Ok, I know i promised "The Mutany" over a week ago and i jumped off onto other topics. My bad. My goal was to give you the highlights of Supreme Clientele from the opening through the present time...but as you see, i may veer off of the path from time to time. But hey, as i said, its my blog and i can do that. Now...."The Mutany"
As you know, on any ship, there's a one captain, a shipmate and rest of the crew. A mutany occurs when the crew is able to overcome the shipmate and form a union against the captain. This, in my oppinion is exactly what happened to me. Now, others may have their oppinions regarding what actually happened, what were the "real" motives, etc...but from my point of view, i saw a MUTANY. Admittedly, during the first year of Supreme Clientele, things were not perfect or ideal...hell, some days it looked down right dismal. I mean, what people have to realize is that we were a small business - start up. That titles says so much, but is so underestimated to many. what that says is that we have a greater chance of failure than we do of success. it says that many people will not patronize our business right away because word of mouth has not provided us with its service. it says that even on the best day...we are still learining to grow and recovering from what we don't know. everything is stacked against you and the only thing you have is your faith, your vision and hopefully a crew that will stick with you when things are tough. well,that's what gives way to mutany... when people get hungry and look at you as the reason they are not eating. when someone gets jealous and has a cancer-like affect on the rest of the team...AND when the captain assumes that his shipmate and crew are completely behind him. and honestly, this is the ONLY way a ship can move.... if the shipmate and crew are 100% behind the captain and his direction of the ship. when there's one who doubts...it spreads like the worst disease. and as we know, jealousy and misery are diseases. they cannot survive alone...they need to tranfer energy into other parties in order to continue existence. and these diseases are so powerful. they are so strong...because they present themselves as the TRUTH or as alternative to something good. when in fact, they are just the opposite.
I take full responsibility for the mutany among the supreme clientele ship. hear me say it....I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY...as any good captain should. now, don't confuse this with me accepting blame, because i don't see that i did anything wrong. but i do understand where i could have done some things differently. but like we all know, hindsight is 20/20. who knew?
i take responsibility because i assumed they were all full, mature adults with individual minds...and who understood what situation they were in...a small business start up! I assumed that each of them had Supreme Clientele's best interest in mind, as i did. I assumed that they understood that we'd encounter some rain, a few storms and some inclimate weather....but we WOULD NOT SINK. i assumed they understood this. along with these naive assumptions....I assumed that they did not need to see me to do what was needed. I was not aware that my face and my pressence...even thought i wasn't cutting any heads....was needed that badly. Not that i was just coming in on saturday to collect booth rent...but from my perspective, i didn't want to be overbearing. i didn't want them to think i was standing over them. I wanted them to feel free to be creative without me watching their every move. Besides, the place was so small that when we DID get busy, i was just standing somewhere feeling like i was in the way. so all of this is what i'd do differently and why i take responsibility, not blame. and even though what may have been viewed as negligence on my part...we still could have made it. bottom line was, i had a crew of historically discontent people who did not have it within themselves to grow their own businesses. if you are unaware...in a booth rental situation, it is your responsibility to acquire, maintain and grown your clientele. its my responsibility to keep the place open, bills paid, clean and of course to try to market as much as possible for the entire salon. but again, we are in an infant stage...and everything is fragile. so the advertising budget was minimal if at all....hell it was coming out of my pocket and i did what i could. but if you read my first blog, u know that i was barely scrapping wooden nickels together at that point. so, now...(from what i can decipher now) the crew members were beginning to look at me like,"he's not putting butts in the seats for me" and "he doesn't care about the shop because he's not here enough". i'm sayin....who knew? and i would have thought that my shipmate would have pulled me to the side and alerted me of the discontentment...but that didn't happen. again, i assumed that they all had Supreme Clientele's best interest in mind. So, i began to notice that people were not coming to work as often as before. and even when they were there, there was no fellowship...just do hair and go home. whereas before, people would hang around and be a part of the atmosphere. i saw this out of my peripheral, but i couldn't see what was coming. i was so stressed out from just trying to maintain the financials of the business, i let the personnel issues sneak by me. now enters the cancer...the ONE element needed for any successful mutany, rebellion, overthrow or whatever you want to call it. for discretion's sake, i'll call this person CRISPUS ATTUCKS. if you don't know who that is, i won't tell you. you need to read your history book. Crispus was always the loud talking person in the shop...opinions more abundant than butt holes. Crispus made it his point to let everyone know as often as he could the he was "all knowing". and i'll admit, i fell for it too. i put trust in him because we had mutual friends. i thought he was a good guy. a friend of ours. (donnie brasco). turned out to be a dumski...a JAKE!
having had the opportunity to let things settle, i now know how crispus was talking about me behind my back...conspiring to overthrow my ship and disrupt my vision. i mean, what makes it so bad is that this cat was carrying a napsack when he came to supreme clientele. and when i say carrying a napsack, i mean that he had no place to work. he had no where to cut. he was out of work! dude called me in need of something right away. and i obliged. i was glad he'd fallen my way. he was mad nice with the clippers and he had mad clientele. dude's work was known around here and i had him. but what i know now is that he had his eye on my crown from the jump, sick that i pulled off, with no experience, what he couldn't seem to do with 15 years in the game. DONT HATE ME PLAYA...HATE MY SWAGGER!
ok, ok...back to the point. so i know now that this cat was telling people i was about to close when clearly i wasn't, tellin people that i'm not doing this or that...and i'm not even gone tell you bout how Crispus was lying about his affiliation. oh boy! so i opened my doors to him when he needed it. he became the anchor that i needed. i felt like joe torre and derek jeter. now that i think about it, the Nas joint, ETHER describes this situation. yeah...ETHER! so i don't know the details of how things worked themselves out...duh..its a mutany..not a corporate downsizing. but we got Crispus Attucks, who for some reason, is discontent...with the gift to gab and to sway weaker minds. Now, i'm not "saying" that he flat out just strong armed the crew into going along with the mutany...but i find it hard to believe that things were just that coincidental.
I get a phone call...rather a voicemail from Crispus like,"today is my last day." i'm like man, how cowardly is that...but more importanly, WHY? what was his beef? his clientele was good? what did i do to him? he clearly didn't want to to talk to me cuz he left a VM at damn 7:30 am. that was what got me heated. how he want out like dat. So, i go to the shop and now my shipmate like, "i'm leaving". whao....this is NOT a coincidence. something is happening here. next day, another crew member who strate up told me to my face, "i'm not leaving", said, "i guess you heard, we leaving". oh really...WE? so, yall leaving in packages now? so now you can imagine how i'm feeling...in one day i got 3 people who just decided to jump ship. i'm heated cuz i didn't see it comin. upset cuz i have to take it on the chin and be professional about it and disgusted cuz i'm thinking, how am i gonna pay the bills till i re-staff? the fourth person...i'll call this one BRUTUS, from Julius Ceasar. "et tu Brutae". LMAO... yo, on the real, i never knew that those boring english literature classes would ever come in handy. i hated reading Julius Ceasar....but i understood it tho. i understood what happened. and so, BRUTUS. the last one to jump. by this time, i already knew what Brutus was going to say so i just made it easy on him. like,"yeah...yeah..yeah...mmhmm...thanks." so, now in two days, i'd lost 4 of my 6 members and i was STUCK. i was beyond going back to the drawing board, hell there wasn't anything to draw. And how's this for coincidence...each of them went to the same salon. C'mon....you telling me that this wasn't planned? You telling me that a cancer didn't infect my staff? You telling me that everybody just happened to be feeling the same way and saw the same out? at the same time?
What had they done to Supreme Clientele? What had they done to my vision? There's no way i can run a business with the two remaining people when the bills were more than what the 7 of us could pay for. I guess the sensible thing to do is to call it a dream. close the curtains. rap it up.
But like Ali said when they thought Foreman would kill him..."THEY SAID THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE END MUHAMMAD ALI...WELL THEY MISJUDGED...THEY GOT IT WRONG".
and that is exactly what they did. They got it wrong. I would not close the doors. My faith would NOT waiver and my vision would remain as clear as ever. The TOUGH TWO who stayed showed me that Supreme Clientele was bigger than one individual and even a conspiring crew. At that point, Supreme Clientele became a movement! i felt as unstoppable as ever...even while looking into the eyes of defeat. I guess i felt like, "well...i've hit the bottom, there's no way to go but up. That bullisht just motivated me to be even better than i was and twice as good as they gave me credit for. I had the TOUGH TWO and myself. funny how i was comforted with that thought. i felt like the cancer was gone....the members that were affected by the cancer were gone and now....NOW i have a crew of dedicated shipmen. Sail On....Sail On!
As always, thank for following my journey.
Please leave me comments. keep them professional.
Peace,
Ramont
Next entry....The Second Coming....the building of the Supreme TEAM.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Dieting Doesn't Work
This morning, i sent my staff members a text message...as i often do. Usually whenever i get a thought or epiphany that i think can help us elevate our business, i don't hesitate to send out a mass text distro. This morning's was interesting enough that i thought it deserved a full blog.
DIETING DOESN'T WORK!
We are all too familiar with the woes of the dieting game. Those who have tried it will tell you that it doesn't work, regardless of what the name of it is. Now, i'm not saying that dieting doesn't help...because it can. It can help you temporarily lose weight, which is what it is designed to do. What isn't told to you is that after you diet and lose the desired weight, you have to change your lifestyle in order to maintain it. If you stop with the diet pills or the drinks or even the excercise you will gain all the wieght back and then some. And usually you gain it back faster than it took you to lose it. So, what do u do..you diet again and again and again. Some people never get it. Its not the diet that works. Its the LIFESTYLE CHANGE that's the key. Dieting is like sprinting in a marathon. Yeah, you'll start faster and you'll be in the lead in the beginning, but you can't sustain an all out sprint for the duration of the marathon. so eventually, you will get tired and begin to fall back, while the people who maintained a constant speed will pass you by. A lifestyle change is similar to the person who maintains a steady pace in the marathon...remaining disciplined not to go too fast, but making sure that they dont go too slow. Its the discipline!!
ok, here's where i get on my soap box and get off of the topic..but since we are talking about it (well, really i'm talkin. you just reading and taking mental notes) this concept applies to relationships as well. How, you ask? well, sit back and i'll tell you.
In relationships, couples go through the rough times. There's no doubt. And its not always that one person is bad or worse than the other. You have to realize that we are all still growing, even as we have significant others. We grow until we die. So, in our relationships, we take for granted that our partner is experiencing things in his or her own way (even while with you) and interpretting things differently than you do. and this is ONE key reason that communication is the most critical element of a relationship. MESSAGE!!!
but as we grow in different ways, we hit stumbling blocks in our relationships. and this is where the dieting starts. We'll sit down (hopefully) and say, "ok, i'll change this. I'll stop doing that. I'll do this better".
what we are essentially doing is starting a relationship diet, where we quick fix the problem with altering our actions..but not changing our lifestyle.
if a man's wife has an issue with him going out...he can't all of a sudden stop goin out. its who he is and what he does. its his vice. so he may stay home for a while...a few months ,but then either you'll see a discontent man at home or he'll go right back to doing what he was doing. if a man's woman isn't giving him any and he complains...she may just get extremely freaky for a while...giving you more than you've ever had. but eventually, she'll taper off or you'll notice you are being intimate with a stiff. (LOL. for real)
she went on a relationship diet..but she didn't change her lifestyle.
So in these cases, we need to identify what the issue is..and make a productive, sustaining lifestyle change that will prove beneficial for the duration of the relationship. NOT for the right now. Even though getting too much loving will never get complaints from any dude.
Now, back to what i was really saying...I notice that we Diet in the salon too much. I'll have a meeting and initiate certain things that need to take place or i'll continue to beat the customer service horse to death as i always do. and for a week or so, the people that i need to stay on the most will be great. they will enhance their customer service and do and say all the right things. But soon enough, i'll notice it taper off. they will revert back to what they were doing before. So this is what i've called the "customer service diet". and its not to say that the service gets worse than before. no. its that i become less tolerant and more critical than before. why? because you showed me you CAN DO IT. you just dont do it consistently. and that pisses me off more than someone who just can't do it. So, my challenge is to find out what each person eliminates in his/her diet and work toward providing a sustainable plan to rid them of it all together. i guess patience on my part is the key here, huh? Hell no! We not in a relationship and we aint over weight. this is business and i want a marathon runner not a sprinter and i want it now! So, for any of my barbers or stylists who are on a customer service diet....here i come!
(they know i love em)
As always, comments are appreciated. I want to hear what you have to say.
keep it clean.
Peace,
Ramont.
DIETING DOESN'T WORK!
We are all too familiar with the woes of the dieting game. Those who have tried it will tell you that it doesn't work, regardless of what the name of it is. Now, i'm not saying that dieting doesn't help...because it can. It can help you temporarily lose weight, which is what it is designed to do. What isn't told to you is that after you diet and lose the desired weight, you have to change your lifestyle in order to maintain it. If you stop with the diet pills or the drinks or even the excercise you will gain all the wieght back and then some. And usually you gain it back faster than it took you to lose it. So, what do u do..you diet again and again and again. Some people never get it. Its not the diet that works. Its the LIFESTYLE CHANGE that's the key. Dieting is like sprinting in a marathon. Yeah, you'll start faster and you'll be in the lead in the beginning, but you can't sustain an all out sprint for the duration of the marathon. so eventually, you will get tired and begin to fall back, while the people who maintained a constant speed will pass you by. A lifestyle change is similar to the person who maintains a steady pace in the marathon...remaining disciplined not to go too fast, but making sure that they dont go too slow. Its the discipline!!
ok, here's where i get on my soap box and get off of the topic..but since we are talking about it (well, really i'm talkin. you just reading and taking mental notes) this concept applies to relationships as well. How, you ask? well, sit back and i'll tell you.
In relationships, couples go through the rough times. There's no doubt. And its not always that one person is bad or worse than the other. You have to realize that we are all still growing, even as we have significant others. We grow until we die. So, in our relationships, we take for granted that our partner is experiencing things in his or her own way (even while with you) and interpretting things differently than you do. and this is ONE key reason that communication is the most critical element of a relationship. MESSAGE!!!
but as we grow in different ways, we hit stumbling blocks in our relationships. and this is where the dieting starts. We'll sit down (hopefully) and say, "ok, i'll change this. I'll stop doing that. I'll do this better".
what we are essentially doing is starting a relationship diet, where we quick fix the problem with altering our actions..but not changing our lifestyle.
if a man's wife has an issue with him going out...he can't all of a sudden stop goin out. its who he is and what he does. its his vice. so he may stay home for a while...a few months ,but then either you'll see a discontent man at home or he'll go right back to doing what he was doing. if a man's woman isn't giving him any and he complains...she may just get extremely freaky for a while...giving you more than you've ever had. but eventually, she'll taper off or you'll notice you are being intimate with a stiff. (LOL. for real)
she went on a relationship diet..but she didn't change her lifestyle.
So in these cases, we need to identify what the issue is..and make a productive, sustaining lifestyle change that will prove beneficial for the duration of the relationship. NOT for the right now. Even though getting too much loving will never get complaints from any dude.
Now, back to what i was really saying...I notice that we Diet in the salon too much. I'll have a meeting and initiate certain things that need to take place or i'll continue to beat the customer service horse to death as i always do. and for a week or so, the people that i need to stay on the most will be great. they will enhance their customer service and do and say all the right things. But soon enough, i'll notice it taper off. they will revert back to what they were doing before. So this is what i've called the "customer service diet". and its not to say that the service gets worse than before. no. its that i become less tolerant and more critical than before. why? because you showed me you CAN DO IT. you just dont do it consistently. and that pisses me off more than someone who just can't do it. So, my challenge is to find out what each person eliminates in his/her diet and work toward providing a sustainable plan to rid them of it all together. i guess patience on my part is the key here, huh? Hell no! We not in a relationship and we aint over weight. this is business and i want a marathon runner not a sprinter and i want it now! So, for any of my barbers or stylists who are on a customer service diet....here i come!
(they know i love em)
As always, comments are appreciated. I want to hear what you have to say.
keep it clean.
Peace,
Ramont.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
"Cuz We Black"
I know i said the next blog would be "the mutany", but i wanted to get this off my chest and into the universe before i forgot. "cuz we black". Too many times we blame negative cultures, patterns, deliberate ignorance, down right stupidity and lack of plain old common sense on being black and keepin it real.
Like Chris Rock said, "keepin it real dumb".
As a black owned and 98% black operated business, one of my challenges is raising the level of expectations of the people who work for me. As in any salon, we have our days. You know, the ones where you just want to say, "are u serious?. are we really that petty? are we really that rediculous?". i've always been accused of being a pefectionist, sometimes anal and always too controlling. you know what, i'll accept that. if that's what it takes to get to the top, then like Muhammad Ali said, "if it means good, then i'm it". but sometimes i hear the most rediculous excuse for things i consider just plain ignorant. and i don't mean ignorant in the true sense of not knowing..but ignorant in the sense of knowing better and still not doing the right thing. i've had a staff member tell me on more than one occasion, "u can't stop that petty stuff cuz that's just how black women are". or, "that's what black people are used to in a salon". i cringed when i heard that i hate it when they actually fall back on "being black" as an expectation to do something unprofessional or just down right stupid. yeah, i said it...down right stupid. its my blog and i can say what i want. (lol) i gotta call it like i see it.
we had a staff meeting the other day...and of course i knew which people would be late. and the excuse was...as always..."you know black people always late". man i wanted to throw a chair across the room. THAT'S NO EXCUSE! i couldn't take anymore. i told them right then and there that we will no longer use "being black" as a reason, excuse or justification for doing something unprofessional or dumb. that puts our entire race on blast just cuz you cant get right. NO, its not cuz you're black. its cuz your ass don't want anything out of life outside of what you know and you scared to grow. i've heard jokes when people talk in slang one second..but as soon as the phone ring, they got this nose pinched, way too proper voice that they think sounds "white". and its funny that when a white person comes in, people sound so different when they speak to them, like they are ashamed to be who they are. after all...its a black owned business and they came in to get a service. Why are we changing our voices? Why are we tightening up our speech now? we didn't go into their establishment. they came to us. Now, for all my white clients, hispanic clients, associates and whatnot...this is not to say anything negative toward you. Keep coming in. i still love you! (LOL) i'm just callin what i see as disfunction among blacks. So,when this newfound voice appears, i hear, "i had to put on my white voice". WTF is that? were we just freed or something? are we still shuffling our feet and kicking rocks when they enter a room? hell naw. this attitude and frame of thinking is still a slave mentality. its a mentality that says, "white" equals professionalism and "black" equals labor. why is the white voice the professional voice. why can't we learn to sound professional at all times. after all, professionalism DOES NOT HAVE A COLOR!!! if anything, its green. cuz the better you are at it, the more green you'll see. so, as i was saying (sometimes my soap box gets too big), i told them that we will no longer use black as an excuse or an escape for striving for greatness or being professional. i told them, as far as i know, and whether anyone wants to admit it, black has, is and always will be the thing to be. its the standard for everything. the average age in our salon is maybe 33. how many black owned businesses with 15 employess can successfully operate a multi cultural, unisex barbershop and salon with an owner who didn't know isht two years ago? its very rare and we've done it. so when i hear what we can't do or what we aren't doing because we are black. i tell them, look at what we have accomplished, are doing and what we will become...BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK! We are achieving cooperative economics and they don't even know it. we are keeping the dollar circulating in our supreme community and they don't even realize it. one person who does hair, will send a client across the hall to get her eye brows waxed. then they'll send them down hall to get a design in her hair and then up to the front to buy a t-shirt. we are circulating the dollar within our own salon. there are so many things that we are doing that they don't realize and i'm trying to raise the consciousness of each and every one of them so that they'll realize that being black is a badge of honor not a patch of ignorance.
WE WILL BE ON TIME
WE WILL NOT USE PROFANITY
WE WILL NOT KEEP IT REAL
WE WILL TAKE OWNERSHIP OF OUR BUSINESS
WE WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE
WE WILL EXPECT TO BE THE BEST
these are all things that have no color barrier, but some think that being black gives you the right NOT do them and somehow justify it. well, not anymore. not on my watch. its Supreme Clientele, dammit..not average clientele.
and as forrest gump would say, "that's all i have to say about that".
.....or maybe i'm just too sensitive!!! (LOL)
Talk to me...
as always, keep it clean.
Peace
Ramont
Like Chris Rock said, "keepin it real dumb".
As a black owned and 98% black operated business, one of my challenges is raising the level of expectations of the people who work for me. As in any salon, we have our days. You know, the ones where you just want to say, "are u serious?. are we really that petty? are we really that rediculous?". i've always been accused of being a pefectionist, sometimes anal and always too controlling. you know what, i'll accept that. if that's what it takes to get to the top, then like Muhammad Ali said, "if it means good, then i'm it". but sometimes i hear the most rediculous excuse for things i consider just plain ignorant. and i don't mean ignorant in the true sense of not knowing..but ignorant in the sense of knowing better and still not doing the right thing. i've had a staff member tell me on more than one occasion, "u can't stop that petty stuff cuz that's just how black women are". or, "that's what black people are used to in a salon". i cringed when i heard that i hate it when they actually fall back on "being black" as an expectation to do something unprofessional or just down right stupid. yeah, i said it...down right stupid. its my blog and i can say what i want. (lol) i gotta call it like i see it.
we had a staff meeting the other day...and of course i knew which people would be late. and the excuse was...as always..."you know black people always late". man i wanted to throw a chair across the room. THAT'S NO EXCUSE! i couldn't take anymore. i told them right then and there that we will no longer use "being black" as a reason, excuse or justification for doing something unprofessional or dumb. that puts our entire race on blast just cuz you cant get right. NO, its not cuz you're black. its cuz your ass don't want anything out of life outside of what you know and you scared to grow. i've heard jokes when people talk in slang one second..but as soon as the phone ring, they got this nose pinched, way too proper voice that they think sounds "white". and its funny that when a white person comes in, people sound so different when they speak to them, like they are ashamed to be who they are. after all...its a black owned business and they came in to get a service. Why are we changing our voices? Why are we tightening up our speech now? we didn't go into their establishment. they came to us. Now, for all my white clients, hispanic clients, associates and whatnot...this is not to say anything negative toward you. Keep coming in. i still love you! (LOL) i'm just callin what i see as disfunction among blacks. So,when this newfound voice appears, i hear, "i had to put on my white voice". WTF is that? were we just freed or something? are we still shuffling our feet and kicking rocks when they enter a room? hell naw. this attitude and frame of thinking is still a slave mentality. its a mentality that says, "white" equals professionalism and "black" equals labor. why is the white voice the professional voice. why can't we learn to sound professional at all times. after all, professionalism DOES NOT HAVE A COLOR!!! if anything, its green. cuz the better you are at it, the more green you'll see. so, as i was saying (sometimes my soap box gets too big), i told them that we will no longer use black as an excuse or an escape for striving for greatness or being professional. i told them, as far as i know, and whether anyone wants to admit it, black has, is and always will be the thing to be. its the standard for everything. the average age in our salon is maybe 33. how many black owned businesses with 15 employess can successfully operate a multi cultural, unisex barbershop and salon with an owner who didn't know isht two years ago? its very rare and we've done it. so when i hear what we can't do or what we aren't doing because we are black. i tell them, look at what we have accomplished, are doing and what we will become...BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK! We are achieving cooperative economics and they don't even know it. we are keeping the dollar circulating in our supreme community and they don't even realize it. one person who does hair, will send a client across the hall to get her eye brows waxed. then they'll send them down hall to get a design in her hair and then up to the front to buy a t-shirt. we are circulating the dollar within our own salon. there are so many things that we are doing that they don't realize and i'm trying to raise the consciousness of each and every one of them so that they'll realize that being black is a badge of honor not a patch of ignorance.
WE WILL BE ON TIME
WE WILL NOT USE PROFANITY
WE WILL NOT KEEP IT REAL
WE WILL TAKE OWNERSHIP OF OUR BUSINESS
WE WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE
WE WILL EXPECT TO BE THE BEST
these are all things that have no color barrier, but some think that being black gives you the right NOT do them and somehow justify it. well, not anymore. not on my watch. its Supreme Clientele, dammit..not average clientele.
and as forrest gump would say, "that's all i have to say about that".
.....or maybe i'm just too sensitive!!! (LOL)
Talk to me...
as always, keep it clean.
Peace
Ramont
Faith....Trials of Starting up
As happy as i was to finally have the salon open and running (well....the doors were open), now reality set in. The reality that all the hard work, money and energy that i went into getting the doors opened had ABSOLUTELY nothing do do with paying the rent and light bill on the 1st of the month! LOL! (i can laugh now). I'm one of those personalities where i have to experience something for myself to learn it. I don't like asking for advice or following something that someone else has already done. So with that, i didn't have any advisors, mentors or anyone with salon experience on my side. I didnt ask all the "right" questions..hell i didn't ask any! So, now that the doors were opened and i have two employees looking at me, i had to figure out WHAT NEXT. How did i adverstise? how did i go about getting more barbers and stylists? and most importantly, how the hell am i gonna pay the bills next month? This is where Faith stepped in and took over, i guess. I've always rolled with motto: pray for what you want, work hard for what you need. And dispite not having the peices of the puzzle in clear view..i had and dogmatic confidence in one thing....I WILL NOT LOSE! Failing was not an option. So, i began hitting the streets, talking to whomever i could get an ear from, i slowly learned how to advertise and most of all...i believed in what i was selling, customer service. So, even as we were slow and understaffed, the people we did serve were highly impressed and began to spread the word. and if i hadn't learned anything in this business, its that word of mouth is the greatest adverstisement for a salon. if can be a gift and a curse, depending on what you put out there. And just like a customer wants great service, so do barbers and stylists. I was learning that there were barbers and stylists who wanted an upgrade. They wanted to give their clients more than just a hair service. They wanted to enhance the experience. After all..the more you give, the more you can justify your price. So, not only was my service driven approach reaching customers, but barbers and stylist began to inquire about working for me. WHEW!! now we were beginning to cook with grease. we added 1 barber, then another and 2 more, all by word of mouth. Within 6 months, we had 6 people. Great. All except for 1 thing. I still couldn't cover the bills. I had no clue the light bill would be so high. I had no clue that paper towels and tissue and supplies would cost so much and that anything that could go wrong would...twice. So everything that i'd saved for a rainy day was gone and i was quickly going negative. There were just so many things that went along with opening those doors. How naive was i? But i was determined not to quit. I'd rather a million people know that i failed, than for 1 to know i quit! It got ugly. i mean real ugly. From a financial standpoint, i was strapped. i didn't have any advertising cash, getting supplies was a challenge and paying the bills on time just wasn't a possibility. By this time, i'm juggling my mortgage, car note, house bills and the salon bills and i was in over my head. You always hear about "grand opening...grand closing" for so many small businesses and you wonder why. you wonder how so many good ideas don't make it. and they say that 90% of small businesses don't last 2 years. Hell it hadn't even been 6 months and i was about to become a statistic. NOsir! I had a hot idea, a vision to make it work, but i lacked money and experience. it didn't look for me at all. But i had faith that i'd figure it out somehow, someway. So when all else fails..what do you do....u blow the joint! no, really....u liquidate. I sold the nice leather furniture for a good price and replaced them with cheaper seats. I sold the 20" rims on my car and put back on the factory joints. I sold the desk in the front that wasn't making me any money and bought a vending machine. I sold everything that i knew would go quickly and i was able to scrath up on some investment cash from some friends (good lookin). now, i had something to work with. i took that money and converted some unused space into another room for another barber/stylist. So i took out things that weren't making money and got more revenue opportunites out of my square footage. and the light bulb clicked! "so this is what they mean by maximizing your square footage". i thought i understood it before...but having to go throught that really made me see it clearly. In business, sometimes we get caught up in our ideas and our perfect visions, as i did. but the bottom line is, was and always will be...U GOTTA MAKE MONEY first. not comprimising your integrity...but perhaps altering your vision temporarily to fund your dream. So, even though i was still broke as a joke, with two jobs, Supreme Clientele looked to be on its way to sustaining itself soon. It was then that i thought.."ok, i got the hang of this thing". (Yeah right)
Next entry: The Mutany
Comments are appreciated. Please keep them professional.
Peace
Ramont
Next entry: The Mutany
Comments are appreciated. Please keep them professional.
Peace
Ramont
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Becoming Supreme
Welcome to the Supreme Experience....a journey in the day in the life as the owner of Surpreme Clientele Hair Studio. And trust me, it is definately a journey. From August 2006 until today, becoming supreme clientele has been full of ups and downs and tons of learning experiences. But through it all...we've grown and overcome the obstacles of a start up business. Today, i can proudly boast that Supreme Clientele is well on its way to being exactly what i intended....#1.
Two years ago, Supreme Clientele was a vision. It was a thought that started in college as i began to dabble in cutting hair for extra cash. What began as a money making effort, soon became a hobby and a passion. Who knew that cutting my friends hair for free would turn into a profitable business?
I realized early what people were lacking...customer service. It wasnt' the hair cut that kept them faithful, although my quality soon became top knotch. It was the fact that i was available when they needed me. I catered to their schedules and needs and took ownership of making them look and feel good. It was then that i first thought, "there are plenty of people who need this same treatment and are willing to pay for it". That became the foundation to the Surpeme Clientele vision...excellent customer service. Where other guys were selling hair cuts, i sold customer service by means of cutting hair.
There's no gimmicks, no themes, just excellent customer service. That would be my nitch in the game. Even today, as i hire employees, talk to clients or tell someone about the salon...i talk about customer service first. That is what will keep people coming back.
In August, 2006 Supreme Clientle opened with 2 people. TWO! Many people thought I was crazy for opening a salon with no previous experience, no connections or without having even steppin in a salon in austin to see what others were doing. I tell people, "i don't care what other salons are doing. if my vision is captured, it won't matter. i will succeed". After months of hard work, we opened the doors with two people and we sat..and sat...and sat as we watch the door remain closed. Behold...a client..a walkin! I was so excited, but i didn't show it because i had to act like i expected it. I got my first dollar as a business owner. i still have it framed at my new location today. It was official. i had turned a vision into a reality. I had done the unthinkable. I had become supreme clientele.
check back for my next blog, "Faith. The trials and tribulations of Starting Up"
Follow my blog and my journey.
Please keep comments respectful.
Peace,
Ramont
Two years ago, Supreme Clientele was a vision. It was a thought that started in college as i began to dabble in cutting hair for extra cash. What began as a money making effort, soon became a hobby and a passion. Who knew that cutting my friends hair for free would turn into a profitable business?
I realized early what people were lacking...customer service. It wasnt' the hair cut that kept them faithful, although my quality soon became top knotch. It was the fact that i was available when they needed me. I catered to their schedules and needs and took ownership of making them look and feel good. It was then that i first thought, "there are plenty of people who need this same treatment and are willing to pay for it". That became the foundation to the Surpeme Clientele vision...excellent customer service. Where other guys were selling hair cuts, i sold customer service by means of cutting hair.
There's no gimmicks, no themes, just excellent customer service. That would be my nitch in the game. Even today, as i hire employees, talk to clients or tell someone about the salon...i talk about customer service first. That is what will keep people coming back.
In August, 2006 Supreme Clientle opened with 2 people. TWO! Many people thought I was crazy for opening a salon with no previous experience, no connections or without having even steppin in a salon in austin to see what others were doing. I tell people, "i don't care what other salons are doing. if my vision is captured, it won't matter. i will succeed". After months of hard work, we opened the doors with two people and we sat..and sat...and sat as we watch the door remain closed. Behold...a client..a walkin! I was so excited, but i didn't show it because i had to act like i expected it. I got my first dollar as a business owner. i still have it framed at my new location today. It was official. i had turned a vision into a reality. I had done the unthinkable. I had become supreme clientele.
check back for my next blog, "Faith. The trials and tribulations of Starting Up"
Follow my blog and my journey.
Please keep comments respectful.
Peace,
Ramont
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