Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Lopez
Hi Jennifer, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The beginning of my story is very similar to most other stylists. I began very early with doing friends and families hair. To be truthful, I never thought of it as a career. But it was then suggested to me by my mom that this is something I could do every day and enjoy it. I went to school, got licensed and began my career at a well known salon in Newton Ma. I was really lucky. I had a lot of support from my first boss. There were education classes every week, I had the opportunity to travel to be taught by more well known stylists around the world and was able to take models.
Eventually I became an in house educator for Bumble and Bumble. Then I gained my certification for Master Colorist. My career lasted there for 14 1/2 years. Then my husband was offered a job in Orlando. We moved August of 2018. It was hard. I had a lot of lessons and I had to understand a Floridian Client. I hated having to grow again. It took a long time but I grew again as a stylist. 5 1/2 years went by and my husbands company had a huge layoff and he was included. I panicked. I wanted to make sure the ball was always in someone’s court. And that was mine. I wanted and needed to make sure that I had control of our future and if I fail , it was my fault and my fault only. I have never learned so much from owning my own business. It’s hard work and it’s constant. I thought I was going to loose my mind at first but I found my rhythm. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still hard but each day I learn the business a little better. And mostly I love being able to employ people. I love knowing that the salon is a safe environment for my staff.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
OMG hahaha. Sorry I have to write that in because that is my first automatic reaction. Once I took over the salon became busier ( which is amazing) however the salon needed some much needed TLC. One morning on a Saturday, one of my nail techs start really early and I got a call around 5:45 saying ‘You need to come down here, there is water everywhere!’ The bottom of the water heater rusted out. And of that wasn’t bad enough, the company that installed didn’t install it properly and wouldn’t take blame. Thankfully we found a great team of guys that fixed the whole system and got us up and running two weeks later. Fast forward a month later the AC went out. Our unit is 15000 tons, it’s huge. It was a miracle that they were able to fix it. The system is nearly 25 years old. Then shortly after that hurricane season began and our roof started to leak. I had the most stressful first 8 months of my career. I cried a lot. But things got better. I stopped crying when things broke. I knew who to call, how to fix things. I grew stronger as a business owner.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I have been most enjoying as an owner is been employing people. I love that I know my stylists are growing, they are financially growing and they are growing as stylists. I see it every day and it makes me happy to see them succeed. Business owner aside ( I hate saying boss, I cannot get use to
It) I love cutting and styling hair! In Boston I was known for being a skilled stylist and now I have more and more
Clients looking for me to cut their hair. It’s a complete 180 from up north. It’s wild. As for what I am proud of most is my growth in understanding business management. I have no college degree, I never too a business class. However, my husband Jhon co owns the salon with me and he is in finance. A lot that I have been learning has been what he has been teaching me. We work really well together as owners. He is showing me how business, numbers and everything in between works and making sure I understand all of it. And Jhon likes the salon environment, he likes taking a step back from corporate and hanging with the creative crew!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My husband without a doubt. When we first thought about it he went over and over and over all the numbers. He truly believed in our ability to take on this huge task. But he swore we could make this happen. So we went looking for loans together, and did all the research to understand what goes into being a salon owner. It was very overwhelming but thankfully that’s how his brain works. He loves numbers and challenges. If he said we could do it, we could do it. Even now we just went over our numbers for our first year in business. We were in the green! We survived. I couldn’t have done anything without him. He is incredible.
Pricing:
- Haircut and blow drys start at $60
- Blow drys start at $55
- Highlights start at $145
- Root touch up start at $70
- Keratins start at $255
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mysite.vagaro.com/theredscarletsalon
- Instagram: @redscarletsalon
- Facebook: Red Scarlet Salon
