I've officially been at my job for 90 days :) So that means that I am officially being switched over to commission instead of an hourly rate. I'm ecstatic about this, but also a wee bit scared. But it's ok!!
During the last meeting with my boss, we were going over my numbers.. and I have never EVER been this busy with clients in a salon. My numbers are rising literally every week, it's just so refreshing to see everything falling into place for me, day by day, since I moved here. My 90 days being up also means that I'm now eligible for health insurance. I havent had health insurance in like 3 years, which is bizarre since my entire family sells insurance haha. I havent discussed that with my boss yet, I need to ask her about it.
For the first time in my life, I'm dating more than one person at a time haha. I know this sounds silly... but it's new for me. I would usually put all my eggs in one basket and go running, but I'm enjoying getting to know different people, taking it all in, no pressure, just being open. I'm feeling the need to expand my circles of friends... and feeling like this is why I moved away. To expand. To experience new things.
My roommates and I are planning a week long vacay down to the outer banks in July. They've booked the beach house already... now I just have to ease my boss into the idea of me taking time off right in the summer. I'm sure I won't be able to take the full week off, but hopefully I'll be able to get away for at least 4 days. It's gonna be a full house, all of the beds are already claimed, and we're planning on having to make up the couch beds too. Definitely something to look forward to! I'm gonna want to take a trip down to my dad's beach house in Corolla too... but we can only really count on that being available in the off season.
I'm just so excited for the warmer weather. It makes me giddy. I can't wait to spend days on the water with a beer (or 5) in my hand. This is gonna be a good year.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Fabulous week!
I've (again) been really busy at work this week. On Thursday I had 4 clients, 2 of them were referred to me by other clients who loved their hair, and 2 of them were return clients. Yesterday I also had 4 clients, 3 of them were return clients and one of them was the sister of one of my clients. On Thursday, my first two girls were back to back, both getting full highlights (which is one of my most expensive services) and they were best friends since middle school. They were adorable girls, both students at VCU, and the second one told me that they were both referred to me by one of their friends at school. She then said that she had told her other friend that she was going to my salon, and her other friend said 'oh yeah! ask for Kelly!' The first friend that originally referred her to me doesnt even know the second girl who said to ask for me!!!! The girl who was in my chair said "yeah, everyone knows about you Kelly!! We're all sending our friends to you!!" I was shocked. I've only been here since December! And already I have a name :) I could have just cried. I haven't felt this good about myself in such a long time :) And I finally feel like I have made some good choices for myself and my life and what I want to be doing.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
More about work.
So I work for a salon that's in Carytown. Carytown is a really trendy part of Richmond. Lots of artists, swanky little cafes and coffee shops, a lesbian bar, tons of salons, vintage clothing stores and costume shops, I swear I see something new everyday here. It's all a one way street, so people just parallel park (which I have gotten really good at!), and get out and walk around town. The weekends are jam packed, but that's great for walk ins, since we're right in the middle of all the action. My salon is also a full service spa, we have an entire side of the salon for nails, and two massage rooms as well. We do spa parties, and serve the clients champagne and chocolate covered strawberries (that the owner makes herself at home). The hair side doesnt really have too much to do with that, unless they want their hair done too, but it's more for bachelorette parties to all get pedicures and hang out in a spa together. A few weeks ago, we had a bachelorette party of probably 10 women,in here on a Saturday (which is already our busiest day) and they went through 14 bottles of wine. A couple of them wanted to get their eyebrows waxed, which I did, and one of the girls was so drunk that she fell asleep while I was waxing her eyebrows haha. Never a dull moment!
But more about my side. We have 5 hair stations on the hair side, and 5 hairstylists. It can get cramped when we are all working at the same time, but it's rare for us all to be here, or at least have clients at the same time. My schedule is Wednesday through Sunday, so my Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off. For now, I really like this schedule. It actually seems to make the week go by faster, because even though I'm still working on the weekends, it still feels like a weekend because I'm doing social things with friends at night, and then I have two quiet days off to myself to get my housework and other things done.
There have only been maybe a total of 3 or 4 days since I started working that I havent had at least one client, and it's usually more. Because of our excellent location, we get a lot of walkins, and most of them get put on my book. We also get a lot of people calling us from searching the top salons in the area, and many people have said that we are the highest rated salon. Last weekend, we even had two girls drive up here from Virginia Beach because they had done a search on 'spafinder.com' and we had such high ratings, so they decided to make a day trip up to us. I also made some flyers with discounts, that I'm giving to all of my new clients to hand out to their friends. Mostly all of my clients have been really excited about their hair, and have been excited to hand out my flyers to their friends and family. I've had really good luck with it, and have seen a good turn out already for people coming in from other clients of mine referring them. I've already had a few clients return to me too.
One of my favorite clients was a woman who had cancer, and she had been letting her hair grow out completely naturally ever since losing her hair to the cancer treatments. Her hair was halfway down her back, and I was the first person to cut it since she had had any hair to cut! She loved it, and has already been back to see me once to go even shorter. I had another lady come in a few times to me, and she is 61, but looks like she's around 50. Women of this age group are usually my favorite women to work with. They've been around the block, have a million life stories to tell me about, and they're coming to me for advice on how to look younger, hotter, sexier (their words usually, not mine!). But this one 61 year old, she is hilarious. She's a professor at a local college, and has been handing out my flyers to all of her students. She also didn't skip a beat in telling me a story of how a couple weeks ago she tried to ride a bicycle for the first time in many years, and she started laughing so hard at herself for not being able to catch her balance, that she peed her pants about two blocks away from her house. She was telling me this as I was doing her hair, with other clients and stylists all around us, and she wasnt even embarrassed. I love clients like this! I literally had to put my shears down so that I could catch my breath from laughing so hard. The whole salon was rolling!
I'm already more busy here than I ever was in Virginia Beach, whether I was in the salon, or working on my own during the past year. I'm still getting paid hourly, but if this keeps up, I'll be able to switch over to commission without any reservations, very soon.
Our salon has been selected to do hair and makeup for Richmond fashion week in April. With our great reviews, they actually came to us and asked us if we'd be interested in working with them. So that's gonna be really great exposure for us, and I love doing big events like this. I've done hair for a few bridal shows in Chesapeake, and it was such a blast. Being backstage and styling the hair on models. It can be hectic, but such a rush!
And I'm starting to really like all of my coworkers. I'll write more about them later. But I am really starting to feel like I fit in here. :)
But more about my side. We have 5 hair stations on the hair side, and 5 hairstylists. It can get cramped when we are all working at the same time, but it's rare for us all to be here, or at least have clients at the same time. My schedule is Wednesday through Sunday, so my Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off. For now, I really like this schedule. It actually seems to make the week go by faster, because even though I'm still working on the weekends, it still feels like a weekend because I'm doing social things with friends at night, and then I have two quiet days off to myself to get my housework and other things done.
There have only been maybe a total of 3 or 4 days since I started working that I havent had at least one client, and it's usually more. Because of our excellent location, we get a lot of walkins, and most of them get put on my book. We also get a lot of people calling us from searching the top salons in the area, and many people have said that we are the highest rated salon. Last weekend, we even had two girls drive up here from Virginia Beach because they had done a search on 'spafinder.com' and we had such high ratings, so they decided to make a day trip up to us. I also made some flyers with discounts, that I'm giving to all of my new clients to hand out to their friends. Mostly all of my clients have been really excited about their hair, and have been excited to hand out my flyers to their friends and family. I've had really good luck with it, and have seen a good turn out already for people coming in from other clients of mine referring them. I've already had a few clients return to me too.
One of my favorite clients was a woman who had cancer, and she had been letting her hair grow out completely naturally ever since losing her hair to the cancer treatments. Her hair was halfway down her back, and I was the first person to cut it since she had had any hair to cut! She loved it, and has already been back to see me once to go even shorter. I had another lady come in a few times to me, and she is 61, but looks like she's around 50. Women of this age group are usually my favorite women to work with. They've been around the block, have a million life stories to tell me about, and they're coming to me for advice on how to look younger, hotter, sexier (their words usually, not mine!). But this one 61 year old, she is hilarious. She's a professor at a local college, and has been handing out my flyers to all of her students. She also didn't skip a beat in telling me a story of how a couple weeks ago she tried to ride a bicycle for the first time in many years, and she started laughing so hard at herself for not being able to catch her balance, that she peed her pants about two blocks away from her house. She was telling me this as I was doing her hair, with other clients and stylists all around us, and she wasnt even embarrassed. I love clients like this! I literally had to put my shears down so that I could catch my breath from laughing so hard. The whole salon was rolling!
I'm already more busy here than I ever was in Virginia Beach, whether I was in the salon, or working on my own during the past year. I'm still getting paid hourly, but if this keeps up, I'll be able to switch over to commission without any reservations, very soon.
Our salon has been selected to do hair and makeup for Richmond fashion week in April. With our great reviews, they actually came to us and asked us if we'd be interested in working with them. So that's gonna be really great exposure for us, and I love doing big events like this. I've done hair for a few bridal shows in Chesapeake, and it was such a blast. Being backstage and styling the hair on models. It can be hectic, but such a rush!
And I'm starting to really like all of my coworkers. I'll write more about them later. But I am really starting to feel like I fit in here. :)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
First day at my new job.
So many of you had met Stacey, the girl I was dating for a few months last year. I met her after I had made the decision to move to Richmond. We broke up 3 days after I moved here, her ex came back into the picture and it was just not what I had signed on for. So I was single again, and in a new city. A whole new world!
I started at the salon about a week after the move, and I actually had a very rocky first day. One of my roommates Loren, is a chef, and the day before I started working, I saw her sharpening her knives. My haircutting shears were in need of a sharpening, and I got the brilliant idea to let her sharpen them on her knife sharpener. When she handed them back to me, they felt very sharp and I was all excited to start my first day at the salon with freshly sharpened shears.
On my first day, I already had two clients on my book. The first one happened to be the owner's mom, who gets her hair done in the salon by whoever is available. I gave her color and highlights, and then it came time to cut her hair. I pulled out my trusty sharp shears, and began to cut, or so I thought. Apparently, you can't sharpen haircutting shears on a knife sharpening steel. It had made my blades so very dull, that they were literally BENDING her hair between the blades. I panicked. It's my first day, and my shears DON'T WORK. and, I'm doing the boss's mother's hair. Lol... luckily she was very sweet and we laughed about it... even though I was mortified. And I still had another client to do after her, one who wasn't related to the salon. I had to ask one of my brand new coworkers if I could borrow her shears to do the haircut, and this is a big 'no-no' in our world. I felt like a giant jackass!
Even though I felt completely unprepared, my two first clients both loved their hair, so that made me look good with the boss lady. I can laugh about it now!
I started at the salon about a week after the move, and I actually had a very rocky first day. One of my roommates Loren, is a chef, and the day before I started working, I saw her sharpening her knives. My haircutting shears were in need of a sharpening, and I got the brilliant idea to let her sharpen them on her knife sharpener. When she handed them back to me, they felt very sharp and I was all excited to start my first day at the salon with freshly sharpened shears.
On my first day, I already had two clients on my book. The first one happened to be the owner's mom, who gets her hair done in the salon by whoever is available. I gave her color and highlights, and then it came time to cut her hair. I pulled out my trusty sharp shears, and began to cut, or so I thought. Apparently, you can't sharpen haircutting shears on a knife sharpening steel. It had made my blades so very dull, that they were literally BENDING her hair between the blades. I panicked. It's my first day, and my shears DON'T WORK. and, I'm doing the boss's mother's hair. Lol... luckily she was very sweet and we laughed about it... even though I was mortified. And I still had another client to do after her, one who wasn't related to the salon. I had to ask one of my brand new coworkers if I could borrow her shears to do the haircut, and this is a big 'no-no' in our world. I felt like a giant jackass!
Even though I felt completely unprepared, my two first clients both loved their hair, so that made me look good with the boss lady. I can laugh about it now!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Well helloooo!!
So I had been thinking about how Brian (cousin) kept us all updated with his blog after he moved away, and I figured it'd be a good idea to do the same. I'm loving so many things about my new life in Richmond, and there's just so much that I want to tell you all about.
I remember how I had such a good day about a week ago, and how I couldn't wait to tell my mom and dad about it, but there was just so much to say, and it got to be a little tedious after repeating myself a few times hehe. So I'm gonna fill everyone in here! I hope to be able to update it as much as possible, and if things keep going the way they have been since I got here, I'm sure I'll have many more stories of good news to share :).
First, I'm just gonna start with my reason for moving. I've gotten this question a lot recently, so let me just clear this up. As you may or may not know, I never liked living in Virginia Beach. I was raised there, but it never felt like home, other than the fact that my family is there. I have been wanting to move away for as long as I can remember, but I was always scared to. In the past year, I even had two different people offer to open up a salon and let me run it, but I turned them both down because even with that kind of offer, I didn't want to be tied down to anything at the beach. I think that I was always waiting for a reason to move away (or someone to move away with). I think that a few of my short term relationships even stemmed from the idea of running away together, either they were in a different city, or we made plans to move away together... but I digress. Near the end of summer last year, I finally decided that I needed to just make a move for myself. I knew I wasn't happy at the beach, and that I never would be unless I followed my heart, and made my first move away from 'home'. Richmond seemed like a good starting point. I have friends here already, and I've always loved coming here. Richmond has so much history and culture, and it's literally swarming with artists. So for the next few months leading up to my move, I sent my resume to about 20 different salons, most of which I didn't hear back from. The few that I did hear from told me that they couldn't hire me without having a clientele in the area. And then one day in early November, while I was lucky enough to already be visiting a friend in Richmond, I got a call from a salon asking me to come in for an interview. I went in that day, and was offered a job within the first 5 minutes. During this time, I was also looking for a place to live, and ended up meeting the girls who are now my roommates, the day after the job interview. Everything seemed to be falling into place, and I can't even explain how elated I was.
I started making the plans for the big move, and corresponded with who was to be my new employer through email. She sent me a list of supplies that I was to bring with me, along with the employee handbook. During all of our emails back and forth, I started to realize that this place was probably not my cup of tea. The owner was very controlling in respect to how she wanted all of us to do hair. I have been trained differently (and in my opinion, BETTER) than how she wanted me to do hair, and she was not understanding of that. She expected me to relearn how to do certain things, so that I could fit in with them, which I was not willing to do. She, herself, had only been doing hair for a few years, and my education was far beyond hers, but I was not willing to let this speedbump get in my way of making this move. I told myself that I would stick with it until I found a better fit after I got there. Well, I got lucky again. A week before my move, I got a call from a salon, one that was literally at the top of my list, and she wanted to interview me. I went up, had the interview with her, was very honest about how I had another job already lined up but that I wasnt interested in it as much as I was her salon. She hired me (saying that as long as my mock interview went well, I'd have the job) and I'm now working in one of the most highly rated salons in Richmond.
I've now been working there for about 2 months, and I'm already more busy than I ever was while working in Salon Mosaic (where I was in Va Beach for 4 years).
I already have so many stories, and I'm gonna do my best to get this blog up to date with what's going on. I hope you all enjoy reading and keeping up with me! I promise all of my posts won't be this long hehe. :)
I remember how I had such a good day about a week ago, and how I couldn't wait to tell my mom and dad about it, but there was just so much to say, and it got to be a little tedious after repeating myself a few times hehe. So I'm gonna fill everyone in here! I hope to be able to update it as much as possible, and if things keep going the way they have been since I got here, I'm sure I'll have many more stories of good news to share :).
First, I'm just gonna start with my reason for moving. I've gotten this question a lot recently, so let me just clear this up. As you may or may not know, I never liked living in Virginia Beach. I was raised there, but it never felt like home, other than the fact that my family is there. I have been wanting to move away for as long as I can remember, but I was always scared to. In the past year, I even had two different people offer to open up a salon and let me run it, but I turned them both down because even with that kind of offer, I didn't want to be tied down to anything at the beach. I think that I was always waiting for a reason to move away (or someone to move away with). I think that a few of my short term relationships even stemmed from the idea of running away together, either they were in a different city, or we made plans to move away together... but I digress. Near the end of summer last year, I finally decided that I needed to just make a move for myself. I knew I wasn't happy at the beach, and that I never would be unless I followed my heart, and made my first move away from 'home'. Richmond seemed like a good starting point. I have friends here already, and I've always loved coming here. Richmond has so much history and culture, and it's literally swarming with artists. So for the next few months leading up to my move, I sent my resume to about 20 different salons, most of which I didn't hear back from. The few that I did hear from told me that they couldn't hire me without having a clientele in the area. And then one day in early November, while I was lucky enough to already be visiting a friend in Richmond, I got a call from a salon asking me to come in for an interview. I went in that day, and was offered a job within the first 5 minutes. During this time, I was also looking for a place to live, and ended up meeting the girls who are now my roommates, the day after the job interview. Everything seemed to be falling into place, and I can't even explain how elated I was.
I started making the plans for the big move, and corresponded with who was to be my new employer through email. She sent me a list of supplies that I was to bring with me, along with the employee handbook. During all of our emails back and forth, I started to realize that this place was probably not my cup of tea. The owner was very controlling in respect to how she wanted all of us to do hair. I have been trained differently (and in my opinion, BETTER) than how she wanted me to do hair, and she was not understanding of that. She expected me to relearn how to do certain things, so that I could fit in with them, which I was not willing to do. She, herself, had only been doing hair for a few years, and my education was far beyond hers, but I was not willing to let this speedbump get in my way of making this move. I told myself that I would stick with it until I found a better fit after I got there. Well, I got lucky again. A week before my move, I got a call from a salon, one that was literally at the top of my list, and she wanted to interview me. I went up, had the interview with her, was very honest about how I had another job already lined up but that I wasnt interested in it as much as I was her salon. She hired me (saying that as long as my mock interview went well, I'd have the job) and I'm now working in one of the most highly rated salons in Richmond.
I've now been working there for about 2 months, and I'm already more busy than I ever was while working in Salon Mosaic (where I was in Va Beach for 4 years).
I already have so many stories, and I'm gonna do my best to get this blog up to date with what's going on. I hope you all enjoy reading and keeping up with me! I promise all of my posts won't be this long hehe. :)
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