Glen Burnie based The Braiding Palace Fills Niche in the Beauty Services Market

October 29, 2020

There are 3.2 million immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States with almost 60,000 here in Maryland. These firms employ about eight million people and account for $1.3 trillion in sales.

The Braiding Palace in Glen Burnie is one such business. Although the shop will be celebrating its two year anniversary in October, owner Liliane Badawu, a native of Cameroon, has been styling hair for much longer.

“By profession I am a nurse and when I opened the braiding shop, I was still working as a nurse doing telehealth work. Soon enough I realized that if I wanted to build my dream I wouldn’t be able to do it while helping to build someone else’s dream( my job). At that moment I resigned and started working on my own dream.”

Miss Badawu’s salon has created a niche in the beauty market by offering only natural hair styling services such as braids, twists, dread locks and crocheting, which is a natural way to weave, versus services that incorporate the use of chemicals such as perms and flat irons.  She feels her services are a way to pamper and treat women’s hair so it not only grows in a healthy way but that her clients can also enjoy the beauty of their hair.

Another aspect of The Braiding Palace that the owner says differentiates her salon from others is customer service and attention to detail. “When someone walks into my shop to spend their dollars, I need to take care of them. When I looked around at other shops, I didn’t see that. I just saw people who walked in a shop, got serviced and then walked back out. There was no relationship built. I feel like I needed to build another model where I could build a relationship with my customers. I want my customers to not just be happy with the service but that they have a relationship with us and a nice atmosphere.”

It is that attention to detail and creating a safe and pampering atmosphere that has posed challenges when Miss Badawu trains a new stylist. The salon typically employs as many as eight stylists.  However the pandemic and related social distancing guidelines has limited the staff to five.

“The first challenge was finding braiders.  Someone who embraces the vision you have for the business or to be able to learn why you’re styling the way you’re styling,” said Miss Badawu. “Also with my nursing background, I was very keen on being clean and sanitizing everything. It was challenging because a lot of stylist brought their own habits and it took patience to train employees on my vision.”

Miss Badawu comes from a family of stylists and salon owners. She credits her family who own shops in other parts of the country for giving her the experience needed to start her own business. As for prospective entrepreneurs, she has this advice “Ask yourself ‘what do I want and why do I want it?’  Define your vision in your mind.  Count your costs, not just your money but your time, emotions and mental investment and the sacrifice that your love ones will have to experience not seeing you all the time.  It takes focus and commitment when you’re spending long hours and leaving the shop at 11 o’clock when you started at five in the morning.”

 

County Executive Pittman Launches Restaurant and Food Service Grant Program »