<p class="g_eyebrow_text">BACKSTORY</p>

The Right Side Hustle

I wanted a semi-absentee model that I could balance with my job and the franchise consultant that I was working with presented three concepts to review and I went to Discovery Days and talked to franchisees. One was a membership model and operations heavy, so that was a no. Another seemed a good operational fit but I didn't like the vibe of the ownership and there were not really really good sites available in the territory. At My Salon Suite, I really liked the owner of the company, he came across as a very humble guy, a straight shooter. I also talked to franchisees who had been in business for a couple of years. I liked the model on paper, but after I met with the company owner and the franchisees that validated my feeling. I felt good about the company and that I should move forward. I did not have any salon experience but other attributes about the business really resonated with me in terms of my background and my skill set.

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Finding the Career-Entrepreneur Life Balance

Back in 2016, I still had my nine-to-five corporate job as an engineer but I wanted to start something I owned where I could balance my job and still grow a business and not need to be there eight hours a day. We had a convenience store business for about five years, a 7-11 that my wife mostly ran, so I had some experience from helping her. I knew I wanted something that was scalable and also was a business where I could use my technical expertise and project management and problem solving skills. My Salon Suite looked like it was very much a predictable model where you have a lot of data, facts, figures and you can scale the business up or down. It sounded good, and I would still be able to manage my existing job and lifestyle. So that really drew me to the decision of moving forward.

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">CHALLENGE</p>

Learning the Business

The biggest challenge I had was being new in the business. I was an engineer and had never stepped into a ladies salon, and now I'm running a salon. So of course I had to learn things.

Construction management in general, but mostly it was learning specific things. How do I do marketing? How do I get the tenants?  What type of tenants are the correct fit for this business model? I cannot just take any person and expect them to be successful. Sometimes they fail. So I learned to be more careful about selecting tenants. I learned to be more flexible. For example, if there were two stylists who wanted to share one suite I needed to be open to that idea. Learning to leverage things that will increase my occupancy. And I'm still learning. As you grow you keep learning.

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">SOLUTION</p>

The Right Partner

ApplePie has been great. Not all banks will fund these kinds of concepts, but ApplePie understands the business model and they always provide creative solutions, whether it’s for new units, acquisitions, or how to recapitalize for growth. It makes sense and there is a definite value working with ApplePie Capital. For my first location I talked to couple lenders but I really liked the interaction with ApplePie. I really liked the way everything was handled. Very professional and I was happy with how it went.

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<p class="g_eyebrow_text">GROWTH</p>

Suite and Steady

When I started to grow, I would say my goal was to open a unit every nine months, but you know, there are always things that take longer than you think, so the goal was more like one unit per year. For each unit I am trying to time my loan. It's usually a four- to six-month cycle for a new unit, depending on the project. I start with my own down payment with the contractors for construction and try to get the loan funded when I am about a third of the way through. All the big payments come towards the end of the cycle so I try to time the funding that way.

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One challenge was finding the right people to hire. It's mostly the same type of work, but I just needed more manpower to manage the existing locations so I could focus on the new units. So, I kept hiring good managers and I kept growing.

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There have been more mom-and-pop shops that opened up in the last few years so there is more supply than demand, and occupancy has gone down a little. But we are always learning. How can we improve our digital marketing to generate leads and have a solid flow of candidates to lease out the suites? How do we create something unique for our members to stay with us? If we have a good location, have good operations and are properly priced, we get lower turnover and higher occupancy.

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What's Next

We live in a dynamic world and we have a big change with the new government. 

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We have ten licenses to fulfill so we have a couple more locations to open and then go from there. In the current environment we will probably focus on acquisition over a new build. Some mom-and-pops thought that this business was renting a storage unit or something and they are not able to manage it and the owners are putting their units up for sale. The advantage of acquisition is that most of these locations were built before the big jump in the prices and the units which were built five to ten years ago have depreciated. Acquiring these will be more cost-effective. If there is no location existing in the area I’m looking at I may do a new unit. If it’s in the right location and it’s the right business case.

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So right now we have to keep our eyes and ears open and tune our business. It is never a straight line, it will be up and down, but we are ready. When it's time to make a move we will work with ApplePie to try and get the deal done. There is still a great opportunity for this business to keep growing.

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Growth & Learning

I love every day to be honest with you. It started when I was working nine to five and doing this as a side hustle; then quitting my job and doing this full time. There's never been a dull moment, but the fantastic part about the whole journey is the growth.

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I look at it so differently now. For example, if somebody came to look at the place and we didn't close the deal, I used to kind of get frustrated. But now I don't look at it like that. I'm like, okay, they are not ready right now, but they will be ready a little further down the line. I try to not have a take-it or leave-it mindset. What works for you? Tell me what works for you and let's find a solution that works for both of us. 

The learning has really been really rewarding. And it's fun, so the entire journey has been great. The best part is how I was able to grow and keep learning the different aspect of the business

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