The Attitude Salon Boutique, located in Grambling, is s a combination of hair salon and clothing boutique. This unique set up is the brainchild of Teresa Austin, a serial entrepreneur, who moved to the area from Kansas City almost 19 years ago. Teresa has been in business 12 years at her current location but has been an entrepreneur her whole adult life. She credits her parents with getting her started in business.
“Both of my parents are entrepreneurs.My dad worked for himself. He owned a plumbing and construction company and my mother owned a hair salon.” She credits her Mother with getting her interested in fashion.
“I really got started in fashion due to my mother, who thought I needed to have some etiquette and charm [growing up]. I was a tomboy, so she signed me up for the charm classes at the YMCA at the time, which got me interested in fashion.” Teresa said she started participating in fashion shows, and her Mother started taking her to the Ebony Fair fashion show every year. Also, because her mother did hair, they also went to a lot of hair shows.
“I was exposed to a lot of things in the beauty field and the fashion field. In high school, I was one of eight, the only Black person that was a member of the Sears team board. We went around to Sears [stores] and we did in-store fashion shows.
She went on to attend college in Kansas City where she majored in fashion design and merchandising. When she finished college, she was having trouble finding a job in the fashion industry so her mother encouraged her to get her cosmetology license which she did.
Teresa said she then moved to Dallas and ended up working at the Glimby’s salon at Dillard’s. “All I did was haircuts all day working at Glimby’s. I did that for about a year and a half.” When it came time for her Mom to expand her business, she invited Teresa and her younger sister, also a cosmetologist, to join her.
“We found a building and we expanded her out of the home into a commercial building. We stayed at that location for about six years.At that location, I still had fashion in my mind so I ended up getting a rack [of clothes] and a showcase [of jewelry] that I put in the salon.”
Teresa said when they moved to a second location, the space was bigger, so because it had a break room, she was able to have a small boutique inside the salon. “I bought more [clothes to sell and more jewelry]”.
Teresa said they stayed at that second location almost six years, and moved to an even bigger location. “[Right next door [to that location] was a smaller space. I opened up a boutique next door. It was a full boutique by itself.” Teresa remained in that location until she married James Austin of Ruston and moved here.
She said when she first got here, she didn’t know anyone and had to start all over from scratch. Eventually, she was able to work at a couple of salons and started building up her clientele. She tells a funny story of how she started off working in the salon at Walmart and over time had accrued a mix of loyal clients, both black and white. But when she moved to The Hairport in East End, not being from the area, she didn’t understand why half of her clients didn’t follow her over. But she didn’t let it faze her and continued building her clientele from there.
Eventually, the location she’s in now in Grambling became available and it was big enough to include her clothes and jewelry, as well as a hair salon, so she took it.
When asked where she gets her clothes, she said she orders from Madrid, France and Italy because she likes to have unique pieces. She also carries sizes Small to 3X.
In terms of the type of clothing she carries, she said, “I have dresses, tops, pants, and jumpsuits.I’m just starting to get in some formal wear…And, of course, jewelry, accessories, hats, belts, a little bit of everything.”
In addition to the boutique and salon, she also makes jewelry and wigs. This year marks 40 years in business for the talented entrepreneur and when asked what words of wisdom would she give to people who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur or maybe young entrepreneurs who are just starting out, she said, “Don’t be scared to try it. Take the lead. Trust. Trust in yourself, your abilities and what you can do. Also, always put God first in it though, because God has been my main source of everything in everything I decided to do. When I first came here [and didn’t know anyone], I said, Lord, help me do this. And then when I decided to do it, I said, I’m going to give myself a year and I prayed on it and said, Lord, if it’s meant for me to do this, I’ll do it. And that whole year I met all kinds of people, people I wouldn’t have ever thought I would meet, and the clientele just came.”
The Attitude Salon and Boutique is located at 302 College Ave in Grambling and is open M-Sat. To reach Teresa, you can call 318-596-3222 or email her at: theattitude1@gmail.com.