Nashville firm aims to be Uber of salons
State regulators challenge legality
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A Nashville-based technology company known as Belle is connecting customers with hair stylists and other beauty and health professionals who will provide services in customers’ homes.
Like “sharing economy” giants such as Uber and Lyft in the transportation business and Airbnb in home rentals, Project Belle LLC has run afoul of government regulators who aren’t buying the company’s new model of doing business.
The state Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners maintains that Belle doesn’t have a cosmetology shop license, is operating outside of the law and should shut down its webbased service.
Belle, with plans to expand to other cities including Memphis, is pushing back.
The company contends that as a tech company connecting entrepreneurs to customers, it isn’t bound by the board’s regulations.
Belle’s founder and chief executive officer, Armand Lauzon, said the company provides more flexibility and more money for those in an industry where women and low earnings are common.
The competition for traditional brick-and-mortar beauty shops and salons is a good thing, Lauzon said.
“You can see what happens when there’s competition: More value is created for clients, more value is created for professionals and more people can follow their dreams,” he said.
In Memphis, Venus Austin disagrees. Owner of Epiphany Salon and Gallery, Austin said she pays $2,700 a month for her shop Downtown on Front Street.
“I think it’s cutthroat with all those of us who are paying all this money and legitimately licensed,” she said.
The cosmetology and barber board is set to consider the consent order, an informal settlement agreement, at an Oct. 3 meeting in Nashville, said Department of Commerce and Insurance spokesman Kevin Walters.