Today we’d like to introduce you to Anie Khang and Kia Yang. They and their team shared their story with us below:
The Eclectic started as Kia’s salon studio, formerly KiaYajj. In 2023, we joined as an aunt and niece duo to form The Eclectic. Kia has been doing hair for 13 years and grew a passion for doing portrait photography and portrait photography hair and makeup. Anie has always been the creative type since she was a child. From helping her mother plan family Christmas parties to planning intricate family photoshoots, it just came naturally to Anie. It made sense for us to join and start an endeavor together where we can do both together and separately. Today, the business is shifting as we want to continue offering our services while providing safe spaces for our respective industry communities to grow. We still offer beauty and portrait services, but we hope to give back more to our community as we shift into becoming a social enterprise. We have plans to provide education, resources, and support to our local small businesses in the same field as us all while still offering the services we currently provide.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has been a challenging road. From our humble beginnings of being immigrant first and second-generation children to the launch of our business, we have had a lot of hiccups and learning curves; for Kia, her biggest struggle came when she left her position at a local hair salon to become an independent stylist. Kia knew little about starting a business, taxes, operations, and overhead costs. She learned along the way, diligently researched, and found resources to help her. Anie struggles with finding balance. Although she is a workaholic, this can be daunting sometimes. On top of running the business with Kia, Anie is also a full-time student at Metropolitan State University, pursuing an Environmental Science and Political Science degree. In between all of that, sometimes it’s hard to get a chance to breathe.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Kia is a hairstylist/makeup artist. Kia did some of everything for a long time, as most baby stylists do. However, over the years, she has started to hone in on certain things that have quickly become her favorite. Kia specializes in high-lift blonding, foil work, global bleach-outs, vivid hair colors, extensions, and skin-like makeup. Anie’s specialty is in creating a unique experience for clients. Although she specializes in more portrait and event designs that are chic, effortless, glam, luxe, and feminine aesthetics, Anie does best by listening to clients and figuring out what they love without the client having to put in too much elbow grease. We are both super proud of our resilience, creativity, problem-solving and how we have set up our business centered around the client’s experience. How we have created a unique way of honoring, thanking, and celebrating our clients differs from anything we have seen. We make sure to learn about our clients on a deeper level. We learn about their favorite foods, hobbies, music, scents, shopping places, fashion/beauty aesthetics, and personal lifestyles to make sure we deliver results that speak to who they are. We also curate a guest’s experience based on what we learn about them.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Our unique problem-solving has been an integral part of our success thus far and continued success. We are both quick on our feet and great at figuring out unique solutions in the spur of the moment. Our teamwork is also the best thing about both of us. Once we have figured out what to do, we divide and conquer quite quickly. We also make sure to have some humor. We laugh at ourselves when we make mistakes and often make lifelong inside jokes about it. We never let anything get us down for too long.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theeclecticsalonstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.eclecticss/
