We were lucky to catch up with Amy Lee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

5 years ago I was at a crossroads in my career. I had been cutting hair for 18 years and although it was something I genuinely enjoyed, I was looking for a change, I had been working out of my home based studio for over a decade, and my body was starting to tire of the repetitive motions of the trade on my hands, arms and shoulders. I have always had a keen interest in natural healing and Cannabis was about to be legalized in Canada. It was an industry that I was interested in, so I was immersing myself in everything I could to figure out if there was a career path for me within this brand new budding industry.

Then everything came to a stop when my mom passed away suddenly May 2018. It was a traumatic event for me and really in the midst of the chaos I set my pursuit of a career change aside and found comfort in the familiarity of cutting hair. Hairdressing really is second nature for me and really was appropriate for me to grieve my mom. Not that I wasn’t interested in a new opportunity, but really felt so overwhelmed with grief, that it felt safe to be doing what I easy for me.

I was in my lane, doing what was second nature to me, I was healing and moving forward, not really looking for a change. An ad for a local kombucha bar for sale caught my eye online. I was familiar with the business as I had been a customer of this local establishment. It was a very unique shop in our small town and it definitely struck me that I would be quite disappointed if it went out of business. I shared the news of this potential closure of this cool local business with my husband, we both joked I’d be so good at running a place like that. We both got chatting and daydreaming of us owning that business. Both my husband and I got excited about the idea of this opportunity as a way ‘out’ of hairdressing. The daydreaming lead to a meeting to discuss buying the business, which inevitably lead to us to purchasing the business October 2018.

The business ‘The Bar’ was a kombucha bar with a retail space and a yoga studio. It was a beautiful concept, but the numbers didn’t add up – there needed to be more of a draw to generate foot traffic and bring in another revenue stream. A hair salon in the space only made sense! I had a very large and loyal clientele, there was a large open room in the back that wasn’t being utilized – so we set up a boutique hair salon in the space. The goal was for me to bring my clients with me, hire a small team and start to disperse my some of clients to other stylists and step away from my chair a bit more, save my body and run the biz.

It took a few months after the start up to get the salon set up, all the permits approved and be fully functioning in the space. I wanted to get my feet under me in the new space cutting hair and running the show, so initially we didn’t hire any stylists. We worked on building some policies and procedures, ironed out the kinks and then started to advertise to hire a stylist to rent a chair. We had a couple potential local stylist who were interested in a new opportunity, it felt like growth was on the horizon!

Then March 2020 the world paused for the pandemic and hairstylists were mandated to stay home. In the months following, the couple potential new stylists we hoped would join us, had shifted their plans, or quit the industry. The next 2 years we struggled to find stylists to join our team, there was so much uncertainty and so much changing. Other aspects of our business, like yoga and events also took a hit during the pandemic. It was super tricky to grow and prosper as we’d hoped. We navigated through it ok, we had other aspects that kept people showing up, like our coffee and kombucha bar and our local retail selection.

Today things feel back on track. Yoga classes and events are popular, our drinks are still rocking, folks continue to enjoy our local selection of goods, our hair stylist team is growing and I’m able to step away from my chair a bit more. It feels good. My perspective has shifted a lot and I realize some of the plans I was originally trying to execute – like renting out stylist chairs, now looks a little bit more like a team of part time employees of Olds Town Square, and that’s ok! Things shift, I’m open to it. I love having everyday be a little bit different in my work environment..The future looks bright for our little community wellness space! I’m excited to see where it takes us over the next few years!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m super proud of the community that has been formed at Olds Town Square. People gather with us for draught kombucha, healthy elixirs, yoga and hair services. We host a variety of events like markets, workshops and photoshoots. We have cool local goods for sale. All these elements excite me and represent things that lift me up – I hope they lift others up too!

My career as a hairstylist has given me a huge array of skills, especially people skills! It’s taught me a lot about human nature, and my curiosity for what makes people tick is fulfilled with the stories folks share. My experience with my clients is intimate in a way. They show up and give me permission to edit their appearance, I assist them in looking their very best – it’s an absolute honour! Everyone has a story, and as long as I am showing up and doing my very best, I can take pride in my work. My trade has taught me to be honest and fair in my treatment of clients and I carry that forth with all the customers that show up at our feel good space Olds Town Square.

Building and retaining a clientele is a lot of work, but with the right skills of the trade, and the ability to connect, I was able to grow and continue to. I can think on my feet, I can edit plans on the fly and I’m up for adventure. This has been vital to owning a brick and mortar biz and employing a small team.

How did you build your audience on social media?

We’re at the stage where customers will walk in and ask to try the new drink they saw online, they already know the name of our newest yoga instructor, or with new customers to the store, we hear – ‘I’ve been following a long and I’ve been meaning to come check you out’. It took a while to get to that place! I was really intimidated by social media when we opened our business. I was uncomfortable to put myself in front of the camera, afraid of being judged of our new endeavour. We initially hired the help, if someone else could manage that, I could figure out the other aspects of running a business.. We quickly realized the person we hired was not a good fit and I jumped in and figured it out.

I had a lot to learn! I asked for advice from anyone who knew anything about socials, I read blogs, I watched YouTube videos and I just played around. Common threads that I kept hearing that also aligned with my own values were – being authentic, being consistent, and staying on brand. I also realized showing up as the owner of my business and sharing some behind the scenes was really important to building customer loyalty.

If I had any advice to give to other entrepreneurs who are marketing themselves it would be brave and share your story, put yourself out there. People like to buy from someone they align with, it makes their purchase feel that much better! Having a lot of followers isn’t important, having engaged and loyal customers that is important!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of my favorite pivots during Covid was teaming up with a couple other small businesses and creating a small scale farmers market drive thru for Easter. None of us were really set up to organize something like this online (Olds Town Square didn’t even have a website, we quickly changed that after this event). We delivered pastries, kombucha, eggs and gifts to people’s cars in our parking lot at their set appointment times. It was fun to put together, it boosted moral in our customers, it was good for our business as well as the other people we teamed up with to pull this together.

Contact Info:

• Website: oldstownsquare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oldstownsquare/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oldstownsquare

Image Credits
https://www.whitecreekranchphotography.com/ https://meghanungerphotography.mypixieset.com/