\n
Nekita Sullivan \u201996<\/b><\/p>\n
Starting Over<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Sara Ann Hutto ’17<\/b> This year, Sullivan has faced the struggles of starting a business during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> One summer night, Nekita Sullivan was closing up her salon in downtown Clemson after a long day of prepping the business for reopening. When she turned the key and turned around, she found a young Hispanic student waiting for her. He said, \u201cI understand you are opening soon and know how to do multiethnic hair. I have been driving to Charlotte and Atlanta since I\u2019ve been a student here just to find someone who can do my hair.\u201d Nekita Sullivan has faced the struggles of starting a business during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":23351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[479,1110,3360],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","category-my-clemson","tag-business","tag-entrepreneur","tag-winter-2021-alumni-profile"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/Nekita-Sullivan-Thumbnail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23337"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nSullivan knows his story all too well. \u201cWhen I was at Clemson, African American students had nowhere to go to get their hair done; there were no multiethnic hair services in the area,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, my friends and I would pile up in someone\u2019s car, and we would drive to Easley, Seneca, Anderson or Greenville to get our hair done because we had to.\u201d
\nThis need in the Clemson community is what inspired Sullivan to open Butterfly Eco Beauty Bar<\/a>, located on Earle Street across from the All In Coffee Shop. But she didn\u2019t always dream of starting her own business.
\nAfter graduating from Clemson with a degree in health science, Sullivan attended the Medical University of South Carolina to get a master\u2019s in health science and physical therapy and, later, a doctorate in physical therapy. She\u2019s been a licensed physical therapist in the Upstate ever since, working in hospitals, assisted-living facilities and even at BMW as a certified hand therapist.
\nSullivan was inspired to start her salon when one of her Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters suggested she start a business on the side for fun \u2014 a passion project. \u201c2017 is when I decided to go for it,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started looking for funding, looking for a commercial space, applying for loans and hiring realtors.\u201d
\nIn February 2020, Sullivan opened the Butterfly Eco Beauty Bar, for the first time, offering students, faculty and community members hair care, nail care, skin care and massages.
\n\u201cI wanted to build a salon that could service everybody\u2019s needs,\u201d she says. \u201cI want the white students, Black students, Hispanic students, Asian students \u2014 everyone to feel comfortable about coming here.\u201d
\nJust one short month later, COVID-19 forced the salon\u2019s temporary closure. With the shutdown, Sullivan lost all of her employees, including one salon manager, four hair stylists, two estheticians and one nail tech. \u201cNow I\u2019m having to restaff, rehire, find money to reopen, to advertise, to promote,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like I\u2019m literally having to start over.\u201d
\nAs a double minority, an African American woman, Sullivan explains that funding wasn\u2019t easy to come by to begin with, let alone during a pandemic. But she isn\u2019t giving up yet. She\u2019s using her health science background to find ways to offer services virtually, like stress-management classes and virtual yoga.
\nIn the meantime, she\u2019s continuing her physical therapy work and looking forward to opening Butterfly Eco Beauty Bar\u2019s doors again soon: \u201cI\u2019m excited about the fact that I\u2019m still getting so much interest. I have people emailing me, Facebooking me, Instagramming me, \u2018When are you reopening? I need to get my hair braided.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
\n