South Louisville program giving cosmetology students the skills to start their own businesses

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A new program in south Louisville is giving beauty school students a chance to learn how to start a business.

Finding your passion is hard to come by. Nevaeh Goldsmith has been doing hair since she was in high school, but only recently realized it was her passion.

While going through cosmetology school, she said, students only learn the necessary beauty skills.

"It was a great experience," Goldsmith said. "They teach you the basics, I will say, color, cut, a little bit of natural styling, but they don't really teach you in-depth of everything."

A salon owner in Highview noticed that, too.

"I've been behind the chair for many, many years, and I've done that part, so now it's time for me to give back," Nikki Washington, the founder of Royal Beauty Wellness Elite, said.

Washington also owns DLNI Hair and Fitness on Shepherdsville Road, and she's giving back by starting a cohort for people like Goldsmith.

"Once you feel good inside, you feel good outside," Denim Moore, another aspiring cosmetologist, said.

Moore wants to be a traveling cosmetologist to help people in different cities feel good.

Royal Beauty Wellness Elite is giving her the tools to do that. The program teaches financial literacy, marketing and what it means to be an entrepreneur. It takes what they learn in school a step further.

"I just need someone in the industry to look up to who already has something established, so that I can be like OK, she's telling me this for a reason," Moore said.

Over the next eight years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates employment of barbers, hairstylists and cosmetologists to grow 8%, faster than any other occupation.

This program will help them start a successful business.

"I'm so glad she came into my life," Moore said about Washington. "She was really heaven sent, because I don't know where I would be. I would just have a vision. I would just have a dream. I wouldn't have known how to put motivation into my dream."