Makeover of salon is for more than looks

Today’s column starts with a notice Merri Vega, of Hair Anatomy in Lake Worth, saw this year in Salon Today magazine. And it ends with lessons about contests, business modernization and how many times your ad has to be seen before someone acts on it.

“I saw an ad for the contest and I said no way. Then I saw it in an email, but I deleted it,” said Vega. “Then when I saw it on Facebook, I said, you know what, I’m going to just do it.”

So, Vega, who bought the salon three years ago from the previous owner, her boss at the time, said she wrote the essay required for entry in the publication’s contest for a makeover — for her shop. And then she won.

“I couldn’t believe it when they called,” she said. “I thought it was a prank.”

But it wasn’t and by the end of this month, she will have received around $ 30,000 in new furnishings, including styling chairs, shelves for a retail stand and a computer system. Even a software-driven hair color machine that mixes tones precisely to match the desired look.

But the biggest part of the prize, Vega said, is a difffffffffffferent look at how she does business.

“What I really want out of this now,” said Vega, “is to rebuild the business.”

Actually, better said, to rejuvenate it.

Hair Anatomy, Vega said, rents space in a 40-year-old shopping center in a mature neighborhood along Lake Worth Road just west of Jog Road. And it has had an outdated business model that Vega wants to modernize, much like a new hair style.

“I realized that I’ve been running this business the same way we’ve run it for decades,” she said. “The economy has changed, the clientele has changed. Everything has changed in this business. But we were still doing things the same way.”

Ironically, Vega and her husband made lots of physical changes to the salon after taking over in 2013. They painted cabinets, replaced potted plants with artwork, installed window treatments and retiled the flfloor.

Honestly, when I walked in to meet with her Tuesday, I thought the makeover was complete. But, no.

“We’ve done a lot. We had already made a lot of changes,” she said. “But we were still not maximizing the business. And I didn’t know where to go next.”

So, what will they do difffffffffffferently going forward?

For starters, the computer system will allow them better to track appointments and clients — always important in retaining and expanding a customer base. And they will employ Facebook and social media to a much larger extent in advertising.

True, that’s not so unusual. Many other legacy businesses are doing as much.

But the Vegas are also changing the compensation system from the industry standard commission or rented space model to salaries and profit-sharing plans. This way, she says, she can better reward new employees.

In February, she will attend a seminar in Connecticut to fifind more ways to rethink the business for success.

“The way we were doing business was in a time warp,” she said. “Now we are going to do business the way the world is doing business. That’s going to be the biggest change out of this.”