Lending Library

You don’t often hear of people jumping from the petroleum industry to the beauty industry.

But that’s exactly what Steve Schaaf did.

Steve and his wife Michele opened up their first salon and day spa—Tranquility Salon and Spa—almost 18 years ago in New Jersey. Fast forward to today and the salon has grown from one location to two with about 90 employees.

“My wife is the driving force,” he said, adding that she has an entrepreneurial streak and a fascination with the beauty and fashion industries.

After 22 years in the petroleum industry, Steve made the jump to working with his wife full-time in 2002.

Tranquility Salon and Spa is owned and operated under Steve and Michele’s parent company MSSA Associates Inc. To get their business off the ground, Steve shares that they used his early retirement pension and relied on assistance from the landlord to pay off some construction costs over time.

Despite the growth of their business in the last 18 years, Steve said it hasn’t been without hiccups.

“Banks don’t like offering loans for fit-out [construction] of leased spaces without a long track record,” he explained. “We continually have issues with getting any size loans from banks for updates.”

To get the financing they needed for their salon, they came to Lendio.

Steve said the advertising from Lendio is what really drew him in. And with the help of Lendio, he was able to pay off higher interest loans and credit card debts.

Having two salons now, Steve notes that they are located in both small and large communities. And community is why they’re still in New Jersey.

Before Steve joined Michele full time, he took a buyout at the company he was working for. They had plans for a reorganization and offered him a new job in Virginia, but Steve and Michele decided a job wouldn’t move them away from friends and family. He took on a temporary job for two years to make ends meet, while his wife quit her full-time job to run the salon.

“My wife and I are best friends and working every day with her is both fun and exciting—her being entrepreneurial, myself being a conservative-minded engineer,” he said. “We make a good pair.”

New Jersey ranks No. 4 on Lendio’s 2018 Top 10 Best States for Small Business Lending. Learn more about why the Garden State is such a thriving hub for small business.

Pictured above: Jeff Hanson (circa 9th grade) working on a project with his father and brothers.

Jeff Hanson lives in a very giving community.

About six years ago, Jeff’s first daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Without him ever saying “help,” his community jumped into action.

From Labor Day to Thanksgiving, he said, the Hansons didn’t cook one meal for themselves, take care of their horses, or clean the stalls. The community did.

“There’s a huge, giving nature. It’s a very tight community,” he said. “It’s unreal.”

Jeff and his wife first moved to the Seattle, Washington, area “many, many years ago,” as he puts it. He calls Seattle a melting pot, and a place that he really, really loves. For about 25 years, he worked in high tech at Microsoft, a job he enjoyed at the time but eventually fell out of love with.

For Jeff, it all comes back to passion.

“I realized I just wasn’t living a full life,” he said. “I was successful but I wasn’t listening to my passion or following my passion.”

Jeff said he never dreamt of becoming a design build general contractor, but he grew up in a house-building family and he was always building. When he realized building was his passion, he started working weekends and vacations to make a little side money.

“I literally did two jobs for two years and I was exhausted, but passion fuels you, feeds you energy, and with that energy you can do stuff,” he said.

By working around the clock, he made enough money to start his business. But then once he got that one big job to start, he said goodbye to his former career and hello to Hanson Design Build, LLC.

“Once you tap into your passion you’re a superhero,” he said. “I mean you literally almost have limitless energy when you find your passion.”

Jeff keeps coming back to passion. He knows it sounds screwball, but he reiterates that when you find something you love, it ignites you.

To set himself up for the future, Jeff applied for financing through Lendio, but it wasn’t without some hesitation. He said the funding manager reached out and bugged him, but in a meaningful way. He was interested, but wasn’t prepared to take those steps.

“I was really naïve,” Jeff shares, “and the funding manager was really good at educating me on the steps.”

The financing that Jeff received was put toward his working capital, paying off some minor debts and helped set him up for a small business loan.

Now Jeff gets to live out his passion every day. He says passion is a huge component for owning a small business. But, he adds, that success for any small business owners lies in how you respond when things change.

“Create a roadmap for your mental focus, but realize that every day it’s going to change,” he said. “Don’t be too rigid and embrace the day. Something will change. Something negative will happen. How you respond is really where success lies.”

Washington is No. 2 on Lendio’s 2018 Top 10 Best States for Small Business Lending. Learn more about why the Evergreen State is such a thriving hub for small business.