Miss Jessie's
Creating a Successful Business from Scratch---Naturally
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Miss Jessie's is a memoir and business guide rich with inspirational life lessons and unique business advice from Miko Branch, the Chief Executive Officer of the dynamic Miss Jessie’s — the company that revolutionized the hair care industry.
When Miko and her sister, Titi, were children, their grandmother, Miss Jessie, taught them independence and showed them the value of being “do it yourself” women, all while whipping up homemade hair concoctions at her kitchen table. As co-founders of Miss Jessie's, Miko reveals how she and Titi applied those lessons to create a successful business from scratch.
A family memoir with a wealth of practical business advice and handy hair tips, told in Miko's funny and relatable voice, Miss Jessie’s is her remarkable story — from her childhood learning independence as a latchkey kid in Jamaica, Queens, to building a highly regarded company with her sister in their shared home salon in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Miko reflects on her hard-won insights working for her autocratic, iron-fisted father, and how the self-sufficiency she learned in childhood helped her blossom as a single mother with bills to pay, a child to raise, and a dream to pursue. She speaks honestly of her mistakes and successes, and of her role as an industry leader, negotiating multi-million dollar deals while at the same time restoring the self-esteem of natural and curly haired women.
Charming and enlightening, chock full of entertaining stories and invaluable instruction that can be applied to any business, and illustrated with 16 pages of photos, Miss Jessie's confirms that with effort the American Dream is possible.
This memoir and business how-to shares the real-life ingredients for building a brand from nothing:
The Family Business: Learn how the "do it yourself" lessons from their grandmother, Miss Jessie, and the tough love from their father became the foundation for a multi-million dollar company.From Kitchen Table to Global Brand: Follow the journey from whipping up homemade concoctions in a Brooklyn home salon to revolutionizing the hair care industry and landing on the shelves of major retailers.Startup Lessons from Scratch: Discover how two sisters with no formal business training, bank loans, or angel investors built an empire—and the honest mistakes they made along the way.The Natural Hair Revolution: Go behind the scenes of the cultural shift that empowered millions of women to embrace their natural, curly, and textured hair.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This cheerful, encouraging entrepreneurial account from Miss Jessie's co-creator Branch details the creation and growth of the natural hair-care business, sprinkled with inspirational nuggets for would-be entrepreneurs. Raised by a Japanese mother, an African-American father, and a "Southern-belle grandmother," Branch and her sister Titi (who died in 2014 at age 45) grew up without much money, but were determined to create an independent, successful life for themselves. She goes on to tell the story of their childhood and of her time in hair school in the early 1990s. With the natural-hair movement just beginning, Branch saw an open space in the market. She and her sister started in a single room in a brownstone and worked their way up to launching their famous line of Miss Jessie's hair-care products, named for their beloved grandmother. Interspersed throughout are life and business lessons, which are generally inspirational rather than prescriptive: "You don't need money to transform an industry. You don't even need privileges or contacts." Branch's peppy tone and passion for her topic make this an energetic and positive read, and by the time the sisters ace their historic meeting with Target, securing nationwide distribution and the future of their business, readers will cheer right along with them.
