Wafaya Abdallah on Hair and Running a Small Business

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🗓️ 13 December 2010

⏱️ 61 minutes

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Summary

Wafaya Abdallah of Oasis Hair Salon in Rockville, Maryland talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenges and rewards of running a small business. Abdallah discusses her career path from would-be lawyer to owning her own salon with many employees and a management style that is different from the traditional one in her business. She discusses the economics of hair-cutting, how she motivates her employees to be part of the team, the openness of the salon's financial situation, the educational training she offers, and the ways she works with employees to motivate and inspire. You'll also learn how much her scissors cost.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:13.9	of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org
0:21.2	where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to
0:26.5	another information related to today's conversation. Our email address is mailadicontalk.org. We'd
0:33.6	love to hear from you. Today is December 7th, 2010, and my guest is Wifea Abdala, the owner
0:44.0	of Oasis hair salon in Rockville, Maryland. Wifea, welcome to Econ Talk. Thank you, Russ. So what we're
0:50.8	going to talk about today is part of a series that we do occasionally talking to people in
0:56.4	business about their lives and the challenges they face and the economics along the way. So first,
1:02.9	let's do a little bit of history of you. How did you get started in the hair business? I was at the
1:09.8	University of Maryland going for a degree in political science, and I thought that I wanted to go to
1:17.2	law school. I was supporting myself, and I thought, well, I've got to have a job that makes the
1:24.4	money and that I can enjoy because law school can be so stressful. So I just kind of really looked
1:32.2	at where I might enjoy being, and I realized that, you know, I'm always in my head making people
1:39.8	over makeup hair. So I looked into Cosmetology School, and realized that I was in my sophomore year,
1:49.4	I think, second semester, that I could be done with Cosmetology School and in a career to support
1:56.6	myself before I was done with my bachelor's degree. And then you wouldn't have to be a lawyer,
2:02.6	which is another plus. Now, I'm just looking for the lawyers out there just to joke. I thought I was
2:08.4	still going to go to law school, but once I was in the beauty industry and I saw what successful hair
2:13.8	addresses could make, I thought, no way. I'm staying right here.
2:17.8	You enjoyed it, obviously. Very much. So you started off after you went to Cosmetology School,
2:23.4	you started off in our working ice sum in a salon. Yes, well, while I was in Cosmetology School,
2:30.6	and going to the University of Maryland, I also needed a part-time job, so I worked in a hair salon.
	...

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