Benham Draws on Past in Designing Her Future

The four years since Brooke Benham was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s 2009 class of Forty Under 40 have been challenging even for seasoned business owners.

Yet Benham, who just turned 38, yielded to the winds of economic change, transforming herself and her business model while staying rooted in her values and heritage.

In 2008, she’d opened Ultra Studios at 118 W. South St. in Fayetteville as a design studio and boutique. The move fulfilled her childhood dream of being a fashion designer.

But in 2010, she said, “I really started feeling the hit of the [economic] collapse.

“I had to do something to keep alive,” she said. “It was either give up Ultra Studios and close the doors or revamp myself, go through changes, which was good. It was hard, but it was a good change, I think. I’m in the right direction now.”

Those changes began with an idea to rent out a small space in her building as a hair salon. Starting with two stylists, that number quickly grew to five and the salon needed to expand.

Managing two businesses at that point, Benham found she had little time for designing other than occasional commissioned dresses and items for a Dallas store that carried her Native Couture line. With her own store inventory down to pieces bought at market, and with a large warehouse space now available, she decided to move the thriving salon into the bigger space.

The expansion took place last summer. The salon now has eight stylists, Benham said, and she has room for four more. Her next step was to consolidate the store into the salon area and rent out more of the building’s square footage.

That space now houses a vintage clothing store called Vintage Violet, and a nail salon called Polish Aholic Nail Lounge rents the small area where the hair salon started out.

“It still keeps the Ultra Studios’ vision of hair, clothing, the whole shebang,” Benham said. “A lady could come in here and get everything done, head to toe.”

But even with a full house and booming businesses, Benham felt she needed to do more to complete her own transformation. She decided to go to cosmetology school, attending the Paul Mitchell School “just so I can be a better salon owner and expand my credentials as a stylist/designer.”

Benham, a single mom, also embraces being a mentor and role model. She’s a passionate advocate for female empowerment, and for educating people in Northwest Arkansas about Native American culture.

Proud of her Kiowa heritage, Benham is involved with the University of Arkansas’ Native American Student Association, and has mentored a couple of young women in the group.

In 2011, she was asked to speak at the university’s annual Native American Symposium about the influence of her heritage on her clothing and jewelry lines. As part of the program, members of the student association modeled some of her designs.

Besides the formal mentoring, Benham said people sometimes just come in and ask her for advice on starting and running a small business.

Benham, who grew up in Springdale, says a highlight of the last few years has been the connections she’s made with people.

“And we have such a good small-business community,” she said. “Everybody is open-minded and willing to help one another. You don’t hoard any secrets. You share, and everybody shares, and I think it’s great that way.”

Her business model has always included supporting charitable causes. For the opening of Ultra Studios, Benham held a fashion show that raised about $10,000 for the Children’s House of Northwest Arkansas.

The salon has done a couple of fundraisers for the Single Parent Scholarship Fund, and an art show benefiting LifeSource International. Last year, the salon held a fundraiser for a local women’s shelter.

Benham’s currently trying to organize a Battle of the Salons event to benefit a local charity.

Since Benham works every day, finding time for herself is tough. One way she nurtures herself is getting massages at least once a month, and she recently took up running — an activity she surprisingly describes as soothing. She’s run two 5Ks, and is training to run her first half-marathon in November.

One piece of advice she offers, coming from her experience: “If you have a dream, you have a passion to do something, sometimes it does have to be on the back burner. You have to make sacrifices. I guess that’s it. You have to make sacrifices for your dream. And it’s OK.”