IMMERSED IN THE INDUSTRY GETTING TO KNOW
KERRIE DIMATTIA
Over 40 years of taking part in everything from Fashion week to Main Stage at Hair Expo, writing content for magazines, newspapers, and online blogs, educating for major product companies all over Australia, producing outstanding collections which have been featured in industry magazines worldwide, and now finalist in 4 categories of the upcoming 2021 Business AHIA, Kerrie DiMattia certainly has made her mark as a powerhouse in the Australian Hair Industry.
Growing up in Sydney and like a lot of hairdressers, school just wasn’t my thing! Says Kerrie… Hairdressing was all I ever wanted to do! To be honest I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else. I remember as a kid going to the salon with my mum weekly, it was evident to me even as a kid that the environment was always a happy one, people wanted to be there and there was an energy that just felt upbeat! I started fresh out of Year 10 in 1982 in a busy Shopping Centre salon in Sydney that was a ‘Fair Work nightmare’ before its time! That lasted
6 months, not the best introduction to the industry, I can still remember the boss telling me that I’d never be any good and I should just work in a supermarket! 6 months working retail (selling cash register rolls…Not exactly riveting stuff) and I was ready to give it another shot. This time applying at a small suburban salon run by a beautiful man and his wife who treated me like one of their own and taught me the core skills I still have today, including how to treat people with kindness and build them up, something my first boss (like so many) sadly lacked. I have ALWAYS lived to do hair! I don’t think there has been a time over the last 40 years that
I’ve considered doing anything outside of this industry, I just love it. I love working alongside my team and I love looking after my clients! but like so many salon owners I thought being able to do hair and deliver a great client experience meant I could run a business! - insert face-palm here! I thought I had a great business… I had a fantastic team, we were really busy, turning out great hair, our clients loved us and kept coming back, the salon was thriving… But there was no profit! So, as we do, I worked harder, longer hours, advertised more and so on… This went on for years and all I had was a good job! I constantly felt like an imposter amongst other salon owners who had there shit together and I know I’m not alone there, so many talented stylists struggle with the business side of salon life, and so many don’t survive it. It took around 30 years of being self-employed and just working my butt off for me to realise that I had to ask for help, I had to face my greatest fear of looking stupid and get myself a business coach! I started out with Carl and Belinda Keeley and believe me I was probably that one student that they will always look back on wonder how I survived the first 30 years in business without going broke ha-ha, I was (in Carl’s own words) like a deer in the headlights when it came to Metrics. Thankfully I retained enough of what he taught to make changes to how I ran the business, but I still had a lot to learn.
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Hair Biz Year 15 Issue 5
