Episode 220
Building Your Biz + The State of Education & Licensing | Vonetta Dumas Jennings | Member, DC Board Barb & Cosm | Owner, Signature Image Salon | Educator | Author
Tune in as Vonetta shares insights on building a beauty business, navigating salon ownership, and the industry's evolving landscape of education and licensing.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
🔅Have a Roadmap for Success: Planning and setting clear goals are essential for navigating the complexities of salon ownership.
🔅Work-Life Balance is Essential: Finding balance is key, especially post-pandemic, as salon owners juggle personal well-being and business demands.
🔅Invest in Staff Training and Development: Building a strong team through continuous education ensures long-term success and staff alignment with salon goals.
🔅Integrity Builds Trust: Maintaining integrity in client relationships reduces mistakes, dissatisfaction, and the need for redos, fostering client loyalty.
🔅Address the Risks of Unlicensed Activities: Unregulated services can harm both consumers and the industry’s reputation, highlighting the importance of proper licensing.
🔅Collaboration Creates Better Outcomes: Stronger partnerships between schools and salons can offer students real-world experience, preparing them better for industry challenges.
👉Follow Vonetta on Instagram
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Transcript
Vanetta Dumas Jennings is a 30 year industry veteran, image specialist, salon owner, author, educator.
Robert Hughes:She sits on the D.C.
Robert Hughes:board of Barbering and Cosmetology and she does community advocacy.
Robert Hughes:Last time we talked, we heard about her story from high school all the way up to going into salon ownership.
Robert Hughes:And if you missed that story, definitely go back and watch it because it's filled with all kinds of incredible information.
Robert Hughes:Now today we're going to pick up where we left off and we're going to talk about salon ownership, community advocacy and getting and what it's like and how they, how she got on the board.
Robert Hughes:D.C.
Robert Hughes:board of Barbering Cosmetology.
Robert Hughes:So welcome back to the Hairdresser Strong Show.
Robert Hughes:I am your host, Robert Hughes and today I'm with Vanetta.
Robert Hughes:How you doing today, Vanetta?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm great.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Thank you again for having me.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm super excited.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:This is fun.
Robert Hughes:Yeah, I agree.
Robert Hughes:I'm, I'm really thoroughly enjoying this conversation.
Robert Hughes:I'm, I really love your story and all your messaging that you have to have, you have that you shared so far.
Robert Hughes:So again, if you're listening or watching and you're just tuning in, I strongly advise you go back and check out the first episode before you listen to this one.
Robert Hughes:If you're tuning in just because you're interested in advocacy and salon ownership and you're in the right place.
Robert Hughes:So Veneta, you, we had just ended right around you saying that you were crazy busy at the salon and they didn't want to give you more assistance.
Robert Hughes:And you, but you were also talking about pulling back and maybe not doing as many clients and you're talking about a little bit of work life work balance with like having some time to yourself and taking care of yourself.
Robert Hughes:I feel like maybe that's a good place to start off and you can talk to that as we transition into your salon ownership.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'll start out with a little segue before I tell a little bit about that.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I once read this book by Stephen Covey and I think it was the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, I believe.
Robert Hughes:Yeah, that sounds, I think I've heard.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Of that book before and I would start with beginning.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think the big, the biggest lesson I learned from that book is beginning with the end in mind.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I say that what made me think of it is when you talked about that work life balance.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Work life balance is something that you always work towards and work for.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And in order to accomplish that, you got to begin with the end in mind.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And when you were, when I, when You were sharing a little bit about my back story and opening the salon.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And when I think about that, there was no work life balance.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm just getting to a place where there's work life balance because I'm a worker being I'm a Generation X and I was always taught to work hard and think about everything else later.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I wouldn't say that's a good idea because I think our millennials and our Generation Zs are teaching us a little bit differently because I know we also were taught to work smart, not harder.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, our personalities, a lot of times, I'll speak for me, it's just to work hard.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And in that working smart heart.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's funny.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The reason I laugh is because I feel like I work smart, yet I still find that I work hard.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But I'm now at a place where I have this work life balance.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think it came after Covid.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't know that I've ever had it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I take a lot.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Go ahead.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I take a lot of small vacations.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That gives me a little bit of balance.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But I still work hard.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Once I'm on, I'm on.
Robert Hughes:Totally.
Robert Hughes:You know, I think that happened to a lot of people with COVID for kind of forced.
Robert Hughes:And no, I know it forced me to.
Robert Hughes:To do different things with my day because I physically couldn't do certain things.
Robert Hughes:And I hear you, I hear you on that.
Robert Hughes:Some say, I think like work life balance conversation is like, I think we could have an entire episode.
Robert Hughes:An entire episode on that, for sure.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Absolutely.
Robert Hughes:So, okay, so you tell us what this transitioned into ownership was like.
Robert Hughes:Tell us about that.
Robert Hughes:And you, you mentioned the word hard.
Robert Hughes:So please share all the details because I'm sure plenty of people want to know what they should expect.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So as a hairstylist working at, I would say the best salons in the city, being that I lived in Cincinnati and D.C.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:i've always, my brand is to be the best.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I've always aligned myself with people that I think the best, even down to the classes I take.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Being that I think I am the best, you have to kind of be like a little bit a step ahead of me in order for me to pay the top dollar for education.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so with that being said, I glamorized salon ownership working in these salon environments that I worked in.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They ran like well oiled machines from the front desk to the back door.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so I glamorized the industry in my head of how easy it is to do, being that I've always focused my Energy on skills.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Management was never an area where I spent energy to focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And ownership and all that it entails was never focused.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I thought in my head, because I know business and I've worked in some wonderful businesses, that I could do this seamlessly.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well, I had the money, so money was not a roadblock for me.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What became the roadblock, if you think about it, owning a business as a hairstylist, I said before, it's important.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I'm trying to be strategic in what I share because I really want to convey to anyone that's listening that may have these ideas of going into salon ownership and thinking it's a glamour job and it's very easy to do.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Going into that process, I felt like I had the money, I had the clients.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The only other option was to create a space that I loved going to and people enjoyed working at.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I felt like I can do this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I did.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I jumped in the pool.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's almost like jumping in a swimming pool and you feel like you can swim and you can't and, and, and that's when you find out.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's what happened to me.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Dealing with a landlord that had was on heroin.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So dealing with the landlord that had challenges was the beginning of the hard part of opening a salon.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because I had to deal with all the mitigating factors that no one saw.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The harassment, the verbal abuse, the bullying, turning my lights off, turning my water off, stealing my furniture, to having to go to court.
Robert Hughes:Oh my gosh.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Nothing to do with being a salon owner, but everything to do with being a salon owner.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because these are the things you had to shield from your clients, your staff and everyone around you and show up to work every day with a good face.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that was my unfair advantage getting started.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I was there for two years.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well, I had the team.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So training and educating my team was a new.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:A new journey to be able to make sure that they had a well rounded balance, ensuring that they were able to do what they wanted to do with their career, yet still stay in line with the goals and the values and the mission that the salon had.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And what created that challenge is having people just show up for education, giving them free education and showing up.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And part of showing up is also being present and learning the information.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So being able to communicate the importance of this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:When you have a staff member that say they want to just do this, but yet these are the steps to get there.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So being able to make that mind shift that is no longer about me being behind the chair and generating income it's about growing and nurturing and developing a professional that has their own ideas about what the industry and what they want to get out of the industry and how much they want to take home at the end of the day.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that became a challenge.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Training my staff was never a big issue because that's something I'm really, really good at.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But just getting that paradigm shift was something that I had to grow through.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I had some amazing people work with me that was.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I was able to grow with.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I say grow with because I became the student again.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:As a salon owner, you are the student because your goal and your role is now of a different level of service.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You're not only serving the client and making sure that they're happy, but you're serving the staff so they can make the clients happy.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that was.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That was very difficult with me learning the different mentality, because no disrespect to millennials, but Millennials is a group of people that I had to learn and I had to get to know because they come from a different mindset of way.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They like to do things, and they're adults.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So you have to be able to listen, learn, and still get your point across.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I kind of in the early phases, so I like to say I'm this type of person, and I'm being completely honest.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm the type of person that if you give a person the plan, the strategy, and they just go and do it, because that's who I am, and that's what I did.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I did not have a policy manual.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I did not have even a legit payroll.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I had a payroll because they got paid.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I never bounced a check, but I wrote my checks in the beginning.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I didn't have a payroll system.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I didn't have any of the business aspects of the business in place to function, to be, or to set my business up for success.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think my business, I was operating as a hairstylist owning a business, and it's not the same.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So my business, in the beginning, it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Even though we generated money, it never was a business that I visioned like the ones that I worked for.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's because I was operating at the begin doll and the end all of everything.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I was just looking at the dollar and not so much had the.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Had the time or the capacity as an operating stylist to work the vision of the business.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I would say for anyone that's interested in owning a business to hire a management team, and that may not be viable initially.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But that definitely has to be a goal to work towards.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:If you're going to be a business owner and operator, you need a management.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that management team has to have different layers of focus so your business can grow and develop into being the ultimate success of a business that you wanted to see and of business owners that you may admire and aspire towards.
Robert Hughes:Do you think that the business owner or management team could be stylists or do they need to be just on payroll getting paid by the business work, doing that job?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It could be both.
Robert Hughes:It could be both.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Okay, it could be both.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, in order for it to be both successfully, there has to be time carved out to perform the role that that management role would require.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And starting out it for some, that may be how it has to be.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You have to start out still operating behind the chair.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But there has to be an in.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And for me, I see an end where I have to no longer be behind the chair and focus solely on growing the business in order for it to be successful.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But if I tell more about my story.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I opened a salon on U Street.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I was again fully booked, hired a few people, we had fun in the salon.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So the advocacy for me was something that kind of came together by doing events, you know, doing fundraising events that may helped another cause.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:One of the causes that I took a lot of pride in, working with unhoused individuals, working with families that had needs.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so we would do fundraisers that might be a coat drive, winter warm coat or food drive, things of that nature.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's something that we did twice a year.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The other things that we did was just bringing self esteem awareness inside the salon, different events, fitness, bringing fitness trainers in, creating health and wealth, bringing nutritionists in the salon, teaching them about diet, different things of that nature.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We brought dermatologists in the salon, talking about skin and a lot of different professionals.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that's kind of where the community advocacy lived within the salon environment.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But back to the story about entrepreneurship.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Entrepreneurship is a whole nother.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't know if I ever got good at it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Honestly, I've been doing this for 13 years.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't think I've ever got good at it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm more so good with training and developing staff and what that looks like when you're experiencing a detour and a shortcut.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's when I start doing presentations on the making of a six figure stylist.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because I said I did it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Let me give you more, an organized way of how you can do it and give you the Tools that will help you become successful.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because now I have a staff.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So in order for me for them to be successful, I had to give them a roadmap that would help them.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I began teaching that inside my salon and I wrote out the program, did a whole presentation and then I started teaching it at conferences and different events and then some one on ones and now I'm ready to do it on a grander scale.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I'm in the process of writing a book that really dives into the meat of it because I've taught the program in an hour.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So you know that's a fast track and just giving you little information that you got to take notes and expound on your own.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I've done it in a four hour segment and sessions and I've done them on a weekly series.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So with that being said, having the book as a tool really will allow the person to really dive in and really get to know who they are in the industry and to become successful.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But in a salon, as a salon owner, I don't know how much I can talk about it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's just important to really know who you are by being the expert, communicating to the consumer every step of the service being clear, earning their trust, gaining their respect and preventing any unsatisfaction.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That is been my claim to fame.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's what I share with my staff, it's what I share with anyone who will listen.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:These are the key steps to being the expert because in a salon environment, customers are more educated than you are.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's with the YouTube and the Instagram and social media.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Whereas before in my industry, when we came up, we just had magazine and the consumer was not as well learned prior to the Internet as they are now.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So in order to, you know, command the respect that you need, it's just important to be able to constantly educate the consumer.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And being able to translate that with my staff was super important because I no longer am focused on just me and my chair.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm focused on the business and making sure the business can be thriving so we don't have challenges.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And those challenges like return return requests where a person may or may.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well we know return requests is when people want to rebook with you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But what I'm challenges when you're, you're not maintaining that retention.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's what I'm trying to say.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You're not getting the referrals, your prices are being questioned, you're getting complaints.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So these are some of the challenges that you want to be able to continue to coach to these types of behaviors.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So you are getting the return request, you are getting the referrals, you are getting satisfaction.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because I, while I'm not probably, well, I ain't going to say probably.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:While I'm not where I want to be, I feel like I've stayed consistent with where I am.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And partly being an entrepreneur and an operator, it takes a lot of focus to be able to do both really well.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think Shonda Rhimes, the great movie producer, writer and all the things she is, she said when she was doing Grey's Anatomy, maybe Scandal wasn't doing good, or maybe when Scandal was doing good, her kids wasn't doing well.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:In order to do anything well, you have to have some kind of focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's why I say having a management team is important.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So while trying to balance entrepreneurship as a salon owner and still be behind the chair and still be the highest producer, not because that's what I wanted, but just because now the hairstylists want to be the millennials they want, if I can speak for them and forgive me if I'm over speaking to anyone and no stretch am I trying to be offensive, but want the work life balance that we work so hard to strive for later in our life, they want it now.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They want it before the, the clientele.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They want it immediately.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I, I think it's a great thing because I'm not saying the way I did it was the best way, but in order to be able to do that, you still got to be focused.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And, you know, they now want to work three days, two days, four days, or, you know, or they want to work when they decide however that that is.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So, you know, being that I was an owner operator, I had to pick up the slack on any of the capacities that may have or may have been or may not have been like him because now I have an overhead.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's not just about what I make and take home.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And as I shared with you before, I opened my salon with no loan, I began after being in that one location for two years and dealing with a really adverse situation with my landlord.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:As I shared previously, I had to move to a new location just to have a better peace of mind and a better focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So my start was I had an unfair advantage just with just the things outside of the salon that no one know knew I dealt with.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I mean, I had my landlord turn the lights off.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Why I had clients in the chair.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I had to, I had to call a beauty supply store to bring me chairs into the Salon while my.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I come to work and my chairs are missing and we're working.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And here I am acting like nothing is going on, having a police come inside of my business like nothing is going on.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's one of the things I can take pride in.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I know how to remain calm in an adverse environment.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I did move to a new location and my second location when I moved to where we are now.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We've been there for 11 years.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Come in July.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm really excited.
Robert Hughes:So exciting.
Robert Hughes:Congratulations.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Thank you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:To say that, you know, by the grace of God again, I was able to maintain a salon I was currently working in and of course, my home.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that's a mortgage and a rent, all utilities, and a payroll.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:While I at that particular time didn't have a formal payroll, I still had payroll that I had to write out on, you know, so payroll.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And now I have a new salon with not only a deposit, first month's rent, now I have to also pay an electrician, a plumber, drywall, buy new furniture, and up my Aveda products because I'm an Aveda now.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I went from an Aveda family salon to an Aveda concept salon.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So much larger space, more upfront and personal on U Street, and doing so again second time around, no loan, while maintaining everything else.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I take great pride in that.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's something that's new for me.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That is new for me to actually pat myself on the back for being able to do anything because I've been so busy operating under.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What do you call.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I have a very different story than many people might have.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And my story is simple, like I'm so busy putting out fires that I've never really got to enjoy the building and the growing of the business to actually reach that level of the vision that I've already set forth.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:When I told you, I began with the end in mind.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm not there yet and nowhere near there.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, I'm still here.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings: Since I say: Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Something is quite interesting about that picture.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But I moved to the new location, renovated entire space.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It was previously an apartment, tattoo parlor, and did all the things and now hiring new staff.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that was fun.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That was fun.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I mean, I had so much.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So many fun, fun things and.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so many different events that we did that was really fun.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But then it became burdensome because the more staff you have, the harder it becomes.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So trying to manage people, train people, and then they quit and do it all over again.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Manage people, train people, and then they quit.
Robert Hughes:And you know what?
Robert Hughes:I think we just landed this.
Robert Hughes:The other conversation.
Robert Hughes:Oh, man.
Robert Hughes:Retaining.
Robert Hughes:And the return on the ROI of training people and stuff like that.
Robert Hughes:I'm writing this notes down because, you know, if.
Robert Hughes:If I.
Robert Hughes:We get the.
Robert Hughes:The chance to.
Robert Hughes:I want to have more of these conversations.
Robert Hughes:Okay, so what.
Robert Hughes:Where did the.
Robert Hughes:Where did the.
Robert Hughes:Where did the state board come in to all this?
Robert Hughes:And the.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Can I share something before we get there?
Robert Hughes:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Okay.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:One of the things I think the road map I think would be important to add to this journey is being able.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That I didn't say and I should have started with was being able to establish what the brand is and to be able to establish being an expert to the clients and being able to be consistent and lead with integrity and creating a demand for the business.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think that's important and that's how I was able to do what I've done and been able to maintain it up until this point.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And having that representation is super important.
Robert Hughes:Yeah.
Robert Hughes:I mean you.
Robert Hughes:This.
Robert Hughes:All this like if I was.
Robert Hughes:If I was a person that was thinking about opening up a salon and I wanted to know what type of things to.
Robert Hughes:I wouldn't want to know what I don't know.
Robert Hughes:I would.
Robert Hughes:I am loving this conversation right now.
Robert Hughes:And.
Robert Hughes:And if anybody's smart enough to ask themselves what things do I not know before I get into this venture, then they've just like landed a little gold mine here.
Robert Hughes:Because what your.
Robert Hughes:Your story I feel like is really pointing out a lot of what it.
Robert Hughes:What it takes.
Robert Hughes:And this is so good.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well, thank you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I would say for that person, you know, even having an operating system, I, you, You know, I.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There's so many out there.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I personally use the lawn biz having a system that now I do have a payroll, real payroll.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So manage being able to.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Managing your inventory, being able to manage your customer flow, being able to have communication back and forth with their clients.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So using a software system that communicates with your clients for you, being able to input that information like thank you for coming, we haven't seen you in this amount of time.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Having a newsletter and these of these natures things don't to be able to continue to communication with them or sending happy birthday or happy this holiday or that holiday and that type of communication.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But the salon software is super important because it also lets you know how much one person may have spent over a period of time.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Whether this person is purchasing product or not purchasing product or they did when to tell them there's time for this service or that service.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And having those things in place has been super important to managing the salon seamlessly outside of, pardon me, the day to day.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Those are the things that also go unseen.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The reminders of their salon appointments.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I remember we used to have people canceling, but we were not calling them or sending any form of reminders.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So having that reminder system in place and things of that nature, that communication piece and continue now, you know what they didn't tell us?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That we now have to be videographers, photographers, filmmakers, we have to write scripts, we have to dance.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Now even so that's the other part of being in business that we gotta now do that we never had to do before.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We gotta, we gotta become celebrity people.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We have to appeal the people, like do a little song and dance for them.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Now that's, that's a part of it too.
Robert Hughes:Yes, it is.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's an unfortunate part of it for those boomers that may be left or these generation X people like myself.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But that's where you hire people.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You hire people to do things that they're very good at and you can focus on the things that you're good at.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that would be for entrepreneurs leading the business, not so much just owning it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because being a salon owner is really a glorified bill payer Because Oprah Winfrey said, if you cannot afford, if you can't afford not to go to work, you're an employee.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So while I hold the title of entrepreneurship, I'm still an employee because I cannot afford not to go to work.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So my goal, I think for anybody to think that being a individual salon owner or to own a salon is easy to, to think again.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I tell the people that I've worked for, if I had to do all over again, I would just stay working for you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And then I tell them that if I didn't love what I was doing so much, I would come back.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So it's kind of like the two things, you know.
Robert Hughes:So you're definitely not the first salon owner to come on the show and say that exact thing.
Robert Hughes:It's like I've made more money doing this.
Robert Hughes:Being a hairdresser, you calculate the stress in and all the years that I didn't make money as a salon owner.
Robert Hughes:If I would have just stayed making this, the, you know, being the high earner in the salon and putting my money away, investing in, I'd probably be worth more.
Robert Hughes:I thought that was interesting.
Robert Hughes:And I think that that's a whole other conversation which I'm going to write down that one too.
Robert Hughes:So like the value and like, like secession planning and working on your business, not in your business, all that stuff.
Robert Hughes:Okay.
Robert Hughes:I really want to get to the state board and the community, more of the community stuff.
Robert Hughes:So would you, Would, would you.
Robert Hughes:Can we shift gears there?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Absolutely, absolutely.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well, thank you for giving me that extra time.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Sayboard.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I've always wanted to be on the state board and so the process is quite easy.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's just submitting a resume, going to the talent and exact talent and acquisition process that's on the website for talent and acquisition for boards and DC boards.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But just being appointed by the mayor, working on the state board is an honor, it is a privilege and it's something that I do not take lightly.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We serve at the pleasure of the mayor.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That serve helps to serve and protect the consumer.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And we work in partnership with the licensed professional to make sure they have all the tools and the information they need to be successful creating a clean space for their customers.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's what we do.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think what we don't do is come in and shut people down.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We don't tell people what they can and cannot do.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:This that is a health department.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's the health department.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think that's where we get the bad rep, that that is us.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But it's not.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It is the health department.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And while the health department has these new rules and regulations, being that I have been newly inspected by these new rules and regulations, it's not as bad as it seems.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because we go to school, we know to sanitize and clean, cleanse our tools and implements with the barbicide and the things that are regulated and approved of.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We do this every day, anything anyway.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think the biggest problem is the unlicensed activity.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's the biggest problem and that's where the board has our focus is the unlicensed activity.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And the unlicensed activity are people that have not been at either.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They have not been educated, but they're performing services because someone has given them a space or they're doing it in their home, or they're been to school, haven't passed the exam or been to school and haven't taken the exam.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think that is where our biggest challenge lie.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think because there's so many focuses on people hiring people without license because the demand is there, because people with license don't want to work together, they want to work individually.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that is being if they're in their swamp salon suite, in their basement, in their kitchen.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think the biggest risk now for the industry, and I think that's partly why, and forgive me if I'm overstepping, but the biggest reason why people feel that they can't make money and they can't be successful is because they're going about it in a way that was not, has not been proven.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I mean, we're not animals, but we do perform well in packs.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Like if you think about the classroom setting, we typically learn from one another.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We typically have fun and enjoy being in spaces with other people.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And when we tend to do things separate, I think we make a lot of shortcuts.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think it takes us very focused, individual and they are out there and they are doing well and I respect them wholeheartedly.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That can work in those environments.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But it's the people that don't want to do what it takes to abide by D.C.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:laws or D.C.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:regulations or Maryland or Virginia or any state in the US to just perform the services that we need to perform in a clean, safe way.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So being for me is just about helping people have easy tools to be successful, not the roadblocks and the hurdles that makes working eat hard.
Robert Hughes:I have a question.
Robert Hughes:So why?
Robert Hughes:How.
Robert Hughes:What inspired you to join the board?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I've always wanted to be on the board.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I'm a rule follower, okay.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I believe so.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Anyone that knows me know that I take what I do very seriously and I'm not good at it by happenstance, I'm gifted and I'm gifted because it was God given a gift.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But I'm also talented because I worked hard on my gift by adding to it with education and practicing my skills.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So that's where my talent came in.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So not only am I gifted, I'm talented.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I take what I do so seriously because you can take somebody's hair out through chemicals, you can burn someone's skin through chemicals.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And it's just this very serious, although very fun industry and skill set.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So for me, I just, I just like to help maintain a level of standard that's missing in our industry.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I also like to make sure we elevate the industry for those that think there isn't much to be desired for us because they don't take us seriously.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that goes to Congress and Senate and the laws that's being made as a representation of our industry or non lack of representation and then just regulations in general.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think it's just important.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I just strive to be at the forefront of being able to help.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So on that to the next level.
Robert Hughes:Sorry.
Robert Hughes:On that note, I'm Curious one, I know our time is we're getting time to wrap it up.
Robert Hughes:So just to kind of like tie this off a little bit, I'm curious to know.
Robert Hughes:There's a lot of new ideas when it comes to licensing and regulation and I'm sure you've heard plenty of new concepts.
Robert Hughes:There's some ideas that think that we should make the state the test harder and raise the amount of schooling and the more things that people should learn.
Robert Hughes:There's some people that want think that we should make it quicker and just focus on the safety stuff and not really teach a lot of hair.
Robert Hughes:And then people learn hair in an apprenticeship or continue education.
Robert Hughes:And then there's also there's another idea that I heard about parsing out the licenses so you just get a hair license or maybe just a nail license or just something.
Robert Hughes:So there's like all these different ideas for people that, that are thinking of like how can like of updating our systems and in terms of regulation and the what what people are asking on 1, 1, I'm curious to know where how you personal about any of these ideas and two, and if you haven't heard any of these ideas then that's fine, that's fine too.
Robert Hughes:But if you have heard some of them, you've had some time to think about them.
Robert Hughes:I'm just curious what your opinion is.
Robert Hughes:And yeah, you said a lot.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I'm trying to dissect it all in my head to see where I start with my answer.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Well, I'm a traditionalist, so we can start there.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You can probably see the way I'm dressed.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I got on a little blazer.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I am kind of a little square and conservative type of hairstylist.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Although I can do all the hair types and have fun as avant garde as I want.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I can take it either way.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Based on what you said.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I do think it's important for individuals to be learned in the areas beyond just safety.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But in theory, theory is more important than anything before you get to the place of practic practical.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So there is a foundation that I think very strongly that every person needs to have.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Now do I think the license should be broken up into a lot of different pieces?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I do not personally.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings: that traditionalist going my: Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I will say this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We believe people should go back to work.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I believe people should go back to work and whatever that looks like.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I know people are doing lashes and they're able to do that and that's their focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:People are doing nails and that's their focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There's people that doing blow dry.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So they're thinking, there's ways that I've heard they want to deregulate the industry so people can just go get a license to do blow dry.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:People are just doing braids.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So in that vein, I think if people just want to go to work and be successful at doing one focus, there's no harm in that if that is a focus.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, the challenges that we're seeing, that those people, same people that maybe want to do just lashes, they now are doing microblading, but yet not go to school for microblading.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So if you're in a space and no one knows you there and you've, you've been inspected and your license is on the wall for lashes, they don't know if you're doing microblading in that space and you're doing it.
Robert Hughes:Totally.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Not some.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Not everyone.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Not some.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So when those challenges comes about, I mean, we, we see them every day, or I'll say every meeting, we get these visuals of the consumer being harmed in some form or fashion that someone that under the ostriches of having a license or not having a license actually performed, whether it's fungal diseases, whether it's abrasions of some quantities form or another that's been infected, it's deplorable.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so when you think about it like that.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So if you are not to pick on any specific segment, but say if you are a braider and you didn't go to school, but yet you're braiding and you're taking hair follicles out and people's hair not growing back, they don't have edges.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What happened?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You know, I think on those terms when I think about the old idea, the whole idea of us being deregulated, it's so much so that it's hard to keep up with when they think about how many inspectors they have in a region.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's the unlicensed activity.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And are you going to actually go to school to get that license and do just that, or are you going to be like me and want to be a jack of all trades and later decide you want to focus?
Robert Hughes:So I have a.
Robert Hughes:I guess I'm curious to know that within this whole vein of conversation, what I've noticed is that young stylists want to move very quickly.
Robert Hughes:They don't want to go to a salon and do an apprenticeship and learn how the salon works and all the, all the soft skills and the.
Robert Hughes:And the other things that they just don't know, that they don't know.
Robert Hughes:And I don't have any hard data to back this up, but the majority of what I'm experiencing when I'm talking to school owners and students and teachers and salon owners and other stylists, that it's hard and there's a, There's a large enough failure rate of people getting out of school, trying to go out on their own that it raises my concern.
Robert Hughes:And I'm just wondering if there's a.
Robert Hughes:Is there a way to help these young people?
Robert Hughes:Maybe, maybe giving them, maybe getting.
Robert Hughes:And one.
Robert Hughes:One, I don't even know if you're seeing, seeing this at all.
Robert Hughes:Maybe this is something that you're not seeing.
Robert Hughes:I'd be curious to know, like, are people able to graduate school and in a large percentage find, find success by going out on their own immediately without getting real world experience?
Robert Hughes:And two, if they're, if, if they are, if there is a higher rate of failure with those people, what kind of ideas, if any, have been floated around to help them?
Robert Hughes:I don't think that that's licensing or regulation necessarily thing.
Robert Hughes:It might be more of a community building thing, more of an outreach, more of a education thing in terms of like the industry educating younger people.
Robert Hughes:However, I have come to a conclusion, a belief that if young, if rising stylists were spending time going to salons while they're in school and shadowing and learn, picking up some of these skills and learning what things that they should train themselves on and learn more about because they're not really getting into the salon schools.
Robert Hughes:And the schools don't deny that they're unable to teach them certain skills because it's just not a real world experience.
Robert Hughes:And so is there, do you think that it's possible or is there a way that maybe the state board could work together with the schools and maybe the salon to figure out a way to get these kids into.
Robert Hughes:Into salons, maybe foreshadowing, maybe getting credit for the.
Robert Hughes:Towards their license or.
Robert Hughes:I don't know.
Robert Hughes:So any, any of that stuff that I've just said, what are your thoughts on it?
Robert Hughes:I just kind of just dump some stuff on you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But yeah, it's a little overwhelming to dissect.
Robert Hughes:Maybe that's a separate conversation.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You said a lot.
Robert Hughes:Yeah.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Oh.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What I would take away would be this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think through observation of the people I've encountered and the people that I've had conversations with, have shared stories about that we're in a generation that that tends to want something without working for it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think if we were to go to the statistics, I don't know that any of us have it because I don't think it's enough statistics out there, if anyone has done the research to find it out.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Right.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But what we do know, and there are statistics and research that has been done that anytime you want to be good at something, there's hours that has to be sent on learning it, practicing it and performing it to become good at it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So there's no quick fix or easy way out of it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There has to be a certain amount of hours and I don't have the statistics in front of me that has had data to back it up in research that in order to do anything and do it well, you have to learn it.
Robert Hughes:Maybe.
Robert Hughes:I guess what, I guess you have.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:To be able to practice it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And there has to be that segue.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think that's where the school come in.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They teach it through theory, you learn it through practice.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Yes, there can be some form of apprenticeship afterwards because the school's role job is to only teach them how to pass the state board.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And the state board's job is to give you the foundation and the fundamentals to get started and not to talk about another industry.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But in order to become a doctor, you have to learn everything and become a generalist.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And then when you go back, back to school is when you become a specialist.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I don't see any difference in the profession that I chose as a career and the path that I've taken to be any different.
Robert Hughes:However, a thousand percent agree with you, by the way.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Thank you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, there is a lot of amazing people out there that has done it different than I have and reached their goals quicker than I had.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so it's no quick fix to say it can't be done.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But that's a specific kind of person that goes back to.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:If you think about it, there's three or hundred people in a school.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There's only one valedictorian.
Robert Hughes:Right.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I mean, you just have to think about it's only going to be a very small number of a person that will excel in the environments that you speak on or even excel with the different variables that we discussed about deregulating, licensing, segmented segmenting, licensing, all those things.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Now, for the people in this industry that has been successful, they've charted a path for themselves.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And without a path, you're going to be all over the place.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And when you're all over the place, you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's just like this, the old saying, go, a jack of all trades and.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And master of none.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so that's what I think about the whole thought process behind it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:If there can be a way that we can come together, and it hasn't happened yet, we're all different.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The health department, the state board, the schools and the salons, we're all different and we all serve different purposes.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So if our regulating board mission changes, the school's mission changes, the salon's mission change and health department mission change in some kind of way to make sure we can align and work together.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's the only way that it'll ever happen.
Robert Hughes:Amen.
Robert Hughes:That's what I'm talking about.
Robert Hughes:I think that the solution isn't one party needs to.
Robert Hughes:We need to connect in a way where we figure out, like, the best way to move forward.
Robert Hughes:One thing I think would be helpful is if every student knew that.
Robert Hughes:Getting that the school, what you just said, like, if they knew that, like the school teaches them the passive state board.
Robert Hughes:This is the state board's job.
Robert Hughes:And then when you go out, you have.
Robert Hughes:You are going.
Robert Hughes:You're going to need more education if you want to be successful.
Robert Hughes:And knowing that, I think would be a huge impact to the experience that salon owners and students are having when they get out of school.
Robert Hughes:Because the students are walking into the world like they don't know that salons are going to make them continue their education and train and start off as an assistant or an apprentice and not even get a day behind the chair for up to a year.
Robert Hughes:You know, they think they don't know that.
Robert Hughes:They don't know it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I think part of the disservice for schools is the schools are not, for whatever reason, at the capacity to have within their budget to pay hairstylists to quit doing hair, to be an instructor.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:In most cases, schools are hiring people that need the money, or let's not denote.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Forget to denote this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Or having enough passionate people that just care about the education and can afford not to make the money that they can make behind the chair.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There are passionate educators out there and their goal in life are to be educators.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And we applaud them for that.
Robert Hughes:Yeah, there are some really.
Robert Hughes:I agree.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There's a reason why I'm as good as I am.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I had some amazing educators and they're.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They started as an education educator and they retired as an educator.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I thank God for them.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Them.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, in the society that we're living in now, some of the challenges is just being able to afford a lifestyle to just make a living on caring for their families.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They need a little bit more.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And so where the budget is, I think that's where they struggle with finding good, qualified educators.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And yeah, and that's, I think, the biggest challenge.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And then finding educators with the roadblocks that are very good at being an educator.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Because you have to think about it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:If people go with a product brand like Aveda or Wella or, you know, some of the Paul Mitchell, they have an education program that teaches instructors how to be instructors.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:However, state board regulation for instructors require you to have so many additional hours of organized education.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That creates a roadblock where some people can be an educator.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They have the years, they have the experience.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They've been teaching salons through Wella or Goldwell or Aveda or Paul Mitchell.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And they are teaching them skills to put the lesson plan together.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They're teaching them skills to convey a message without verbal fillers, as I'm using now, and teach to all learner types, like the person that can see it, the person that needs to have the hands on, the person that can read it, the person that has to do it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:There's four different learner types in this process.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And you have to have an individual that can teach to these learner types.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And these product companies are paying their instructors and teaching them how to, you know, get the attention of the learner.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But in the school system, a lot of times they may or may not have that budget to provide that level of education to the instructors or hire someone that has it.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't know.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't have all the answers.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I'm not talking bad about anyone.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I don't want to offend anyone in this process.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I just, from my experience, some of the things that I've seen, it's especially in the D.C.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:area, cost of living is high.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Being able to afford to make a living off of this or not having to experience the roadblocks that it takes to get.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I know someone right now that is.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Is a global artist, but they don't have an instructor's license.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:How do you become a global artist and not have an instructor's license?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:It's because that there's a barrier somewhere that doesn't allow you to take the test that you would most likely pass to get the license to be an instructor.
Robert Hughes:Interesting.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's roadblocks.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That's somewhere in the line, I think think there's roadblocks that people can't get the instructor's license.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings: They've done their: Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They've worked 30 years, but yet they got to go back to school for, you know, 150, 250 hours.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And if I can demonstrate, which is how I got the job with the Veda, that I can create a lesson plan, I can present an information to, you know, several different learner types and perform the actual demonstration from start to finish.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That qualified me from being an instructor.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Only challenge is if you don't have an instructor's license, then you can't be an instructor.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But if you do, then you can move to that next phase.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I think that's the biggest challenge.
Robert Hughes:In that, you know, that's, that's interesting and I like your line of thinking and I think I would like to talk more about it.
Robert Hughes:I also think that the salons have a role to play and the stylist being more involved.
Robert Hughes:You know, Patrick Guarneri, who also sits on the board with you, he always likes to talk about how, how people need to be more involved.
Robert Hughes:They need to come to the, come to the meetings, they need to go to the schools as guest speaker.
Robert Hughes:Like, like imagine if every, if it was like part of the salon owner culture to just regularly, kind of like on a regular basis, go to all the schools in the area and share the message of what it's like working for them, what the expectations are they would know when they going out into the real world, they'd be so much better equipped as well.
Robert Hughes:Not so like you're, what you're talking about will help increase, improve the education they get.
Robert Hughes:And then, and then what I'm talking about will help them know what the real world is, not just what social media people tell them it is because social media people are not telling them everything they need to know, but they don't know that you know.
Robert Hughes:So anyway, I don't, I agree with Patrick.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:We do need to go into schools.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And I'm guilty.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I've said that I'm going to go into schools.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But a lot of times the challenge been either a, the school don't invite you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's something that can be, you know, a little proactive on both parts, the salon owner and the school.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But the other thing is sometimes because some salon owners are owner operators, the days that they want you to come into schools are your biggest days behind the chair.
Robert Hughes:Totally.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So finding that common denominator where it's like a day that the salon owner not under benign chair, but then you have the salon owner that don't know anything about the industry, but they own a salon.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So they would have to take someone with them and again, that person is behind the chair.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So it would require some planning and proactive on both parts because there are some sacrifices we can make.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I can admit I can take off on a Thursday.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:When they want you to come to a career fair, I want you to come and speak to them.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:But it's with planning, you have to block your book off maybe two months in advance or, you know, some things to that, you know, degree.
Robert Hughes:Yeah, absolutely.
Robert Hughes:Okay.
Robert Hughes:So I think this is.
Robert Hughes:Feels like a great place to wrap it up.
Robert Hughes:I know that we went way over on time.
Robert Hughes:I great.
Robert Hughes:I so appreciative that you stuck with us and finished your story and.
Robert Hughes:Well, I mean, not maybe not finished, but got us this far.
Robert Hughes:Yeah.
Robert Hughes:And we got the salon ownership and realities of salon ownership and advocacy.
Robert Hughes:I think that was an awesome conversation.
Robert Hughes:Is there any last pieces of advice or things you want to say or anything before we sign off?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The last pieces of advice I would share is having a roadmap.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Anything that you do, you want a roadmap and you want to be able to establish yourself.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:The other thing is your branding.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What does that look like?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And having a clear idea of what that looks like and being able to be the expert, not out there practicing.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And sometimes you got to work with other people to learn by being an expert.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And the other thing is having integrity.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think that's probably the biggest thing that has made me successful is having integrity.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I don't believe in doing redos or giving people their money back.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So therefore, what do I need to do to minimize complaints or mess mix?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:What do you call it?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Mess ups.
Robert Hughes:Mistakes.
Robert Hughes:Yeah, mistakes.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So as I said in a previous episode that I messed somebody's hair up, I take very good pride in not doing that again.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So just being able to have integrity and communicate with the client and keep.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think a lot of times people want to do people's hair outside of the mirror.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:Like, how do you have your back to the mirror or to the wall and the guests can't see themselves?
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That always baffles me.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And then you wonder why people complain and say you didn't do a good job.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You have to talk the customer through every portion of their service this.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:That way they know that you know they're happy.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And you got to be able to read the body language because most of the time they're not going to tell you.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:They're not going to tell you when they're unhappy.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You have to be able to read their body language too, to know these things.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So I say having integrity, if you do have to redo someone's hair, do it with, you know, no discrepancy and make people feel good and just having fun and loving what you do throughout the process.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I think that's the biggest thing we the reason we do hair is not to not have fun.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:You know, they told me the reason I started doing hair is because they said you always wanted your hair done.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:And that's probably true.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I like having my hair done.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:I get it done every week.
Vanetta Dumas Jennings:So whatever it is for you, just have fun, because this is the best business in the whole wide world.
Robert Hughes:I love that.
Robert Hughes:Amen.
Robert Hughes:Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and taking your time, and I greatly appreciate it, and I'm sure the audience did, too.
