In this blog, we share behind the scenes information about how Rebel Femme came to be! Welcome to all things Rebel Femme, Part 2!
#BehindthePinkWalls Part Two
In this blog, we share behind the scenes information about how Rebel Femme came to be! Welcome to Behind the Pink Walls, Part 2! This journey of entrepreneurship started in the summer of 2016.
My passion for digital education was at its peak and the idea of a salon was in its infancy phase. I had thought about a salon before many years back (the plans failed a few times) but the feeling had resurfaced into a completely new concept.
It needed to be different, completely different. Not “just a salon”. There are plenty of those. We needed a media room, education space, and of course the salon itself.
I knew that this time I wanted to do things the right way. Part of that comes with maturity, I suppose.
Doing my research:
What would my salon look like? Where would it be located? How many stations would I have? How much space do I need? So I drew up a business plan, a financial plan, a marketing plan, and of course the overall concept.
This process took me a few months to iron out. I wanted to know exactly how everything would be, because if you are prepared, everything will go according to plan. So I thought!
Once I got all my “plans” together ( I put plans in quotations because, well, that’s a different blog post) I called my broker.
I knew working with a commercial broker would be the best option for me for a few reasons. I had a busy schedule and I needed someone to do all the searching for me.
Also having someone with some strong negotiating skills is a plus. AND HERE IS THE BIG ONE: The broker knows what the hell they are doing! If you want to be a professional, you need to have professional people do what they do best.
The perfect Space:
So we began the hunt for the perfect space. I made a list of must haves and a list of items that were a definite NO.
Here were my must haves:
- Natural lighting
- Close to home
- Stand alone building, upstairs a plus. (Not in a strip mall)
- Large open space for education
- Media room
- At least 1500 square feet
- In budget, of course!
Our hunt took nearly 3 months but we did a ton of searching and looking at places. Finding a stand alone building or a building with character was very difficult in the City of Mission Viejo.
However, there was this super strange building that had been vacant for the last 4 years. When we walked in I just knew that it was just what I was looking for. It was old, needed a lot of work, but it was perfect.
I could see the salon layout instantly. It had tons of windows, it was super close to home, it’s a stand-alone building downstairs, large open space, space for a media room, 2,300 square feet, and in my budget!!! The space met all of my must haves, what?!
From there everything happened so fast. We negotiated our lease between November 2016 thru December 2016, and our lease was signed January 2017. We were so excited to start this journey, but this was only the beginning to a chaotic, emotionally draning, scary rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.
Want to see where we are today? Check out our Instagram, Youtube, and Podcast!
