Alumni open new downtown business in Milledgeville

After graduation, Sam Kang and Jessica Fields were overwhelmed at the thought of what was next – life after college. Sam studied business management, and Jessica business administration at GCSU. The May 2009 graduates had plans after college, but neither seemed to be satisfied with them. Sam was offered a job overseas, a two-year project management position with KBR, while Jessica had planned to join the Peace Corps. Nearly a week after their graduation, they realized that they wanted to create their own jobs.

“I’ve always wanted to have my own business, and the idea just clicked ‘why not create a job I’ve always wanted,’ ” Fields said.

The two came up with the idea of a nail salon and spa.

“The name Extraordinailry was created because we wanted to provide extraordinary services as well as an extraordinary atmosphere, and when we were thinking of this the name kind of just came together,” Fields said.

Both students were working in between jobs while studying at GCSU. Sam worked at Premiere Nails in the Milledgeville Mall and L.A. Nails while also working at Kuroshima, where Jessica also worked.

“We decided the week after graduation to quit our jobs and write up our business plan. We used and applied exact concepts from our accounting, finance and our operations management classes to develop a target market, produce an income statement, draw blue prints and list the overall business management operations, ” Kang said.

Throughout their business planning stages, faced the obstacles of having no job and no money. However, they continued to work out the details, concentrating first on finding a location for their business.

The young entrepreneurs decided to approach Frank Pendergast inquiring about renting his downtown Milledgeville property space. They had previously met Pendergast while working at Kuroshima.

“Sam and Jessica were the sixth group of young people that had approached me interested in this particular property. They actually had a similar business idea to another nail salon that had multiple stores and had shown interest,” Pendergast said. “My first impression of Sam and Jessica was that they had a lot of desire and stood out from the rest with their well thought out business plan.

That tipped the scale for me and seeing that they were both locals and had a connection to the college, I decided to take a good calculated risk in renting them the property. They have done a great job on the renovations to the property, and I believe they have a business that will be very successful in the end.”

With the property decided on, all that was missing was the money. Sam and Jessica submitted their business plan to BB&T bank in early June, and waited almost a month for their final approval on the business loan.

“They did their homework including research and put together a binder of detailed information. The big difference here is that their plan was realistic and they had a specific property location determined, ” Katie DeYulia, BB&T business services officer, said. “We are very proud of them and expect them to be successful business owners.”

The two certainly seem to be headed in the right direction.

In 10 years, Jessica and Sam would love to see that their business has grown expansively and possibly franchised out at new heights in different locations like Athens or Atlantic Station. “As far as owning your own business and starting off, it takes a lot of thinking from every angle so if you decide to go for it, be passionate about what you are doing.

Don’t do it for the money, but do it because it’s something you enjoy,” Fields said. Her advice to students is that regardless of what your major is do what makes you happy and don’t ever think something is out of reach.

Extraordinailry salon and spa opened Sept. 22. They offer 10 percent off to all students for services including manicures, pedicures and facial waxing. The business is located downtown next to Velvet Elvis. Store hours are Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 12-6 p.m. For more information, call (478) 457-0074 or visit www.extraordinailry.com.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 9 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry