THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407250219
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By Gage Harter
BUSINESS WEEKLY STAFF
LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
A new breed of Hampton Roads entrepreneur is counting on America's obsession with convenience. Busy residents are calling up entrepreneurs on wheels who cut hair, manicure nails and even massage tired muscles - in the customer's home or office.
Just as pizza delivery, shopping by television and research by computer modem have become gold mines, so have the new mobile services cropped up in the age of instant gratification.
``It's so convenient,'' said home manicure customer Shirley J. Marshall. ``As a businesswoman of the '90s, it makes you feel well-groomed and helps you face the world.''
Women themselves often performed chores like nail care during the weekends. Once women entered the work force in droves in the 1980s, though, personal time was scarce. Entrepreneurs stepped in.
Dawn Stephenson, a veteran hair stylist in Virginia Beach, was driving down the interstate in 1991 when she had a revelation.
``I just wanted to do my job and develop relationships with my customers,'' Stephenson said. ``But in the salon, there was a lot of power plays and back stabbing.''
So while driving down the interstate, thinking of wheels and hair, Stephenson decided to combine the two. She opened Dawn's Mobile Hair Service.
``It's my own business and I am the one that has to be responsible and dependable,'' Stephenson said. ``So if it's a nice day and I have an appointment, I can't exactly go to the beach.''
Stephenson works out of her blue Ford Bronco. She packs a Dirt Devil vacuum and four large containers, each about the size of a Rubber Maid laundry basket, holding all the equipment needed for perms, frosts, coloring and simple wet cuts.
Joni Wilson, a regular customer, favors the in-home service.
``There are few mobile people around that have reasonable prices,'' Wilson said. ``Before it was only for the very rich. I like the prestige of it.''
Some established salons are less enthusiastic about the mobile competitors.
``They're OK, but I don't personally care for them,'' said Tracy Cater, manicurist for Images Unlimited. ``It's hard to tow all that stuff around, and if they do manicures, the polishes and chemicals smell up the house. I think people like to get out and find out the gossip. This is their time to socialize.''
The number of mobile cosmetologists in the region remains unknown. According to the Virginia Board for Cosmetology, 5,319 salons operate in Virginia. But no one counts the number of them on wheels or estimates the mobile industry's gross revenue. There are no stipulations for opening a mobile business other than the standard individual operating and salon licenses required in Virginia.
Cost poses only a small barrier to entering the field. Stephenson figures it takes no more than $1,000 to start a mobile hair business, including equipment, supplies and licenses. Starting a nail service ranges high as $2,000.
While Stephenson carved a niche in the hair business, Bolivia Brown made her own mark trimming and polishing nails.
After 15 years of hair styling, Brown decided to manicure nails, and she made a specialty of the feet.
``That's where I'm really great,'' said the Norfolk native. A pedicure, she said, is like a brief respite from the world. ``It relieves the stress.''
Working on the hands of Shirley Marshall, Brown clips each nail. Marshall, at home but still dressed in her business outfit, looks relaxed.
Brown then focuses on a broken nail. She applies a white powder for the tip and paints on a pink powder like fiberglass to form the base. After the paint dries, Brown shapes it again and repaints the nail.
Other mobile entrepreneurs operate different businesses. For example, Diane Hall heals with her hands.
Once a friend told her she had the hands of an angel. Inspired, Hall named her mobile massage company Heavenly Hands.
Hall can be at clients' houses within 10 minutes of their calls, and she'll work more than an hour, kneading knots out of sore muscles.
``Most of my clientele are businessmen,'' Hall said. ``They are young and old. They might work seven days per week and 14-15 hours each day. Stress is a big factor. So is physical pain. So privacy, comfort and convenience are important to them.''
Not only has Hall conducted her business on wheels; she's worked afloat. She was the massage therapist on the Achille Lauro, a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, several years after its 1985 hijacking by terrorists.
Busy today in Hampton Roads, she works to keep her hands in shape, but gives them some rest by bearing down during a massage so her body weight helps the rubbing motion.
She starts on knotted muscles, then follows the structure of the body, working out the sore spots.
The relaxation that comes from loosened muscles is considered by many masseuses to be therapy. However, Ed Davis of Naval Credit Union Members Insurance said massage service is not covered specifically by insurers, though general provisions in some policies allow the possibility for such treatments.
Alternative Therapies' Pam Best said what's more common is providing employees with coupons for massages. Naval Air Federal Credit Union, Marriott Courtyard and Fairfield Inn and other companies give employee-appreciation awards with massage therapy as a choice prize, Best said.
Hall and Stephenson claim a brisk business. Stephenson said she has about 150 clients. Brown said she can work on eight customers a day.
Prices for each service vary. Hall's massages costs $65 an hour. For a wet haircut, Stephenson charges $15 and perms run $45. Brown's manicure costs $12; $25 for a pedicure.
By comparison, established salons such as the Hair Cuttery charge $10 for a haircut and $35 for a perm. Impressions in Norfolk's Ghent charges $23 for a haircut and an average of $61 for perms.
Star Nail and Lily Nail charge $8 for manicures and $20 for pedicures. ILLUSTRATION: On the cover: Photo by Joseph John Kotlowski
ENTREPRENEURS ON WHEELS
Norfolk manicurist Bolivia Brown works out of her car, keeping up
with her busy customers via phone. Her specialty: the feet.
[Color Photos]
BILL TIERNAN
ABOVE: Dawn Stephenson, who calls her business Dawn's Mobile Hair
Service, works on one of her regulars, Joni Wilson. There are few
mobile people around that have reasonable prices, Wilson says.
Before, it was only for the rich.
AT LEFT: Heavenly Hands, Diane Hall named her massage service,
and she's applying them to Beulah Ackerman, an Oregonian visiting
friends. Hall brings the portable massage table with her, and
charges $65 an hour.
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
FAR LEFT: Manicurist Bolivia Brown, carrying the tools of her
trade, heads for Daniel and Janet Gordon's house in Norfolk.
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
ABOVE: She manicures Daniel Gordon while his wife, Janet,
watches. She's already had hers.
Brown specializes in pedicure. It's the feet thing, she says.
That's where I'm really great.
WORKING WOMEN
The increase of nearly 77,000 women in the South Hampton Roads work
force in the last decade has given entrepreneurs on wheels a larger
base of time-starved customers.
1980 33.8%
1990 49.2%
SOURCE: U.S. Census
JOHN CASERTA/Staff
by CNB