Meet Princess Princesspepperspray

We were lucky to catch up with Princess Princesspepperspray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Princess , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Thanks for noticing! I haven’t always been fierce. When I was younger, being short, female, and shy, folks readily dismissed me. My life felt small until I decided I could no longer bear the feeling of stagnation. So I made a decision to be more intentional about what I want, and who I choose to be around. I got better at researching and at communicating. Being a big picture person, I always have in mind a goal I want to achieve. Then I make a plan to get to these benchmarks, breaking them down into achievable steps. I love the process. And I love showing others how their interests align with mine. It was a long learning curve, but I went from being scared and intimidated by others to enjoying collaboration.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I love being a small businesses owner. I always knew I wanted to do this: I asked my parents for a cash register for Christmas when I was a kid. It’s exciting bringing my vision of an “alternative” salon to fruition. The logo, name, and black-violet accent walls differentiate my brand. ReVamped salon is in Portland Oregon. Portlanders like to think of our city as quirky & fun, and parts of it still are. My salon is welcoming to everyone, including punks, Trans people, and the neighborhood mom & kids. Everyone deserves to feel included and to feel beautiful.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

When I opened my first salon many years ago, I was so in the dark! Now it’s easy to find industry specific resources. For example, there are many industry specific coaches that provide a certain amount of information for free. You can experience if they gel with your learning style and needs. If so, invest some time and money. Knowledge is the key to unlocking your future. And applying your hard won knowledge is a game changer! I am always looking at my financial spreadsheets. I swear I find it enjoyable! If financial information makes you yawn, owning a business may not be for you. I am also always game for a do it yourself challenge. I am in my working on the salon clothes in the pictures I submitted for this article, instead of my fusion of an edgy & polished look for my client appointments. Being an owner means I am always doing tasks, because profit margins are too slim to pay others. Just last week my husband and I refinished the salon’s wood floors. I guess besides learning and doing, I will point out that communicating is an essential skill in small business. I try to let my staff know what I am doing and why I am doing it. I solicit their opinions to give them a sense of belonging and to make these ideas better. Building trust, building a team is a never ending process. Sometimes leading is showing the way and sometimes it is leading from behind in support roles. I take care of my team so they have everything they need to take care of our clients.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

Jackie Babicky of the Small Business Development Center helped me in my early days of small business ownership. Through the years I have made a few friends who are quite a bit older than me who share their hard-won perspectives. And these days, I listen to Antony Whitaker’s Grow My Salon Business podcast. He and his guests provide encouragement, industry insights and data, and a feeling of industry camaraderie. I mean, we are all facing the same challenges and experiencing the same ups and downs at some point. It’s great to feel like it’s all normal and none of us are in it alone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Revampedpdx.com
• Instagram: revampedpdx

Image Credits

Princess Pepperspray