What’s Next for Beauty Hive?

Here’s an exciting update on a business we first told you about in 2021.

Business owner Willie Dearing says it feels like a dream, but she’s one step closer to her ultimate goal: the moment when she knows she won’t have to work for other people anymore. 

That’s the security that comes from owning her business property instead of renting. 

Back in 2021, CDFI Friendly South Bend first connected Ms. Willie to business coaching and a small business loan through Allies for Community Business. Thanks to that early support – and her resolve to grow her business even during the pandemic – Ms. Willie relocated her beauty supply business from her home to a rented retail space in Downtown South Bend. 

Now she’s growing again. After several years of successful credit building, Beauty Hive Beauty Supply has qualified for funding through a revolving loan program from the City of South Bend. The program enabled the business to purchase and rehab a distressed property on the City’s west side. 

“The price was right, the location was right, and it had my name written all over it,” Ms. Willie says about Beauty Hive’s new location, which she opened in March 2024 after several months of renovations.  

The rehabbed property even provides a new revenue stream: several rooms available for rent to other service providers such as hair stylists, barbers or tattoo artists.

“It’s always great when a business can stop paying rent to somebody else and start paying rent to themselves,” says Sam Centellas, Executive Director of CDFI Friendly South Bend. 

See more about Beauty Hive’s makeover in the video above. Visit Beauty Hive at 1533 Lincolnway West in South Bend, on Facebook, or online.