Zulaikha, known for her famous beauty parlor Zulu Style in Singapore is quite popular for giving unique hairstyles, grooming and makeup services to her clients. Zulu is amazingly hard-working, creative, talented, and passionate about her work. Her 9 years journey which started from providing home beauty services to her clients to settling up her own outlet in Singapore, proves the fact that if you love what you do then there is no limit for your achievements. Her business acumen, beauty skills have given her an individual identity and she stands out in the crowd.What I love is her confidence and love for her work.Women lines is proud to share her journey in her own words-
1.Please share with our readers a little bit about yourself?
Hi everybody! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share about myself.Well, I’m Zulaikha, founder of Zulu Style Pte Ltd. People love to call me Zulu. I am born and brought up in Karachi, Pakistan. I have a degree in Bachelor of Arts as I was always interested in this field. I got married in Singapore in 2007 and since then I’m here.I have 2 kids and I am living in west part of Singapore. I am running my own Hair, Beauty and Bridal business in Little India.
2. So when did you venture into this venture and what inspired or motivated you to take a plunge into this venture?
Actually, since the age of 10, I was very curious and excited about making people look beautiful around me. Slowly this interest became my passion and I planned my profession around it. I’ve done many certification and diploma courses to satisfy my inner passion. In 2005, I came to Singapore for completion of my Hair diploma from Pivot Point Singapore. After that, I settled in Singapore in 2007. When I started looking around I found that there were many ladies who wanted to look beautiful but they were not getting all services under one roof. There were different services provided by different salons.I started giving them home services at economical costs and God has blessed me with such lovely clients who really appreciated my work and encouraged me with loads of love and praises.When demand started to overflow I planned to have a salon in the central part of Singapore where I can deliver my skills to as many as I can.Then slowly small place changed to bigger then bigger and sometime back there were 3 branches of Zulu Style in Singapore.
3. Can you share with us some of the challenges you faced during your initial days?
Yes good question, when I started my salon in the market, Little India was surrounded by many local based Indian salons operating for last 20 years plus..I liked it and accepted the challenge to be there being one of them offering unique services with customer satisfaction.The other thing bothered me was about staff management and hiring good hands.Due to that, I had to close 2 branches of Zulu Style and now we have only one branch at race course road.
4. So how do you balance your personal and professional life ?
This is very women oriented business and they understand very well. In Singapore many women are having work life balance issues, but due to appointments arrangements I am able to manage it well.
5.What would you suggest to other aspiring women who want to venture out on their own ?
At first, I tried to search out a job for myself as it sounded easy initially. But I must say if you have talent and passion to do it in your own way , God is always there to guide you.You get inner strength to face all hurdles and challenges if your faith is strong. I have learnt many lessons throughout my entrepreneurial journey which has made me stronger as a person.
6.Is there any person who has mentored/supported/inspired you?
The credit goes to my elder daughter Fareha. I was always concerned that how I’ll start working if I had a cranky child with me? But due to her calm and lovely nature everybody loves to take her and she is well adjusted at home.This peace of mind helped me in focussing on my profession. I must say I was very angry with those beauticians who used to mess with client’s hair and always blamed their hair type to be the reason by saying”oh your hair like that”.They never cared for client’s satisfaction. For me my client’s satisfaction is most important.Thats how I chose my salon name ZulYouStyle” I’m nothing without “YOU” and without “YOUR” satisfaction.
7.What do you have in the pipeline for your venture’s future development?
Well what I felt in the market while serving my clients, many women have bad hair texture and everybody is in rush. They are badly in need of good services which is economical yet long lasting. I wanna do something more to haircare and styling side that can make everyone at ease. Currently we have started offering those services at promotional price so that every one can take it without thinking much.Only Good Hair can show Good Hairstyle.
Womenlines wishes all the best to Zulu for her future initiatives. Do visit Zulu Style FB page to know more about her-
Charu Mehrotra
Promoting Excellence in Women!
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