We were lucky to catch up with Inna Tsalkovich recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Inna, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
From a young age, I fell in love with the beauty industry. I would always pick up on designs such as drawing clothes for dolls, creating updos on my toys & friends. At age 14, I helped a close family friend with her wedding and provided a elegant updo & makeup. From a young age I loved interior design and art, especially drawing paintings. I come from a intelligent family, my grandfather was a attorney & my mother was a teacher for the art of music. My father was a computer engineer and I was the only one from my family who wanted to take part of the beauty industry. When I was taking a bus, I saw a beauty school on the way to my route with my 2 year old daughter. I decided to take a risk and sign up to proceed with my future career. I took a decision to take a loan out and finish my education to become a hair stylist. The practical part of school came really quick and easy, but the theory portion was challenging. Coming from a different country, english wasn’t my first language. I tried my best all for my career. With little knowledge on english, in just a year I passed and graduated cosmetology school. I always believe in if someone has a dream and passion, that they will always reach it with patience, a great mindset, & goals they could make anything a reality. With starting off my cosmetology career, I was a successful stylist. I was fast at making loyal clients and only moved ahead from that. I took many more courses & education to continue to build myself because education is always important, especially in this industry with new trends & ideas coming out. With all this knowledge, I opened my first salon in SoHo, New York which was ranked “The Best Salon In Manhattan In 2015”. After the tragedy of my parents death, I decided New York wasn’t the place for me. I made a decision to leave town for a new start and a better environment. I didn’t plan on opening no salon in Florida. But the beauty industry made me realize how much I missed it and how much it needed me. One day I decided to want to get back into it. I went to about 4 salons in Florida, but couldn’t find a salon that deeply matched with what I believe in. I wanted to join a salon with the same beliefs and business operations I believe in. At that moment, I had a strong database of clients at which i was able to open a small salon in Boca Raton, Florida. The salon had 3 stations, it was small but that was just the beginning of the Hairmess Brand. We were very busy during our opening. With the success of our small salon, we managed to open a salon with 6 stations and it kept growing. After COVID. We were closed like the rest of the small businesses in the area which was hard on us & our stylists. The stress of the salon being closed during COVID wasn’t the only problem we ran into. After we got back to work, we were told about a demolition to our salon due to a new property being built. We thought this was the end for Hairmess Salon. At that time, my husband & business partner became ill. But after everything I kept going forward. It was between ending everything I worked hard for especially in Florida where its hard to get clients, find quality professional hair stylists & more. I recommend picking talented people who love the industry, who respect the industry and people around them. I help young and talented stylists to stay with the Hairmess Brand with offering my experience, teaching them, I invest my talent & over 20 year experiences in the industry to them & my team. Right now, after this long road of ups & downs my team & I received a Quality business Award for “Best Hair Salon in Boca Raton Of 2024”. The design of the salon was my idea and dream with the help of my husband & business partner who helped build it from the ground up. I am always grateful to my lovely team, from the old salon & the new comers who are getting started in the industry. We learn something new from each other everyday and use it in our craft. We learn about marketing, colors, formulas, techniques, haircuts, hair extensions, & new innovations. We will never stop, this is just the new beginning for Hairmess Salon in Boca Raton. We will keep moving forward, my team which I don’t even see as a team but my family will keep building the brand up and grow. I want to say thank you for my husband, my daughter, & all the great and wonderful people who helped me during this difficult time & a big thank you to my team who I believe is the best team that I ever had and worked with.
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?
The Hairmess Salon has two meanings to it, hair & mess. Its a unique name which already differs us from the rest in the area. Its a funny, creative, & easy to remember business name. Our salon offers all services on the market. We offer the newest products & techniques in hair, skin, & nails. We are a certified Goldwell salon. We provide Wella, Loreal, & Redken. We have a wide range of luxury blonde products. Our shelfs are always filled with the newest and most quality products to try and take home. We care about our clients, thats why we created a different range of menus. We offer a range of budgets for our clients that fit their lifestyle & budget. Any client will get high quality service for any budget. We feel our clients, and try our best to make the space a great and comfortable environment. In our salon, we have boundaries and rules. We offer professional hair stylist who are dressed to impress. All our stylists are well groomed & have excellent customer service.. Our salon is set at a high standard with cleanliness & respect. We have a ZERO tolerance for phones which give the stylists a opportunity to focus on providing excellent services. Our clients respect us for showing all our affection and focus on them,. That’s why our return rate for our hair stylists is 80% or above. Our wonderful salon adminasters, frontdesk, & assistants help the salon keep track of our appointments, clients, & etc, A wonderful work team is necessarily to help the salon grow. The biggest part that sets us apart from others is we are diverse. We have different languages to help every client who walks into Hairmess Salon in Boca Raton, Fl. We are a luxury high-end salon for a affordable price in Boca Raton, Fl. With our location being on Federal Hwy, we offer a range of free parking spaces and a wonderful plaza to shop around.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
The way Hairmess Salon keeps in touch with clients and has a 95% return rate is being honest. Being honest with clients will get you far in this industry. Clients can tell when they are bing lied to. We keep everything 100% with clients about prices, services, & etc. We keep track to make sure every client leaves happy.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We build our reputation every year with our high growth. Our reputation is thru referral. Once a client feels happy with their service, they will tell everyone where they went. Word of mouth is the best reputation if you use it correctly. We also use social medias like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Threads, our website (Hairmesssalon.com), Pinterest, & Google which you can find us @Hairmess_Salon.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hairmesssalon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hairmess.salon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Hairmess-Salon-Boca-Raton-61552565174807/?_rdr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hairmesssalon3646
