How One Black Beauty Entrepreneur Creates a Wellness Space for Women

TNJ.com: What inspired you to open the European Wax Center last week?

Cenita Williamson: With Mother’s Day being?5/13/18, I thought it was fitting to have my grand opening event this week to communicate to women it is okay to take time out for yourself.? It is not only okay, it is extremely important.? My company was founded on the premise that self care and wellness is an important part of living your best self.? Mothers are often neglecting themselves for everyone else and don’t make self care a priority.? My investment in the The European Wax Center was all about creating the space for women (95% of my guests are women) to live their best self. When women feel good about themselves it empowers them to stretch, grow and dream big.

TNJ.com: Why Newark?

TNJ.com: Tell me about the inspiration and mission of your beauty and wellness investment company?

Cenita Williamson: The inspiration was simply people are their best self when they feel and look good in their own eyes.? You can’t have one without the other.? I can’t be the mom my 7 year old daughter needs if I don’t invest in my self-care and wellness. I remember periods of my life when it wasn’t there and it was not healthy.? These periods in my life inspired me to create the space for women to feel good about investing in themselves without the guilt.? The mission is to create a space where women are inspired and empowered to focus on self care and wellness.

TNJ.com: How important is beauty and wellness to professional, working women?

Cenita Williamson: Extremely important, I know first hand how challenging it is to carve time out for yourself without feeling guilty.? As working women, we feel, if we schedule an appointment to get our waxing or my hair done we are being selfish or depriving our families.? We are constantly feeling guilty.? I’ve thoughtfully structured my operating hours to remove some of that guilt.? We are open from?8am to 8pm?in Newark.? This allows for a women to stop in before work, during their break/lunch or after work.? This is important because as a mom, wife and business woman during the work week you are often times stretched pretty thin and once you are home forgot it…self care typically goes out the window.

TNJ.com: What challenges go along with being an entrepreneur?

Cenita Williamson: I have over 15 years professional experience working in various executive roles for Fortune 50 and 1000 companies and had the pleasure of building a company from the ground up.? With these experiences, I was able to acquire a very good appreciation and understanding of the challenges that may come from ineffective management of key performance indicators in areas like projections, sales, cash flow, risks management, people management, etc.? The one thing that keeps me up at night is my team.? I have 12 people on my team that are relying on me day in and day out, depending on me to make the right decisions to ensure the success of business. Because the success of the business impacts their livelihood. This level of responsibility is sobering and requires me to be strategic and thoughtful in my decision making. Always!

TNJ.com: What are your short to long term goals for the company?

Cenita Williamson: Short term – I am currently working on a strategic project that will maximize existing synergies that will expand the beauty offerings in Newark.

Long-term – Expand into mind body wellness such as physical fitness, meditation, yoga etc