| I rushed back to work as soon as my treatment | | | | providers. I knew I'd arrived this November, when |
| was finished. Everything was the same, but I was | | | | my business made it onto Oxford Health Plan's |
| different. My colleagues got all fired up about the | | | | preferred providers list. |
| minutiae of marketing materials, and I'd think: "Wow, | | | | Soon I started getting calls that were way out of |
| that used to be me." I felt I could make a bigger | | | | my geographic area -- women in Pennsylvania, |
| contribution, but I wasn't sure how. | | | | Massachusetts, and West Virginia -- which led to a |
| People often asked me to talk to their family | | | | new service called Look Just Like You. Women send |
| members or friends who had cancer. One of the first | | | | us pre-chemotherapy pictures with their hair styled as |
| questions people asked was: "What about my hair?" I | | | | they like it, and we recreate that style and color in a |
| had worried about that, too, and wondered if that | | | | wig. |
| made me shallow and vain. But when you're healthy, | | | | Part of my philosophy is that any franchise has to |
| hair is just hair. When you're ill, it is something else | | | | give back to the medical community. All our business |
| entirely. It's the moment you take a very private | | | | expenses are charged to credit cards that give 2% |
| struggle public. | | | | of case back to St. Jude's Hospital for Cancer |
| I cautioned people about wig shopping by sharing my | | | | Research. I also intend that one day we'll be able to |
| own experiences, which were terrible. Salespeople | | | | contribute to cancer-research trials. |
| rushed, tried to push me around, and didn't want me | | | | My business is all about service. I will not take on a |
| to bring a friend for advice. I started my company so | | | | franchisee who can't treat clients with the same level |
| others wouldn't have to go through that. | | | | of compassion and care that we give them in our |
| I immersed myself in the wig business. I met with | | | | existing territories. That's a lot of work on our end -- |
| wholesalers, retailers, and stylists in Brooklyn's wig | | | | interviewing prospective franchisees and their |
| district and spoke to women who wore wigs. I hired | | | | character references and work references |
| four part-time stylists, each of whom had a | | | | extensively. We have to make sure they're excited |
| connection to someone with cancer. They bring wig | | | | about the impact they can have on others, not just |
| samples into people's homes and style them as the | | | | about the business. |
| client likes. My prices -- anywhere from $50 to $5,000 | | | | Quite frankly, far and away the biggest is increasing |
| for a wig, depending on the hair -- are comparable to | | | | awareness, letting people know this kind of service |
| those in wig stores because I have no overhead. | | | | even exists. I often say that a client will not know |
| My three oncologists placed my brochures in their | | | | about us until they have to. You don't file away the |
| offices on Dec. 17, 2003. I got my first client on the | | | | name of Girl on the Go so that you'll have it one day |
| 23rd. I had helped 100 clients by the time my | | | | in case you need it. |
| business became full-time in October, 2004. Now, I'm | | | | A lot of our clients find us on the Internet and some |
| setting up agreements with other women to expand | | | | find us on the American Cancer Web site -- the New |
| into a handful of states. | | | | York City chapter lists us. When people find out |
| This is not the kind of business that people scribble | | | | about us, they say they feel so lucky to have found |
| down the name of in case they ever need it. You | | | | out. I wish I had the funds to do advertising that |
| won't know about the company until you need it. I | | | | would reduce the role luck plays in finding us. |
| rely on word of mouth from doctors and service | | | | |
