Anntwinette Martin, 20 – Business Plan
Urban Beauty
East Cleveland, Ohio

"My main goals are to graduate from college, raise a beautiful family, and open my hair salon. Every day you have to make large decisions that will affect your life goals."

Anntwinette Martin became a NFTE participant at E CITY’s summer program in Cleveland during 2006. Her business plan for Urban Beauty, a beauty salon, brought together her interest in business ownership and her training in cosmetology. Anntwinette also plans to start making customized wigs for cancer patients and elderly people in 2007.

Anntwinette was a student at the University of Akron in the 2005-2006 academic year. “I received a lot of loans and grants, but I felt like I could have used those loans for my hair salon,” she says. Anntwinette wanted to come home, work in a salon, and go to community college instead, so she ultimately could start her own business. But she was worried about disappointing her family, and about missing out on “living the college life and being on my own,” she says.

“I thought about all the entrepreneurs that I had met with E CITY,” Anntwinette says. “They talked to me about their families and friends who said they shouldn’t start a business because it wouldn’t work, or they couldn’t become rich from their dreams. I made my decision based on how I wanted my life to be in the end.”

Currently Anntwinette has finished her third semester of college at Cuyahoga Community College. She will transfer to Tiffin University this fall to finish her bachelor’s degree in business, and plans to open her own beauty salon in the future.