Londie Nichole Price still gets emotional when she thinks about hearing her name called at the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga Power Luncheon back in August.
"I could hardly believe it," says Price, who was beckoned to the stage for winning the "New Business of the Year" award. "It's hard to put into words how much that award means to me."
The Urban League bestows the award to those who have completed its BIPOC Restaurant Accelerator Program -- an 8-week online course for new restaurant owners. In January 2022, Price took a leap of faith and opened The Peach Cobbler Factory, a franchised dessert company. And at its annual luncheon, the ULGC honored her for those efforts.
"I'm a first generation entrepreneur, so I didn't have someone to tell me how to do this," Price says. "Everything I've done up to this point has been trial and error. So that award said, 'Job well done. We see you. You're doing it.'"
The truth is, says Price, she has been a Chattanooga entrepreneur for more than 20 years. Since the early days of her career, she has operated Levelz Salon, which was originally located at 301 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard, where The Peach Cobbler Factory is now. When she opened the bakery, Price moved the salon to Brainerd Road, where she continues to take customers.
"I've always had a really nice salon and got no attention for it," she says, adding that she's poured thousands of her own dollars back into the rented space for maintenance and beautification. "The truth is, people are so used to us [the Black community] having salons and barber shops. But hair has opened every door for me. ... It's allowed me to travel and do great things."
Starting off
Price, now 42, took her first job as a hostess at Pizza Hut on her 15th birthday -- and that's only because she couldn't be legally employed prior to that date. Soon after, she was hired at Walmart. And it was during that time that she started working as a stylist out of her home to bring in extra money.
By age 23, beginning to enjoy success as a hair stylist, Price felt her future life starting to take shape, and enrolled in cosmetology school. With that certification, she soon found work as an independent contractor at a local salon.
The money was good, she says, and the better she became at her craft, the more clients sought her out.
She began attending and teaching at trade shows across the country. And during all this, she invented McKenzie Hair & Skin Oil -- a product that seemed to help customers with a variety of ailments. It was miraculous, she says -- a lot like the product's namesake, her daughter McKenzie, who died at the age of two from complications of prematurity.
"What I discovered during all of this is that there is a whole epidemic of women and men who suffer from hair loss," she says. "There's a whole world out there. I did not realize how big all this was."
Customers were buying McKenzie Oil on a regular basis, continually asking Price if she had a product designed to help with hair loss. But because the oil wasn't created specifically for that, she couldn't truthfully answer yes. So she pursued a professional license in trichology (the medical and cosmetic study of the hair and scalp) and developed a new product, Moriah Oil, named after her second child.
Just as Price was set to open her own hair loss clinic, COVID-19 hit, shutting down the world.
The next couple years proved to be a time of upheaval for Price. After years in the cosmetics industry, she was losing enthusiasm. Standing at the chair for long hours each day was taking a toll on her body and mind. She needed an exit strategy.
Sitting up late one night with her third daughter, True Faith, Price found herself scrolling through social media, when an ad for a bakery company seeking franchise owners caught her eye. Within the week, she found herself in Louisville, Kentucky learning about becoming an owner for this company, The Peach Cobbler Factory.
"I wanted to bring something good to Chattanooga," says Price, who is not shy about her high standards when it comes to desserts. "I like things fresh--right out of the oven."
While the bakery brought joy and excitement in many ways, it has come with its own set of challenges. Price says this first year has been a struggle, emotionally and financially.
"But I'm a survivor," she says. "I know that, based off my experience, if you have great customer service, a great product, and keep your place clean--you should be successful.
"There's a large percentage of Chattanooga that doesn't even know The Peach Cobbler Factory exists. And I want for this to be a household name by Thanksgiving."
To stay or go
Several years ago, Price gave serious thought to relocating to a different city. Chattanooga, it seemed to her, wasn't a place where African-Americans could thrive. But ultimately, she says, her religious faith influenced her to stay.
"In all of this, I'm seeing the dynamics for African-Americans changing," she says. "And I'm glad I stayed. I'm glad to be a part of the change. I don't know what the future holds, but for now, this city ... I'm beginning to see a change for minority-owned businesses."
She's also now in a position where she can give local teenagers their start in the working world, hiring them on at $11 an hour. One of them being her "bonus son" Syead, who she has helped raise since he was three. He's now 21.
Some of these kids, she says, are probably helping their parents pay utility bills. And while she can't hire many, she can hire some -- and she hopes that helps these families in some way.
"I hope I'm being a part of the change I want to see for my kids," says Price. "God didn't give me this life for me to keep it -- he gave it to me to give it back."
The Peach Cobbler Factory
* 12 Flavors of Cobbler (comes with ice cream): apple walnut raisin, blackberry, blackberry peach, caramel apple, cherry, cinnamon praline peach, honey apple, strawberry, strawberry peach, mango peach, peach and sweet potato pecan
* 5 Flavors of Banana Pudding: Classic Vanilla, Nutella, Strawberry, Oreo and Red Velvet
* 3 Types of Cinnamon Rolls: Vanilla, Stuffed, Nutella Cinnamon
* Address: 301 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard, Chattanooga, 37403
* Phone: 423-206-9683
Photography by Jennifer McNally / Londie Nichole Price addresses the crowd after being named the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga’s New Business of the Year at its 7th Annual Entrepreneur Power Luncheon in August of this year.