6:56 Money Talks: Startup Costs & Planning
• 11:10 Pricing the Glow: Knowing Your Worth
• 13:03 Keeping the Squad: Team Retention & Growth
• 14:00 Why some salons fail
• 15:57 That Awkward Stage: You’re Not Losing, But You’re Not Winning (Yet)
• 17:19 Money Moves: Tools to Track the Bag
• 18:57 Schooling Clients: The Secret Sauce
• 20:35 When Business Gets Messy: Staying Resilient
• 21:17 Stack It & Reinvest: Playing the Long Game
• 22:04 Do Glow-Ups Have Off-Season?
• 24:48 Leveling Up: What Running a Biz Teaches You About Adulting
• 26:07 What’s the realest advice you’d give someone our age starting out in beauty?
• 32:33 If money could talk, what would it say to you?
• 34:30 Outro

Transcript

Mahima    (01:06)

Hello and welcome back to My Two Cents. I'm your host, Mahima, and I'm back today with another episode for you all. Today we're joined by Sri, the founder and owner of Boology, a thriving salon in Fremont, California. Since starting Boology, she has grown it into a beloved local destination for beauty services, successfully steering through the challenges of the pandemic. Sri's unique blend for cosmetology

and exceptional customer care have earned her a loyal and diverse clientele. Moms, teenagers, and even senior citizens keep coming back for her services. From managing clients and sourcing premium salon products to running a cosmetology apprentice program, Sri embodies the true spirit of an entrepreneur. Today, she'll be sharing her journey from getting started in the beauty industry to building and sustaining a successful business.

we'll hear about her financial lessons that she's learned along the way, and of course, enjoy a fun and insightful conversation. Sri, thank you for joining us.

Sri (02:14)

Mahima, thank you so much for inviting me for your podcast. And I'm so honored, honored the way you introduced me. It's more than what I am. And yes, my name is Sri Rejati and I'm a part owner slash stylist slash manager, And yes, we started biology out of pure passion.

Mahima    (02:19)

Of course.

haha

Sri (02:37)

2010 December as a soft opening, but 2011 is actually from day one January. We started accepting one client at a time, one day at a time and look after now it's 14 years, 15th year entered. So right now it's 2025. It's a great journey.

Mahima    (02:52)

Yeah.

Sri (02:57)

It's me and my partner. I have a partner. So together this biology journey started.

Mahima    (02:59)

Mm-hmm.

Wonderful, wonderful. So Shree, what made you say like, you know what, I want to take my beauty skills and turn them into real business. What was that moment you were like, I want to start biology.

Sri (03:14)

Yeah, it

all started, I can say going back when I was like high school, just your age group, you know, where my parents were like, you cannot think about doing any arts. They're like, no, no, no, you got to be a doctor

Mahima    (03:21)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (03:27)

engineer type. And I was one of them, like, you know what, let me try my passion. They coached me, but not so much, but I

Mahima    (03:27)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (03:35)

realized that, I need an undergrad. So I have done undergrad. The passion started with that in economics. Then I was leaning into learning a little more on the business side,

then I started studying for a master's, pursuing MBA. I got into classes, just purely to understand how finance and business work I was so passionate about profit laws, balance sheets, break evens.

Mahima    (03:47)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (04:01)

and liabilities, what's the other one, assets. I'm like, wow, this is so cool. I'm not so much about numbers. I'm not much into geometries. But rather, I was leaning into this kind of math, understanding the numbers And I could not pursue MBA but I got married, came to the world of opportunities to America.

and trying to figure out where I fit in. So I tried to go into some of the computer courses. Long story short, I did not like

Mahima    (04:24)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (04:31)

programming. So I'm like, what in the world is this? I don't understand these ones and zeros. And that's when I did web base URLs. I kind of liked that. Like, okay, this is like a front end work, playful arts kind of a thing.

Mahima    (04:35)

Yeah.

Yay.

Sri (04:45)

and that's when they asked to do a final project and we have to create ⁓ a page like a links and you know create that I can click I can give them in a URL you know www.youwon'tbelieveidateonbeauty

Mahima    (04:49)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Sri (05:01)

Nothing else, there's so many out there I could do. because back home I used to do lot of, watch a of beauty tips, which I could do from home. I could fix my own little dry skin, oily skin.

Mahima    (05:10)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (05:13)

in this world of opportunities and with the support of my husband, I was able to pursue, this beauty industry and combine a little bit of how to work as a business, business finance I cannot believe what a circle I came back again.

So then I went to beauty colleges, pursued that degree in India too. I went for a four month break and did The crash course, they taught me everything what I needed to know.

Mahima    (05:31)

Mm-hmm.

like a thing.

Sri (05:37)

to run a business and I got the certification. So I combined East and West together, the practice of culturally, how to do beauty services. Then I went to beauty college here. Now I have a formal license to practice. That's how I started. Then I worked in beauty salons here part time.

Mahima    (05:50)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Sri (05:58)

having a family, trying to balance my life my partner, my backbone, my husband, master's in computer science. but also he has done MBA in finance.

So the two brains, the front end is me, the back end is the finance, his inputs made this biology what you're seeing today. another, what I want to say is when I started business, all the hiccups, all the...

Mahima    (06:12)

Mm. Sorry. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (06:27)

Runway time. I know later on we will discuss more in detail. My co-partner, one thing he said, Shree, you learned everything what MBA teachers by running the business You learned a mini MBA by just all the hiccups, all the falls, all the raises, all the ups and downs.

Mahima    (06:28)

Mm-hmm.

by real life experience.

Sri (06:47)

handles but otherwise the front end everything. It was a great journey still going on. That's my little background.

Mahima    (06:48)

Yeah. ⁓ Otherwise, yeah. Yeah.

It's beautiful that you were able to, pursue something and you literally, like you said, you did a circle back to what you really enjoy. And honestly, that's what I think makes a successful business is when you're so passionate about it and you bring in the real life skills plus your passion and then you have biology. So yeah, wonderful,

Sri (06:58)

full.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mahima    (07:14)

Shui, when you first started biology, what did you need to buy or invest in and how did you afford it? What were your startup costs essentially?

Sri (07:16)

Yeah. we began two brains, right? As a front

I know what I want, how I want to make biology look. finance, of course, my partner, we both sat down. What we felt is first is location, location, location. We paid extra premium for any businesses out there tomorrow. All your young people, you know.

Mahima    (07:25)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Always.

Sri (07:39)

who are pursuing tomorrow, all the business ideas, location matters a lot. Either you spend extra, and be in the food traffic next to freeways, easy, accessible to customers to come in and go. otherwise, have to go 10 different signal lights to get to that particular business, but rents may be cheaper.

but you will be spending more on advertising, the traffic to get into your businesses. What we felt is let's cut down on that and have extra money spent on the location where accessibility is there, visibility is there. With less advertising, people are driving by the freeways and we are next to freeway. So having like big corporates like Starbucks or Denny's or some, you know.

Mahima    (08:01)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sri (08:25)

mom and pop good places or some corporate retails. That was our thing. Second, yes, we have to take a loan. We have to have an idea how much footage we have to take. Is it thousand square foot Is it 1200? What are we creating? So we did rough drawings. It's crazy when we see go back with a pen and a paper, a pencil, a drawing.

Mahima    (08:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (08:48)

How much square foot costs? If I am in next to freeway, it's, for example, one square foot is $3. Right? And if I go four lights into the main exits, It is $1.50. It's cheaper for that square foot.

Mahima    (08:51)

Yeah, yeah.

Sri (09:05)

but I have to spend more money on how to bring people into my business. We rather wanted extra dollar spent on the square foot and have a cleaner, better visibility. So that's where we did the math. How much will it be monthly cost? Because we have to lease that. Second is every property managers have this something called triple nets, which is like garbage, cleaning.

Mahima    (09:07)

It is cheaper.

Yeah.

Totally.

Sri (09:30)

the leaf blowers come in, they take care of the premises, the parking lots. That all adds up. A lot of times as a new business owner, we don't think, oh, a thousand square foot, three dollars, or three thousand, oh, I can buffer it. No, there's an extra cost of utilities and this triple net, and all of that, we have to map it. That's how we did, and we came up with yearly, how much it will it be?

Mahima    (09:34)

Thank

Yeah.

Sri (09:56)

and we mathed it, how much loan do I need to take? So we have to sit down with the bankers, what is the surety? I'm going to show my house or my husband's salary, So those are the small steps you will have and you have to have a vision.

Mahima    (09:58)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Sri (10:12)

Am I losing for three years? Am I going to be broke before that? Am I going need to do five years? Will I have a runway time? So one more little two cents to add that is you have to have your personal savings set aside until you take off. There's a runway time and a take off. The take off is breakeven, not even profit. Not even profit. It's just breakeven. That might take a year.

Mahima    (10:13)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yes. Take off, yeah.

Yeah,

Sri (10:39)

clientele, your retention, how to bring them back, what kind of customer services you are doing, and what kind of pricing and how are you going to pay? ⁓ All of that you have to math. What kind of salon you want to be? You want to be value places? It's like 10 minutes haircut.

Mahima    (10:48)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sri (10:57)

boom $15 in and out or you want to give them more personal, high touch. We are high touch. You want to make sure that the procedure and the services match the price what we are asking them to pay.

Mahima    (11:04)

⁓ Yeah.

Yes.

you kind of started off with my next question, which was, was it hard to figure out how you charge for your services? And how did you know what your time was worth? What was that process like?

Sri (11:19)

Yes, yes. So we know, we did a demo, me

okay, if you start a facial, suppose, how much time is it typically taking? I did a demo on my doll head. so we did the math, it is 45 minutes to one hour. then we matched how much product am I using,

a teaspoon, tablespoon, whatever we needed. And how much is costing that product for me? an eight ounce bottle, how many facials can I do in that? Is it $50? Am I getting $100? That's something we have to map. The material, the labor cost. because labor, right? Ourly we are paying coworkers

Mahima    (11:42)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (11:55)

We are a team, we are peers. I always call them as my coworkers. I started there, then I grew into managing and a supervisor, deep down, I am a peer to everybody because I do work. So we had demo material cost, the time I'm working, and the time the stylist was going to work, their cost.

Mahima    (12:08)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (12:17)

Am I charging $17 per hour? A station who I hired is at a $20 efficient, experienced, know, stylist, So We did math, the cost of the product, the time, how much is taking and an hourly on average. What is my biology cost to run a business? $80.

Mahima    (12:21)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (12:36)

or $100, Because every hour costs something to have the fans running, air condition running, water running, and my material costs, and plus what I'm going to pay my employees slash co-worker.

Mahima    (12:37)

To run everything.

You have to.

Yeah. Yeah, you have to.

Yeah. And it's all the little, little costs that add up. Like I never thought you would have to think about the bottle itself, the teaspoon, the tablespoon. Like just from the outside, you really wouldn't think of that. But when you actually start, that's what adds the costs up.

Sri (12:51)

Yes.

Yeah, we have to have a buffer. Forget That comes later.

And there are times first couple of years, even though he is like, if I am a CEO, is a CFO, Right? We don't take salaries. We are living off what savings what we have. And we also have to have a buffer to pay the bill every month that property manager sends me.

Mahima    (13:05)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Okay.

Sri (13:20)

This is your bill for the monthly lease,

right? The rent, right? when I'm new, not just me working all the time, I have to have somebody so I can pick up calls, I can make the conversation, I can sell the services, I can do the promotion part, but I have to have somebody to take care.

Mahima    (13:26)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (13:36)

No client, client, you have to pay them. suppose if it's a 5,000 per month rent, I'm not even making 3,000, But I have to pay 5,000 for my property manager. that's where the runway money you have to save.

Mahima    (13:48)

Yeah.

Sri (13:50)

2000 extra I need to pay from my pocket. I have to pay salary for my coworker. So I have nothing left behind. so we take all those factors and you have to have two to three year worth runway money.

Mahima    (13:50)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

that you have.

Okay.

Yeah.

Sri (14:05)

Like if my partner if he's not there, I would have hired bookkeeping. There are many salons who don't have that backup. I'm very blessed, Mahima, many, many salons fail in two years because they didn't know how to manage the money. They don't have anyone to help them. They have to hire a bookkeeping guy, accounting, payroll.

Mahima    (14:10)

We're on Business

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (14:27)

all these costs monthly. If I have to hire a payroll guy, I have to pay monthly to run my payroll. If I have to hire accounting, I have to pay them monthly something aside. Imagine within this little 3000 even before making profit. So if you don't have that vision, which I learned from my business partner, I wouldn't be here the way I am.

Mahima    (14:29)

That's one more extra person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sri (14:48)

I wouldn't have stood on my feet Right?

Mahima    (14:49)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

it makes total sense. like you said, like having someone in the background can totally help,

Sri (14:54)

Business cannot run with

Forget about businesses. mean like Apple, Google. There's a CFO, there's a reason. There's a CTO for a reason. There's CEO for a reason. And they have a hierarchy of VPs and directors And we are a small drop in the ocean, small businesses. But we still need minimum two

are maximum three depending upon how small or big your businesses are to have that mindset. One doing marketing, one doing sales. Sales and marketing could be one. One could completely do numbers and one actually working on the business daily operations, picking up calls, Did I miss somebody? did I forget to do consultation on a client?

Mahima    (15:15)

Yeah.

Have some one, yay.

you need the different experiences and backgrounds to ⁓ actually run a successful business. Totally. Yeah.

Sri (15:38)

For sure, for sure. And I learned everything from day one to till even now I say I'm a constant learner. There's

something new always we learn from businesses and from the clients who walk in, I personally grew a lot from where I am now, from where I was.

Mahima    (15:56)

So, you know, as you've you kind of had like the runway period and all of that, when did you feel like finally this is working, I'm starting to take off? was what did that look like?

Sri (16:00)

You know, that's For small businesses, there's always back

behind your brain, there's some where it says, it's going very, very, very good, good, good. And suddenly you see a roadblock comes up. In small businesses, employee retention is where constantly the owners suffer

Mahima    (16:12)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sri (16:20)

I thought I'm picking up. I thought I'm doing good. I thought I'm out of my break even and making some profit, Maybe first four years is a struggle. First three years, once you pass the three years successfully, I think There is hope. Sometimes beauty salons opened up.

Mahima    (16:22)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (16:36)

and they closed off within three years. Either partnership issues because finance, not using wisely or overly using where you should not. Failures will happen. ⁓ First three, four years, even now, there are times where, we use the money in a wrong way or we did not estimate how much it will take. You know, the wrong estimations, wrong buffering,

Yeah, there are small risks we all have to take and all businesses have to take but healthy risks are ⁓ hard to understand and assume But yeah, maybe within four to five years is where you could see there's profitability. That's how I felt but there's always roadblock.

Mahima    (17:00)

Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard to know for Yeah, what will

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

So moving on, you were talking about, you know, money management and using it in the right way. You were talking about examples of how some other salons may have misused their money and that might lead to some issues. So for you and Walla G, do you use any apps or tools to track your money, track your bookings, your spendings, anything like that?

Sri (17:29)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, we use the typical, know, like Intuit has these software sites

like QuickBooks, QuickEnd, ProfitLoss, you know, That's what my partner is into. He's a backbone, all the businesses he handles. I'm glad because of his background, He doesn't need to hire a bookkeeper. He doesn't need to hire accounting. can, he can take care of the payroll.

He uses QuickBooks, Wiccan and our software what we use, the millennium, now they call it Mivo. Every salon spas have their own software where we track our profit loss. We use those as tools on a daily basis. We have something called a smart center. Every day I know how much I did sales, how much I did on products, on services.

Mahima    (17:56)

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (18:18)

So we have our own tools built within our own software, but to track the end of the month. my partner uses the quick and quick books and matches the sales how much we earn, how much we owe, all the credit card numbers comes up by the end of the month. We balance all that and do the bank payments and what not. We do track.

Mahima    (18:25)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (18:40)

we do keep a goal, like monthly this much, ⁓ we need to as a numbers, as a finance, whatever 10k a month, suppose. We need to have something and we work towards that goal. Then we know how much we need to sell, So for us, at least I take pride where

Mahima    (18:41)

Yeah, organization. Organization is key.

next video.

Yeah. yeah.

Sri (18:59)

We are not sellers just because we need to meet the 10K goal for the month. We are educational sellers. all our clients, one good thing is they tell us, hey, I see you guys educate what is needed for that skin to be good or for the hair to be better. And educationally, we up the sell, not just because you came in and we need to make our commission.

Mahima    (19:13)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (19:23)

Rather, hey, my ma, you know, example, your hair is frizzy, you keep telling me, how do I control my frizz? How do I do home care? How lovely you guys are doing here? I don't get the same result. Then I say, hey, my ma, all you need is this little product. Just use it. you know, so educationally we sell, it could be service or a product.

Mahima    (19:24)

each week.

Yeah

Yeah.

you

Mm-hmm.

Sri (19:44)

I take a lot of pride. And I'm so happy the clients do listen, understand, pause, think, they go home, we give them to think about next day for sure a call will come. Hey, I trust you guys what you did

Mahima    (19:49)

Yeah.

You did, yeah.

Sri (19:59)

I'm coming back. So we try to educate all my coworkers, you don't have to worry that you need to make a commission for anything here. You work as a team, you are paid as a team hourly, so you're not stressed. So that way they work better. They're not under stress. So yeah, there will be some days good, some months bad.

Mahima    (20:07)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

yeah.

Sri (20:19)

and slow months, busy months, seasonal, non-seasonal. Small businesses also have to go through this ups and downs.

Mahima    (20:21)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and I think that's what's so important. the educational part, that's what brings clients back. You help them, you make the service personal and they understand and then they come back

Sri (20:28)

They come back like, for like this yelping and Google reviews because

that's how we are right now in this, you know, 15th year. ⁓ Sometimes profit, sometimes no profit. There are many times we had thoughts like, should we just take it easy? Should we close? Many times pandemic taught us resilience, Patience. because retention of coworkers have gone down, retention of customers have gone down.

Mahima    (20:41)

Yeah, you just keep going and you learn from the

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Sri (20:57)

We need to pay our bills. How are we going to do? But we rethought said, no, let's go one more time. Now it's fifth year since 2021. One man army I started And again, three to four coworkers joined. Slowly rebuilding. It's called biology 2.0 version.

Mahima    (21:09)

Yeah.

Sri (21:14)

And that brings me to the point you ask, Whenever we make a small profit, we as the owners, we try to put back into the business. We may take a small cut as our salaries but we will bring it back into education. We give a lot of importance for higher education.

for the coworkers who just got licensed and we invest in them so that they will do better education to the clients, better selling and better money coming into the business.

Mahima    (21:37)

Yes.

Sri (21:44)

Customers know more from TikToks and Instagrams and Pinterest. So sometimes I feel like if we don't educate ourselves and our coworkers, our employees, how will they pursue in this And we have to invest our profit back in them and hoping that they stay with us.

Mahima    (21:56)

No.

So backtracking a little bit to you were talking about, you know, slow seasons and off seasons. are there slow seasons in the beauty business and how do you make sure you're still able to pay the bills during those kinds of months and situations?

Sri (22:08)

Fantastic question. We some times where we are taking out of our pocket even till today. Those are the moments

that's You know the game of the small businesses. but we just have to come back.

Mahima    (22:18)

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sri (22:23)

So we do set aside, you know, in every good days when we made the profitable, you onto the, you know, onto an account where the slow times where, you know, summer example, either clients come in a lot to get themselves ready for their, you know, travels and schools, colleges, universities, they're off, they want to take their families out and they get themselves ready. And suddenly I see slow pocket. Everybody's out enjoying. And whatever we made extra, we set aside.

Mahima    (22:24)

Yeah. Yeah.

you

Yes.

Sri (22:52)

to pay the bills on a slow time. We just have to cycle it, know, like prom time, graduation time, we get a lot, suddenly it die downs. After the holiday season, January, February, March is a slow pocket. So whatever we made, the holiday season, you know, starting Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, until January, whatever little extra we are making, set aside to pay the bills.

Mahima    (23:05)

Yeah, you're a rainy day fun and then yeah.

Yeah.

Sri (23:17)

and use it for a slow time. Another trick is we also use like slow time, busy time, prime time, non-prime times in a day. Our prime time is four to seven. lot of commuters call, they call, hey, I just got out of work. You have an opening. We keep our coworkers ready to hustle and bustle and work between four to seven to take more. Morning, you can have a shift, slow shift.

Mahima    (23:19)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, back to it.

Can I? Yeah.

Sri (23:43)

have only two coworkers, evening productivity picks up, we make more money, I always have the mantra I tell my coworkers, we work hard on a busy time, so we can chill on a slow time. yeah, there are times we eat in between two color applications, we eat quick lunch.

Mahima    (23:46)

Yeah.

Who are you?

Good

Sri (24:01)

that hustle time pays us the long lunch breaks of slow time. know, instead of 30 minutes, we are free one and a half hour. Weekends are busier times. That's where we make decent money.

Mahima    (24:02)

Yeah.

Yeah,

Yeah. Yeah.

Sri (24:13)

to pay the bills for the weekday slow time.

Mahima    (24:16)

Yeah.

Sri (24:16)

restaurants, know that dinners are more popular than lunch. know, brunches are more popular for weekends because, you know, kids get up late. So that's why they don't call it breakfast. They call it brunch time. And they get more busier and they slow between 2.30 to 5.30 and they pick up from 5.30. They even close. Some businesses close. Why do you have to pay your coworkers at that time? You just close.

Mahima    (24:18)

I think it's really knowing your clients when they're going to come and being ready. Like you said, it's very important.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, Brian just look, yeah. ⁓

Sri (24:41)

just the managers,

yeah, and they open from six to 11th. We have to strike the balance

Mahima    (24:44)

Yeah.

so.

So Shri, how do you Take the business skills that you have learned running biology, the finance skills and managing. Does that impact any way on how your personal life you've built that?

Sri (24:50)

it's in a good way. My journey, what I learned here molded me from who I was in 2010,

just helping others in my community where I can, whatever knowledge, whatever wisdom, whatever mistakes I have done and learned, found solution, and if that's gonna help outside, you to my family, friends, community.

Mahima    (25:07)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (25:13)

Like when you ask me, I am an open book. What I learned, if it's helping you to create tomorrow, 10 different businesses, why not? Right. That helps others to do better. So I like giving that little two cents of wisdom. What I learned in my life, in my journey, having biology to others.

Mahima    (25:18)

Mm-hmm.

and

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sri (25:34)

And keeping a little more groundedness, humility, Yes, there are days I'm like, holding it back. is customer world. What do I learn at this situation? Let's just not.

Mahima    (25:39)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (25:42)

throw tantrum So everywhere I'm trying to be more composed, trying to calm myself, listen.

Mahima    (25:46)

Yeah.

Sri (25:48)

It could be ⁓ service matters, products matter, money matters. not jumping into conclusions. Listen, take down all the notes, go process it, pause, then answer. That's another thing I learned and I try to coach myself first before I preach anybody on a daily basis.

Mahima    (26:05)

So building off what you just shared about, know, reinvesting your knowledge into the people around you. If a teen or college student is thinking about starting a beauty service business or a side hustle, what is the number one tip you wish someone had told you when you started off?

Sri (26:12)

Fantastic. That brings me to the biggest step did in the journey of 14 years. have something to say that giving back to community, this is

the step, which is starting around 2018, our apprenticeship program. I take a lot of pride.

someone knocked at our door in 2017 saying, hey, I'm a student at blah, blah, blah somewhere. I'm an apprentice somewhere. I'm going all the way to Sacramento to beauty college. And I'm looking for my on the job training internship apprenticeship. I'm like, what?

I never knew this. what is this apprenticeship program? I know as a student when they finish their 12th senior year high school, all I know is if I'm passionate about cosmetology or in esthetician or in nail tech, there are three different wings, different licenses here.

Mahima    (26:53)

Yeah. Yeah.

Huh? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Sri (27:08)

the longest program is the cosmetology program, which includes all three skin hair names, right? All I know is going to your county community colleges, if they have a program, pursue that way. Or this private beauty colleges every county has. You go there and attend their open house and get into the beauty college. And I pursue.

Mahima    (27:08)

you.

Yeah.

Sri (27:29)

the 10 months or one year program, pay the fees, it can be from 5000 the lowest to 23,000 to 25,000. It's up to them, it's private colleges. And that's how I pursued my cosmetology. And this young girl, 19 year old came into my door saying, oh no, you know,

Mahima    (27:34)

Bye.

Sri (27:47)

in the Department of Cosmetology, have this apprenticeship program where, I got enrolled I'm like, wow, this is like light bulb, you know, ting ting.

And we want that continuous supply of, you know, the employees or coworkers to work. And that's when we decided, let's see what this is. So we pursued, cosmetology department. They said, yeah, it's been there.

Mahima    (28:07)

Yeah.

Sri (28:12)

not popular, but there are like over 30, 40 apprenticeship programs and we got into the details and I became CTE trained I have all the credentials to teach.

So now this is what I am right now hiring apprentices on a monthly basis where we hire anybody who finished who is 16 and above and who want to pursue beauty industry and not able to pay the 20,000, 15,000 of the fees. and they can approach us. And here the main

Mahima    (28:34)

Exactly,

Sri (28:51)

mantra I call it is earn while you are learning. And pay as you go. So there is no constraint of borrowing loans or asking their parents. They want to stand on their feet. They want to earn. Not every family backgrounds have that kind of stability to pay another 50, 20 K

Mahima    (28:55)

Yeah, to go to school. Yeah, yeah.

We

Mm-hmm.

Sri (29:12)

they want to earn also

So this cosmetology program, apprenticeship program at biology reaches out, hires who wants to be in the beauty industry. ⁓ and here they can come. I mean, this is all, again, we collaborated with State Board of California. So we do the paperwork, we go.

Mahima    (29:23)

Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (29:35)

do the background checks, make sure that kid has, we sponsor them. And they will be working, learning, and I teach the theory part, which they have to pass to become a cosmetologist. It's a two-year program. In these two years, they have a nominal fees they have to pay for us to teach them. But on return, they're actually getting paid this two years, whatever the minimum wage of the county where they are working.

Mahima    (29:43)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Sri (30:01)

and they get paid. So they are paying as they're learning and they have to save, they can save money. That's how we giving back to the all the younger generation right now You see, if they want fast track to become a cosmetologist, then beauty colleges are out there. They can go pay, they have either their money or the parents, whoever the family can give it to them.

Mahima    (30:05)

Yeah.

Hmm.

You're actually right.

Sri (30:26)

In a year they are done. But if they're like, no, no, no, I like learning, you know, real world because in cosmetology and apprenticeship program, you're working with the clients, you're assisting the administrator, you are with the real world hands on every day. And that's where the soft skills, how to speak, how to take, the calls, to pursue, how to be presentable, you know.

customer service and also learning technical skill which is blow drying, washing, By the time they become the cosmetologist, they're ready to start their own because they got so much of practice, real life, real world.

Mahima    (30:50)

real people.

Mm-hmm.

it's so important, especially for teens, young adults who want to get into this, gaining the real world exposure before they start and go into the world and start their own business, something like biology, having something hands on. And I think not just financially, but even from a broader perspective, there's so much benefit into doing that before you go into your own business.

Sri (31:08)

Very true and all my new young stylists who joined last three years because we started this program 2023, whoever joined as a licensed cosmetologist who are working currently, every time they see me teaching a class here

It's a lot for students. They drop out of the colleges many times since they are unable to pay the fees.

You know, they ran out of their funds. Here, I teach them.

Mahima    (31:31)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (31:34)

all our young 20s just gotten their license and if they're using up their paycheck hand to mouth, hand to mouth. I used to coach them. Don't do that. know, splurge it. I'm not saying we all deserve to splurge Starbucks three times a week, but manage your finance. You know, in that thousand,

Mahima    (31:35)

Mm-hmm.

Yes

Sri (31:53)

pay, set aside a hundred saving rainy season another hundred use it whatever little things you need so instead of buying just get groceries Sunday meal prep three times eat outside four times get lunches and they saved a lot small small tips of my money management

Mahima    (32:02)

Mm-hmm.

Yes. ⁓

Mm.

Not just the skills that you do at work, but what the job offers you, what you do with that in your personal life, how you take that out.

Sri (32:13)

meal is 11 to 12 bucks. And I'm saying, I'm not stopping you out of seven days, you're working five days here, eat

It started within me first, how I have to manage my finances It could be in personal life or in a business life.

Budget your retail. Budget how much you want to sell.

Mahima    (32:30)

Yes, that's really great insight. So Sri, my final question to you, and this is what I ask all my guests. If money could talk, what would it say to you?

Sri (32:42)

Wow, it's a great question, this is something I'm telling you, I'm going to keep it in my heart, in my brain, And I'm going to ask this to everybody around me later on. Right?

Mahima    (32:45)

lovely, lovely. Okay, so last question to wrap it up. This is like the question going to ask all my guests, which is if money could talk to you,

Sri (32:56)

There are many many people who don't have that money. the question is if money is with you what would it say? Be happy, be proud, be humble, and use it wisely. yes, there might be misuse of money might have happened knowingly, unknowingly. Catch it, find the solution.

Mahima    (33:09)

Mm-hmm.

Sri (33:17)

Another thing if money was, to say something, risk it in a healthier way. I'm not saying save, save, save, be stingy, If you have money, you know how to grow it. coming back to finance, business finance majors, you will not say just keep it. You have to multiply. You have to make it grow. Make it grow. Make it better. Bring it back to your business. Make multiple businesses out of it.

Mahima    (33:21)

I'll

Anyway.

Sri (33:41)

For that, would always say, you know, do healthy risks because risks are very high. could entirely lose it. The money says, what in the world did you do? What did you do? Right? I gave you good money and now you just lost it. But use it wisely Now, last night I did ask my business partner that this question is coming up. What would you say? He said, you know what?

Mahima    (33:46)

I'm

You always have to.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (34:09)

you where I grew up, Money is goddess of wealth. He said, I'm the goddess of wealth, Handle me with respect.

Mahima    (34:14)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sri (34:17)

That's it. You misuse, you waste it or you save it or you grow it. But respect the money.

Respect. That is what's paying you the bread for tomorrow.

Mahima    (34:27)

today.

Sri (34:29)

I'm a learner, as I mentioned, and I'm honored that my my you approached me I want to wish the best. for your podcast.

Mahima    (34:38)

Thank you, Sri, for joining me on My Two Cents.

Mahima    (34:40)

The insights you shared today are something we can all reflect on. Thank you to our listeners for staying with us. If you've been listening to this, I hope you picked up a couple of things and put it into your own tip jar. To recap today, we talked about your journey on starting boology and how you built it into such a successful salon.

and also the financials that came along with it, the importance of educating your customers and treating your team well. And I learned so much. So thank you and thank you to all the listeners. We hope that you can join us for the next episode and keep listening for what's to come. Do like and follow the podcast. See you next time.