BUFFALO, N.Y. — For our Most Buffalo Story of the Day, we're taking you to Niagara Street in Buffalo where a local business owner is expanding her beauty salon to include a café and incubator space.
Jennifer Bohlen first came up with the name of her beauty salon about 15 years ago.
"I was driving, I grew up in Elma, I went to Iroquois, and there was a farm out there that always had local honey signs, and I just loved that, so I said I want to name something that some day," said Jennifer Bohlen, owner of Local Honey Beauty Hive and Gold Lion.
Local Honey Beauty Hive was born four years ago and moved into a space on Niagara Street once businesses could open during the pandemic.
"After a couple of years of doing really well, I'm like I want to maybe sell some more retail, maybe have some other beauty people that want to rent space from me, so then I built this side," said Jennifer Bohlen.
And that's how Gold Lion was born. The café officially opens June 18.
"Our clients are always drinking coffee. They're always brining in Starbucks and Tim Hortons and getting Door Dash and I was like, well, we should just sell it here," said Jennifer Bohlen.
And Bohlen isn't stopping there. She's also turning this former wire factory into a business incubator space for entrepreneurs.
"I'm building eight new rooms back there," said Jennifer Bohlen. "We would love to have other people that do nails or waxing, things like that, but also other kinds of businesses, too. So Ashton owns a clothing business, she makes clothes, so she's going to have a little store back there, and I would like to have different types of businesses that can work together, and that also then, that feeds the coffee shop, too."
She says it's great, because you'd be in a space with customers who are already there at the salon.
"We probably have about three-thousand clients that come to the salon, you know, at least 60 to 75 people a week coming to the salon, so then you have all those people that might check out the back space, you know, because I'm going to make it really cute back there with plants and like, almost like a, kind of like a mall kind of feel back there, so I would encourage our clients to go back and check it out," said Jennifer Bohlen.
And, Bohlen is excited to be part of a business community in Buffalo that's growing.
"I feel like being in this building, there's something magical about this building. I don't know, it's very, it's just, this whole area, this street is up and coming, it's really pretty in here, there's plants, you almost feel like you're outside, I mean, it's great now that we're in the time of year where we can sit outside, too, but in the winter time, I feel like people come in here and they almost feel like they're like at the botanical gardens or outside because it's very bright and open and green," said Jennifer Bohlen.
She has this advice for people who want to start their own business.
"If you have that good foundation where, you know, you're going to have the customers, you shouldn't be afraid to do it," said Bohlen.
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