On May 19th, we hosted our annual Beauty Business Brunch, bringing together business-minded stylists of varying levels and backgrounds to network and learn from each other.⁠ Building a strong community is key to thriving in our industry, and this event was all about fostering those valuable relationships.

The Beauty Business Brunch fosters local industry community, focusing on business, professionalism, and well-being, uniting business owners and operators in workshops and interactive discussions to learn from industry leaders and collaboratively address challenges.⁠

On November 27th, Diana Varvaro, School Director of Paul Mitchell The School NYC, joined us on Instagram Live to discuss hiring, training, and retaining Rising Stylists.

We asked if you had any questions for the students of Paul Mitchell The School NYC so here are just some of YOUR questions we covered:

• What struggles do students have with salon owners?

• What determines whether you stay at your ideal salon home for the long term?

• What’s the 1 thing you’re looking for in a salon?

• Besides technique & education, what’s the 1 thing you want to learn at your new salon?

Yeah, that’s right! It doesn’t matter how good you are at hair if people don’t like you. The most excellent hairstylist in the world will not be successful as a behind-the-chair stylist if they are an “a-hole” and people do not like them… Besides, even if you do not want to believe this, just consider the statistics! The proof is in the data, and the data shows that an above-average experience means you will be more successful than the majority of other hairdressers. See data below!

After doing some research on customer service and experience, it turns out that there is a TON of research, polls, and other data to prove that people will allocate larger percentages of their spending money to businesses and experiences that they consider to be excellent and better than other businesses or experiences. So, it doesn’t matter if you think you should worry about competition or not because your clients are constantly being made aware of them. The psychology, as explained in the Harvard Business Reviews article titled “Customer Loyalty Isn’t Enough. Grow Your Share of Wallet” by Timothy L. Keiningham, Lerzan Aksoy, Alexander Buoye, and Bruce Cooil explains that consumers (aka existing and potential clients) are aware of your competitors and have, likely, tried or inquired about their services. Customers do not only make decisions based on their satisfaction with you and your business, but they regularly weigh the options.

Is it just me, or does it feel like a lot of the conversations and social media vibes around our relationships with our clients conveniently ignore the fact that we would be nothing without them? Seriously, go scroll through social media and tell me how many people are promoting good customer service, how to create an incredible experience with your customer, or how to get your clients to come back year in and year out. What I see is almost nothing to that tune. Instead, I see a lot of negative sentiment towards disrespectful clients, boundary-violating clients, and empowerment messages reminding us that it is OUR business, not theirs.

Okay, okay, maybe it isn't fair to say we would be nothing. I would still know how to do hair! With no clients, I could gift everyone haircuts during family get–togethers…. What would I do for income? How would I pay my bills? How would I buy another rental property?

You can have vision, drive, ambition, and capital, but if you don’t know how to build and incubate relationships, you will never accomplish your goals. Communication, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy, respect, giving & taking support, and staying positive are the 7 Relationship Building Blocks! Adopting and practicing them will ensure you are able to create and build relationships; however, incubating them means that you have to create conditions in which they can grow. So, not only do you have to adopt the 7 Relationship Building Blocks, but you have to grow them actively. Let’s dive in.

The 7 Relationship Building Blocks may seem obvious, but if you look up each one of them and then go out in the world and practice them, you may find that: This Is Work! Building relationships may come naturally for some, but most of us have to put in the work.

Now, despite your feelings about this, after all my work and all of that digging, I have come up with a thesis on bridging this gap. I believe that Rising Stylists do not know what they do not know! Yes, it is that simple! Think about it: If you never worked in a salon and your only experience of what it means to be a successful stylist is something you consumed through social media…ta-da!

…Okay, if you do not get it, let me explain: Social media is notorious for (1) portraying the fruits of one's labor and (2) giving an outsized voice to confrontation with cultural, social, and business norms.

We do not see much on social media that shows the “labor” part of the equation: “fruits of my labor.” So, many Rising Stylists just see what the generation had before them and pick the things they do not want to repeat and the things they want to achieve.

HairdresserStrong.com was born in early February 2 years ago, and I began Managing a Salon and a Team of Beauty Pros 3 years ago! I have never been in either position during a recession, but I was a licensed and booked stylist and educator. So, for this blog post, I have done lots of research and interviews on how to prepare myself, the salon, and my team mentally and financially for what is coming. Let’s dive in!

First of all, I would like to start by saying that a recession is not guaranteed to come, and no one knows how bad it will be. Some would even argue that we will not see a recession that will hurt us. Well, wait a minute! What the heck is a recession anyway, and how can it hurt us!?

I already know I am going to get a lot of flack from this title, so let me be clear: Not All Salon Owners Break Their Promises…but there are a ton that do!

The amount of Hair School Grads that call me a few months after graduation and say, “Robert, the salon owner said they would train me, and it’ll take 6 months to get on the floor. It’s been 3 months, and I have had no classes, and now they are saying it’ll be another 6 months!!! What should I do?” is astounding! This is a problem. If you promise to train and promote to the floor and do not keep your word, then you are breaking your promises, which is seriously messed up! Like, are the salon owners lying just to get the hire, or are we supposed to excuse them for breaking their promises because we empathize with their burden of running a business?

The deeper I dive into the Gen-Z vs. Salon Owner topic, the more I realize there are some other major factors at play creating challenges for Gen-Z starting their careers and Salon Owners hiring, training, and retaining them.

A new challenge keeps coming up in my conversations with all levels of the industry. It is two-pronged: 1) either cosmetology school students do not see the value in the concept of “Get Your Foot in The Door” and/or 2) the structure of the school schedule is not conducive to providing the opportunity for a cosmetology student to “Get [Their] Foot in The Door”....Let’s dive in!

So, to me, there seems to be a gap in expectations between Rising Stylists and Salon Owners. Salon owners, overwhelmingly, want a Rising Stylist to assist and train for 6 months to a year, regardless of school. The majority of Rising Stylists (in cosmetology school) say they do not expect or want to spend 6 months to a year training and learning the system, culture, team, or clients of the salon before getting on the floor.

Rising Stylists have indicated to me that, once they are licensed, they are a hairstylist and want to focus on building their book and brand. Salon Owners tell me that they do not intend on giving any newly licensed hair stylists any salon clients until the Salon Owner knows that the stylist they hired is going to do a good job and uphold the brand of the salon.

There is a path for everyone or is there? Some stylists and owners want to work in a tight hairdresser family that strives to be the best. Best at their craft, best customer service, coolest or most high-end brand; however, others want the same, but solo in a Suite! Then, there are those that see the suite as a studio to create, make some money, and use as a platform to build a brand, teach, and travel! There are paths for many, but are there any paths uncharted or not yet known?

The world we live in has a major exposure issue, or lack thereof, to be more precise. Lack of exposure to other ideas, ways of life, and experiences is a major factor in maintaining echo chambers. While this can be traced to many of our social and political issues, it can also be traced back to our industry. Fear of opening a business, fear of going solo, fear of changing salons, and the, historic, lack of variation in the way we do business.

Empowerment is one of the most important building blocks of success, second only to education. We discussed empowerment via community and self in our last blog post. Now, we discuss education and the value of being a “forever student”. Your success depends on your adoption of this mentality. It is too easy to dismiss a learning opportunity as a burden or annoyance because you do not like the facilitator or the subject matter. When you do this, you stand in your own way!

Welcome back! Let's break down the previous blog. At the end, I mentioned that we want to build a place where all beauty professionals can thrive as individuals, but with the support of a community. l through empowerment, education, exposure, and decentralization.

Let’s start with empowerment!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a lot of ideas. I have put them down on paper and planned them out, but never have I seen any of them flourish the way I imagined until now. My mentor said to me once, “Stop getting ready to get ready”!