KaDeadra McNealy was working as a trade analyst in Washington, D.C., and finishing up a master’s degree in public policy when it occurred to her that she could reshape the nail industry.
“Getting my nails done was always like a self-care thing for me,” says McNealy, a Chattanooga native who moved to D.C. in 2016 to attend graduate school at American University. “The hustle and bustle of D.C. can be very draining.”
Finding a great nail salon convenient to work and school proved difficult, though, and when she asked around, she discovered that most of her friends were traveling to Virginia or Maryland to have their nails done. So McNealy started researching the nail industry, and learned it’s a $8.5 billion revenue machine, and that recent years had brought an increase in nail technicians, but a drop in the number of salons.
“I realized a lot of nail techs that did awesome nails worked out of their homes,” McNealy says. “So how do I bring the nail tech directly to the person who has a busy schedule?”
Her quest to answer that question has led McNealy to successfully pitch her Millennial Nail Bar business in a variety of forums, landed her contracts with big companies, and eventually brought her home to launch a storefront salon in East Chattanooga while she runs the mobile nail business in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. from her hometown.