Like many others in early 2020, when Susan Chin had to shut down her business unexpectedly, she didn’t know what the future would hold. She was in a dark place and afraid of what this would mean for her family of four. She didn’t qualify for unemployment – or any other government funding – and knew she would have to start thinking creatively. Through many tears, all-nighters, and unknowns, The Mobile Chandelier Suite was born.
Back in high school Susan always had an interest in doing hair. There was a stigma around those who worked in the salon industry being described as people just playing with hair and it wasn’t considered a serious job. Due to this, it took Susan awhile before she decided to pursue it as a career. She worked at Disney World and as a realtor along with various other jobs and nothing ever worked. “I was more of a hands-on person and I just decided one day to go and tour a cosmetology school, check it out, and see how I feel, and when I went I signed up on the spot that day. I knew it was the right spot for me,” said Susan.
This wasn’t the first time Susan had to take a flying leap of faith. She worked at a big name salon for almost 7 years but once she had kids she knew she couldn’t stay there any longer. “I couldn’t do their schedule with small children, it was just too difficult, they wouldn’t work with me on the times I needed,” Susan said. She decided to go out on her own and rebuild her clientele from ground zero, and start her own business. She had to rebuild completely.
“I tell my clients all the time that this is not a job for me, it’s almost a hobby. I call it my babe cave. My salon. It’s a sanctuary away. It’s my time away to be with other women and other adults. It’s a safe zone for me and my clients. We can relax and let it all out, and they can tell me things that no one else knows. I can make them feel safe, and make people feel that someone understands them, and I can make them feel pretty at the same time. It is an overwhelmingly good feeling,” Susan said.
In March of 2020, she was shut down. Susan had a lot of down time to sit and think, and one day while she was scrolling online she stumbled across a hair stylist page on Facebook. “I saw this gal in California, she had made a huge trailer into a bridal suite to go on location, with air conditioning and other features, and I thought that is so genius but there is no way I could ever do that. Then I thought, wait, why can’t I, what is stopping me?,” said Susan.
Due to the pandemic there were many small business loans available with low interest rates. Susan figured it was going to be a long time before wedding parties can have their normal wedding morning routine again with mimosas and all being gathered together in the salon. Susan felt bad for all the COVID brides and decided this was the best time to move forward with this new business endeavor.
It was a little rough getting started. There are a few custom trailer builders in Minnesota and none of them gave Susan the time of day. She decided to go ahead and build it herself from the ground up and went to a trailer company to tour them. There happened to be a custom ice house dealer who was there that day. Susan was impressed by the quality of his work, and they decided to collaborate together to build her a custom 18ft ice house mobile salon.
“I have always loved interior design and I just sat down and drew up the blueprints. I drew up a few different floor plans and of course there were a few speed bumps along the way such as the build process, sizing, and different requirements from the state for mobile designs.”
The flow of the trailer was very important to Susan. She deliberately designed it so that the client had their own space with a wet bar, bathroom, a long bench made with a king headboard, DIY makeup bar and more. The far back of the trailer is Susan’s styling domain with all of her supplies.
The process was a complete rollercoaster. They would start the process excited and then their would be one speed bump after another. They were on a strict timeline to have it ready to go before the Bridal Show in September. At the end it was overwhelmingly stressful, between managing time for her salon, her family, and the build.
“My builder would call one day at 3:00 and say I need you to come down here today to put up the wall paper so I can put the cabinets in. It is an hour and a half drive south every single time and with kids and a schedule it’s not easy to just up and go and spend all night wall papering. It was extremely stressful. I had family help out when possible and my husband would go with me to do all-nighters to get projects done when he could,” described Susan.
The final week before the Bridal Show there were multiple issues between plumbing, electrical and more. “It was insane and I wouldn’t be surprised if I was grey by the end of this year,” said Susan.
The Bridal Show debut went better than Susan could have ever hoped for. The positive response was overwhelming. “People would walk in and say this is amazing, I want to live here! Everybody loved it,” said Susan. Susan quickly ran out of all of her business cards and flyers and it was a successful event.
Susan hopes to be fully licensed and operable by November/December. She has received a ton of interest in booking already. She has also received a lot of interest in potentially franchising down the road from hair stylists all around the country.
“People always doubt themselves. If you have a dream, give yourself that kick in the butt and believe in yourself and just go for it. You never know if it’s going to take off and be the next best thing. You don’t want to feel like you’re not capable for whatever reason and don’t pursue it and then someone else is going to do it and be wildly successful and you would regret it. Just take the flying leap of faith and go do it,” exclaims Susan.
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