In this episode Nathan Plumridge is joined by his first guest, hairpeneuer and multi-award winner salon owner Victoria Mavin. The pair discuss what it’s like to start a business and the challenges it brings.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are some people who love hair extensions and some who hate them. My focus – and what’s worked well for me – was on quality, systems, follow-ups, maintenance, aftercare, etc. When you’re putting things into people’s hair, there’s a whole heap of other things to consider and more things that can go wrong. It was that that was in my original business plan that I have carried through and made work.
On paper it looks like I had a really robust business plan together, but I really didn’t I came out of uni thinking I was going to work in “business”, whatever that means. I couldn’t be further than the corporate world!
The Country Durham site is a destination site and the Leeds site is a high street site and they both have very different challenges. Because I can’t be in two places at once, I need to know that the second site is operating in the same way as the first, which is the point of having a brand. The demographics are different, so the way we market, price and add value are very different. During Covid as well, passing trade in the high street is way down, so we pivoted to providing training courses on site.
Staffing is a huge issue at the moment, especially with a lot of apprentices coming out of uni with no practical experience, large VAT bills and the increase in the national minimum wage. We’re in a situation where we’re having to pay people £9.50 an hour even though they don’t have any floor experience whatsoever. This is an unfair situation for both the newly qualified stylist looking for experience and the salon owner who’s having to pay out for an inexperienced stylist.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I work with my Mum. She hates hair, so she does all the paperwork and risk assessment that I don’t want to do, and the partnership really works.’
‘In the early days my focus was that every service I did was spot on and do no advertising. The little that we did do was smart.’
‘There’s so much pressure now for people to create an image of perfection that it takes the focus off the service.’
‘I want to show salon owners that they can have a profitable hair extension service, a lot of them offer it but don’t know enough about it to give a great service.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Victoria Mavin is the owner and director of Lox of Love, which she founded in 2012 and has salons in County Durham and Leeds, they are predominantly hair extension salons but they do also offer the full-hairdressing experience for clients. Victoria was late to the hairdressing game, at the age of 24, and has now worked in the industry for over 15 years, specialising in hair extensions for the past 9.
Facebook: Lox of Love HQ and Training Academy - https://www.facebook.com/loxoflove/
Instagram: @loxoflovehair & @veemavinhair
Twitter: @LoxofLove
ABOUT THE HOST
Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.
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