A Global Pandemic Wasn’t In The Business Plan!
HERE IS HOW IT HAPPENED…
For the length of our friendship (14 years,) it was never a goal for us to be salon owners. We may have talked about it in passing, maybe joked how we would do it differently (or better, lol) but never sat down and said, “one day we should TOTALLY open our own business.” But May 2018, loud doors swung open and screamed that IT WAS TIME. There is a little nook of Hillcrest (Little Rock, AR), that’s kind of all it’s own. There’s a nursery, a fine dining restaurant, a gift shop, a pilates studio, and a fashion school, all huddled together. For starters, it’s one of the few places in the area with a designated parking lot. A popular salon of over 32 years, was closing its doors, and we swiftly contacted the owners. We set-up a meeting that first week and then after many, we mean MANY phone calls, banker notes, attorney recommendations, contractor walk-throughs, and redrafted business plans, after six months, we signed the contracts (nauseatingly.)
As mentioned the existing salon was first opened in the 80’s, so we’re talking glass brick walls, 5x5 black, white, and gray tile floors, formica hunter green reception desk and 10-foot countertop stations, and… neon lights. In all honesty, besides the dated esthetics, so much was out of city code, that we had no choice but to completely renovate.
We spent many hours with the contractor and designer working through so.many.issues. There were more times, then we care to count, that we questioned if we’d made a huge mistake. A VERY large bank loan mistake. In March 2019, WE DID IT, we opened the doors. It’s still just as PRETTY today, as it was a year and a half ago, minus some hair color stains here and there.
We have LEARNED so much this last year and a half. We’re not even sure if we have even processed some of the learning experiences that have come out of the 2019-2020, for obvious reasons, but also, just trying to keep our head above water most days.
Now onto the fun part: A GLOBAL PANDEMIC wasn’t exactly in the one-year business plan. In fact, those words never even crossed our minds. We didn’t panic, okay maybe we panicked a little bit, but the most important thing is that we MADE IT THROUGH. We’d like to think we were lucky, however; the truth is we didn’t just receive advice, we LISTENED to advice from fellow small business owners & mentors, making decisions early on that set us up for future support we had no idea we would need so desperately.
There is so much bad, negative, paralyzing, etc… (the list goes on and on) when owning a small business during a global shutdown. On March 23rd (the day we were mandated to close), we could make the choice to let all the unknowns turn us into negative, glass-is-half-empty business owners, or we could choose to have an attitude of positivity and somehow look for the PRETTY.
Here are our big takeaways from surviving COVID-19 and the city-mandated shut down:
BUILD A GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BANK, most specifically, your banker, A big huge thank you to our hero, Megan, who was able to answer any and every question. She processed paperwork at lightening speed and kept us in the loop the whole time. We truly could not have survived without her.
HIRE THE RIGHT STAFF. We know this is easier said than done. It took a lot of time, but one of the best decisions we made was to not rush the hiring process. We waited for team members that aligned with our ethics and belief system. None of us are perfect and we all have our moments, but the result was a group of non-dramatic women who gracefully moved through a disaster. We could not possibly love them more.
PARTNER WITH ETHICAL MANUFACTURERS & DISTRIBUTORS. We chose from the beginning to exclusively align with Davines North America and their local distributor, Modern Salon Services. They gave us what we needed the most: OPTIONS. We were offered emotional support, payment options, & gifted a discount when it was time for us to place a massive reopening order after being closed for 8 weeks.
SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY and they support you. We have been so lucky to be surrounded by extremely caring and supportive clients and friends. When we were mandated to close by the city, we received multitudes of messages and calls of locals friends wanting to buy products to support us. This was the biggest way we were able to keep moving through it all and there aren’t enough words to express our GRATITUDE.
THE GIFT OF TIME. It wasn't the way we pictured 8 weeks off of work, (we would have hoped it involved a beach and a margarita.) We, unknowingly, at the time were given the opportunity to build our business partnership and our friendships with our community of small local businesses. In the hustle of Pre-COVID life we never seemed to have enough time to nourish those relationships and for that we are THANKFUL.
Sending well wishes and safe-keeping, friends.
XO, Alicia + Kim
