Kenniqua “Nuk” Jones is a master natural hair stylist, salon owner, serial entrepreneur, and certified #BossJawn. We sat down to discuss how she’s not only survived but thrived in quarantine.
Take us back to Winter 2020, pre-COVID. What was the state of the union in NukNation? How was business? What were the plans for the year?
So I actually have five different brand in total: Styles by Nuk©, Salon 215 Elite, Ecyaj Hair Care, #NukNation, and Do It Scared. At the time, my biggest focus was on the salon and on the upcoming Do It Scared Networking Event. Winter is actually our busiest time of year at the salon. Between the cold weather, holidays, and a little extra money in everyone’s pocket, October – March is definitely the busy season at the salon. The Summer is typically more braids, pools, and vacations.
Our third annual Do It Scared event was also planned for the spring — which is a networking mixer for professionals and entrepreneurs in the Atlanta area. Our whole thing is to show people that we’re all “scared,” and to encourage them to pursue their dreams and passions despite being nervous or unsure of the outcome. Business is scary! But don’t let that stop you from getting in the game! The first two years were a great success, so we were super excited and had some great things planned for this year’s event.
When did it became clear that this was going to be more than a minor inconvenience, how did you adapt? What were your initial responses?
With no money coming in from appointments or from the salon, I was forced to think about other assets I had that I could take advantage of. What else did I already have going on that would make sense for right now? Well, I also happen to have my own hair care line, Ecyaj Hair Care. A full line of natural hair products that are already fully developed and that I have been using on clients for years. With no hair appointments and ladies getting desperate for some hair love, now was the perfect time to start marketing and selling those products — especially because anyone who’s ever come to me would already be familiar with the product. While before, many would rather get their hair done at the salon, but now suddenly everyone had the need for a do-it-yourself option — and I was ready for them. By May, right around when everyone realized they wouldn’t be getting to the salon anytime soon is when sales started going through the roof.
How did you adapt your offerings and adjust your initial responses over time?
Sticking with the do-it-yourself idea, I realized that with all these ladies who normally don’t do their own hair stuck at home, they needed some help! I have held classes in the past, but I realized it was time to take them online. I started doing live classes on how to take care of your own hair at home. When the very first class brought in over $8K, I started to realize that this is what I should have been doing along! That’s when #NukUniversity was born. Not only did it make the class accessible to people around the country and even around the world, but I was able to record the classes to sell to anyone that couldn’t make the live session.
To build awareness of our new direction, I doubled down on email marketing. Where before I would put out a newsletter every once in a while, I started to send out my newsletter weekly to keep my audience up to date on the changes, the new offerings, and just to stay in touch through the crazy times. Email was working great, and combined with some digital marketing and paid ads around the hair care products and classes, it seemed like our approach was really working.
What do you think was the most important factor that allowed you to navigate this crazy year?
Two things. The first being mindset. I am big on perseverance and taking on new challenges, even if they are unknown and scary. There are always going to be unknowns and things that come up that you hadn’t planned for, but the important thing is to have confidence in yourself that you can figure it out. It’s okay to ‘Do It Scared’… but make sure you ‘DO IT!’
The second is being diverse. Be multi-dimensional. Have multiple talents. One of the worst things you can do is have all your eggs in one basket. When my main basket (the salon) had to shut down, I was able to stay on my feet because I had already been developing my other baskets. Of course it was a nerve racking time, but I truly believe that “doing it scared” was the key to making it work during this past year.
So now it’s Autumn 2020, where are things at now?
Things are generally good, but now it’s about figuring out how to recoup and recover the areas that went to zero during this time — like the salon and my own hairstyling appointments. As the restrictions ease up, we are seeing more clients and filling up our schedules as much as possible — but we have to balance between doing more business and keeping everyone safe. We actually stayed closed an extra month after the state told us we could reopen, before opening on Jun 1st. And even with social distancing, capacity restrictions, temperature checks, and COVID forms — we’re really only back to about 25% of what we normally do. So right now it’s about maintaining what we’ve built with Ecyaj Hair Care and #NukUniversity, and revamping the salon business while following all the necessary precautions.
Aidan Werder
