Janet Madrigal Manzo, founder of Nane’s Salon & Spa in Marshalltown. Photo by Jennifer Marquez.
Janet Madrigal Manzo left accounting to build Nane’s Salon & Spa in Marshalltown, eventually buying the building after years of searching.
By Joaquin Ramirez
Janet Madrigal Manzo was supposed to end up behind a desk.
That was the plan at 19: accounting, a cubicle, something structured and quiet. Serious and a little shy, she was the kid whose classmates thought she took homework too seriously.
“I always wanted purpose,” she says. “I think I frustrated people because they’d be like, why can’t you just chill, and I just always wanted more.”
Beauty had been part of her life long before she considered it a career.
Growing up in Mexico, Janet remembers watching her mother get ready, doing her hair and makeup and putting herself together in a way that made her feel confident. At 15, Janet became interested in acrylic nails and started collecting nail products. From there came cornrows, updos, haircuts, facials, lashes and other parts of the beauty industry.
She enrolled in beauty school almost as a side project, something she could practice on her sisters while she figured out what she wanted.
She finished the program, then went ahead with accounting anyway.
For a while, she tried to do both: a full-time job during the week and hair on the side. Keeping the two going wore her out. She left accounting and rented a chair.
Years later, she wanted more control over her schedule. She had children now, and she wanted work that could leave room for them too. She told her husband she wanted her own space instead of continuing to work around someone else’s structure.
That was when she started calling herself a mompreneur.
In 2021, she opened Nane’s Salon & Spa in Marshalltown.
The Letter That Changed Everything
Not long after, Janet received a letter from a lawyer. Her landlord had gone bankrupt and had not paid rent on the building in more than six months.
Janet had only recently gotten comfortable in the space. Now she was afraid she might lose it.
She asked her husband what he thought about buying a building of their own.
They both laughed.
Neither of them thought it sounded realistic.
Janet kept bringing it up, kept pitching it, and eventually he was in.
Then came the search.
For years, Janet looked at properties and talked to banks. She heard no repeatedly.
“I kept going back, keeping in mind, I’m just here for knowledge,” she says.
She did not have one clean breakthrough. She kept meeting with banks and looking at properties until one lender finally gave her something closer to a maybe. Janet kept returning with properties for the bank to consider.
Once buying a building stopped feeling hypothetical, another question took its place: What if she actually got it and discovered she wasn’t cut out to be an owner?
Before closing, she told the previous landlord she was scared.
The landlord told her to pray about it.
She did.
Around that time, Janet kept noticing the number three. It had been her favorite number since childhood, when she lived in apartment 3. The salon’s address starts with a three. The closing happened in March.
“I think the number three has a special place in my heart,” she says.
She bought the building.
Janet Madrigal Manzo, founder of Nane’s Salon & Spa in Marshalltown. Photo by Jennifer Marquez.
A Salon With Room for Other Careers
Nane’s Salon & Spa is no longer only the place where Janet sees her own clients.
The salon has a team of independent stylists, each with more than 20 years in the industry and their own clientele.
“It’s no longer just about my own services,” Janet says. “It’s about building a space for other beauty professionals to grow as well.”
She also offers courses where she can pass on what she has learned across different areas of beauty. Her next idea is a more formal training program that could give people in the Marshalltown area another way to enter the industry.
Marshalltown has not had a beauty school in years, Janet says. The nearest one is about 40 minutes away in Ames, and traditional programs can require schedules that are difficult for people already balancing jobs and families.
Janet wants the option she is developing to be part-time.
She is not ready to launch it yet. She wants the material fully built out first.
Her younger brother has already started learning from her after developing an interest in cutting hair on his own.
“I always wish I could have had somebody to push me and encourage me a little bit more,” she says. “Confidence is so important to me, and I feel like that’s connected with beauty. You look good, you feel good.”
Janet describes herself as naturally shy. Early on, putting herself out there, talking to people and trusting her skills in a competitive industry did not come easily. She still pushes herself to socialize more and become more comfortable using her voice.
“My favorite thing about being a business owner is the freedom, creativity, and responsibility that come with it,” she says. “It’s like a never-ending project where I’m constantly growing, learning, and evolving.”
That project is larger now than the services Janet originally imagined offering. There are clients, other professionals working in the space, courses she already teaches and a training program she is still figuring out.
The Accounting Came With Her
The career Janet imagined at 19 did not disappear completely.
She had pictured herself working in accounting for a large corporation — serious responsibility, a cubicle and limited face-to-face interaction. But finding opportunities without experience proved difficult. Over time, she says, the career she had imagined began to feel more like student loan debt and uncertainty.
At 32, her work looks very different.
“I ended up promoting myself to become the accountant for my own salon and business,” she says. “Instead of sitting behind a cubicle, I get to be involved in something I built with my own hands, and make a real impact in my community and industry.”
When another Latina tells Janet she wants to open a business, Janet says advice only goes so far.
“More than anything, I would applaud her and cheer her on.”
She encourages women to invest in their own growth, skills and mindset first, then build the business their way rather than around other people’s opinions.
Asked what she would tell the version of herself still choosing between accounting and a beauty license, she doesn’t take long to answer.
“You can do anything you put your mind to. Just be passionate and disciplined, and you can literally have the world.”
But if there is one thing Janet wants someone else to take from the path that brought her from a cubicle plan to a building of her own, she puts it more simply.
“Dare to dream. Just dare to dream whatever you’re after.”
More stories: Explore more JEFAS Magazine profiles.
