The pandemic surely put an end to many people’s businesses and side hustles around the world. Despite the doom and gloom, some entrepreneurs were able to achieve success for their businesses, and Ciera Gaskins is one of these outliers.
Ciera was working as a clinical service representative at Johns Hopkins when the epidemic struck. Many healthcare workers were required to work extra hours during the height of the health crisis as caseloads became overwhelming.
When Gaskins realized that many of the nurses working at the hospital were unable to get their hair done because hair salons were closed due to the pandemic, she started offering to braid their hair out of her home for a fee,” the business journal reported. Within just a week, she made an excess of $1000.
After assessing the success of her new venture, the 30-year-old decided to turn her side hustle into a brand by launching Cidehustle.
She rented space at The Cube Cowork, a Black- and woman-owned coworking facility geared toward women entrepreneurs and mothers. Cidehustle’s hair salon is on one side of the space at 4709 Harford Road, while nail services are on the other.
According to the Business Journal, the West Baltimore native has acquired a reputation for being an extremely rapid braider. Her celebrity has also increased the amount of clients who visit her.
Gaskins started the enterprise with her own money. She has now grown the company into a six-figure enterprise. The black entrepreneur, on the other hand, vows she will not be complacent. She intends to create a full-service nail salon where she will be able to train and teach other women how to start their own companies.
“This year, it’s about crunching the numbers now that I know I can scale my business and it can only get bigger and better from here,” she said.
Gaskins graduated from high school with a Nail Technician License and studied pre-med at Towson. She quit, though, after having her first child, subsequently pursuing a nursing degree, and is now aspiring to be a physician. Her passion is for women’s concerns such as nursing.
For now, Gaskins says she is enjoying the success of her business and the sky can only be her limit. “A little girl from Baltimore being able to have her own business? I would have never thought in a million years.”
