We recently connected with Amie Migirova and Nison Migirov and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Amie and Nison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
A lot of small business owners, especially in the salon industry, do not see the value in having a “non-producer” on the payroll. Can one person do it all? Yes. But, for how long without getting burnt out, and how effectively can they do all of it? I think that having a great management team is not only important, but essential, especially if you are wanting to scale your business. I have never used a consultant in my business, but I have amazing support via my salon manager and my husband who left his corporate management position to come onboard at the salon and help me put things into place.
If the current budget does not allow for such an investment initially, it must still be a goal within the long-term strategy. In the meantime, networking with other business owners and bouncing ideas from like-minded individuals can help with some of the decision-making process. Other online resources can also be of great help in building and maintaining a strong and healthy work culture.
Amie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Amie Justine Migirova is the owner and lead stylist of Emma Justine Color & Extension Lounge. Over the years, with the help of their beautiful and loyal guests, the Emma Justine Tribe took great pride in upholding the salon’s mission statement by “Creating a one-of-a-kind salon experience that is led by a team with exceptional talent to ensure every guest feels Bold, Beautiful, & Confident!” Emma Justine Salon continues to set the bar for what it means to be experts in the field. Focusing on complete transformations and complex coloring services can only be achieved through proper training, special attention to detail, and an individual guest approach that is not bound to a time-limited appointment. With this type of sincere focus, the Emma Justine Tribe has built a strong reputation, bringing about a heavy responsibility that is passionately executed.
In the first year of opening, the salon received the Nationally Distinguished Salon of the Year Award, a recognition that they attribute to the trust their guests have put in them. They have also been featured in several magazine articles that showcased their work and talented team. In 2022, Emma Justine Salon received another award and was named to Inc. Magazine’s Annual Best Workplaces List. This list is the result of a comprehensive measurement of American companies that have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture. We humbly realize that none of this would be possible without our loyal guests.
In addition, with the help of their loyal guests, the salon makes monthly contributions towards disaster relief work, as well as other charitable contributions.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My name is Nison Migirov and My wife and I run an award winning salon in Louisville KY. Our salon story began a few years after Amie graduated from Hair School. Amie dreamed of having her own place that she can be proud to work in and be able to provide an exceptional experience to her clients. When we began looking for a place to leave to open the salon, we quickly realized that what we wanted was not within our budget, so we delayed another few years in hoped to try and save up more money to get into a place that has a wow factor. Unfortunately, this did not help, because the prices continued to rise tremendously in our city and we were back to square one. We then came across a commercial property that was listed for sale, and the exact location we were
looking at, and had the most potential. But, unfortunately, the renovations that were needed were enormous and we were just not too experienced to try and handle a project of this magnitude. But we were in love with this place, we simply could not get it out of our minds. That’s where I decided that if we were going that we will truly be proud of, it will require major sacrifices. I set amie down and the dinner table and said “Ok, if you really want this to happen, here
is how we are going to do this…To lower our debt-to-income ration and get a construction loan, we have to sell the house and move into my parents’ house. We will also use the equity that we had the in house for the initial stages of the renovation. We also need to sell both of our motorcycles (we both ride sport bikes), we will need to then downgrade our cars, and we must do this quickly if we don’t want to miss the opportunity to purchase this specific property”.
To my surprise, Amie immediately replied “Ok, if the math makes sense to you and you crunched the numbers and you know it will work let do it!”
I was not expecting Amie to commit so quickly, especially the moving in with her in laws part. All of the sudden, anxiety started to kick in with thoughts of what if it doesn’t work. But I too, was already committed in my mind to make it work. I immediately called a real estate agent that we knew really well and informed him that we need to list the house for sale as soon as possible. He even agreed to allow me to take the pictures and send it to him to get it listed as soon as possible. That same evening, we cleaned the house and sent pictures to the agent. The following afternoon, after filling out some additional paperwork, the house was on the market. The morning after, we got two offers for the full asking price. While we were waiting on the closing date, we began the process of selling everything else that we owned. This is what it took for us to purchase the ugly and deteriorating commercial property that we were
so in love with, the one building that we knew had so much potential (for reference, see attached PDF with the before and after images). We were then met with our next biggest challenge. The property was located in a historic district of Middletown and the changes that we needed to make to the property needed to be reviewing and approved through the historic committee and there was a lot of red tape within that process. Needless to say, not everyone on the committee agreed with the proposed changes to the property. After many meetings, deliberations, and several proposals, we were still not getting anywhere. I
finally requested to meet with the Mayor if Middletown and after two meetings with him, we came to an agreement on the proposed modifications to the property. This process delayed the project by 6 months. Fast forward to the grand opening, the Mayor of Middletown and his wide hosted the ribbon cutting
ceremony for the opening of the Emma Justine Color & Extension Lounge. Fast forward about 9 months later, Emma Justine salon was named as “Salon of Distinction” in the nationally acclaimed
“Salons of the Year” interior design competition hosted by SALON TODAY, the leading business publication for the professional salon industry.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Coming out of the post pandemic shut down, after being able to open again, the team was working long hours and we were open 6 days a week, booked to the max trying to get everyone in and taken care of that we were not able to see for so long. On top of that, we were flooded with new clients looking for a
new salon home as many salons had stated closing at this time or their stylist had quit doing hair or moved to a different location. We just couldn’t take care of it all and we were working ourselves and our team too hard. This is where Amie suggested to make a huge change, something that is almost unheard of in our industry. During one of our business meetings with our salon manager, Amie said “We really need to see what it would take to close the salon on the weekends so that the team has 3 days off and can spend more time with their family on weekends.” Adel and I both looked at each other with shock, like…this is the craziest idea ever. How can we not have the salon operating on the busiest day of the week. There is no way that we cannot stay open on a Saturday. Amie then suggested that part of this plan can include the salon to stop taking hair cutting and basic coloring services and focus on our niche which is extensions and complex coloring services. After crunching the numbers, we all agreed that this is doable and if we can pull it off, it will be of great
benefit to the entire team. But, this was not an easy task and had some emotional elements that were hard to come to terms with, especially because some of these guests have been coming to Amie for for over ten years. One of whom had been coming to see her for fourteen! But, to keep the salon and the
team happy and healthy it was what was needed to be done! We partnered up with two other salons, that we felt like could match the Experience that our salon guests have come to appreciate at Emma Justine. After transitioning some of these guests over the course of a couple of months, the salon and team, had no loss in revenue, while working less days. This spring will make it 2 years that we have had this new schedule in place and only working within in our specialty niche, and we have a happy and thriving team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emmajustinesalon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmajustinesalon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaJustineSalon
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amie-migirova-596701137/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjrGorOyTveTrs1lJGQgv3Q
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@emmajustinesalon
Image Credits
Emma Justine Salon