Episode #3: Big Salon to Suite Salon

Working in a big salon can be great for business, but it also comes with a lot of restrictions.  

You may be limited on the days and times you can work, or you might not have control over your schedule.  

Moving to a suite salon could be the answer. Suite salons give you more flexibility over your schedule, so you can work when and how you want. Plus, suite salons are more private and give your clients a sense of intimacy. 

In Episode 3 of The Chair-apist, I interview Wyatt, my education partner at Kevin Murphy. We discuss his move from a big salon to a suite salon and how it has benefitted his business. Wyatt shares his insights on why the move was beneficial for him and how it has helped him take control his business. 

Transcript

Cameron 
Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Chair-apist and I have my really good friend and I  mean. I'd love to say my best friend and Kevin Murphy, of course, education partner, Wyatt, who is on today and we are going to talk about moving from a salon or possibly a commission into a suite situation. 

Wyatt 
Let me grab my drink. 

Cameron 
There are a lot of people who are super scared to make that plunge. 

It's like jumping off the edge of a cliff, and so you're holding on with your fingernails, so to speak. 

Wyatt 
No, literally, I did it. A lot of people have done it and you have now done that as well. 

Yes, five years this year. 

Cameron 
So, I just want to ask. Five years? 

Wyatt 
Five years this year, it was very - it's been scary, so scary but I remember when I was thinking about doing it, I had talked to the owner of my salon suites that I have a suite inside of I had a class for one of those suite owners there and he was like, have you ever thought about being your own boss and I'm like, “Oh, of course. 

I mean I have a Business Degree, a Bachelor of Science in Business so yeah, of course, I always wanted it to be my own boss. But he was, like you know, just think about it. 

And I talked to my best friend who is my CPA and we started looking at my clients as the people who are actually paying my bills. So how often did this person come in? What's their average price that they spend? How often they buy products? And once I started thinking about that and we actually developed a spreadsheet on every single person. 

Don't tell anyone, but we developed a spreadsheet and it the thought process was really easy for me 'cause like I can see right here that I will be able to make money and be ok doing this on my own. 

The reason why I said I wanted to be my own suite owner is because you know, like yourself, I was working with Kevin Murphy and what I was finding when I was working inside of other salons that I was not having control over my own calendar. 

And that was one of the things that I really wanted, because I wanted to work more with Kevin Murphy, as well as when. I'm working with my clients because my clients honestly, love the fact that I'm an educator that I travel all around the United States. They want me to go. They can't wait till I get to Australia. But they they got excited and so they would tell their friends like hey my stylist is doing Miami Swim Week. He's doing Fashion Week in New York. 

I don't want to go to your person 'cause I'm going to my even though he's not here right now, he'll be back, but the issue I saw was that salon owners, they wanted me in the in the salon which I get it they wanted me in the salon, but I was like ok well after doing my spreadsheet I was like I do want to take ownership of my calendar and so I said, let's do it and I remember at that point in time I was watching Steve Harvey and he said the hardest thing to do is to jump, like you said earlier, he said, sometimes you know that's gonna work. Just go with it's going to work, and you jump. You can fall you can fly, but you won't know until you actually jump, so that's what I did and I'm still flying. Thank God. 

Cameron 
You're doing awesome! I mean, yeah, you're doing fantastic for sure. And that's the hard thing is moving from knowing that you have a paycheck coming in to not knowing. 

For sure, if that paycheck is going to come in. And so, people, I think freak out. If I move are people going to follow me? What's going to happen? 

And also, you being on your own, what did that do for you and your clients within your suite space? 

And then COVID comes. And how much did that? 

Wyatt 
Right COVID. First of all, I wasn't able to work here in Houston for three months and luckily my husband is very supportive of my career. And he was able to, you know, take care of everything, but I felt really bad because you know, not only am I not working and bringing anything into the household, but like my clients were calling me every five min. Like, hey - I need my roots done so I started delivering shampoos and conditioners and styling products for them, but they still had to do zoom calls and then I also started to do at home color kits where I would take Tupperware containers and put color and give them a little developer and tell how the mixing it applied to their hair. 

No one had any eye irritation or, you know, hair burned off, so everything worked out good. 

But one thing I noticed is moving from inside of a salon like a big salon to my suite is that my clients actually liked that the individualized touch for them in their service 'cause they didn't like for me to pass them off to an assistant to put their base break on, or to shampoo their hair. 

They actually, they said, and one of like several of my clients came and they're like, no, we actually come in to see you. Like we want you to do everything. 

So, in hindsight of, you know COVID because I'm a single occupancy salon I've actually gained clients that come in because they're like, ok well, we know that you're going to use bio compatible cleansers. You're going to make sure that you cleanse everything like we know you spray everything down with Lysol. They actually feel safer coming into my space because I only allow one client or one family and at a time. 

So, in hindsight of COVID and not being able to work those three months I have gained more clients because of the reason that I'm actually in a suite salon. Because they feel safer being in that space versus a big open space where you have all this chatter. All everyone's mouth is open, and stuff is coming out so you can actually contain that or so by being in your own suite. 

Cameron 
Oh, for sure, it is hard when you are in a big salon space to help people feel safe. I'm not saying COVID’s over, but I feel like it's starting to wind down a little bit people, maybe people are just over it, but also, they're going through a lot of mental health issues right now, right? 

And so being within your own space you are a therapist, hence the name of my podcast, the Chair-apist. 

Wyatt 
Oh, I love that. I love how everything just comes together. 

Cameron 
It all just comes together darling. 

Wyatt 
I love it. 

Cameron 
So, if you have one big pro about moving into your own space, what would that be? 

Wyatt 
One big pro. I will go back to having my own schedule. Controlling my schedule, controlling my interaction with my customers because I wanted to make, I have a certain way of doing things, so I wanted to make sure that I have that personal specialized touch with every single customer and having that flexibility to control my own calendar and my own schedule has helped my career greatly. 

Cameron 
That's awesome. And then your biggest con? If there is a con, what would you say your biggest con is? 

Wyatt 
I would say my biggest con is that it is just me. Honestly, like I am the receptionist, I'm the cleaner. 

Cameron 
That's mine, yep. 

Wyatt 
I am person that pays the bills. I do the inventory. I do quality control. I follow up with customers. When I first started, it was really hard to separate personal and business because everything was about business at that point in time. like clients will call me or text me whenever they thought about getting. their hair done like that could be at 12:00 o'clock at night, 1:00 o'clock in the morning, 5:00 o'clock in the morning. One time like my husband like, “Who is that?” And I’m like, “Oh, that's why my client she just thought if I get her hair highlighted so she just went ahead and text me. But he’s like it's 1:30 in the morning. I'm like, oh yeah. 

Cameron 
It just came into her head, so why not text me right then and there we're gonna touch on boundaries in another episode, so listen in. 

Wyatt 
'cause that is a very, very important thing. 

I now have a business phone, so I can put it down and walk away, and that has helped me a great deal. 

Cameron 
That's a great boundary. I have to say I agree with you because I'm in a small space I'm not considered a suite salon, but I'm in a small space within a business building and when I'm here with sometimes I have some overlap with other stylists. I love the interaction of what do you think about this formula? Or did you see her base level, and should we break it or should we go with a low light? You know asking all those questions, so that's what I miss the most when I'm alone. 

Wyatt 
And I honestly missed that too, like being like that person is right there, but being in space that I am in, we have over 40 different salon owners. And so, we all kind of gel together. We all talk to each other. Everyone knows that I love blondes, and I love redheads. 

Cameron 
Your specialty is blondes for sure. 

Wyatt 
Why I love blondes and I love that you know natural blonde, so I do talk to a guy like ok, so how do you get like that platinum ice blonde? Because I'm more like beigy, golden blonde, but like sometimes I wonder like ok, how do I get that really true ash and then I will go to one of my colleagues that is in the area, and then they too come to me whenever they wanted like a copper, or like a deep red because I know how to mix with the color, then mix it up and get it done. 

One of the new ladies she was walking down, she's like, oh you're Wyatt, I heard you the color specialist in the area and I'm like No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

Cameron 
I'm actually a cutting educator, but thanks for noticing. Wyatt and I do go back, oh I, I'm not going to say how many years because you're going to know how old we are with Kevin Murphy education and we're still with Kevin Murphy education, and it's a wonderful tribe to be a part of. And so, I've just been so lucky to work with a lot of different people and get to interview all of you love bugs of mine and just be able to spread the knowledge to people who are, you know, thinking about moving or afraid to make that jump. Or maybe they weren't thinking about moving and this is just going to give them that extra budge to do something different in their career and expand their wings and fly. 

Wyatt 
Right, so with that being said, I have noticed here in Houston, Texas that a lot of like big salon owners have stepped down from like having a big huge salon and started breaking those salons up into like suites and smaller niche retail spaces and going and doing their suite salons because they notice that there is a trend building up of staff and then you know they're leaving they're like no, this is we still give them education, but bringing it down to like a suite salon and then doing mobile units and going to client's house have been like a new thing trending here in Houston. 

Cameron 
That's really cool 'cause it's trending here that a lot. I've noticed some commission salons that I thought were going to be around for the long run have gone back to maybe lease salons or some lease salons that have transitioned into commission.  

And so, wherever you are in your career, I'm not saying you shouldn't be at a commission, or you shouldn't be at a suite, or you should, or not telling you how to do your thing. But it's just nice to know that there's so many different options people in the industry and aestheticians included. Any artists really? Tattoo artists are included in that as well. 

You can be on your own and survive and do really well, but you it's also great to build a business and being a team of a commission salon as well 

Wyatt 
Yeah, that's why I always tell stylists that are fresh out of school or any artists fresh out of school that it is honestly best to go into like a bigger salon. That have an assistant program where you can learn, you know not only just the basics, but how to interact with customers, how to follow up with them, how to retail products, how they even shampoo, their hair? Because in beauty school, I don't know about you all, but we just learn sanitation, sanitation, sanitation. 

Cameron 
I mean, that's what...OK, I'm not kidding, the last three episodes I've talked about, we are certified in sanitation. 

Wyatt 
And sanitation. 

Cameron 
 
Sanitation and tools. 

My favorite thing about my shear sharpener, Style Sharp Shears, Trey he comes in and he sharpens my shears on site he gives me tons of education while he's just sitting there. Or he can blend in and not talk at all. 

Because if you have clients and your shears are sharpened and then he leaves and you don't want him to leave 'cause he's so much fun to be around, but he's just like an Angel that flies in and flies out, and your shears are sharpened and like magic.  

So, what's the craziest thing that has ever happened to you, Wyatt? It wanna hear that story? 

Wyatt 
Oh ok, I have two. 

One, the craziest thing is that OK, I work on Sundays and typically on Sundays there's only like 3 other stylists that are there, and this one Sunday the City of Houston decided to shut the power off inside the building and it was because they were doing routine, I don't know if you guys have had been putting poles up in the area.  

And so, I literally had to take my chair and take it out of the salon and take it close to the door where there was sunlight so I can finish doing a haircut. That was fun.  

Second story. I would say we typically don't do a lot of walk-ins, everyone is by appointment only, but every now and again I put my name on a list and so one day I put my name on the list. 

It's like the first-year end and this lady called, and she wanted to get her haircut, but she wanted to get a haircut for herself, and her husband and I said, ok I can get you at 12 and then I could get him at 12:30 she hung up, her husband called back. He's like no, we want both appointments at the exact same time and I’m like, uhm, you can have it done your appointment is at... 

Cameron 
The same time. 

Wyatt 
It's at the same time, but I won't be able to cut both of you her at the same time, so I have to do one first beginning at 12 and the other one at 12:30. 

He hung up. 

She called back and went off for like 30 minutes on how I should have told her that it was only me and that she cannot get both haircuts at the same time. 

I'm like man, but I told you it's 12:00 and 12:30 and then she went off the handle and...mind you at the same time I'm doing a Balayage. And having the phone in my hand in my ear. 

Cameron 
That's what your earbuds are for Wyatt. Come on. 

Wyatt 
I just got an Apple and earbuds and iWatch. All within last year. So, I'm in transition. 

Cameron 
Welcome and welcome to the 20th century. Ok, I'm just teasing, I'm like welcome to the 80’s, Wyatt. 

Wyatt 
But that was a wild call and ever since then I stopped taking walk-ins. I'm only by appointment. 

Cameron 
That's good. Ok, ok, last question for you. 

Wyatt 
Ok. 

Cameron 
What is the fact that people probably don't know about you? 

So, a little-known fact. 

Wyatt 
Oh well, but I've secretly danced. But no, I would say the one thing that people don't know about me is that I do love music and that I used to be in the choir going up until like high school. No until college I was in some type of choir because I always loved singing. This is one of the things that brings me joy inside there. 

Cameron 
Well, that doesn't surprise me 'cause you have the voice of an Angel. True story. 

Thank you so much for being on this episode. It means so much to me and it means so much to our listeners to hear that it's ok to make the jump if. 

Wyatt 
Yes, jump! Leap! 

Cameron 
If you're trying to do jump and we're here to support you with lots more episodes about boundaries, insurance, licensing,  

Wyatt 
Customer relations. 

Cameron 
No, we're going to talk about fun stuff too, but those are the little things that matter, so we have a lot of things coming up that will be really helpful. 

 
Thank you, Wyatt. 

Wyatt 
But thank you so much. Thank you, baby.