Bhumika Saloon & Spa is the first Immigrant owned and Indian beauty saloon at the heart of Kamloops and Bhumika Talla, the owner, was the first one to bring Indian-style beauty services to Kamloops.
Bhumika’s Story
Bhumika Talla is the owner of Bhumika Saloon & Spa. She came to Kamloops about 25 years ago on a spouse visa. Bhumika is a bachelor’s and a master’s degree holder from India. But Surprisingly enough, when she came to Canada and was looking for a job to cover her living expenses, she could not find any. And the reason behind this was not having any experience in Canadian job sectors.
The only job experience she had from back home was as a beautician’s experience. “My mom was a beautician and had her beauty parlour back at my home, and since I was 11-12 years old, I was watching her techniques. By the time I was a teenager, I learnt to do some of the stuff and worked with her at her parlour,” said Bhumika.
But having these experiences did not help her with job hunting. As she was so passionate about her work, she applied at different saloons to keep going on with her work, but her experiences were not enough. She had experiences with eyebrow threading, manicure, pedicure, and henna designs, which were not common in this western culture. So, none of the saloons hired her as an employee.
After a couple of failed tries, she finally got a job at a cabinet-making company where her husband was working. While working in that company, she made herself familiar with her community (Indian community). While she was trying to know her community better, she found out that to do the saloon stuff (basically eyebrow threading) the Indian people from Kamloops went to Surrey or Vancouver, since there was no Indian-style saloon here.
And this was where she found her opportunity. “You know, I started telling people that I know threading and henna designing, and those words just spread like the wind in my community. By then I even realize, I was getting 100s of texts from people asking me how much I will charge for eyebrow threading,” told Bhumika, with lots of joy in her eyes.
She started it small. She started doing it at home beside her other work. But once she went on maternity leave, she never went back into the cabinet company and started doing her business at home.
Over time, she completed so many beautiful courses here, so that she can cope with the western beauty industry. She earned certificates in a spa, massage techniques, bridal makeup and many more. And once she felt confident enough with those certificates on hand, she started her own business.
In August 2015, Bhumika started her business Bhumika Saloon & Spa. Since then, she had gone through so many ups and downs. She faced competition and losses in business, but she never quit. It was her dream to open her own business in the beauty industry and she is keeping up with that dream.
“I have clients from 20 years back who still come here today; sometimes to chat and sometimes for service. And this is the motivation that is still keeping me going.”- Bhumika Talla.
Kamloops and its Immigrant Population
Kamloops is one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in British Columbia. After the lower mainland and Columbia-Shuswap region, Thompson-Nicola is the third best place for immigrants to settle down.
According to the recent census report of Kamloops, of the 94,560 people living in Kamloops, immigrants make up about 10% (9,335) of the total population. In addition to the 9,335 immigrants listed in the census, there are 2,675 non-permanent residents in Kamloops, which includes foreign nationals with work permits, student visas, or refugee claims.
The majority of the 9,335 immigrants in Kamloops came from the United Kingdom (1,425), followed by India (1,240) and the United States (790).
With the rising number of immigrants and immigrant-owned businesses, Kamloops is also getting more developed and economically stronger from them. “There were not this many immigrant business owners in Kamloops 5-8 years ago as there are now,” said Anjali Aman, the director of the Downtown Kamloops Business Association.
Howie Riemer, the executive director of the same organization explained that they receive an average of 15-32 requests from immigrants to help them guide them through the business licensing and the step-by-step process of starting a business. “I am not sure how many of them got approval for a license, but if they have all the certification and supporting documents, they will get the license,” said Howie Riemer.
What do the statistics say about immigrants and the businesses owned by them?
As per the most recent census, British Columbia’s population grew by a record 41,355 people as a result of immigration in the second quarter of 2022. This was a 193.7% increase from the same time in 2021. Additionally, for the first time, net international immigration increased by more than 40,000 people in a quarter.
According to the 2021 federal census, nearly 25% of all Canadians are immigrants. Approximately 23% (8.3 million) of the 38.3 million people in the country who were counted in the census were classified as immigrants.
According to statistics in Canada, as immigrants are more likely to work for themselves, they are perceived as being more entrepreneurial than the native-born population. According to data from the Labour Force Survey, in 2009, 17.5% of immigrants between the ages of 18 and 60 were self-employed, compared to 14.4% of people who were born in Canada.
The number of immigrant owners of privately incorporated businesses has increased day by day since 2010.
One of the archived reports of Statistics Canada demonstrates that, in 2010, 5.3% of immigrants who filed taxes from the 2000 entry cohort were business owners. This contrasts with 4.8% of the tax filers in the comparison group, who were primarily Canadian citizens. In other words, after settling in Canada for a while, immigrants are more likely than the comparison group to own a privately incorporated business.
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