We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Krystal Kelleher. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Krystal below.

Krystal, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Taking a risk….I feel like I do this daily. To me, i never regret the things I do but the things I do not do. Life is so short and flies by (especially the older you get), that I want to experience everything. Even the failures, because with those comes pain, but also lessons and growth.
The biggest risk I have ever taken was to become a business owner. I have my bachelor’s degree in nursing and was in the medical field for 18 years. I also have been in the beauty industry for 27 years now, but I completely walked away from the medical field shortly after COVID and decided to dive into salon ownership. A leap of faith or and/or a risk. Walking away from a steady paycheck and benefits to dump everything I had into a dream with an unknown end outcome. WOW, that is scary even typing it here. I opened my first salon Aug 2021 with 4 employees. I grew my salon team, expanded our skills set, grew our wedding team and I dug my heels in and kept pushing. Not even 4 years later we expanded. I tripled my space, tripled my team and the number of yearly weddings. We moved to a new beautiful location. We offer new services, and we have an event space, wedding shuttle services and a mobile salon.
People ask me all the time, how is business going? Such a weird question to me because how do we really know with such a loaded question? Do they mean, am I profiting (well I am still new at business and growing it so I am still dumping into it)? Do they mean, do you have regular busy days (we do and some days we do not, we try to utilize our down time to practice our skills, market and keep our space clean and fun)?
I usually say, I think we are doing ok, I just keep working and engaging in the community and put energy behind this dream of mine. When I sit back and look at everything on paper, I would say we are doing ok for a new business.

I really love what I do! I love coming to work, I love my team, the clients and our space. I love watching the teams’ books and relationships grow. Self-growth is something that I am a big cheerleader for. My clients have all became friends of mine. Our new location is on a beautiful lake with lots of wildlife. My heart feels full, although it is stressful, a lot of emotions and I am still learning daily.
Risks to me is like a challenge, and I love a good challenge. So I accept my dreams and will always put energy behind it to make them a reality. I stay grounded as an individual so I do not get lost or lose my compass.

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 was born to be a hairdresser. I knew at a very young age that hair was my passion, you should have seen my barbies, LOL. I started when I was 15 and never stopped. I did enter college and the medical field as a nurse (I felt that I had to), but i never stopped doing hair. I am still working behind the chair and offer all hair services. Ownership takes a lot of hours but I love it. I am most proud when I see my team growing within themselves.

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

Consistency and feedback!
I hold team meetings every other month, we go over house keeping things for a little, changes/new things, and always end with some new education and skill growth. This keeps communication the same across the board and comes from management. It also sets a little flame of inspiration to expand their skills. It offers a platform for owners as well to watch the groups body language within the team.
Feedback is key for growth and respect. I do 1:1 meetings quarterly to set new goals, go over numbers and talk about what is on ownerships mind as well as theirs.

We do 1-2 big moral activities a year as well!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

All sources.
I feel like in this industry you are a walking advertisement, and you have to hustle your way through the crowds. Have a good website, post on social media consistently, engage in the community, leave business cards where you can and be responsive to emails and calls.

When you stop working to grow, then you start to fade away slowly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cactushairsalonoh.com
• Instagram: cactushairsalon
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/cactuscocolocks