Andrew Woodman, Centretown News
Chazz Hannah was one of the first stylists to rent a suite at My Salon Suite, which opened last month.Ottawa entrepreneurs Linda Lefebvre and Ken Suddaby are offering stylists and estheticians the chance to be their own boss by bringing the American franchise My Salon Suite to the city.
The first of its kind in Canada, My Salon Suite is a newly opened complex that offers hair stylists and estheticians the opportunity to become their own bosses, by renting a personalized turnkey suite.
Each suite is completely set up with salon quality washing and drying stations, as well as a cutting station with a single salon chair and mirror. All stylists need to bring are their personal tools.
Lefebvre and Suddaby came across My Salon Suite 18 months ago when looking for a new business.
They purchased the master franchise rights for Canada and have opened the very first ever, Canadian location of My Salon Suite at 225 Metcalfe St.
“These people (stylists) feel kind of stuck because there aren’t any other options,” says co-owner Ken Suddaby. “So this is a brand new option, where they can go from that environment to literally owning their own salon.”
Chazz Hannah was one of the first stylists to move into the building. After styling across Canada at various salons, she is thrilled to have the choice to be her own boss.
“I came back to my hometown of Ottawa and found their ad on Kijiji and did a back flip because I had heard about these kinds of facilities in the States, but they didn’t have anything in Canada until I came back to Ottawa and voilà, here it was! So I just kind of ran over here,” says Hannah.
Although a lot of the salons in the area have yet to hear of the new project, they aren’t too worried about loosing stylists or customers to the business.
Vay Hong, a hair stylist from Metcalfe Hair Design, says stylists aren’t likely to drop everything and rent another spot because it doesn’t take much to lose clients.
“When you move away you risk losing 20 to 30 per cent of people, so really that’s the whole thing,” says Hong.
Hair stylists currently pay about a 50 per cent commission to employers on everything they make and take home about 15 per cent of the profit from selling various hair care and styling products that are sold at the salon.
“Most of our tenants will see a 30-40 percent pay increase moving into one of our locations,“ says Suddaby.