The New Majority: houston's minority news reader

FROM SHARPSTOWN MALL TO THE GALLERIA: Local business woman is moving on up

By Paul Fitzgerald Bennett

One of the first things a visitor to Versatile Beauty & Salon noticed recently about owner Angela Natt was a laugh whose roots was not far removed from childhood.

When an African American New Majority reporter told her that a visit to a White barber left his hair in disarray and that potential White customers may fear coming to her African American owned Galleria III hair salon for the same reason, the Worthing High School and Texas Southern University graduate could not contain herself.

"Well, that barber must have had bad training," she said in between hilarity. "When our stylist walk through this door, we make sure we know what they can and cannot do. If it's something they haven't done before we provide the training for them."

Last November, Versatile opened the second of two salons at Galleria III. The first opened its doors in October of 2006. Sharpstown Mall is the site of the original Versatile where the family operated business has been in existence over 8 years.

"Most of my family does hair. My brother's a barber, my sister, my niece, everyone works in one of the shops," said Ms. Natt.

Ms. Natt does not have a salon license. Instead she brings to fruit seven years of managerial experience from Wal-Mart where she served as the company's first African American female automotive store manager in the 1990s.

"While I was working there, I learned a lot about retail. You will see a lot of that in our stores. I learned about how to set up the stores. I learned a lot about customer service," she said. "I got the chance to meet Sam Walton before he passed. I'll never forget that simple man who had an old truck and traveled in it. He was very simple and very practical. He reminded me of myself. And that's what prompted me to start my own business."

After leaving Wal-Mart, Ms. Natt first tested her business knowledge in the cleaning industry. But after a discussion with her brother and sister, the three decided that the beauty industry would be more lucrative.

"My brother and I were already hair stylists, but we were working at other shops," said sister, Venetia Natt. "Since Angela had the business knowledge, it just made sense that we should go into business for ourselves."

The best thing about being at the Galleria said Angela Natt is the diversity the mall offers. Though 50 percent of Versatile's customers are African American, she said the other 30 and 20 percent are White and Latino American respectively.

"People from all over the world come in here to get extensions. We do a lot of colors and extensions for Caucasians," she said.

Last year Versatile was voted best hair service extensions in Houston by City Search. The company also makes wigs for cancer patients Earth wide. Talk to employee Sabrina Williams who has been with Versatile since 2003 and she'll tell you that Ms. Natt is not only concerned with the well being of the salon but with employees as well.

"Angela has always told me that no matter what, you can achieve anything you put your mind to," she said.

"I train my employees to not only know about the latest hair styles," said Ms. Natt. "But to think about going into business for themselves one day. We need more minority businesses."

Unfortunately you won't find that many minority businesses in the Galleria. Versatile is one of a handful of businesses operated by persons of color and most of them are located in the newer Galleria III which has less traffic.

"It was not easy coming over here," said Ms. Natt. "I really had to fight to come over here and to get a location where we had some sort of visibility." After much soul searching, Ms. Natt decided she would let her God fight for her. The result?

"Coming out of our first year we had a fiscal increase. Our numbers were good. We've never had to borrow money," she said, adding that minorities should check out Galleria III as a possible business site.

When the New Majority reporter asked her what her rent was laughter was once again the response.

"All I'll tell you is that my rent at Galleria III is cheaper then it is at Sharpstown Mall. I'm not struggling to pay my rent. I take care of that in three days. Now, that's all I'm going to tell you," she said with much amusement.

< Previous | Next >