As a young Adelaide business owner like many others, 2020 saw a huge shift in focus for us. For Salons we went from being a trade you didn’t have to finish school for…. to ESSENTIAL WORKERS! Yes ESSENTIAL!
We’ve always known this, so I’m secretly happy the world now knows we are essential to men and women’s sanity everywhere! We had to start concentrating on never seen before restrictions,
– Consultation, Full head Balayage, Zone toner, treatment, more toner, haircut, blowdry, then more off the haircut and making sure you can do it at home….. oh in 30 MINUTES!
– Touching someone whilst being 1.5m away, we thought of some great massage tools
– Health and safety like never before, chasing people to their seat with spray bottles ( its only hand sanitiser)
– Choosing who we let in our businesses VS marketing to the millions, saying yes to everyone and dogs basically
– Oh and ME HAVING A BABY!
That’s just a few things but you get the point, a hard year all round for all. But what we did at SJ Establishment, was turn as many of the changes into positives for the future of our business and the overall experience for all of you.
Sustainability NOW
COVID-19 has dramatically shifted peoples’ awareness of our relationship with the world we live in, highlighting the need for sustainability. Here at SJ’s we are proud that we have always contributed less than 2% of our waste to land fill. Thanks to Sustainable Salons we provide meals to the homeless, save the Great Barrier Reef from disappearing, donate hair to make wigs for Cancer patients and even turn wasted chemicals into water for our Adelaide roads. We are super excited to see more of the worlds’ adults shifting their focus to sustainability – not just the gorgeous excitable primary school children trying to change mummy’s bins. After all, COVID highlighted some interesting changes while most of the world hit pause.
Digital Impact
2020 kept people cooped up inside for way more hours a day than we’re used to. So people did what they could to be entertained – which for most included being online, on screens and embracing digital. At SJ’s, we embraced it by upgrading our website, making our online booking as seamless as possible and creating and launching our very own salon branded App. Through our digital platforms and your private profile, you can now book, change, cancel appointments and contact us quicker. In Salon our Zen table certainly gets a work out now, with many of our busy professional women opening up their laptops to work and even jumping into zoom meetings whilst their colour processes. This was always our meaning behind the table but now we might have to book out times for that too!! We’ve loved seeing our hard working guests finally able to be more flexible with their hectic work meets family weeks. Our aim is to keep up with the increasing pace of our clients lives, making booking and experiencing your appointments as easy and efficient as we can.
Up-skilling our Dedicated Stylists
Any down time we’ve had in salon or at home in lock down off the tools, we’ve created many opportunities for growth amongst our team. Utilising education from legends of the industry, here in Adelaide, nationally and internationally. Our team can now say they’ve learnt from Award Winning British and American Artists, along with thousands of stylists from around the world, thanks to platforms that were created by friends of mine here in Australia. I took regular hands on workshops in salon with my guys to keep them improving, motivated and distracted from the negativity. It worked a treat, especially since deciding to take more time off with Baby Jai, They are all thriving and I couldn’t be prouder.
The biggest realisation for me during the start of a global Pandemic was how adaptable we are all capable of being, and how unexpected change can positively effect both you and your business when you are pushed to make those changes. At SJ’s we certainly feel like some of the lucky ones after 2020, we are thankful for our incredible team, clients and safe space we have to continue doing what we love in. And as fate would have it I guess it was the right year to be pregnant – along with the million others, seeing my 20+ flights cancelled certainly wasn’t the worst thing to happen. It allowed me to heavily focus what little energy (that wasn’t being sucked out of me) on getting my Team totally prepared to lose me to motherhood for a little while and continue to survive COVID.
Stay Safe,
Sami
XoX
