We recently connected with Celene Dupuis and have shared our conversation below.

Celene, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When we started Revamp Salon Company in 2014, we had a team of six talented and dedicated stylists. It was an exciting but challenging time, as we embarked on the journey of bringing our vision to life.

Building a team from the beginning was crucial for us. I wanted to ensure that each stylist not only possessed the necessary skills but also shared the same passion for creating a unique salon experience. Finding those first few team members was a critical step, and I sought individuals who believed in the direction I wanted to take the company. Building a culture was the entire backbone and unique difference in our salon at that time.

To recruit our initial team members, we used a combination of traditional and unconventional methods. We posted job openings on industry-specific platforms and utilized social media, but we also relied heavily on networking within the local beauty community. Word of mouth played a significant role in bringing together our team of talented and passionate stylists. We were pioneers in many areas in our market, building a revolutionary training program for new hires and creating and aligning with some of the top business academies in North America.

As we expanded and opened BLNDE beauty bar by Revamp this past April, our recruitment and training processes have evolved. We have become even more deliberate in defining our company culture and values, ensuring that potential team members align with them before joining us. Additionally, we have implemented a mentorship program where new hires are paired with experienced team members to accelerate their growth and integration into our culture.

Looking back, if I were to start again today, I would place even more emphasis on protecting and nurturing our company culture. Building a strong culture has been the single most important aspect of building both successful companies. I’ve come to understand that some individuals may only be with us for a season, while others are meant to be part of our team for a lifetime. Emphasizing culture from the beginning would have allowed us to create an even more cohesive and supportive environment.

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?

My name is Celene Dupuis. I am the CEO of two salon companies, and have been in business for almost 10 years. I am a International Facilitator for the beauty industry with 20 years experience. I have been helping coach hairstylist in their skillset, branding and social media and business for two decades now. This work has led me to facilitate for over 10,000 people across North America.

I am a business mentor with the High Performance Salon Academy based out of the USA as well as a Little Voice Master Coach where I help lead people through a 6 week intensive coaching experience that helps them figure out what is standing in their way to becoming their biggest baddest self!

My salon companies provide an inclusive and safe space where our main mission is to help people feel like the best version of themselves. We work with our guests to help them love the skin they’re in- 1 head of hair at a time! Our mission is to not only fight toxic beauty culture, but to fight against the hustle culture as well. Careers in the beauty industry often don’t last long due to burn out. We teach out team how to be 100K hairstylists on a 30 hour work week – so they can have their cake and eat it too! We offer them not only training in skillset, but financial wealth training, mental health training, personal development and inclusivity training.

I am proud to be an active member in my community. As a wife to a husband who suffered from a Spinal Cord Injury 7 years ago, we have done work in our community around accessibility and education for people living in an inter-abled relationship. I began my facilitation career at the age of 18 when my sister was killed by a drunk driver. Our family created a non profit and I traveled North American with my mother teaching teenagers the dangers of drinking and driving. In 2014 I was one of 3 first ever recipients of the Saskatoon Chief of Police Awards for community service. I was also a finalist for the YWCA women of distinction awards in the Loretta’s Award category, which recognizes women who have suffered tremendous hardship but managed to achieve personal success regardless of circumstance.

It is most important to me to be able to have a life impact on the guests and employees that I deal with on a daily basis. I believe my life mission is to help people achieve things they didn’t even know where possible. I am in the business of changing lives – I just happen to use hair to do that.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have faced a lot of personal trauma that has helped shape me into who I am today. We do not get to choose our cards – but we do decide how to play our hand. Losing my 16 year old sister to drinking and driving and then loosing my father to brain cancer a fews later shaped my early adult years. It taught me how to be resilient, to push forward and to not accept failure. I believe this prepared me for 2016 when my husband was in a quadding accident that left him a T10 paraplegic. Being forced to face that, keep things as normal as possible for my 3 year old son, while still running my 2 year old salon company was one of the most difficult times of my life. I drew on my team at work, my support systems in my family and friend network, and worked hard to balance almost 3 months of being at work at at the hospital every day while my husband lived in a rehab centre until he was well enough to come home. 7 years later we are still working hard to find our new normal. I have learned that I order to take care of everyone else around you, you must first take care of yourself.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Most people don’t realize that less than 10% of salons across North America even break even. Under 3% are profitable, and out of that 3% only 1% of women owned salon every hit 1 million in sales.

Essentially the odds are stacked against us. By aligning ourselves and educating ourselves on what it takes to build a successful salon company we have been able to beat the odds. I’m not where I want to be yet – but my companies are expanding, providing new jobs for people in our market and making waves while doing it.

Truth is the secret it to build up your business foundations first. If you have a solid culture, code of honour and systems and processes your company will be able to withstand a lot more when the storm eventually hits (hello covid)! Creating a leadership team filled with leaders who believe in our code of honour, and creating a team willing to be radically accountable we have been able to continue growing. Not everyone is going to be right for your company, and saying goodbye is hard, but having a solid group of people who really want to be accountable and keep growing is the secret sauce!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.revampsaloncompany.com, www.blndeyxe.com
• Instagram: @celenedupuis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celene.dupuis

Image Credits
Photography by Colleen Niska