Turning Pages to a Dream

Turning Pages to a Dream

Hanzila excitedly sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Today was about to be one of the most pivotal moments in her life. Immediately Hanzila walked over to her small desk, eagerly thrusting her black notebook open and jotted down the date in the upper-righthand corner, "August 6th, 2010." She writes, "Dear Diary... Today is the day that I make my escape to a happier life!"

What would compel young Hanzila to leave her parents and seven siblings to strike out on her own? She felt overlooked as the second born among all her siblings and that nobody in the family took her ambitions seriously. Hanzila expressed to her parents and siblings that she wanted to build a multi-purpose wellness center, with a spa/beauty store in the front and lodging behind it for overnight guests. She had no desire to work for a corporation because she believed it was important to create a foundation to build generational wealth for her future children and grandchildren. After Hanzila told her parents about her ultimate dream, they looked at each other and laughed. "Oh Hanzila," her father said, "you have a wild imagination. You must go to school and get a good job."

Aside from the doubtful criticism Hanzila received from her family, she was fortunate to have two friends Lesedi and Nailah who shared her passion. Both of her friends also received not-so-kind remarks from their immediate families upon hearing about their spa lodge venture. The three young friends, all being 18 years of age, decided to strike out on their own and make their dream come true!

On this day, August 6th, 2010, all three friends Hanzila, Lesedi, and Nailah planned to get away for a week to stay at a hillside cottage owned by Nailah's aunt so that they can write down and discuss their business plans. When they reached the cottage, Nailah made some strong hot coffee for everyone, and all three young ladies sat down with their small black notebooks in hand.

On day two of the three friends' business venture getaway at the cottage, they wrote down a list of all the expenses to cover the costs of equipment, store products, and the down payment for the building. They also looked up possible locations and building price ranges for their wellness establishment. After thorough research and calculation, they realized that their total startup cost would be approximately $20,000. "So, where are we going to get this kind of money from?" Hanzila asked as she pressed her hand against her forehead. Ledesi quickly chimed in, "I make organic scented candles and body oils as a hobby. Maybe we can sell these as the kick-off products for the spa to generate the startup funds!" Nailah leaned into the conversation adding, "that's not a bad idea. I can ask my aunt if she knows people who would be interested in buying body oils and candles." And so, the three ladies' plan became set in motion! Indeed Hanzila, Ledisi, and Nailah had their work cut out for them in carrying out the plans to build their wellness spa/beauty store and lodge complex while selling Ledisi's candles and body oils.

Upon deciding which task to tackle first, Hanzila asks her friends, "What name should we give our wellness spa and lodge?" Adding, "Picking out a meaningful name will not only add more significance to our project but in many ways, it will create the theme of the establishment." Ledisi interjects, "This spa and lodge will create a new beginning for us. It will create a new source of income and legacy for our future families while opening up new opportunities for the surrounding community... A new beginning. How about Regeneration Spa & Lodge?!" Both Nailah and Hanzila enthusiastically smiled and nodded their heads. "It's perfect!" they both exclaimed.

Day three of the young ladies' business venture getaway turned into a day of production. Hanzila and Nailah helped Ledisi set up tables and line up all the products needed to mix the body oils and produce the organic candles. They let Ledisi lead the way in teaching them how to make the products they intended to sell themselves. To the three friends, the project became more fun than any craft workshop they ever attended. By the end of the day, each young lady had produced over 100 candles and 50 bottles of body oil to be sold at retail. They found a few marketplace websites to sell their products and decided the next day they would create their own online store as well as uploading their oils and candles to the various online marketplaces.

It is now day four of Hanzila, Nailah, and Ledisi having another morning power meeting with their small black notebooks to take their product sales to fruition. Upon agreement, their online store adopted the name Regeneration Glow as a public introduction to their upcoming spa. "Perhaps our products will not only generate sales but draw the public's interest to coming to our spa," said Ledisi. "You make an excellent point, Ledisi. Well, ladies, if we're going to be cranking out products and sales we should probably extend our little getaway," replied Nailah. "Exactly," they all said in unison. Hanzila chuckled a little reflecting on that little dramatic insert added in her diary about her "escape." "What's so funny?" Ledisi asked. "Oh, nothing." Hanzila snickers.

The latter half of the ladies' fourth day of business plans was spent making their online store and marketplace pages go live. They also linked their store to affiliate marketing platforms so that other people could sell Regeneration Glow's products for a shared profit. "Okay ladies, we have officially introduced our business to the world. Let's hope for the best in sales!" said Hanzila as she raised her coffee mug in the air. Nailah and Ledisi also raised their coffee mugs and together shouted "Here, here!"

Day five was the day Nailah was not only going to talk to her aunt about Regeneration Glow products, but she was also going to contact commercial leasing agencies to find out about the criteria to secure a location for the new spa. Meanwhile, Ledisi and Hanzila were hard at work producing candles and body oils. After several calls and emails, Nailah heard back from a leasing agent about a property that seemed to look very promising by the photos and property size. All three friends agreed to meet with the agent the next day to look at the property.

The next day it was time to meet the agent and look at the property. As they approached the property, the ladies noticed that it was partially tucked into a hillside. The design of the building was quaint, adorable, and had an antique look. In the front were big windows letting in plenty of sunshine, a perfect location for the lobby and beauty store. Hanzila, Ledisi, and Nailah looked at each other with amazement while verbally expressing their visualizations of how to utilize each part of the building. They all fell in love with the location and agreed that this will be the home of Regeneration Spa & Lodge! The agent informed them that if they want to secure the property, they would need to pay $5,000 down, and since the agent realized how much they wanted the place, he allowed them one week to pay the deposit before placing the building on the market. "One week, ladies. Let's get to work!" says Ledisi.

Two more days had passed as the three friends worked hard at placing ads online and speaking to people in their community about their product line and upcoming plans to open the spa. Hanzila went online to check their online store's status in sales production. Her eyes lit up and she gasped then screamed "OMG, come here!" The other two ladies rushed over to the computer monitor. To their shocking surprise, they saw that collectively their links generated 1,000 sales, with a total of $10K in profit! They jumped around overjoyed, hugging each other and screaming. "This is it! We're really business owners!" Ledisi screamed. "Woo hoo... Yes!" exclaimed Nailah.

Immediately, the ladies met with the leasing agent to sign the papers for the commercial property and submit the down payment for the future home of Regeneration Spa & Lodge. Their dream was indeed becoming a reality! Now that their property has been secured, they can now focus on generating profits to cover the other costs of officially opening the spa and lodge to the public.

Another two weeks went by, and to the very pleasant surprise of Hanzila, Nailah, and Ledisi, they received another 1,200 orders, topping the $20,000 they initially needed! Now they had enough to buy the cleaning, painting, furniture, equipment, and storefront product line for Regeneration Spa & Lodge. As an additional bonus, some of the body oil orders were from licensed massage therapists who also submitted resumes to work with the spa once it opened. It was all coming together.

Since the ladies were so busy with their venture for over a month, they decided to have another meeting with their little black notebooks. This time Hanzila, Ledisi, and Nailah met to finalize plans for opening day and to add a couple of touches. For their gratitude to the community for making their dream possible, they decided to start a local weekly food drive which was set to begin a week after the opening day of Regeneration Spa & Lodge.

"Oh no!" Hanzila yelled. "What?" the other two ladies asked. "It's been over a month and I forgot to call my family!" Right away, Hanzila picked up the phone eager and excited to share her news with her parents. "Hello?" her father said on the other line. "Dad, this is Hanzila! We did it; we are opening our spa & lodge. I want you and mom to be there on opening day!" There was a pause of silence and then... "Hanzila, please ignore what I said to you before. I am so proud to call you my daughter. Words cannot express how happy and excited I am!" Tears of joy ran down Hanzila's face. "That means the world to me to hear you say that, dad."

Three young ladies, three small black notebooks, and most importantly a dream created a future legacy for three families and their surrounding community for years to come. Dreams are meant to be chased, always!