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Decorate the world with yourself
Interview with Anna Momot, Ukrainian owner of
a beauty studio in Frankfurt am Main.
On the second month of the full-scale invasion, late in the evening, I felt that I urgently needed to take care of myself. I wanted to be in a place where I would have the strength to live and volunteer, and I also wanted to feel close to home. When I opened the doors of the salon the next day „Momo“, And when I heard a sincere „Good evening!“, I realised that I was where I needed to be.
Anna Momot opened her salon shortly before the start of the pandemic. The business has survived two difficult years and continues to grow.
We talked about beauty in Ukrainian, entrepreneurship in German and the great power of faith in us by our loved ones.
Anna, how did you end up in Germany?
I was born in Boryspil into a simple family, and later moved to Kyiv. I travelled a lot around the world, but never thought about Germany as a country to live in. Once, on her birthday, she decided to go on holiday alone and very far away. That's how I met my future husband in Sri Lanka! He is also an avid traveller and never goes to the same place twice. And here he went to Sri Lanka for the second time - he says to meet me.
For four years, we met at a distance, and when I decided to start talking about living together, he offered me to move to Frankfurt am Main.
Tell us, how did you prepare for the upcoming changes?
I had six months before I moved, I took language courses. Then the work issue arose. I have a degree in economics, but when I moved, I honestly realised that I didn't have the strength and desire to start my career from scratch, so I thought about how I could use my hobby, which brought in extra income in Ukraine - eyelash extensions. I did it with pleasure, on weekends, without any advertising - word of mouth worked. Ukrainians are somehow set up to make money from many ideas.
Why eyelashes after all?
Since childhood, I have loved working with my hands, weaving. When I came to Germany, I decided to rely on what I was very good at. At first, I worked in several salons, studied the mentality of German women, their needs and views on beauty. I was encouraged to work independently when I was told that clients thought I was the boss. I began to delve into the beauty industry, to look at everything through the eyes of clients. I wanted to have a place where a woman could come, relax, take a break from all the everyday issues, have fun and go on to decorate the world.
What were your next steps, was it difficult at first?
At first, I registered as a small entrepreneur, rented a room, set up a social media page and started from scratch. It was hard: I'm not an Instagrammer or a public person. But I had to learn how it all works.
Also, dealing with documentation is not an easy task. But here I have a lot of support and help from my husband. In addition, the pandemic started in the year we opened. However, I am the kind of person who has taught myself to see something good and useful in any situation. So, while we were at home and worried about how to live our lives, I bought various courses on professional development and business management and studied every day.
Of course, I had moments when I panicked a little, especially when the landlords of the office told me that they would not be able to renew our lease. And one day, I was leaving the shop and saw a sign saying that a large space was for rent. We quickly arranged a meeting with the owners. Of course, I was nervous because I knew how much money this project would require. But my husband just asked: „Anya, do you like it? We'll take it!“
Thanks to this belief and the support of my beloved, who invested in my start-up, I spread my wings and started working at full throttle. By the way, we did the repairs ourselves. My husband still jokes that he will miss the days when we spent every weekend in hardware stores.
And I began to sail on my own...
Yes, I worked alone for the first six months and felt quite comfortable. But, as an entrepreneur, I realised that every corner of the salon should be beneficial. In addition, time is of great value, so it would be convenient if the client received maximum services in one place. Therefore, I planned to offer manicure and pedicure services as well. And in February, the invasion happened, and the first weeks were a mess, like every Ukrainian probably has: when you don't know how to live on and how to help. Ukrainian women were forced to move to Germany, and in April, girls looking for work started writing to me. And so it went on. I wanted to help our women find themselves. I moved to Germany of my own free will, and it was still not easy to get used to the new country. And here I saw women, some of whom had never been abroad, and for whom it was even more stressful. I wanted to make a corner of Ukrainian so that Ukrainian women could come to us and feel a little bit at home, and the nail technicians could feel confident in communication. Now the salon employs four Ukrainian women.
Did you have a big competition among the candidates? How did you choose your colleagues?
Everything happened by intuition. I believe that we are surrounded by people who are like us. Each of us has our own character, some of the nail technicians were studio owners themselves before moving - it's very difficult to accept that now we have to work for someone else again. But it happened, and for my part, I create an atmosphere of friendship and harmony at work.
Is it different to be a business owner in Germany than in Ukraine?
When doing business anywhere, we have to devote a lot of time to it. Yes, I like to get up late, but every day I have a to-do list: to make purchases, to control something. I try to automate processes as much as possible, for example, making an appointment for a procedure, which is a common thing in Ukraine, but not yet in Germany. The reports to the tax office are prepared and submitted by a tax consultant - a Steuerberater, although this procedure may also be automated in the future.
I spend my evenings at home, if I stay late at work, and my husband does a great job in the kitchen. I like the fact that we have such a partnership and there is no division of who is „supposed“ to do what. He is very proud of me!
I am also constantly learning, even though I think I know everything about my field. So I advise anyone who is thinking about starting their own business in Germany not to be afraid to take the first steps, to confidently cope with difficulties, to constantly develop and to believe in their own success!
Written by Viktoriya Zagorodnikh
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