✍🏾: @tiff.chey
Do you know any teens who are running a business while they’re still in high school? The average 16-year-old might hold a job at a local grocery store or may even babysit in their free time, but Paris Mckenzie is NOT average! She is a 16-year-old entrepreneur who is juggling being a beauty supply store and salon owner and still makes her education a priority!
Just a few months after being born, Paris’s mother opened a hair salon and as a result, Paris grew up learning how to build a business from the ground up! From the age of 10, she mastered cleaning barber tools, wiping down the salon chairs, and shampooing the clients’ hair. Within a couple of years, her mother entrusted her to color and install wigs and let her work work when she wasn’t in school. This is how Paris eventually garnered her own clients who helped her make history by becoming the youngest Black person to own a beauty supply store!
The young lady decided to build her own business after witnessing Black women in her community having issues finding the right products for their hair and not having a decent shopping experience since they felt rushed and unable to get what they truly needed or wanted at other stores.
When the space beside her mother’s salon became available, Paris jumped on the opportunity and presented her mother with a business plan. She went on to use her own savings from working in the salon to lease the space and opened Paris Beauty Supply in summer of 2020.
She didn’t stop there! Paris’s mother’s building had three stories, but only two of them were being used. Since her mother had no plans for the top floor, Paris decided to open her salon – La Eiffel Beauty Bar, which became her “baby” with all the work she put into it to add a personal touch.
Paris shows that even though she began her entrepreneurial journey at 16, with hard work and dedication, other Black women can achieve their goals too! We love to see it 🙌🏾 #BWLM💕
