June 03, 2008

Contact: Asha Bruot
Contact Tel. 703/5011625 or
ashabruot@comcast.net

FAITH TURNS TO FORTUNE...
Up & Coming Virginia Hair Stylist's Faith Transforms to Multi-Million Salon

MANASSAS, Va., -- Without sounding cliché, Gloria Harding has prayed her way to success. As owner and founder of Tranquility Day Spa & Salon and Tranquility Design Academy in Manassas, Va., the "then" 17-year-old hairstylist, making $200 a week, never realized her path to growing into a multi-million dollar hair salon and hair academy business almost 20 years later with almost 80 employees. The business policies are grounded in integrity and faith-based, even including a no gossip policy which employees must sign and it's not uncommon for Gloria and her staff to pray before a meeting or an event. If you ask her, she'll say, "God dreamed a bigger than could possibly dream for herself." A testament to never giving up hope, Harding was turned down by six banks to start her business, even though they had a cohesive business plan. Harding had to borrow $75,000 against the equity of her house, when one of her clients, who happened to work for a commercial lending bank, was later able to process a loan for Harding. Consequentially, Harding quadrupled the estimated 5-year business plan projections for their first year.

Harding, along with her husband, Wayne Harding had anticipated not getting paid for two years; her husband even sold his most prized possession, a favorite motorcycle. Although they had stocked up enough in savings for two years, they attribute the fact that they were "in the black" within five months of their business to the Lord's blessings.

"I have known my entire life that I would spend most of my life with my hands in someone else's hair," said Gloria Harding, owner/founder of Tranquility Day Spa & Salon and Tranquility Design Academy.  "The biggest lessons I learned from my parents were gratitude for work, it's an honor to serve others no matter what your job is, do it with pride and the best way you can," said Harding. 

"We had no idea 10 years ago that the Lord had a much bigger plan for us and He directly has had his hand on Tranquility from the first day," said Harding.  "I believe he has been preparing us to share His love through the beauty industry," she said.

Harding spent one year in the Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, Va. cosmetology program and then started cutting hair. She gave up a lot of her senior year in order to work full-time and get a jump on her career, while going to school in the morning, and beginning work at the salon from noon to 9 p.m., almost 6 days a week.  No stranger to hard work, her mother is an immigrant from Cost Rica and spent much her life cleaning houses and taught Harding about not being afraid to work hard. Gloria even cleaned houses with her as a young child.  In fact for four years after Harding became a stylist, she continued to clean houses to support her "starving artist" income.

Harding became self-employed at 21-years-old and started "Hairs to You," where she traveled to homes, businesses and weddings to do hair on-site and even traveling out-of-state. After one year of traveling, she rented a room in a small salon in Manassas, Va. to conduct business as an independent contractor.  Around this same time, she met internationally renowned hair stylist Wayne Grund of Grund International. For the next 18 months, Harding trained under Grund and started using his cutting system and business systems "behind the chair." She went from an $800 a week stylist to a $4,000 a week stylist within one year. Her dream was to open a salon where she could empower her employees with the same information she had been blessed with in hopes of building a culture of abundance and kindness for all that joined Tranquility team.  Harding did research and preparation for about two years before opening Tranquility Day Spa & Salon in December 1997.

Harding had 500 clients when she opened up Tranquility Day Spa & Salon in 1997, and spent much of her time training team leaders, who are still with the salon today. The first year the financial goal was to bring in $1000 a day, and that turned into almost half a million dollars.  By the end of the second year, totals were so close to one million that Harding's mentor, Wayne Grund of Grund International insisted she present on stage and start to share her story at various hair shows and symposiums. 

Tranquility Day Spa and Salon is located in Manassas, Va. at 10360 Portsmouth Rd. and in Haymarket, Va. at 15125 Washington Street, Suite 304. It has been listed as one of the top 200 salons in the United States by Salon Today magazine for seven consecutive years, top 50 salons by Washingtonian magazine, and Northern Virginia magazine’s top 20 salons; named “Best Female-Owned Business” in Prince William County by Manassas Journal Messenger and listed in Washington Spaces magazine, as well as a semi-finalist for the Global Salon Business, “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Founded on the belief that the highest calling of leadership is the growth and development of people, owners Gloria and Wayne Harding are celebrating 10 years of successful and compassionate service. Gloria Harding is also artistic director for Grund International, working directly with world-renowned hair stylist expert, Wayne Grund. Manassas-based Tranquility Design Academy was established in 2007 and was created out of the vision to teach, lead and grow professional stylists to honor codes of professionalism, respect, integrity and compassion for their clientele through beauty. For more information on Tranquility Design Academy call 703.257.4911 or www.tranquilitydesignacademy.com or Tranquility Day Spa & Salon at 703.257.7200 or www.tranquilitydayspa.com.