The Business of Skill-Building
On July 27 Peggy Haynes, a Cana resident and experienced cosmetologist, joined representatives from BRCEDA and Carroll County to hold a ribbon cutting to officially open IStyle Hair Salon and Continuing Education Academy. I-Style will offer classes of up to 6 students the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of cosmetology and find new job opportunities. Ms. Haynes’s academy forms part of a growing number of new businesses springing up in the Twin Counties, businesses which are offering new and exciting workforce development opportunities for the area’s residents.
Peggy Hanes has been working in the cosmetology field for nearly 25 years. A longtime cosmetology instructor and former small business owner, Ms. Haynes came to the Crossroads SBDC early in 2009 for help in starting what would become I-Style. Over the next year and a half Ms. Haynes worked with Dallas Garrett, the SBDC’s director, in creating a business plan for her salon and academy. Ms. Haynes’s diligence and persistence paid off this summer, when she secured funding to furnish her salon, allowing her to open I-Style and begin teaching classes.
Like Ms. Haynes, Eddie Reavis was looking to use his extensive experience to start a business centered on workforce development. A 15-year veteran of electrical-grid repair work, beginning as a groundsman and working his way up to foreman, Mr. Reavis worked with the Crossroads SBDC to start a business that would allow him to teach his skills to others, providing them with a path toward stable, steady, profitable work. At this task Reavis’s business has been phenomenally successful; he has graduated 7 classes of 41 students, most of whom had job opportunities immediately upon completing the program.