We’re all being impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic in some shape or form, and there’s perhaps a little comfort in all of us being in this together. My sister Abigail, and I are actually a bit optimistic. Reading reports of the slowing spread of the virus in China gives us hope that with proper measures the spread in the US will slow down too and things will eventually get back to business as usual. But we know that until then, many of us are taking deep financial blows.
We’ve been rattling our brains, trying to figure out what we can do for the stylists on our platform to ease the impact this has on their income. Similar to companies like Uber, we’re a part of the gig economy and the hairstylists on our platform work with us on a freelance basis—therefore, they don’t have benefits that one might get as a full-time employee. Unlike Uber, however, we’re a two-person startup without huge cash reserves. We’re not at the point where we’re even able to take a salary yet (let’s be real 😅). We do, however, have a marketing budget for the next few months and have decided to give that money to stylists on our platform that rely on us the most. It is a big financial risk for us since everyone’s advising small businesses to keep as much of their cash as possible. But we know what it’s like to be in a position of need (still keeping it real). We’re a small company so our marketing budget isn’t very big, but we hope that what we can give will make a little bit of a difference to those who receive it.
If you’d like to help us help our stylists…
If you’d like to help us, help our stylists you can do so by telling your friends about us! Since we won’t have any money to spend on ads in the coming months, we’ll need all the help we can get!
If you’re in your thirties like we are (or older), you know that we’ve all been here before. The economy has taken a hit and has bounced back before, so we’re sure things will get better, and when they do, we hope you and your friends we’ll keep us in mind when you’d like to get your hair done but don’t feel like going to the salon.
— Antonia Opiah, Co-Founder Yeluchi
