Blog Spot - with Sheridan Rose Shaw

To Lose Patience is to Lose the Battle!

In the midst of the global pandemic, I took a great risk to follow my dream. To change the landscape of hairdressing and small business by opening up a hair salon - collaborative working space. I’d bare witnessed and experienced firsthand the conflicts of the industry and chose whole heartedly not to feed into the narrative and rather create my own. A new world. That has been my mantra since I expanded my business from sole trader to a company.

MAMAWEST has been open for 2 years, today! We quickly grew from a team of 3, to 6 and now to 10. My greatest problem that I faced recently was that I had the great pick of two incredibly talented hairdressers that I would have loved to have taken on both though quite frankly we are at total capacity. Not enough space to expand with our compromising the premium experience we have to offer. Job applications have been competitive, and we haven’t struggled finding apprentices.

Why am I sharing my story? Because I want to help. I want to let you in on the 5 key things that I am practising that I believe are the reason for our success and that have put us in a healthy position.

Principles — I live my live based on a simple set of principles that help guide me through life. Honesty, hope, surrender, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, love, responsibility, discipline, awareness, and service.

That means taking responsibility for my behaviour when I am wrong [I ain’t perfect!], paying my taxes [to the dollar], paying my team EVERYTHING they are entitled to and more, doing what I say I’m going to do, listening to the needs of the team, and delivering.

Doing the work — Being a leader comes great responsibility. I now more than ever have to be deep diving and taking a great look at my past traumas and behaviours and how they manifest into my life because the truth is, they still do. I have mentors in my life personal and professional that hold me accountable on my shit. It isn’t comfortable but it keeps me humble.

Culture — This is something that has come very naturally to me and probably because of my co dependence [lol]. All defects of character are also assets when I can find the grey area. Putting the needs of my team before my own. Though that also meant putting the needs of my team before clients. They are the most important thing to me, and it is my responsibility as a leader to hear them; implement their visions and ideas and keep them prospering in their career. We stopped working Saturdays in feb 2022 and it was one of the best things I could have ever done for my team, and I believe that’s one of the core reasons we are turning away hairdressers.

Vulnerability — We all struggle with things but sharing them is not a weakness. On Friday I was prepping for a competition and started crying in the back room. I showed my team that I am human. I feel very deeply about things. My apprentice actually said to me I love how real you are. Now that is a gift not just to me but for my whole team!

Individuality — We are in a saturated market but there is enough in the world to go around. I made sure my salon wasn’t going to look like the rest. MAMAWEST is literally an explosion of my insides on the outside. We are unique and we are different not just in our fit out but in our skill set. We specialise in niche areas like VIVID COLOUR, advanced cutting, curly hair cutting. I’ve had many hairdressers come to me because they want to learn these specific areas and have taken pay cuts from previous jobs just for the MAMAWEST experience.