“My name is Mahisha Dellinger, and I’m a mother, an author, a daughter, an entrepreneur, a mogul. I am all things Black excellence. I’m a mentor, a sister, and a friend. I am a beautiful Black woman owning my destiny.”
No one can accuse Mahisha Dellinger of not knowing herself or her worth. The former marketing manager of one of the nation’s largest corporations founded CURLS, her natural haircare brand, 20 years ago. Frustrated by the paucity of natural hair products for Black consumers at that time (and increasingly disenchanted by her experiences in corporate America), Dellinger made a tentative but determined move toward becoming an entrepreneur.
What started as a small ecommerce venture has since blossomed into a formidable retail force with more than 200 products and accessories stocking shelves at Target, Walmart, and other top outlets nationwide. It’s a journey that has seen its share of challenges for Dellinger, but she has persevered, and CURLS, her baby, continues to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Much of the credit for the early success of CURLS, not to mention the brand’s subsequent dominance of the natural hair and beauty space, belongs to Dellinger’s money sense and her deliberate approach to making financial decisions. Her entrepreneurial experience helped her become more adept at securing her family’s future and establishing a solid long-term wealth-building foundation.
“My transition from being a full-time corporate employee to a full-time business owner was methodical and strategic,” she explains. “I did not have the luxury of falling back on rich parents. Despite having great credit and a strong business plan, I didn’t have any business loans or funding, so I had to really be intentional about what I did.”
For Dellinger, “intentional” meant holding on to that J.O.B. while working hard to get her company up and running.
“When I turned on the switch on the website on April 26, 2002, I got eight orders that first day, and I was so excited,” Dellinger says. “Still, I kept my day job because I wanted to be able to invest every penny made from the brand back into the brand. My salary from my corporate career went back to my family. I did that for about four years.”
Her prudent financial strategy, as well as moonlighting, proved successful. CURLS was one of the first Black hair brands to break wide into the mainstream. Strong online sales funded a more expansive product line that served a broader, more diverse customer base. Dellinger’s pitches to big box retailers met resistance at first, but a decline in sales of relaxers and other harsh products traditionally marketed to Black women consumers prompted one retailer to investigate a growing “underground” haircare economy driven by small Black-owned companies like CURLS.
“I got a call from Target. They wanted to know where their sales were going, so they brought a group of (haircare business owners) in for a meeting, myself included. I presented my products, and within 10 minutes of meeting me, they said, ‘We’ll take all of it.” It was the easiest sale of my life.”
Target’s investment was a smart one. CURLS went from 100 Target stores to 300 to 1,800 nationwide. The other big box retailers promptly followed Target’s lead.
Even with CURLS’ rapid rise in the marketplace, Dellinger remained cautious about pulling the trigger on embracing full-time business ownership. “It was important for me to experience the lows and highs of the business so it was progressing in an upward trajectory. I could not leave a solid company paycheck without knowing for sure that CURLS was sustainable.”
Eventually, the decision to leave her position at a global pharmaceutical company was made for her. She explained: “I remember writing out a note to myself saying, ‘I’m going to leave this job in December.’ Then, in September, we got word that there were layoffs coming. I was, like, ‘Please!’ And they did, and I put that severance package back into CURLS. That was my last month in corporate America.”
In the two decades since Dellinger left behind the corporate environment and that weekly paycheck, she’s had to rely on her money management prowess and lessons learned in the trenches to sustain and grow her business. She’s open about talking about how her relationship with money evolved from a not-so-positive place.
“I’ve grown a lot. As a young woman, I would use money to make myself happy, buying things I didn’t need. There was no reason I should have had a luxury convertible while living in an apartment. It took some time for me to realize that it’s better for us to utilize what we earn to invest in ourselves versus spending on frivolous things and building someone else’s brand. Yes, I was that girl.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for “that girl” to embrace “grown” goals and responsibilities. She credits her early struggles launching CURLS with honing her money sense and providing the proper perspective. In 2002, despite excellent credit, Dellinger couldn’t secure a small business loan or line of credit, forcing her to bootstrap the business with her modest personal savings. A shortage of cash meant launching CURLS at a much smaller scale than she’d hoped.
“That turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” she said. “I was a young, first-time entrepreneur, and I needed to be scrappy with that money. If I had more resources to work with at the beginning, I wouldn’t have been so intentional. I might have spent in areas that didn’t have good return-on-investment potential.”
Once CURLS showed its profitability, banks started to line up with credit line offers, something Dellinger used to her advantage. Rather than fall into the debt trap, she used lines of credit to finance expenditures that produced short-term returns. “I would pay down the amount as I got paid, which increased my creditworthiness with lenders while I grew my business.”
CURLS and the Dellinger brand have reached a level of success that allows for reflection and planning for the future. Today, she’s focused on being a “generational wealth builder,” including investing in real estate and other assets she can pass on to her children. To assist with this responsibility and to help manage her growing business portfolio, Dellinger leans on a trusted team of financial professionals and advisers.
“It’s important to build your support as you grow,” she said. “I didn’t start with a tax attorney. I didn’t start with a full 16 financial team. I didn’t start with a CPA; I started with the bookkeeper. As your portfolio grows, as your money grows, you add to your team to help protect your income and navigate a higher tax bracket. You need good advice and guidance to help create an estate plan to provide for your family and ensure that generational wealth is passed on.”
Dellinger is enjoying a level of financial success she couldn’t have envisioned when she launched CURLS and felt the thrill of those eight orders the day her online venture went live. No matter. She has maintained her perspective on idle spending and what matters most. “I’ve been in the same house for almost two decades. I drive the same car I’ve had for seven years, and I plan to keep it until the wheels fall off. I shifted my mindset because I realized how I could use my money wisely.”
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