PALOMA ROAN

ELEVATING HAIRCARE WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE!

By Anthony Gray, MIG Training

Mikki Auld’s and the incredible salon business she has created in Paloma Roan has been a journey of passion and purpose. Mikki has been generous, humble, and honest in sharing with us her incredible journey.

Mikki tell us a little about your salon.

Paloma Roan is a luxury sustainable salon in the heart of Brisbane West End. We began as a teeny, little space in an old horse stable and now we’re a team of 12 in a lofty, green-filled warehouse. Over the years we’ve elevated and become higher end, for us it was a natural progression - the brand shifted and expanded as I grew up in business. It’s been a wild adventure but I’m so proud of what my team and I have built in just a handful of years!

What made you take the plunge into your own salon?

It happened quite unexpectedly to be honest, but our growth and success has been every bit intentional. In 2017 I came home for health reasons after living abroad in London. It wasn’t on my radar to move back to Brisbane, let alone start a business here but essentially what was a small rent-a-chair gig to earn a little cash has turned into the Paloma Roan we have today.

I was roughly 6 months in when the brand started taking off and I realised, wow - I’m creating something special here. I ran with it and fast forward to 2024 we’re known as one of the best salons in Brisbane and have been named one of the best luxe-sustainable salons in Australia. Had I known what I was in for, I probably wouldn’t have taken the plunge, but it’s been the greatest thing I’ve ever done! Ha-ha

Can you give us a quick snapshot of the timeline?

2017 - Moved back to Brisbane due to mental health concerns (which I’m passionate speaking about as mental health needs to be discussed more) and started freelancing to earn a little money while I nursed myself back to health. Within a few months, I was booked and busy, but it was also chaos. I had no idea how to organise myself.

2018 - Due to client demand I made my first hire, a salon assistant who was an ex hairdresser - we renovated an old horse stable from the early 1900’s in Woolloongabba for 10k and over the next 18 months grew to a team of 5 and outgrew the space.

2020 - We had only been in our current space for 3 months when COVID hit - not knowing what was going to happen, most of my team went on Job Seeker and then together, we slowly started to rebuild again - IT WAS AWFUL but it certainly built my resilience and kicked my business brain into gear. Looking back, it was probably the harsh slap in the face I needed. I’d always been a little too optimistic and go with the flow. I had to level up, plus - learn to become assertive, systemised and risk-aware to make it anywhere in business.

2020 - 2024 has been a crazy ride. I was burnt out after COVID and was so stressed because I had just spent a bomb on the salon fit-out and then had to close, it honestly took me a long time to get back in a healthy position financially because of that., I am so proud of how much I’ve grown through the hardships. Sometimes, you have to reach close to rock bottom to really set yourself up for a complete transformation and obtain sustainable success - that’s definitely been my story.

As you can probably tell, I’m an open book, who likes to tell it like it is. I’m transparent to the point where it’s (sometimes) a little too much information ha-ha - I have a podcast which is probably the perfect example of this(The Mane Edit, on Spotify and Apple podcasts) I’m far from pretentious and don’t have any qualms talking about my failures or hardships - probably because I’m a self-growth addict, let’s be honest.

Social media often promotes overnight success stories and glamorises entrepreneurship, but the reality is different. Starting a business requires more than just ambition; it demands financial sustainability, strategy, and mentorship. Many salon owners, including myself, enter the industry unprepared for the complexities of business ownership. Small business ownership is demanding, requiring readiness and resilience. It’s a tough gig and you have got to be ready for it!

Tell us about your team?

We have 12 on my team - which includes a front-of-house manager/operations manager. One of my Master Stylists is our team leader - she directs and leads the salon floor. My role is a little of everything, I work closely with our team leader, educate my emerging team, and run all our marketing such as website, emails, socials etc - Over the last 6 months, we’ve finalised our career pathways which shows our team where they can go in our company. We also highlight where certain opportunities will open to them like management or partnerships.

Paloma Roan is a typical start-up in the sense that we get out what our humans put in and while I’ve got a goal to become the best luxe-sustainable salon in Australia, what that looks like may change. If someone from my team was like, I’m moving to Melbourne, can we open a PR there? - I’d consider it for sure. In other words, the sky’s our limit and I’m open to everyone’s ideas.

How do you attract and retain great staff?

Firstly, Branding is a HUGE one - continuing to strive to be a standout salon is at the forefront of who we are. It’s so competitive these days and so every little thing matters. It’s so important that you get clear on your vision and continue to communicate that in every little nook and cranny of your business.

There will always be someone with a swankier fit-out than you, or throwing more cash at stylists - your mission really is what will draw in the right humans. Then, you’ve got to create incentives and future pathways that will get them behind your business. It’s the tricky bit - because sometimes you might not know where you’re heading to and obviously, you’ve got to cement yourself as a high-performing salon with client demand for you to offer great incentives or profit share frameworks with your team. It’s only something that I’m really getting right at 7 years in - it’s been a crazy journey getting here!

Oh, and communicate - regularly! Chat to the team not only when they need guidance but even more importantly, when they’re doing great. Create a culture that’s fun, transparent, and strong - slacking off with boundaries and (not) having rules isn’t the answer, ‘your way’ of doing things is what will unite people.

How does education play a role in your business?

Education is huge. We have a full onboarding process that communicates everything from our big vision to our aesthetic, tone of voice, customer journey, code of conduct and beyond. Something that I’ve learned after several years in business is that you can often get caught assuming people will know how you want things done. Again, I think this comes with experience and learning the hard way.

No one gives you a handbook on how to run a successful salon and it’s about 10000000x harder than you probably think it is. Education really has to be at the core of everything but it’s not just about hair we’ve invested in business and leadership education for our team because I really think that diversifying roles is important and is often overlooked.

When it comes to our emerging team - I can honestly say that by their 3rd year, they’re creating senior-level work and by that point, have likely been working on the floor for some time. We aim to get our stylists on the floor as soon as possible and nurturing new and up-and-coming talent is key to the success of Paloma Roan - I think it always will be.

In particular your education approach to apprentices or emerging Stylists?

Ideally, we prefer to do most training in-house and on the salon floor however, we do have fortnightly educator lead training sessions where our Emerging Stylists are mentored by one of our Master Stylists - we’re also introducing optional training evenings for apprentices that are really wanting to accelerate their education.

We work with MIG, and they come out to us in the salon for Emerging Stylist check-ins - beyond that, we regularly call on L’Oréal, Ozdare, Eco Salon Supplies and O&M

We break down our Emerging Stylist training plans and then create our own spreadsheet docs that have each module listed under a certain date. This helps us keep on track of our ES education pathways - both the business and the Emerging Stylists know what they’re working on and when - we look at their 3-year training plans and from that have a general idea of how long it may take for them to become competent in certain areas - but it really just creates a transparent guide at the end of the day. We have learned to become very regimented in our team comms.

We have leadership meetings once a week and then fortnightly one on ones plus, educator catch-ups and lastly, a fortnightly team meeting. It probably sounds like a lot, but I find that it helps us to run a streamlined salon business. Communication is essential for growth, and we believe in transparency.

I find that when things go wrong it generally comes down to miscommunication and a different perspective (that probably didn’t have clarity on the full picture) At the end of the day, we want a thriving business where our team feel valued and happy, that’s it!

Mikki tells it how it is, and the result is an incredible inspiring story of what it takes to build a career, brand, and business!

@palomaroan_

@mig_training