We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Goddess Lawrence a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Goddess, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Success, for me, requires sacrifice, perseverence, confidence and growth. It requires me to take the time to dedicate to growing my employees. Learning and setting boundaries for yourself, believing that no matter what you are enough. Never forgetting where you came from while continuing to wake up and grow. Asking myself “What’s the next goal?”, “How can I be better than yesterday, what can I do differently?”.
I came from NY to follow my dreams of starting my own salon. To keep business afloat I would fly back on weekends to work. Building a clientele in Florida wasn’t easy, I spent many days out front with my grandma crying, thinking that it wouldn’t work. During COVID I had the opportunity to purchase the building and did so. In the 8 years the business has been open I’ve continued to grow my team and expand what we offer to the community,

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?

For myself, I needed a hands-on career. I toured Capri Cosmetology in New York and signed up that day. While in school I continued to search for additional education and resources to grow my skills, starting with taking their business class “Nuts & Bolts”, detailed haircutting at Vidal Sassoon and extension certifications with top brands. After graduation I attended a street fair where I displayed pictures of my work on a table. An employee at a local salon approached me about my work. They connected me with the owner for an interview. I then went to work at a top salon in New York, JLK Salon. I worked there for 5 years and built a full clientele while becoming the business lead. During my time there my family, and myself, started to relocate to Florida. My mom and dad landed in Daytona Beach while I fell in love with Ormond Beach. In 2016 I opened Hair Goddess Salon & Spa. In 8 years, I’ve not only grown my business into being able to purchase the building, but also growing my team as skilled professionals, to being able to offer a pay scale for commissioned W2 employees. The salon utilizes an associate program for the newly licensed employees. This allows to share education between team members, grow confidence in client relationships and work together to sharpen skills. Together we are able to set each team member up for success in our industry. My team of stylists and estheticians are highly educated with the drive to maintain being experts in their field. As the business owner I personally reach out to handle any client matters. It is important that no client remains unhappy with their service. Having a large team means that we will have a stylist within each niche that can achieve the client’s goal and get them to it. This is part of what makes me most proud of my story, having the ability to grow a team of professionals in my industry and as a business owner being able to support and grow my team. But what I’m most proud of is how far my business has grown, and continues to grow, that I am now able to give back to my community. The community that helped Hair Goddess Salon & Spa grow to where it is today. My employees and all Hair Goddess guests are treated as family and will always be.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The most important thing while building my reputation within the local market was to never lose sight of my goals, which directly affect my growing family. I have always had to remain determined to make my dreams work and hit my goals, no matter what life threw my way. My home family and salon family rely on this. Confidence can waver but remaining on the path you built for yourself can build confidence and grow a positive reputation.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Keeping communication open and welcomed has always been important. Throughout the years of growing and managing a team I’ve learned if you take the time to learn and understand people’s different needs and wants, you’re able to best understand how you can help.

Contact Info:

• Website: Ormondbeachhairsalon.com
• Instagram: HairGoddessSalonandSpa
• Facebook: HairGoddessSalonandSpa
• Other: TikTok: HairGoddessSalonandSpa

Image Credits
Head shot photo credit: Stephen Holvick at Lunar Studio