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AFTER LAUNCHING her Honolulu
clothing boutique, Eden in Love
(
www.edeninlove.com), in 2007, Tanna
Dang learned she had the power to
change lives.
A customer’s son was diagnosed
with mitochondrial disease, so Dang, a
Costco member, decided to pitch in to
help by selling a wishbone necklace,
with 50 percent of the sales going to
the family. The initial run of 25 necklaces sold out in minutes.
The charitable effort became more
than necklaces, though. “Customers
would come out of the woodwork and
ask if they could do more, which taught
me that everyone wants to do good,
they just don’t know how,” Dang says.
She has come up with a variety of
creative ways to raise money for good
causes. Customers have been offered
discounts for bringing in donations of
magazines and $10 off a purchase for a
$5 donation to a charity. In one recent
promotion, all proceeds went to the
Special Olympics team of the city
whose team won the Super Bowl.
In 2012, Eden in Love won the
National Retail Federation’s prize for
Best Retail Story in America. Dang
used the grand prize, $25,000, to adopt
the village of Nallathanniya, Sri Lanka,
through Global Hope Network Interna-
tional (
globalhopenetwork.org). The
goal is to help the village become self-
sustaining over the next five years.
“There are so many opportunities
that we can take to change the world;
we want to take them all,” Dang says
while lamenting the brevity of each day.
“As a business owner, we have a
responsibility to lead by example.”
—Peter Sacotte
MY HUSBAND and I both come
from Costco-loving families.
A while ago we adopted a
West Highland white terrier,
and decided to name him after
Costco’s private label: Kirkland
Signature. It was a perfect
match. We joke that his full
name is Kirkland Signature
Fischback. Most of the time
we call him Kirk or Kirky. He
just had his fifth birthday.
—Jana Fischback
A dog named Kirkland
Heaven on earth
The cutting edge
Tanna Dang (above) with
children in a Sri Lankan
village Dang adopted.
COSTCO MEMBER KUSH Kapila, founder and CEO of
Sterlings Mobile Salon & Barber Co. (
www.sterlings
mobile.com), has discovered a way to give time back to
the busy men and women of San Diego.
Sterlings is a full-service salon and barbershop that
operates out of a tricked-out trailer and travels to
businesses so employees can have their hair cut and
styled on their lunch break. The luxurious trailer offers
not only haircuts, dyeing and styling, but also shaves,
massages, manicures and waxing.
You might wonder how Kapila, who earned a
master’s in bioinformatics and an MBA, ended up in the
hair industry. “Being a busy professional,” he says, “I
hated going on weekends or weeknights
and waiting in line at a chain salon.” It was during one
of these trips to his local salon that he realized he could
make the whole process easier for clients.
Two-years elapsed from conception to getting the
business up and running, which involved market
research, raising capital, choosing the perfect trailer,
signing up companies and hiring three barber/stylists.
In addition to the added convenience, Sterlings is
able to keep its prices close to, or below, competitors’.
“The innovation of this business is we don’t have to
pay rent, we don’t have a front desk, and [many]
businesses will subsidize the cost of our services for
employees,” says Kapila.
With a client base of more than 1,800 and a 50
percent customer retention rate, Kapila has figured out
how to cut both hair and time with quality and style.
—Jordan Maughan
Kush Kapila
(inset) and his
stylin’ trailer.
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