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

Jennifer, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

The biggest risk I’ve taken is opening a hair salon. I always knew I wanted to do it, and over the years learned from previous employers about how I would like my business model to look. But the execution and all the challenges thrown your way is something that no one tells you about. And this is not something that people are open with, you always see the smiles and success, no one talks about the struggles and stress they went through to get to that point.

Jennifer, 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?

I have been a hairstylist for about 10 years now. Straight out of school I knew I wanted to own a salon one day. And not just a salon suite where its just me working, but a larger salon where I can help build stylists, give them the continuing education they need, and mentor them as well. But I also wanted to hone in on my craft and build a clientele before I opened a salon. I finally felt like I was in the right place in my life 2 years ago to start the search. And at this point looking back I can’t believe how naive I was! But I’m glad I was, because I might not have gone through with it had I known the amount of work that was involved.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have had to pivot multiple times in business! My original business plan looks totally different than it does now. I was originally opening my salon for stylists that had their clientele and just wanted a new salon to work in. I got a few stylists that wanted to rent, but I got more stylists that were fresh out of school, or had been in other salons in the past and came to me because they wanted more education. I focus heavily on education, because once we stop learning our career is over. We as hairstylist need to keep up on trends! So with the stylist I was attracting they were employees, so I had to make sure there was structure, and pricing their services for them based off the demographics in the area as well as their education and how long they’ve been in the industry. So I brought in a business coach to help with all of that. This has become so much more than I had originally thought it was going to be, in a good way!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I honestly didn’t know what I was doing with marketing! I tried multiple different things until I figured out what worked. And marketing isn’t just social media, even though in the hair world you would think it is. I knew about branding, but marketing is a whole different beast! Iv’e learned about the marketing funnel, different buyer types, the importance of consistency for social media and Google, Yelp, and other platforms I had never heard of before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://republichairco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_jen_cahill/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/republichairco/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RepublicHairCo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@republichairco
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/republic-hair-dallas-4

Image Credits
https://www.edwarddigges.com