Joy of Beauty, a diabetic friendly body care line, was recently named the Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Maryland Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year. The line is the latest innovation of parent company, Nails & Faces of Joy, LLC, based in Waldorf and founded and operated by Joy A. Johnson since 2007.
Ms. Johnson has worked with the Maryland Small Business Development Center, Southern Region (SBDC) since starting her business in 2007 and continues to work with them as she considers selling her product overseas. “I’ve had the same business counselor, Mr. Bill Hitte, since taking the SBDC-sponsored Business 101 class that he taught back in 2007,” said Johnson. “The SBDC has been integral in growing my business. Now that I’ve developed the product, I’m using all their resources to figure out how to export and how to navigate in ecommerce.”
Johnson didn’t always want to work in the beauty industry. She shares, “I got in the world of beauty by way of an apprenticeship. There was actually a cosmetology program in my high school, but I chose CISCO networking. I would walk past Cosmetology and almost look down on it.” She didn’t get interested in cosmetology until age 20.
In 2006, she decided to get a license in makeup artistry. “In Maryland, there used to be a makeup license, for which you only needed maybe 40 hours,” says Johnson. “I was able to do that through a school in Washington D.C. So, I had my makeup license for a few years.” To get her nails and aesthetics licenses, she also did apprenticeships. She explains, “I’ve never gone to cosmetology school. I learned by way of being an apprentice.”
While working in a salon in Waldorf to complete her training hours, she was let go of her full-time job in home health care and also gave birth to her first child. It was kind of a “sink or swim” moment, and with a new baby, she transitioned into full-time entrepreneurship. Business ownership wasn’t totally new to her, as she’d started a makeup artistry business a few years earlier and says, “that’s when I knew I wanted to start my own business and started my relationship with the SBDC [Small Business Development Center] in La Plata."
“I took a Business 101 class with Bill Hitte at the SBDC in 2006, and that’s when I founded my business,” says Johnson. “It’s not until 2012 that it transferred from a sole proprietor to an LLC.” Today, Johnson’s business is two-fold. The registered LLC is called Nails & Faces of Joy and thrived at several brick-and-mortar beauty treatment locations in Charles County from 2009-2018, through which she offered special care to the diabetic and cancer communities. Initially, it was a fully service-based beauty spa business.
In 2018, she switched to mobile-only services (going to clients’ homes) and added a product line, Joy of Beauty, which she created herself. This line of beauty products caters to the same clients they serve: diabetics, people living with cancer, the elderly, allergy-prone, sensitive-skin prone, nursing mothers, children, and those with limited mobility. The products are also cruelty-free, paraben-free, and sulfate-free.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson has been more focused on the product line. Their services actually just reopened in March 2023, after being closed as a “nonessential service.” (All of us remember those days of home haircuts because the hair salons were closed.)
Johnson continues working with the SBDC on figuring out how to export and also navigate ecommerce as she looks to expand her product globally. She says, “The new challenge is helping people understand why my product is different. I will say that the SBDC has been very helpful. I’ve taken a few classes in exporting, and Bill [Hitte] recently gave me quite a few resources as far as finding grant writers, talking to the Maryland Department of Commerce, and figuring out who, in what country, could use my product.”
As Johnson expands her business beyond Charles County, and even abroad, she’ll have the help of her trusted SBDC counselor, Bill Hitte, and all the resources available with the network of the SBDC and SBA (Small Business Association), Charles County Economic Development Department Business Support Services, and the Maryland Department of Commerce.
She’ll receive her award at a presentation on June 8, during the 2023 Maryland Small Business Week Awards Luncheon in Woodlawn, Maryland. This event celebrates the achievement of Maryland’s outstanding entrepreneurs and small business advocates. Congratulations, Joy Johnson!
