1$) Minority & Small Business Week
Page A I4
September 24, 2008
Entrepreneurs Live American Dream
continued
from Front
catessen offering beef jerky.
The Huyhns are negotiating
with additional commercial cli
ents.
The family fled Vietnam
w hen M ytien was three,
spending a year in a refugee
camp in Thailand before emi
grating to the United States
and Portland in 1979. Mytien,
who speaks perfect English,
says she doesn’t remember
much about the camp but that
she understands the family’s
treatment there was “fairly
decent.”
The Huyhns operated a
variety of businesses in Port
land - a restaurant, sports bar,
video store and beauty salon -
before opening the Portland
Beauty School in 1997. Their
experience with the salon
showed them “there was a
demand for a quality beauty
school,” Mytien told the Port-
Mytien Huyhn
Kent and her
brother Tieno
Huynh opened
the Portland
Beauty School
in 1997. The
school offers
10 courses in
hair care, nail
care skin care
and massage
therapy.
P hoto by
M ark
W ashington /
T he P ortland
O bserver
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land Observer.
The school o ffers 10
courses in hair care, nail care,
“aesthetics” (skin care), some
combinations of the above, and
massage therapy. There are
attempts to make the courses
“student-friendly.”
For instance, Mytien says,
“All schools have start and
end dates for their courses. In
most schools, if you need ex
tra instruction to pass your
exams after the end date,
they’ll charge an extra $28 to
$30 an hour. We don’t charge
anything. (The exceptions are
courses for massage therapy
and instructors). We want our
students to feel confident of
their ability when they leave.”
On the other hand, they also
allow for exceptionally fast
students. Their course in hair,
nails and aesthetics normally
takes 2,300 hours of instruc
tion to complete.
“ But if the students can pass
their exams after 1,500 hours,
we don’t force them to wait
around,” she says.
There are similar bargains
for customers. The school of
fers basic haircuts for $4, hair
cuts with shampoo and styling
for $7, beard trims for $3, wig
styling for $8, facials for $8,
manicures for $8, pedicures
for $12, hair coloring for $20
or more, and waxing.
The school had become too
popular for its old location in a
mall immediately north of their
current location, next to a pet
clinic.
“We were bursting at the
seams, and parking was a prob
lem,” Mytien says. “Also, it
had always been a dream of
the family to own their own
space instead of leasing.”
So the family decided to
build their own spaces on the
property to the south, part of a
former landfill.
“Financing was the easy
part,” Mytien says. “We had
to go through a lot of different
processes with the city to get
approval. The people were
fairly helpful, but we had todo
a lot of legwork ourselves.”
At that, she says, “We were
very fortunate. Some people
before us put a lot of money
into an idea for this space that
didn’t pan out.”
The Plaza consists of two
long single-story buildings
whose roofs are reminiscent
of pagodas. The Huynhs cre
ated the concept, although LRS
Architects did the detailed
design.
The main part of the former
landfill, 26 acres, was nearly
sold last year to SmartCentres
of Canada, which proposed to
builda 190,000squarefoot “big
box” retail project on the site.
Galvanized by fear of a Wal-
Mart at the location, commu
nity volunteers from the Madi
son South and Roseway neigh
borhood associations put to
gether a massive opposition
campaign that drove the de
velopers away.
While conducting a tour of
the area for the Portland Plan
ning Com m ission, several
neig h b o rh o o d o rg an izers
pointed to the Asian-Ameri
can Plaza as the sort of devel
opment they’d rather see on
the land.
Mytien says the affection is
mutual.
“We love this location,” she
.says. “We want to help the
neighborhood grow. Many of
our students and clients are
from the neighborhood.” On
the other hand, some come
from as far away as Salem,
Tigard, Hillsboro and southern
Washington.
The school is open from 10
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from
6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday
through Friday, as well as 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. It can
be reached at 503-255-6303
orportlandbeautyschoiTl.com.
Housing Authority
Taps Local Leaders
For expertise in government, business
The Housing Authority of
Portland has filled two seats on
its board of commissioners. Shelli
Romero assumes a Portland seat
on the board and Jim Smith fills a
Multnomah County seat.
“Shelli and Jim bring unique
skills and work experiences to
HAP. It will be great to add their
strengths to our board, particu
larly with the large number of new
projects and initiatives on our
p late rig h t n o w ,” said Je ff
Bachrach, HAP’s board chair.’
Romero has extensive public
sector and non-profit experience
in housing and supportive ser-
vices. She has served as an assis
tant program specialist for the
city of Portland's Bureau of Hous
ing and Community Development,
community relations coordinator
for the Portland Housing Center,
and was chief of staff to Maria
Rojo de Steffey, a Multnomah
County Commissioner.
In these roles, she has been
involved in policy decisions on
critical supportive services to help
keep people housed, provided
education on homeownership,
and crafted the communications
continued
on page A23
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