From Cupar to Chicago
Alex Thaddeus Hairdressing
Alex Thaddeus is a salon owner, manager and stylist who built the foundation of her career on her passion for hairdressing. Her salon is both internationally recognised and award-winning, with clients travelling across the UK and internationally just for her expertise. Alex has travelled the world, even attend the Goldwell Global event in Chicago – a dream come true! Being a small, independent salon, Alex shows that you can achieve international recognition no matter what size of salon you are!
Her journey to being internationally recognised is inspiring for many, so here’s her advice on how to take your salon’s reputation further than the local residents.
Build Connections
It is extremely important that we support our fellow salon owners and congratulate them on their accomplishments. Doing this helps you to network with other like-minded individuals within the industry and even opens you to opportunities to collaborate on projects that could get you recognised on an international level. Never be afraid to step out of your circle and get talking to your neighbouring salons because you never know what they might be getting up to behind the scenes and the career-driving opportunities that might be in reach. Our industry is known for being collaborative, so it is important for us to push for this at every opportunity.
Relationships are Important
Following from that, building relationships are also vital in taking your salon internationally. Relationships can be in many forms, such as having a tight salon work team that you trust to maintain the face of your business, or building connections with your clients, which, in turn, builds your reputation, or utilising social media to connect with stylist and salon owners further afield. If your clients have a good experience, they will go home and tell their friends to book with you and your salon, spreading awareness without you doing anything other than giving your client a good experience with you behind the chair. Likewise, if you are constantly seen to be supporting your fellow stylists and salon owners, this will be recognised more than you think!
Get Yourself Out There on Social Media
In this day and age, social media is so important for becoming recognised within a very saturated industry. Between both industry professionals and even clients, you need to make yourself stand out, through showing your techniques online, connecting with other talent, and even just building an online persona that clients and professionals can get to know you through. Being the biggest, global marketing tool, it is important you utilise this as much as possible.
Build Your Confidence
In this industry, you need to get yourself out there, and confidence will take you miles, in person and on social media. It allows you to express yourself and reach people that might never have heard of you otherwise, expanding your reach through an authentic online personality. Think about those potential clients that may come across your videos, you want them to see your confidence and book, and then you keep that confidence going in their consultations and appointments.
So, with this playbook in mind, build those connections, maintain those relationships, create that online image for yourself and the business and lastly maintain your confidence throughout all of it. Now, what’s stopping you from taking your salon further and going international?
