Hi Sean, thanks for chatting to me today. To start things off, can you tell me what has been your biggest career challenge or failure so far?
Probably the one that sticks out in my mind most was when we launched the biggest salon that we’d done at that point – Croydon. It was 2,000 square feet in a main shopping centre (which means high rent!), but we had lots of confidence, and things were going very well with the other salons. It launched well and started making money quickly, but then there was a terrible accident three or four years in. One of the stylists got killed, and it totally changed the salon.
After such a tragedy, we wanted to support the team, but the salon almost became a bit of a mausoleum. We had a memory area set up, and the clients were very supportive initially, but this changed after around two or three visits – understandably so, they were coming and paying good money to get their hair done; they didn’t need to see that. There had been a real dynamic shift within the team. We did everything we could, but we just couldn’t get the business back up. We went from doing around £15k a week (which was good, back in that time) down to about £7k a week over a period of six months. I felt like I just didn’t really get to grips with what had happened; I was too emotionally invested. The big mistake we’d also made at that point was guaranteeing the lease for 10 years – we had gone into making a loss of over £100k a year, and we still had five years left to run on the lease. We just couldn’t get out of it! This really made me think I would never, ever do that again.
What would you say are the biggest lessons you learnt from this?
It was a big learning curve in terms of how to manage difficult personal challenges that we might come across, especially as a business owner. I know sometimes you’ve got to come up with a guarantee, at least on a new business, but there are more creative ways of doing it. I think we were too gung-ho – we thought we were going to be absolutely fine, but we genuinely were losing over £100k every year until the lease finally ran out. In that situation, as a business leader, I probably should have been a little bit harder and said, from a business point of view, that we’ve got to move past this and try to get back on top of it quicker. I’d always make sure we were never as exposed to something like that again.
What did you feel when you shut the shop?
I was sad. I think at that time we saw closing businesses as a real failure. Obviously, there was a pride issue; we were still quite young, so we were very ballsy and felt almost indestructible. Whereas actually, as we got on, we realised that opening a business and closing a business require two very different business strategies. Knowing when to close a business is just as important as knowing when to open a business. There’s no use wasting time, energy and money chasing something that isn’t working.
Did you ever franchise and do partnerships?
Yeah, we did. We set up quite a few of the businesses as we grew in partnership. They were legally set up as franchise agreements, but we never sold franchises in a traditional way. It was more a way of getting people that we had grown within the business and valued to have ownership as well. I think as the business gets bigger, you need people who are drivers themselves because it’s obviously very hard to successfully drive multiple salon sites all at the same time.
Do you think running a salon is difficult?
I’ve never seen anyone make a lot of money through not working hard; every successful person that I know has put everything into making it work. They simply become good at what they do –whether they’re hairdressers, plumbers, electricians, lawyers, whatever it is – that’s the formula! You know that thing where someone goes and does something really easy, and then sits back and takes the money… I’ve never actually met anyone like that in real life. Running a business is challenging. I get people who come to me when they’re 22 saying, ‘I want to do a three-day week because I want a work/life balance – I understand it, but actually, no one who’s successful in business starts off with a great work/life balance. Work – when it’s going well – is actually quite enjoyable and can be great fun.
If you could start your career all over again, what would you do differently?
I wouldn’t really change that much, to be honest; I’ve been so lucky to have really enjoyed my journey. I suppose one regret would be that when I had my first salon, I decided to start my own product brand. We were a small salon, but we had a strong client base and nearly all the clients bought it. I didn’t really think of it in terms of profitability – retailing wasn’t particularly big back in those days. I’d been to a seminar with Irvine Rusk, and I was really into being creative and artistic. L’Oréal said to me, if you stop making your own shampoo and buy our Kérastase, we’ll get you to do some seminars. I thought, ‘oh, that sounds good’, so I dumped my own shampoo brand. Looking back on it, the time was probably right for salon owners to do their own products, but I think I just didn’t have the vision to see where it could have gone. I do look back and think I would have really enjoyed that journey too.
What character traits would you say hard times have taught you?
My mum and dad were great workers, and I’d say work ethic, commitment and consistency are the keys. When things go wrong – which they inevitably do – you have to keep going. It’s a bit like when you come off the horse… you just get back on and ride it again! It’s the same in business – the people who seem to do really well are just consistent. When things go wrong, they learn from it and keep on going. They might change tactic, but they don’t give up.
How do you feel about luck? Do you believe in it? Do you think you’ve had your fair share of it throughout your career?
I think I’ve probably had more luck than most, if I’m honest. There’s that saying, ‘the more I practice, the luckier I get’, and I think there is a little bit of that in me. Luck is huge, for sure. I’m lucky that I’m healthy; it’s very hard to have the energy to be able to do things if you’re unhealthy, but alongside that, you have to make sensible – sometimes boring – choices.
When was the last time you doubted yourself and how do you overcome those feelings?
Since I’ve ‘kind of retired’, I’ve moved into doing consultancy for people in the hairdressing industry. That’s where my passion is, but that’s also where my experience is. Interestingly, I’ve been doing quite a lot of work for people outside the industry too – completely different things, many of which are possibly beyond my comfort zone! It’s brought me back to some of the feelings that I had in my twenties and thirties, where you’re going into completely new environments. I know people say all business is business, but there are nuances. So, there is a little bit of doubt coming in, but it’s also quite exciting. I do get a buzz from feeling a little bit out of my depth.
What has been your most successful moment recently?
I suppose it’s doing some of the consultancy work and working with other people – I probably get the most joy from that. My daughter now runs the main bit of the hairdressing business, and I help when I can. I get a lot of buzz from that too.
Success is obviously different for everyone, but what does it look like to you?
I suppose now it’s just having the freedom to do whatever it is that I want to do. If you were talking from a financial point of view, when you get to the point where you will run out of time before you’re going to run out of money, that’s a lot of security. And that feels good. I don’t measure success financially anymore, however. I’m at the stage where success is all about relationships, getting time with people that you really enjoy, and having amazing experiences.
Who is a successful person you admire, and what lessons have they taught you?
When I was first starting out, there was a guy called Jim Nayyar who was my accountant. He was probably the first person that was a strong, focused business mentor. I love what Johnny Paterson, who started Dr Pawpaw, has done. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I watched him start that from just an idea, before turning it into a really successful brand. I also love what Mark Woolley’s been doing. I think his entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking has been great to watch.
What three pieces of advice would you give to anyone at the start of their career?
