Rosemary Camposano, HALO Blow Dry Bar
HALO Blow Dry Bar, with three locations in the Palo Alto, Calif., area, offers a shampoo and style in just 45 minutes – for $35.
‘Ah ha’ moment that led to launching the business: I had been waiting for someone to open a blow dry bar in the United States for years, so I was first in line when one opened in San Francisco. The problem was that the business wasn’t aimed at all at my demographic. I thought “where can the suburban village, highly educated, career-driven mothers like me go to get a blow out?” I wrote my business plan the next day.
Ideal customer: The suburbs are the happening place in America these days, with 90% of the day-to-day spending wealth located in and around the urban centers. Women, who spend 87% of all money, are grouped in and around these suburban villages. They are not the cookie cutter image often associated with suburban living. They are highly educated, former or current professionals with busy lives, and they place a high premium on health and beauty. These women maintain four essential lifestyle elements – face, fitness, nails and hair.
First customer: Lucky for us, all we had to do was put a sign in the window and people were beating down the doors. This is a hugely popular idea with no one serving this market.
Measuring success: We are just about a year old, so I measure success by 1) The look of bliss on my clients’ faces and 2) Can we consistently achieve our business plan targets in a store that is too small?
Biggest struggle: I realized within a week of opening that the shop was too small. The inability to expand from six chairs to 12 was debilitating. I overcame this by immediately raising money from venture capitalists to open two more shops in close proximity.
Surprise!: How difficult it is to find employees, even in this economy.
Promoting business: Eighty percent of our promotions are done straight to our clients – suburban women. We host moms groups, participate in charity auctions, and have a great mailing list. Our promotions are delivered through those pipelines and we can track where each client came from.
What you wish you would have known: How difficult it is to hire great people and how popular the idea was going to be.
What keeps you up at night (business wise!)?: Can we open fast enough to stay ahead of the competition?
Ever tempted to throw in the towel and just get a job?: I worked in the corporate world for 22 years, so I’m never tempted to just get a job.
Biggest goal: Raise $10 million and open 10 more HALO locations in California and two additional states.
Pricing: My business is based on volume, value and repeat customers. Price is everything. The secret is not to be greedy.
Funding: We self-funded the first store but I immediately began pursuing venture money. Our small store cost $200,000, but that was because I invested in strong brand development. I knew I would open at least 20 locations, so brand is important. I had some initial contacts in the venture world that pointed me to other investors. But remember that most venture and institutional investors are men, so I spent a lot of time on my presentation and knew my business front and back before speaking to anyone.
A few good tips: No matter what you industry or market segment, it’s important to be entirely focused on your one primary deliverable. In our case it was great, blown out hair. So even though lots of customers are suggesting eyebrow waxes or manicures, we stay focused on blow drys. Do not become distracted.
The absolute best part of owning my own business is: creating a company culture that I would like to work in.
If I had to start all over again, I would have: opened a bigger shop right from the beginning.
I never imagined: hiring employees would be so difficult.
If standing on a rooftop facing crowds of aspiring or struggling small business owners, I would shout: “It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s a gas anyway.”
