A Beautiful Future
The year 2016 was barely a day old when an epiphany was born – one that will soon change the beauty industry. The instigator of this shift, Miah Zimmerman, has been dedicated to the beauty profession since high school. The first person she told of her dream was Heather K. Rogers, her partner at Canvas Beauty Bar, located on Howard Street in Downtown Boone.
This epiphany was Canvas Social, a network platform capable of aiding and providing stylists with a cleaner and a more efficient method of communicating professionally. In the form of an app, Canvas Social will provide opportunity for professionals to display their work through a social media network by advocating services such as hair, dresses, and beauty on a platform accessible to the public.
The birth of this idea came to Miah much like the idea of opening the hair salon in Boone four years ago – over a concept drawing on a napkin at their kitchen table. May 2015 brought the actualization of this idea, with the opening of Canvas Beauty Bar. “Boone is such a special place with an amazing community and so much support,” says Miah. She remembers thinking, “If I am actually serious about starting a salon, I should do it in Boone.”
Because Heather and Miah grew up here, they found a solid foundation of support within the community. “Everyone who played a part in building our business were people we knew, and I don't think we could have achieved that anywhere else,” Heather explains, “I think our network of people and our community are the reason we are successful.”
While the support of the community helped the pair tremendously, they still ran into many unnecessary difficulties when running the salon that they felt other businesses didn’t have to deal with. When trying to determine what hair care products to use, who to hire on the team, or just general education about health and beauty, they realized that their sources were slim to none. “That was a struggle I was not expecting, because a lot of businesses don't have those problems – they have resources and business support like LinkedIn. The beauty industry doesn't necessarily have that,” says Miah.
Enter Canvas Social, which you can currently view at canvassocial.com for a preview of what the app will offer. The new year always harbors new ideas and perspectives, so take a page from Mia and Heather’s book this year by paying attention to your vision. Who knows? Maybe 2019 will be the year you have your own epiphany.