Small Business Shutdowns

From the perspective of a local business owner -

Studio19 Salon in Schaumburg

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I had the opportunity to interview a local salon owner and discuss in-depth the impact of Coronavirus / Covid-19 on her business. Being in Illinois, the governor has mandated shut downs of specific businesses as well as limited occupancy levels, impeding customer volume, which in turn effects total revenue generated. Read my interview below to learn how these political shutdowns have affected local business owners, and their families.

What is your company name?
Studio19

How long have you been in business?
Since March 2019

How did you start the business and what motivated you to do it?
I grew out of my existing salon and also wanted to incorporate my continuing education company with it. I was doing mostly onsite education, hosting classes with 1 or 2 people at a time. I built up a large volume of clientele, and started to host larger and larger classes over time. I thought that offering the camaraderie of a salon environment while simultaneously offering my education courses was a natural fit. I provide reasonable rates that others can afford, and I understood that component had to be there to be competitive. Having independent stylists rent space from me offers them the autonomy many are looking for when growing their own businesses.

What drives you to continue?
My whole life I’ve possessed the perseverance, and always work twice as hard as everyone else. When I am told I can’t continue, I take that as a challenge and push through. Bottom line, you can’t tell me I can’t do something.

What are your specialties/services?
Men and women’s hair coloring, hair extensions, men’s grooming, all by appointment only.

What is something that separates you from the competition?
I listen to customer’s needs and ask a thousand questions. I won’t do something that the customer doesn’t want. I am not going to touch your hair until I fully understand your needs as the client. It’s not about my own wishes, its about the client being happy with the services I am providing. Which in the end, equates to referrals and continued patronage.

How has Covid affected your business?
Well I have seen a decrease in the frequency of visits from our existing clients. Grooming doesn’t seem to be as important with the stay at home orders and many either are working from home, or simply are unemployed. The financial aspect plays a big role in supporting local businesses, and if they can’t spare the money on “luxuries”, they will choose to save that money and do it themselves.

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What is different now than pre-covid?
There has been a 25% overall decline in our business due to the restrictions. We take the necessary precautions required by the state so capacity has changed. We can’t have as many people in the shop at one time. Appointment volume has gone down. The good thing is we run a smaller shop so customers feel more comfortable here versus the larger corporate competitors.

For education, business has picked up due to more people being online. I had to reorganize our website to take orders online, to being on camera. We switched to 99% virtual with occasional private classes. With everything self-study and pre-recorded, I can get more education clients with just building content.

What are some things you wish you could do better?
Take more precautions so customers feel safer to visit our location. If there are extra safety measures we can take to get more business, that is something we should consider.

What are your business goals for 2021?
I’d like to get 1 more renter- a barber, I’ve got many male clients that I can share. As for the education company – I’d like to get more virtual classes as well as get more organized.

How do you get most of your customers today?
We get most of our clients via word of mouth with some social media via Facebook & Instagram.

Getting more clients has been an issue. Bigger salons can afford big marketing plans to survive, while for small businesses its much more difficult.

Google maps listings have been an asset for the reviews and people calling when they find me locally.

What is the best way customers can reach you on the web?
For stylist CEUs they can visit https://ILbeautyceu.com and for the hair salon they can visit https://studio19salon.org and pick your artist. Clients can call direct or text message to book an appointment.

What are some recurring questions you get from customers that you’d like to educate the general public on?
Education shouldn’t be cheap, but it should be affordable. Hair styling is a craft, not a hobby. Many disregard hair stylists as it being something that doesn’t require any skill, when it does. Some people compare rates to ours, and we aren’t the bottom of the barrel cheapest, for good reason. I feel we have average pricing, but with more value. You get a lot more with us than a large corporate location.

What is your suggestion to up and coming entrepreneurs trying to start a business like yours?
For the education side, you need a teacher’s license.

For up and coming hair stylists, look at your monthly sales of services. Add them up for the month, see what the total is. Look at the rent rates to where you plan on going, then subtract the rent from your profit. If you can pay for everything you need, and the numbers make sense, you will be fine. Don’t include tips or retail commission. Its important to choose your slowest month, so the numbers you factor are conservative. You don’t want to pick a peak month as that may be an anomaly and not typical.

In summary

As you can see, the shutdowns and mandates have significantly impacted local small businesses. This is just 1 of the millions of businesses restricted from generating a positive cash flow, in a time when they desperately need the income. The shutdowns are unconstitutional and need to be challenged across all states. Contact tracer data in multiple states has shown that grocery stores and large grocery chains, i.e Target, Walmart, etc are in fact the highest spreaders of Covid-19, yet the decision was made to limit small businesses instead. The science does not justify the political mandates.

If you own a small business, anywhere in the country, I’d like to interview you as well! I am looking to get perspectives from a variety of business owners. Contact me directly to discuss!