Author dedicates book to former instructor at Forbes Road Career and Technology Center in Monroeville

Forbes Road Career and Technology Center alumna Dorothy Andreas dedicated her third book, “Build a Million Dollar Beauty Business: Proven Strategies to Streamline Your Success,” to a former Forbes teacher.

Val Zola, a retired instructor and former head teacher for the cosmetology department at Forbes the Monroeville trade school, is the honoree.

“People will live up or down to the expectation that we have of them and Mr. Val always expected the best from us and we wanted to live up to his expectations,” Andreas said during a May 16 presentation. “He wanted the best out of each and every one of his students. It didn’t matter how talented you were, where you came from, none of that matters. He just expected the best and he created a culture that was so loving, accepting and positive.”

Andreas founded the Sewickley Spa in 1980 and grew it into a seven-figure earner despite dropping out of college at age 19, selling her car to pay for the company, and suffering from a fire destroying her business when it was in its infancy.

In 2019, she started a consulting company, Streamline Success LLC, and used the pandemic to pivot from the spa to consulting. Andreas has been teaching a time-management course to entrepreneurs since 1995.

Her previous two books, “Streamline Success: Eliminate Chaos from Your Service Business” (2019) and “Conflict Revelation: The 3 Essential Elements for Creating Harmony in Business (2020),” were released around the pandemic and helped grow her consulting firm.

“We see so many beauty businesses that don’t make it unless the owner is in a treatment room providing services, and you can’t grow the business that way. So this book is based on my 40 years of building numerous businesses in the industry,” Andreas said.

“If I wanted to, I could very easily convert this book to how to build any business, but it’s tailored to the beauty industry because that’s my background. But it’s solid tactics that any person will need to know as they start and grow their entrepreneurial efforts.”

With the book dedication, Andreas credits Zola with helping start her career. Zola retired from Forbes 20 years ago, yet he still volunteers several times a week to mentor students and teachers at the center.

A press release from the school calls him “responsible for many local successful careers in the beauty profession, and he still gives back to his profession as he recognizes the importance of trade school training and its critical role in the current economy.”

Andreas talked about her introduction to Forbes.

“A friend of mine went there for cosmetology, and he asked me to model for somebody in a hair competition,” she said. “So I went and started modeling, and I met Mr. Val Zola and I was smitten with the whole thing. Sitting there in the cosmetology class, I loved to smell the hair spray, perm solutions, and I wanted to go.”

That happened during her sophomore year, when Andreas, who grew up in Braddock, needed two years of algebra to be eligible to attend the technical school. When her junior year came around, she signed up for Forbes Trail, as it was known at the time.

The first part of “Build a Million Dollar Beauty Business” is about starting a venture, including branding, business structure, tax information and location. It’s followed by a part on staff, operations, dealing with issues that arise, and culture building. The book’s final part is about balancing work and life while a business grows.

Forbes Road CTC is the vocational component to the Allegheny Valley, East Allegheny, Gateway, Highlands, Penn Hills, Plum Borough, Riverview, Wilkinsburg and Woodland Hills school districts. Additionally, many other public, private, specialty, alternative, charter and online schools send students there.

For more information about Andreas and her books, visit www.streamlinesuccess.com.