But the sale of her business proved complicated. A swath of her customer base reacted with deep anger and resentment. “I was a black-owned business, and now a white company bought me,” she said. People considered her a sell-out. To her, this was a myopic view of the situation. Most immediately, she had investors, who wanted returns, and she, too, needed a personal exit strategy. In her mind, L'Oréal USA proved the ideal owner. “I wanted to be with an industry leader, who appreciated what I’d done, who appreciated the customer,” Price said. But beyond that, on a more profound level, she was looking to build wealth. “There are not many African-American people who really have wealth, and it is going to take us time to build that, and we are going to have to be okay in selling,” she said. “I started my business in my kitchen with $100. I cooked stuff on my stove. And I sold to the largest beauty company in the entire world. And I had to defend myself.”
This 23-year passage—from stovetop to L'Oréal—was difficult and uncertain throughout, and the tremendous success that Price has realized is traceable, she said, to simple inspiration from her mother, after whom the company is named. Her mother was sick for her entire adult life, dependent on prescription drugs with a range of side effects. “But she always found that things could be worse,” said Price. Internalizing her mother’s optimism gave Price the courage and the persistence to work through failure, through uncertainty. “That’s the most important business tool I’ve ever had,” she said. “Knowing that the glass is half-full.