I miss my gloss

It all started in 2002 when my best friend from college, Brandi Ann and I (Marianne) talked about doing something together. She had just graduated college and we always said we would start some kind of business together. We spent many nights brainstorming and ended up deciding we wanted to be in the business of beauty. We loved many aspects of beauty so if we did anything, it had to be beauty-related. We thought about a hair salon and then ended up with a full-service spa because I wasn’t really into the idea of doing hair. She would be the hair person and I’d take care of everything else. We ended up going to check out the ‘Harvard’ of beauty schools. That’s what Empire calls themselves and were interviewed by the director. That’s about how far we got with our plans of enrolling. Afterwards, it seemed that the idea of doing something became my dream - Brandi ended up joining the US army and I decided to keep on going.

I enrolled in a program and started taking classes because my dream really was to have a nail spa for women like myself that didn’t want to go to those shady places. I wanted a place that was cheap, fun, and clean. That’s how gloss was born. We opened on October 4, 2003. It really was one of the best times of my life. I enjoyed every minute of it. From working with my newbie contractor to working with my very-absent interior designer to ordering supplies, equipment, and hiring my first set of employees. I loved thinking up a concept and bringing it to life. The day I realized how much I loved gloss was when I was cleaning up at the end of the day and realized that I was happy to do it. There were lots of challenging times especially when it came to dealing with my landlord and employees but it’s not an experience that I would ever regret.

Eventually, my landlord decided that it was time to sell the building and passed me off to the new owner who made it clear that he didn’t want us to be there. It seemed like a blessing in disguise because it had been tough juggling gloss with a full-time job. It also seemed like a good opportunity to get a location better suited to my vision of gloss. However, times have passed and I’ve grown lazy. Owning a small business is a lot of work and a lot of support is needed especially from those closest to you. I was lucky to have my sisters step in whenever I needed someone to tend to the register or take appointments. My older sister was one of my best customers – always coming in to get something done.

I seriously miss gloss. The day I decided that I wouldn’t fight my landlord and would have to close, I almost drove through a red light on my way home that night. Almost. It was that depressing. If I were to do it again, there are many things that I would do differently in terms of hiring the right people and protecting myself from lease agreements. The experience will certainly make me a better businesswoman should I ever chose to go that route. I miss my gloss, I miss my customers, I miss the smell of all those bella pella soaps, I miss running reports at the end of the night to see how we did. gloss was a huge part of my life and this is just my tribute to a long-lost friend.

Ladies' night at gloss


gloss on location at Club Monaco's Martini & Manicures Event


My favorite customer and one of my best employees


My boss lady - people assumed she was the owner