Powertalk with Mickey Coffino Ep. 91 | Business woman of the year

Small Business of the Year finalist: Mickey Coffino recycles metal and lives

Michelle “Mickey” Coffino is a study in contrasts. She’s a woman who owns a scrap-metal yard that buys tons of used auto and electronic parts and other industrial material every month. Queen City Metal Recycling & Salvage is part of an industry 99% dominated by men.

She also owns MC3 Salon and Wellness Center in Charlotte’s Midtown neighborhood, cutting hair 30 hours a week during mornings and weekends, overseeing six colleagues. She works afternoons and nights at her salvage business in an industrial area north of downtown.

The 53-year-old entrepreneur is also a crusader for giving formerly incarcerated men and women a second chance. The scrapyard came first, but the idea to employ ex-offenders followed soon after. Of her 20 employees, “all but two or three have records,” she says. Some were violent offenders. Others, including a former attorney, were convicted of white-collar crimes.

The metaphor isn’t lost on her. “Recycle metal to recycle lives,” she says. “No one should be punished for the rest of their lives for a two-minute mistake.”