When Delilah Lord talks to potential salon suite owners, she refers to her own “math”. Noting that in her last year of employment, she made $27,000 less, than if she had been leasing. Talk about walking the walk!
Thanks to having worn several hats in the beauty industry, Delilah can share business tips, bring in top educators, teach anyone how to retail so much that product sales cover the rent and model top-notch customer service. But she doesn’t do her own hair—for that, she’ll be trying out the suite owners in the soon-to-open Salons by JC in Sarasota, FL.
“I don’t miss doing hair; I live vicariously through the salon suite owners,” says the Pivot Point school graduate who spent 17 years in Alabama salons before becoming a sales rep at State Beauty Supply. “Now, I cater to them, get to know them as individuals and spoil them.”
A Redken color specialist and French haircutting artist, Delilah taught many in-house classes in the salon she once owned and sold for a profit (an industry rarity), so she could move to a larger city. In Huntsville, she began working as a stylist again. But she was selling so much retail that her sales rep invited her to join his distributorship. At State Beauty Supply, she called on salons and offered business consulting, among other things. The norm was to do one color conversion a year; she did six her first year on the job. “It was easy for me because I believed in Redken,” she says.
When You Believe, You Achieve
Delilah became a big believer in Salons by JC, too. About a year ago, she relocated again to become a caregiver for her father. When she saw an ad for a salon suite concierge, she thought it would be a perfect way to combine her selling skills with her beauty background. Someone had already been hired but luckily for her, the person didn’t work out. Three days later she became the concierge at Salons by JC in Murfreesboro, TN.
“It was just meant to be,” she says. “Now, I work for three men who make me feel incredibly important. I’m never afraid to mess up because if I do, they just ask me what I learned from my mistake. I think they should teach a class on how to treat and motivate employees!”
Not only did Delilah come to believe in her employers, she came to believe in the salon suite business model as well. “I don’t sell potential salon suite owners anything—I help them improve their lives,” she notes. “Being a hairdresser, a sales rep and a concierge are all based on the same thing, building trust and creating relationships.”
After just one year in Tennessee, Delilah made the move to Sarasota, FL. “When the franchise owners showed they trusted me to move to Florida and help open the Sarasota location, it was incredibly flattering and I said yes without hesitation,” she says.
The Salons by JC Sarasota location is getting ready to open its doors in April. Delilah quickly took to work and started scheduling appointments in January. Potential salon suite owners started calling once they saw the phone number on the building’s window. She had barely unpacked her bags before she started signing leases.
“I can’t wait to try out all the new suite owners and find a hairdresser in Sarasota,” she adds. “I’ll be checking them out as soon as they move in.”
About Salons by JC: In 1997, Jack Griffey and Cecil Miller began their journey to transform the beauty industry one salon suite at a time. Like most young entrepreneurs, they started out with a big idea but had to learn how to start and run a business from scratch. After much perseverance and hard work, one year later, they opened Salons by JC in Dallas, TX in 1998, welcoming beauty and wellness specialists who were ready to break free from the traditional salon model. The company has since moved its headquarters from Dallas to San Antonio, where it continues to grow through franchising. Today, Salons by JC has over 87 locations in 24 states and Canada. For more information, visit salonsbyjc.com or salonsbyjc.com/franchise
