Tracy Young
Tracy Young, owner of Revive Salon Studios, the first business incubator for the hair and beauty profession in Lake Charles, knew that raising her three children meant her time at work would be limited. She had a passion for the beauty industry, but she’d grown tired of renting a booth, having others tell her what to do and when to do it, and holding the strings to her earning power. She was eager for a change that offered her more work-life balance. She was ready for empowerment and flexibility.
Wendy White McCown, owner of Studios at the Space, also understood how vital this type of flexibility was to many in her profession. “I graduated from hair school 30 years ago and opened Signatures Salons three years later, in 1996. The first 15 years, I worked five days behind the chair, and on my off days I worked on the business. My husband and family were instrumental in the success of the salon. It was a lot of work!”
According to Deloitte, an industry-leading auditing, consulting and advisory business, work-life balance appears to be the optimal way any industry or organization can engage and retain its female talent.
In their recent report, “Deloitte’s Women @ Work: A Global Outlook,” they based their findings on the responses of 5,000 women across 10 countries.
A Studio at Revive Salon
States the report: “One of the key findings for 2023 centers around working hours and flexibility. Results show that an organization’s ability (or inability) to offer women flexibility around when their work gets done is a top lever of engagement and retention — even more than where they work.” The beauty industry brings in an estimated revenue of $100 billion annually. Self-care is a personal investment, with haircuts, makeup and skin care listed as the top three categories. Women spend, on average, about $85 per month for self-care services and products.
Women also dominate the profession, with 93.7 percent females and 6.3 percent males. Yet only 29 percent of the leadership in the beauty industry is female. Fashion leadership averages 27 percent, and beauty media averages 15 percent, according to the LedBetter Gender Equality Index.
With this type of gender disparity in the beauty profession, is it any wonder that beauty salon owners decided there had to be an easier, more effective way to find empowerment for all?
McCown recalls hiring people gradually and offering them training before moving to her current location in 2001. “I retired my shears about 15 years ago to work solely on the business,” she says. “My team and I had created a three-day work week. While this was wildly successful, and we did that for years, some still wanted to own their own business.”
Wendy and her husband recently met a couple who owned many locations of the new business model Salon Suites. The couple hired Wendy and her husband to help with the Lake Charles location.
“Salon Suites or Salon Studios is a concept where the service provider rents a small room,” explains Wendy. “The room is equipped with a shampoo bowl, chair, station and mirror. It has a lock on the door because this is an individual’s own business. The owner schedules their own appointments, sells retail products of their choice, and works on their own schedule.
“We started this concept next to Signatures Salon to give local stylists an opportunity to be their own boss. They love it! We provide the space for them, which
includes all utilities so they can focus on their clients. And the clients love it, too. We recently sold Signatures Salon and now run the Studios at the Space to provide an inspiring atmosphere for those who want to be self-employed.”
For Young, the studio concept also opened so many possibilities, especially following the COVID pandemic and dual hurricane disasters in SWLA in 2020. “The proximity of workstations, stylists and clients became a problem post-COVID. The stylists were being forced to operate in separate confined spaces. This became the catalyst for a business opportunity.”
Young realized that creating a more private, safer environment meant a move from the traditional open-floor salon model to private suites. It was also a way to support and empower other stylists, who had all experienced a few years of hardships.
“I believe that having a dedicated studio space where a professional can come in and make it their own gives them a sense of ownership and the support to become an entrepreneur. They can also learn from one another and collaborate on best practices as they run their respective businesses. A space where you work for yourself, but not by yourself.”
Most importantly, however, Young realized the stylists now had a way to take home every dollar they made and call it their own. “Revive also features local artists’ work on the walls and in the halls of the establishment, and there is artwork for sale. This innovative idea was founded on
personal drive, the spirit of collaboration, and a post-pandemic, natural disaster economic need to ‘revive’ the local economy in Lake Charles.”
There are some drawbacks, notes Young. “Unlike other salons, there is no receptionist or lobby environment in Revive, so perhaps there needs to be more education done on salon studio etiquette with customers and potential clients. This is an appointment-preferred establishment; we have six businesses under one roof. Think of it like a food hall where there is no one host to greet you, but the multiple store fronts present themselves to welcome guests.”
Wendy White McCown
McCown also understands that there are clients who still want the traditional salon atmosphere and says the beauty salon industry as a whole is not going to go in the studio-concept direction.
“There was a time when a successful stylist really depended on a salon with a really good reputation to help build their business,” she says. “I still think that can be important. However, today, it’s easier for a stylist to build their businesses with social media, which was not available years ago. In the past, we always did a lot of buzz marketing. The stylists would also grow their clientele by word-of-mouth. New clients would come into the salon because they’d heard good things about it, and the education we were providing.
“Now booking apps take the place of computers, and stylists can work their appointments off the apps. But I still think there is a place for traditional salons that have a professional front desk team and a nice retail section and are employee-based.”
Young’s Revive Salon Studios has a primary business mission: To inspire style. And not just for their customers, says Young. “It’s also inspiring for the business model or style, by which a professional in the local hair and beauty industry can grow and go. With the Revive concept, studio owners do not have to worry about overhead or buildout construction costs. They rent a space, move in, decorate using their personal branding style, and then start booking. Each private studio is equipped as if it were a small salon, which is a primary differentiator from other salon businesses in the area. Each studio has its own shampoo bowl, style station, dryer, refrigerator and custom cabinetry. Our owners also enjoy a supportive team of like-minded owners around them to learn from, which helps to nurture and grow their business”
Studies At The Space
While salon studio offer flexibility, studio owners know their stylists will leave one day. But they’re excited about watching them succeed, eventually finding the right time to go off on their own. Young says it gives her great joy that this concept provides a secure launch pad for the future.
What does it look like when organizations prioritize work-life balance for women, offering them flexibility and control over how and when they work? From the outside looking in, it looks like a successful new business model. There’s room for expansion, creativity, and support. It offers the proper ratio of quality and quantity. Perhaps balance isn’t even the right word, as that connotes conflict. True empowerment, women have learned, comes not from conflict, but from seeing opportunity, and seizing it along with a positive blending of self, family, community and careers.
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