Make It Happen

A failing business can sometimes lead to a winning idea. It happened to this grooming products leader.

- Stephanie Schomer

Miko Branch is the co-founder and CEO of a multimillion-dollar curly-hair product line called Miss Jessie’s, for women who, like Branch, want to wear their hair naturally. But when she started out 20 years ago, she wasn’t thinking about making products. She just loved working with hair, so she opened a salon. It failed quickly—and yet set her up for future success.

STEP 1

Learn from the past.

After hair school, Branch and her sister, Titi, opened a two-chair salon in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood—and then, eager to grow, moved into a larger space without the clientele to support it. “We experienced failure within two years,” Branch says. So they took it as a lesson. They opened a new salon, kept it small, and decided to be more methodical this time.

STEP 2

Find a niche.