As a longtime business owner, Rubie Williams has been serving looks and the Alexandria community for over 25 years. Her entrepreneurial journey started in 2015 when she founded Hair Nirvana, a mobile hair spa that brought the convenience of hairstyling directly to customers throughout Alexandria.
Today, Williams continues her beauty legacy as the owner of her brick-and-mortar West End salon of the same name.
“My mom said when I was a baby, I was always walking around with a comb in my hand wanting to do people’s hair,” Williams said.
Inspired by that life-long love of cosmetology and helping others, Williams is launching Believe, a nonprofit dedicated to providing fashion and hairstyling services to those who can’t afford it.
While she’s an experienced entrepreneur, Williams reached out to the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, which had helped her with press coverage in the past, for help setting up this new legal entity.
“They have a lot of meetings and a lot of programs for you to get a lot more education about small businesses,” Williams said. Small Business Client Services Coordinator Talia Jones “was awesome. She really, really helped guide me and calmed me down when I was going through the storm … The whole team is great.”
So far, Williams says, the new business has been approved by the IRS and is working on building its website with help from AEDP.
What advice would she offer another entrepreneur looking to start a business?
“I just feel like people just need to believe and don’t give up,” she said. “It’s just like you’re birthing a baby, but you’re birthing a business. Then, once you birth that business, it’s all about the steps — crawl, walk, and then it’s growth.”