WE’RE FINDING WAYS TO DO MORE THAN JUST SURVIVE
Thriving 26
Upcycling Your Back Stock By Randy Clark, Randy Clark & Associates, Dallas, TX
the custom side, and no education is ever free. Let’s face it, a bad system sticks out ur salon is in a high-rise office comlike a sore thumb. My take on custom plex and all the style rooms are private verses stock systems is simple. The with shampoo bowls and sinks. color doesn’t match, the hair-line looks During the coronavirus pandemic, like a cut-out, and it just doesn’t look we were able to maintain the 6-foot right. Also, gray has to be exact, and social-distancing rules by offering stock colors of gray seldom work. curbside service for our clients. We Basically, if I get a new client that is gave them solvents to take off their wearing a stock system in my salon, I systems and provided private rooms to own them. put them back on. We were also able I’m not knocking stock systems; I to give pointers to help them along had to use my share of them and was with the process. happy I had them. My clients spend But that only got us part of the way a lot of money and they understand home. The rest was due to the fact that custom works much better for them. our business is 100% custom, and I The fact that I have exclusively used keep multiple systems for every client, custom all these years has put me in a male or female. I have a small fortune much better position with distributors invested in systems on the shelf. as well as factories. They know who I We celebrate our 40th anniversay in am because of the amount of systems I May, and a key component of my sucorder each week. I know this has helped cess is the fact that I’ve always ordered, me get through these difficult times. My and will always order, custom systems. buying power also helps. I’ve ordered And, of course, I can’t forget the the bulk of my systems through New great staff I have. They were right Image. Oscar and Rosmery have been beside me through it all. there through it all with me. I believe more than ever that my cusStock pieces are a simple matter of tom orders got me through this ordeal. “let’s pick the one that’s the closest fit.” My office manager must have pulled out In short, you want a custom-fitted hair over 400 custom orders that I’ve eaten piece, not a stock piece pulled from the because a client has died or stopped bin. wearing. I used to complain about the Custom-fitted pieces are like wearloss, but now it’s come back to me 10 ing a great set of contacts for your fold. I’m about to use these pieces and eyes. Once you put them on, they are repurpose them for other clients. so comfortable; you forget you’re even I have made many mistakes learning wearing them.
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