Small-business owner Jennifer Holman has successfully run her own beauty shop for eight years while juggling her family responsibilities.

How does she find enough time in the day to get everything done? “Nothing’s ever done,” she admits.

Holman runs Jen’s Country Cuts, a one-person shop in Walniut Grove. She has more than 300 clients and works about eight to nine hours a day.

When asking her why she started her own business, she states, “I was making too much money for somebody else, and decided that I could do it by myself, make enough money, and be home with my kids.”

She says she never wanted to run her own business. Her parents owned a business and were never home, so she was always with her grandparents. Because of this, the mother of three manages her time and schedules around her personal life to make her family and her clients top priorities.

Personal connection

When scheduling a hair appointment to either cut or color, she leaves time to catch up with her clients. She says, “I counsel them, and they counsel me.” When speaking about her clients, she says, “All my clients are my friends.” She continues, “All my clients are very loving, and I know that if I were to ever need anything I could call anybody at any time.”

Having personal relationships with clients can have its downfalls as well. “It’s sometimes hard to schedule clients around each other that don’t get along,” she says. “Also, sometimes I don’t want to know something about somebody that I like.” She hates bad gossip, especially in her shop.

She also works to balance the business and her family. Baseball season is coming up, and all three of her boys will be playing. Rather than missing the games, she says, “I will probably not be working any evenings during the week for a couple months, and will just be working longer Saturdays. It helps having a business in your backyard.”

Becoming an entrepreneur

For new entrepreneurs, she has one bit of advice: “Location, location, location.” She says that it isn’t hard to be the only beauty shop in a town of 360 people because her shop is “the only updated shop there is. There’s an old-lady shop, a barber shop, and then there’s me.” She adds: “Make sure you love what you do, and if you plan on having a family, make family a priority away from your business.”

She could make more working in Springfield but chooses not to. “I don’t make as much money as I would in Springfield because I don’t charge as much for my clients, but if I worked in Springfield I wouldn’t get as much family time as I do now.” She has made sacrifices for her family and her business, and that is why she is not only successful but happy as well.