Thankful For Five Years In Old Town

This past week, I celebrated the fifth anniversary of Salon Meraki in Old Town, Alexandria. Wow! I never thought this day would come. I named the salon “Meraki,” which is a Greek word that describes when you do something with soul, creativity, or love. It is when you put something of yourself into what you are doing. I thought this was the perfect name, as it's exactly what I have done.

I never would have dreamed that this would be my reality. Just over five years ago, I was sitting at a small table as a solo manicurist. Now, I own not one, but two beautiful salons in Old Town – one on Queen Street and one on King Street. As we approach Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a moment to share the things that I have been thankful for over these last five years.

I was born in Vietnam and spent the first 16 years of my life there. At age 16, I moved to the United States with my two sisters to be reunited with our father and brother. None of us knew a word of English and we had to learn as we went along. Eventually, the three of us lived on our own together. We had no choice but to develop a very strong work ethic and a bond between the three of us that has carried on until today.

I am so incredibly blessed and thankful that both of my sisters, Sandy and Jen, play an integral leadership role in my business. Sandy moved her family up to Northern Virginia from Charlotte, North Carolina to assist me with the growth of the salons. During these past few years, she has taken the lead at the King Street salon. This has helped me focus more on the Queen Street salon. My other sister, Jen, is incredible with marketing and social media. These are areas that I am not nearly as comfortable and savvy in as I probably should be. Jen is the lead in these areas and has hugely contributed to the success of the salons.

I'm also so very grateful that while many small businesses closed during the pandemic, Meraki has thrived. We were forced to completely shut down for three months, but then we were able to re-open at 25 percent capacity for the following four months. While we were thrilled to be able to re-open, this was a very stressful time for me and my staff. We were eager to get back to work, as we needed the income, but we were all very nervous about getting sick, as it was still early in the pandemic. We have been slowly returning to normal, and just this past October, we finally returned to being open and busy a full six days a week. A silver lining of the shutdown is that we were able to complete a major renovation on our Queen Street location, tripling the size of it! This transformation has permitted us to serve far more clients every hour of each day.

I am so very lucky and blessed for all of my family members. I am grateful for my older brother who has mentored me in all of my business decisions over the past five years. I am grateful for the dear family friends who provided me with the initial investment that permitted me to take the risk of starting my own business five years ago. I am grateful for my best friend, Trang, who brought me into her family many years ago. She and her sister Gwen, my manager at the Queen Street salon, have kept me sane and laughing through all of the rough and challenging times.

I am grateful for my Mom who has played a huge role in caring for my two children over the past years. She and my sisters have spent time with them and prepared an endless number of meals for them, as I have worked long hours at the salons. I am grateful that both my daughter and son are such wonderful, well-behaved children. They have tolerated and permitted me to be away from home as much as I have needed to be, and have been successful in school. They are grateful to have created even closer relationships with their aunts, uncles, and cousins during this time. As you may have read here in my June article, I am eternally grateful for my husband, Tri. We have been married for 20 years and he supports everything that I have done and accomplished.

Last but not least, I am grateful for my hard-working and dedicated staff. I know for sure Meraki would not be successful without them.

Over these past five years, perhaps what I am the most grateful for are my thoughtful, loyal, and lovely clients. I am honored to get to spend every "work" day around strong, successful, and amazing women who each have a story of their own. I get to hear these stories and am inspired by every one of them.

Thank you for providing me so much to be grateful for this year! Happy Thanksgiving to all!