Entrepreneur Success Story:

Haircuts, Etc.

Founder and CEO, Charity Burris

Business Background

Our success story is Haircuts Etc, a 12-year-old beauty salon in Lawrence, MA. The salon currently has two on staff, including the owner. The business is a full-service hair salon. The business was struggling with operating digitally as all functions were previously manually implemented. This includes not having online financial systems such as bookkeeping. Such hardship was amplified during COVID so the business decided to come to TLE for technical assistance.

Challenges

The biggest challenge for the business was that its record-keeping was on paper. The owners realized that such a method is not scalable and is prone to human error ultimately leading to more problems down the line in addition to not being able to see in a snapshot the business’s overall performance and areas needing improvement. The salon lacked the funds to be able to take its business to the next level.

Technical Assistance Solution or Strategy

TLE’s main objective for the salon was to get the business online and assist the business owners with the implementation of a Point of Sale system, website w/ E-commerce capabilities, salon management software, and book-keeping system to better manage their business. There was also an emphasis on providing guidance for getting educated on digital platforms that are most commonly used in the beauty industry and customized training on how to use those digital tools chosen by the business owners to help streamline their operations and improve their overall operational efficiency. The business also received marketing support to better position their business to make more potential customers aware of their business’ value proposition and buyer persona in order to drive its presence and traffic to target markets.

Service Impact