MABLETON, Ga. — A metro Atlanta company promising to help Black people run their own beauty supply business and ease them into entrepreneurship is leading some to bankruptcy instead.
Beauty Supply Institute, known as BSI, has books, videos, and conferences to market its start-to-finish service. Entrepreneurs sign service contracts to pay for BSI’s industry know-how, agreeing to let the company control the process. Depending on the package purchased, BSI’s service includes training on how to run the store and then a team to set up the shelving and supplied products.
“I was looking for mentorship, you know, a way to open the doors for me to get products and establish relationships with vendors,” explained Pauline McLaurin, who signed her contract with BSI three years ago.
She says it took most of that time to find a place to rent, and ultimately, she had to do the work. Even now, she’s been in her space for 10 months, and BSI hasn’t delivered the products needed to open. There are no wigs, shampoos, or hair dye products.
“Once you have all the products and all the inventory, they come out, and within two or three days, they build everything and they put everything how it should be displayed,” said McLaurin.
In the meantime, she’s having to work at Dunkin’ Donuts and recently took a second job as an elementary school teacher to pay the rent on her empty store.
“They make it seem like they want you to elevate. But I’m now in a way worse situation than I was when I first met them [BSI],” said McLaurin.
She is not alone.
'Vague answers' and empty stores
11Alive Investigates talked with 10 other people from across the country who signed contracts with BSI. Some of those hopeful entrepreneurs are in Maryland, a state they would later learn had ordered BSI in 2020 to refund a customers' money and stop doing business.
Georgia's Office of the Attorney General wouldn’t share how many complaints it has received about BSI, but it confirmed it is investigating the company.
“Basically, their responses to everything is: 'I don't know,'” said Erick Wright said about BSI.
He and his wife, Camille, signed their contract with BSI in 2021 and have been in their space for a year now. They haven’t received their shelving or products.
“They give, like, vague answers," Esther Arabome chimed in. "Nobody knows anything.”
Elodie Simons De Fanti was also part of the conversation. She was able to open her store in Maryland, but only because she spent even more money to buy products on her own.
“They kept telling me that the vendors were on backorder due to the pandemic, which everybody knows about is a big lie,” she said.
Some of those products came from Aida Gueye. By the time she got her store open, she was so deep in debt she couldn’t keep it afloat.
'It's business,' founder says
After calling, sending an email and visiting each of BSI’s metro Atlanta locations, the company founder, Devin Robinson, agreed to speak with 11Alive Investigator Rebecca Lindstrom.
“It is not all on us, and none of it is a nefarious act like it's, it's business,” Robinson said.
While several entrepreneurs shared emails BSI had sent them blaming the delays issues with vendors, Robinson said his company simply grew too fast for demand.
The photos below show an email exchange with BSI provided to 11Alive. The story continues after the gallery.
“We had to implement new technology. We just had to do certain things to be able to handle certain scale. So our schedule also becomes an issue,” he added.
But BSI’s customers say those growing pains are not their fault. They signed a contract for a service and products, haven’t received it and should have been given a refund months ago when they asked.
Instead, they get weekly email updates to inform them that, essentially, nothing has changed.
Robinson says BSI has 60 clients right now and his team is working on getting six of those stores up and running.
None of those stores belong to the entrepreneurs 11Alive spoke with in March. They say paying rent on an empty space for a year makes no fiscal sense.
Web extra | Watch 11Alive Investigates' group interview below
'We're barely making it'
“I was borrowing money from right to left so I can keep my store. I was calling them every single day with tears, crying, crying,” said Gueye.
She eventually ran out of options and had to surrender her space.
“They ruined my credit,” Gueye said.
Patrick Holland and his wife had to hire an attorney to get BSI to deliver the products they paid to receive, but says some of it is unusable. In the process, their credit was also ruined.
“We're barely making it," Holland said. "I'm just being honest; we're barely making it."
Another woman told 11Alive she has sickle cell disease and passed out while styling a woman’s hair. EMS was called, but as soon as she was revived, she finished the job instead of going to the hospital because she couldn’t afford not to get paid if she wanted to keep her store open.
“We just need that money back at this point,” said Arabome.
From hopeful entrepreneurs to dissatisfied customers
However, the timeline of BSI’s growth seems to match the entrepreneurs experiencing delays.
“Something happened in 2022, 2023. I don’t know what happened, but I know something happened. Maybe they just got greedy and were signing up way too many people and not, you know, calculating the money properly? But something definitely happened,” said McLaurin.
She’s frustrated with the emails she sees soliciting new customers.
“It’s hurtful when I see these emails and, 'oh, we’re giving $15,000 off if you sign up for our packages,'” McLaurin said.
11Alive asked BSI why it’s taking new customers if it can’t fulfill its promises to the existing ones in a timely way. Robinson said the company is just taking new leads but has not signed any new customers in several months.
Entrepreneurs say they’re frustrated that BSI has their money but is not offering an accounting of what they’re doing with it while they wait. Those frustrations were shared with Robinson.
“That is a very hurtful thing for me,” he said. “It's not something that I'm walking around proud of.”
11Alive Investigator Rebecca Lindstrom asked why BSI doesn’t give some of the money back so clients can buy their own products and get their stores open.
Robinson said it was an option the company could consider but said it would be on a case-by-case basis.
“Some of these people are not as clear-cut as they may make the story seem,” he added.
McLaurin says it’s pretty clear-cut to her as she and her husband struggle to make ends meet for their six children. They originally saw the store as a business they could run together and even pass on to their children.
The photos below were provided by BSI customer Elodie Simons De Fanti, who purchased her own items from vendors in effort to open her store. The story continues after the gallery.
McLaurin attended a BSI conference to speak with Robinson in person, hoping that might help expedite the process. She had no idea others were experiencing the same thing. At the time, she had not even found a store location.
She says Robinson seemed shocked by her experience and offered to get directly involved. He did send some potential locations, but she says they were all several hours away from her house, which didn’t make sense.
“It's been devastating. I mean, honestly, I'm trying to stay positive. I'm trying to stay happy because I have too many kids to not,” McLaurin said.
McLaurin says she’s spent more than $125,000 to get her store open. About $50,000 of that is for the products that have yet to come.
Beauty Supply Institute full statement
“We've prided ourselves on 20 years of success as a trailblazer in this business; opening over 200 successful stores. While we've recently encountered challenges that we have to overcome that has negatively affected a handful of our hundreds of clients, we've been able to implement new technologies allowing us to navigate our challenges properly and position ourselves for continued success. This company was birthed out of a need and desire to mentor people in our own communities to become entrepreneurs in the beauty industry. Our focus has always been to get our clients to their store opening day, even during challenging times.”