DETROIT – Two Detroit entrepreneurs opened mobile businesses to serve their customers in a unique way.
Anthony Radcliffe opened a mobile barbershop called "Marc Anthony Creations."
"We have a real setup with friends and family and we talk about everything," he said.
He is a licensed barber who has been cutting hair for more than 20 years. He said he left a well-paying job to open his dream business and originally opened a bricks-and-mortar barbershop, but wasn't able to afford the booth rent.
When some of his clients got older and couldn't travel to his shop, he started coming to them.
"They were going to hospice or going out of town and didn't want to come to the barbershop because they didn't want to sit and wait," he said.
He started traveling to his clients.
"I started as a mobile barber. Friends and family were working 10-12 hours and they couldn't come sit in a barber shop," Radcliffe said.
Four months ago, he decided to revamp the trailer into a mobile shop with a shampoo bowl and chair.
Longtime client Martel Reed is able to meet up with Radcliffe weekly to get his hair cut.
"It's a safe, comfortable and convenient place to go," Reed said.
Katori Belcher transformed a postal truck into a boutique called BKatour Boutique.
"My father helped me design everything so, yeah, it took me two months," she said.
The boutique provides all kinds of items.
"You have a private shopping experience. I provide different clothing from size zero to 3X," she said.
Belcher started selling jewelry out of the trunk of her car and would deliver it to customers. She then opened a bricks-and-mortar shop in Southfield, but it wasn't convenient for some of her clients in Detroit and she wasn't seeing a profit.
Belcher moved to California and was inspired by a taco truck there to create her boutique.
"I said, 'That's pretty cool,' so when I moved back to Michigan, I decided to go ahead to my idea. I'm, like, I want to have a mobile boutique. A lot of people don't like going to malls to shop and don't have the time, so what greater way to spread what I know to people by just traveling with it?" Belcher said.
She drives her truck everywhere.
"I drive it to the gas station, to the school to pick my son up, and drive it here to my place of work, wherever," she said.
The success of the mobile boutique helped her open the Beautification Station, which is located on Mack Avenue in Grosse Pointe Woods, with her sister, Mariah Ross.
"I've umbrella'd BKatour to Beautification Station, where me and my sister are now owners of that store," she said.
The name, Beautifcation Station, was her grandmother's idea. They sell clothing in the store and have a nail salon.
"We do just about everything. We do pedicures, manicures and we also do kid's manicures and husband's manicures," she said.
Both Belcher and Radcliffe hope their businesses help inspire others to chase their dreams.
"I think our children need to see something better on a regular basis and I hope this will inspire them to just dream a little bit," Radcliffe said.