We spoke to Lia Hakim, a multi-salon owner, the founder of award-winning Hott Salons in New York and a member of the global Phorest community.
Lia is a business leader who has always followed her instincts. A hairstylist by trade and part-time flight attendant, she now owns three salons and continues to expand the Hott Salons name. Lia opened her first salon in 2013 after inspiration struck during her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah year. Many party invites made for many trips to the local blowdry bar for Lia and her daughter. So, she decided to open her own.
Forging Career Paths
From the beginning, Lia was passionate about coaching her team and growing their careers. Three years into Hott Blowdry, she came to the realisation that would lead her to break out from other blowdry bars: “There was a hole in the market for the staff. What happened to the girls at blowdry bars who didn’t really want to blow dry hair for the rest of their careers? Where were they going? What were they doing?” Lia said it dawned on her. “You know, yes, I cared so much about our guests, but my team–their careers and their longevity was also really important to me. So I felt like I needed to add that piece.” And so, Totally Hott Salons, a full-service hair and beauty business, was born.
Fast-forward to 2018. One of Lia’s team members gets certified in lashes and operates a small side hustle from her living room on her days off. She comes to Lia with the idea, and Lia is happy to back her initiative, expanding the Hott brand with the launch of Hott Lashes.
“I just kept adding these pieces. Every time I would interview people, I would say, well, there are all these different things you can do within this company, including management positions and social media positions. It’s a real one-stop shop for being able to build a career in this industry.”
An Alternative to Salon Hopping
Retaining high-quality talent is one of the biggest challenges facing owners across the industry according to Phorest research. Lia recognised this early on. She explains, “When we go into schools and talk about our brand, we’re like, ‘We will train you from before you graduate until you could become a salon owner yourself–or stay within our brand until you retire.’ It’s an exciting piece for them to feel like they have options, and they don’t have to salon hop.”
Creating an environment where your team can thrive for the long haul benefits your clients and your overall business. Lia estimates that whenever a stylist leaves for another salon, you can easily “lose about 30%” of their regular clients, who will follow their stylist of choice out of loyalty. That means fewer visitors coming in your door.
Working By a Code of Honor
When a new group of hires come into the Hott team, Lia schedules a meeting to co-create or revise the existing “Code of Honor.” It is important to Lia that the team agrees on these codes for how everyone should work together. This ensures that everyone feels ownership and responsibility for upholding the values and standards they’ve set together.
A Code of Honor also fosters a precedent of collaboration, open communication and accountability right from the onset of a new hire’s integration into the Hott Salons culture. For salon owners reading who may feel reluctant, Lia assures that “nothing crazy” has ever made it in the honor code in all her years of doing this. “They all want the same thing, you know: teamwork and integrity, being on time, and providing an exceptional guest experience. All of these things help the salons run day-to-day in line with our company mission.”
Driven by a Mission
Before being diagnosed with breast cancer last year, Lia describes how the Hott business was already in a period of transition. Receiving her diagnosis and dealing with treatment prompted her to take a serious second look at her business’s mission. Lia says, “It’s interesting that during such a hard time, a lot of really important and incredible things happened to me and have shaped my future going forward. Previously, the mission for Hott Salons had been something to the effect of a “Five-star experience for our guests and five-star lifestyle for our team.” Suddenly, Lia realised that this mission, while it still felt true, “it just didn’t quite hit.”
“I started thinking about what it means to be hot (Hott),” Lia recalls. This is how they came upon their current tagline “Be Happy. Be Healthy. Be Hott.” This updated mission drove Lia and a team towards a more explicit focus on the intersection of hair, beauty, and health. “A lot of our guests are going through menopause, so they have a lot of changes going on with their hair, skin, and lashes. We want to make sure they feel we’re a safe place that they can talk about it and also that we can help solve problems for them.”
A few of these solutions included addressing hair loss, expanding to offer hair extensions and vitamins and bringing in natural and chemical-free product lines which are safe for those undergoing chemo themselves or simply trying to lessen the chemical load in their life. They also became a Hello Gorgeous salon, a non-profit organisation devoted to teaching salons how to safely deliver services to clients undergoing cancer treatment and support them through cosmetic changes their body can experience during cancer.
Mentorship also became increasingly important to Lia–and not just on strictly work-related topics. “In this industry,” Lia notes, “many stylists don’t know a lot about how to manage their financial health. It’s become kind of my personal mission to teach them how to have financial health, like saving for their futures, setting goals, and making sure they are taken care of when they are older.”
Hott Salons offers their employees a sponsored retirement plan and financial planning resources. “These are all things I enjoy still working for an airline, and I want to make sure that my team don’t miss out on that opportunity.” After all, Lia highlights, “That’s part of being healthy and happy, too.” When Lia considered this ethos, she found that it applied to her company, her guests and her team. The Hott rebranding and Lia’s cancer treatment concluded around the same time (she’s in remission.)
“It just felt so good to land on that”, she says, “like yes this is exactly what we stand for. It’s such an important message. We let our guests know that this is a place where you can come and talk about all the things you are going through, and we are going to help you feel hot. We all need to feel that, no matter your age.”
Celebrating Growth
Winning in the Salon Today 200s growth category two years in a row has meant a lot to Lia, personally and professionally. Even as the memories of Covid-19 lockdowns fade into the rearview mirror, Lia conveys how recognitions like these are much-needed validations and encouragements to keep putting in the work. “I’m so glad to bring this recognition to my team and celebrate them because they really are the ones that earn it.” Lia has found that Hott clients love to feel part of their “movement” and share in their win as well.
Read more: Earn Award-Worthly Reviews With Phorest’s Online Reputation Manager
Phorest: More Than Software
Lia describes how, after three software providers in 10 years, she chose Phorest because she was finally looking for a partner. With her previous software, she recalls, “I didn’t feel like the partnership was strong, and it was hard to get people to help you when things went wrong…they didn’t get it, there was no Summit, and they never dealt with personal development, or the things all salons are experiencing globally. There was no innovation–they didn’t announce new things.
As a growing brand, Lia initially turned to Phorest for multi-location salon reporting. However, the Phorest marketing features, such as Expert Recommendations and the support from the Phorest team, continue to impress her. Lia shares, “The customer service and the care have been over the top. I think Phorest does a really good job of keeping salons motivated, excited for what’s coming next, and, you know, making us feel heard.”
What would you say to a business owner who is just starting out?
We concluded our interview with Lia by asking what advice she would give to her younger self or a peer who is only starting in their journey as a salon owner. Her answer was straightforward but poignant. “Don’t quit,” she emphasises. “There are plenty of times when I have felt like quitting–a partnership dissolution, flooding, build-out problems, even cancer. But you just can’t. You can’t give up. You have to keep going no matter what it looks like now” When she was younger, Lia recounts how she had ambitious visions for Hott Salons, and sometimes other people would advise her to be satisfied with something smaller scale.
“I think you’ve got to set your sights big,” Lia reflects. “I just believed that I would become this big brand and kept going. I think when you set big goals and keep working towards them, one step at a time, you’ll get there as long as you don’t give up and aren’t afraid of making mistakes or failing. What drives growth more than anything is making mistakes and overcoming them.”
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