Mark owns The Hair Zone, a sole proprietorship hair salon. He has over 40 years of experience in hairdressing. The salon offers hair, nail, and facial services. While the economy has been challenging, Mark's business has grown over the past 3 years. His keys to success are providing excellent customer service and maintaining reasonable prices. Mark plans to continue growing his business by adding more services and potentially a second location in the future.

1. Small Business Owner
Interview
The Hair Zone
Owned & Operated by: Mark Gugliemo
Lindsey Oliver
Nichols College
MGMT-100-01

2. The Hair Zone
O Sole-proprietorship
O Mark wanted to be able
to run his business, his
way & didn’t really need
help in ownership
O Services include
hairdressing for both
women and
men, manicure/pedicure
, facials
O In business for 3 years &
is currently my
hairdresser

3. A little Background
O Mark has been in the hairdressing business since
1977
O When he was 19 years old, he worked as an
automobile mechanic in a shop located right next
to a barber shop (New York)
O He came to like the idea of styling hair &
immediate pay; went to school at age 23, resulting
in becoming licensed
O He owned 2 different salons, one after the other;
lost both, one to a fire & the other through divorce

4. Getting Started
O Once Mark bought his space in Dudley, MA, he
rebuilt the salon completely with the materials that
were already there to save so that he virtually paid
nothing to rebuild
O Ex: dismantled walls, saved everything down to
each nail
O Having his license, & years of previous experience
really benefitted him, as well as business mistakes
that he had learned from
O Mark went from just hairdressing to now offering
nail service, facials and soon, full spa treatment
and massages

5. Successes
O Mark said his major success is that his business
has physically grown over the past three
years, even in the bad economy
O Most rewarding aspect of running the business:
being able to adjust money that comes in, take a
paycheck each week and be able to get a raise each
year
O Critical success factors: maintaining good service
hours, providing exceptional service that results in
clients wanting to re-book, maintaining reasonable
prices and staying current

6. Challenges
O Being able to create an income that will meet
your expenses, weekly, making sure that you
breakeven, not monthly
O Finding great employees that will please the
customers
O Greatest challenge: adding services to become
more well-rounded
O Overcoming the challenges comes with
practice
O Fatal flaws: you have to make people want to
come back and you have to pick up the slack

7. Competition
O Mark said that he doesn’t think of other
shops as competition, he mainly strives to
better his shop and himself
O To achieve a competitive advantage, you
must consistently provide great service
O To keep customers satisfied, you must
know current style, and many different
styles, to be able to look at someone and
know what would look good on them

8. Marketing
O When a client comes into the Hair Zone for
the first time, the secretary will take their
email, & automatically send them a voucher
for their next visit
O The salon will also email for feedback, asking
for one thing the client did not like about the
salon
O They don’t exactly advertise, but instead, the
salon gets involved in the community, hosts
in house promotions and product sales

9. Staffing
O When seeking new
employees, Mark looks
for someone who is a
“people-person,”
someone with
experience, flexibility, h
onesty and open-
mindedness
O He operates with 3 hair
stylists, 2 nail
technicians, all are facial
trained & a secretary

10. The Future
O Mark definitely plans to
stay in business
O Plans/goals: add
services, eventually
remodel, become more
of a manager and do
less physical work, add
a 2nd location

11. Unique Questions
Q) What about cutting hair do you like so much?
A) It allows me to be creative and I love styling
someone’s hair and seeing a big smile on their face
afterwards!
Q)Do you ever wish you had stayed a mechanic?
A) Not at all, I’m doing what I was meant to do
Q)Your wife must love that you can cut/Style
hair, right?
A) Like you wouldn’t believe, its very convenient!

12. Summary
Mark said that his advice for a young
person wanting to own a business is:
1. Once in business, you must constantly
keep growing, don’t maintain
2. Build assets
3. Use creative financing, no big spending
I learned a lot about Mark & his business &
now consider opening a business more than
ever before