Braidbabes more than tripled its number of braiders over the last four months.
The mobile hair-styling business has grown its team of braiders from 25 to nearly 80 since the start of summer. More hiring is on the way, as the business entered Phoenix as its third market Sept. 1.
Braidbabes already has services in Buffalo and Nashville and had to shut down operations in Raleigh this year because of legal reasons related to mobile services. The braiders travel to clients and do custom braiding.
Emmily Bowman, who founded the business with Tori Everett, expects to launch a custom app and find new office space by early 2023.
On the horizon is a funding plan to jump into Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Tampa next year, she said.
She expects gross sales to hit $1 million this year, a 77% increase from gross sales in 2021.
Bowman talked with Business First about how she grows and scales her business.
How did the Phoenix launch go?
Braidbabes has 12 braiders there and already needs more to fulfill demand in that market. For context, when the services launched in Nashville, the business had five and then seven braiders.
“I think the coolest thing about Phoenix is that a lot of people already knew about us, heard of us,” she said. “As soon as we launched it, we had clients and businesses already wanting to book.”
What fostered that brand recognition?
TikTok. The business has especially focused on growing audience there over the last year. Braidbabes has 59.6K followers.
“To me, it’s about capturing that content and being authentic,” Bowman said. “Instead of always planning photo shoots, grab day-to-day things. That surprisingly might perform better.”
You’re focusing on crowdfunding?
After the rapid hiring over the last few months, Bowman said she’s switching gears to focus on crowdfunding again.
This year, the business launched a Wefunder campaign seeking to raise $750,000. Currently, 127 investors have committed about $141,000.
Turning attention to raising funds means building relationships, having conversations with Bowman’s network and promoting the option to clients. Braiders have business cards with information on the back about investing in the business.
Funds will help the business launch a custom app and add to the team. Besides braiders, the startup’s internal staff has grown from five a year ago to eight currently. The app is key to the business launching in more markets next year.
Now the startup uses Wix, which is good for e-commerce but means there are manual processes in place for booking appointments, Bowman said.
She aims to launch in seven more markets next year and expects to raise another round of funding besides the Wefunder campaign to facilitate that. The business closed on a $500,000 round of pre-seed funding last year.
You’re looking for office space in Buffalo?
Braidbabes works from Bowman’s former apartment in North Buffalo, but with a roommate still living there and residential neighbors, the business is getting too big. She's looking for an office space to share with other businesses, whether that’s a co-working space or shared office.
“Braidbabes is all about energy and happiness, so we don’t want to just rent space that houses inventory,” she said. “We want other people and energy too.”
How do you handle scaling the business and expanding to different markets?
Everything is documented for workers so they understand operations from wording a giveaway post on Instagram to sending an email when an appointment is booked. The document is frequently updated so that operations are current.
“We don’t want to be stuck on what we documented,” she said. “Every time we do it, we’re improving that documentation.”
