HJ VOICENOTES

Samantha Cusick discusses pre-emptive diversification and business pivots

SAMANTHA CUSICK

"HAIRDRESSING SHOULD BE MORE THAN SWAPPING TIME FOR MONEY. YOU DON'T WANT TO LIMIT YOUR CAPABILITIES, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO LIMIT YOUR INPUT AND YOUR REVENUE BY JUST THINKING ‘OH, HAIRDRESSING IS JUST SERVICING A CLIENT’, BECAUSE IT CAN BE SO MUCH MORE.

One of the main reasons I got into hairdressing was because it is such a versatile industry. Once you have a trade like hairdressing, you can lend your hand to so many different things. I realised how diverse the industry was when I started doing session work, then social media, and then it all developed from there. That versatility can also extend to the different employment models that we offer to our staff.

I always strive to think outside the box. Hairdressing should be more than swapping time for money. You don't want to limit your capabilities, and you don't want to limit your input and your revenue by just thinking ‘Oh, hairdressing is just servicing a client’, because it can be so much more. Is your salon in an amazing location that could lend itself to being an event space? Or do you have a location that could become a hub for something else in your local community?

In my business I’ve now got both a traditional salon model and my coworking space Stā Studios. My turning point was after seeing team members reach the ceiling of the traditional salon model. They were big on social media and were generating their own leads. They were at a point where I couldn't pay them more in our existing salon structure. They were already on such a commission that if I increased their salary, I would be losing money. As we all know, a salon is not just bricks and mortar, it's all the auxiliaries and the support, like the apprentices, the training, the front of house team, the product and all the overheads. Stylists were going off to be freelance and that's when I thought: I'm missing a trick here.

I needed to diversify, because I didn't want to be putting a lot of energy and resource into helping people grow a client base and better their skills, for them to leave. So now we have a career track which teaches apprentices that have bareley touched a pair of scissors in our training academy, all the way through to a stylist that is self-sufficient and wants to run their own business at our co-working space. Rather than having our top stylists leave, they can stay working with a company that they love, know and trust.

I kind of see it as pre-emptive diversification. I’m not changing something because it's broken, it's making the business stronger. At Stā Studios we also have a shoot space, podcast studio, meeting rooms, events area, and we have different membership options, so stylists can pay as they go, monthly or by the day.

I know there can be a lot of push back about the freelance hairdressing model right now, but you can run a more traditional salon base where you have apprentices and employed staff, and run a separate space for freelancers. I've not shut my salons. There is room in our industry for everybody and for multiple models. As soon as more people begin to show that both are successful in their own right, then I think it will help people feel more confident in taking different approaches.