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

Meg, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken in my life was when my business partner and I opened our studio during peak variant/over crowded hospitals/mandatory masking times during the pandemic in February 2021. We were both feeling very confined and dissatisfied by the limitations at the traditional/corporate salon where we both worked and wanted to further our careers in a way that aligned with our personal values. Despite have zero business ownership experience, we took the leap! Our salon THRIVED. Clients were so excited to support a business that prioritized doing specialty haircuts (there were no other place in town that really offered what we were doing at the time) and was gender affirming, sustainable, and clean. We have since more than tripled our space, grown our staff, and seen consistent revenue growth year after year. It was the best life changing risk I ever took.

Meg, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m one of the co-founders of Good Sister Studio, an independent craft hair salon in Chattanooga, TN. We opened Good Sister in 2021 with the intention of creating a space where hair care feels personal, inclusive, and approachable. From the beginning, we’ve been focused on running our business in a way that reflects our values, with an emphasis on inclusivity. We structured our pricing to be hourly, gender-neutral, and gratuity free. We also prioritize at home education for all of our clients and specialize in more niche areas of cutting (which we do not think should be niche!), such as dry cuts for curly/textured hair, razor cuts, and more edgy, avant garde looks like mullets and shags.

We also take sustainability very seriously. We’re a certified Green Circle salon, which means we recycle nearly 95% of our salon waste. We also only carry products that are clean, cruelty-free, and ethically sourced. We love to support brands that are as good for your hair as they are the planet!

One of the things I’m most proud of is our Pay What You Can days. We use these days as an opportunity to give back to our community and provide accessible hair care to those that might not have it in their budget to have their haircut in a salon. We waive our usual hourly fee in favor of whatever our client can comfortably pay at the time, and donate that money to a local mutual aid. Some of our favorites are A Step Ahead Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Free Store.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner, Alexa Kuper, at a more traditional salon where we were both previously employed. I quickly realized that Alexa was the first person I’d ever met that wanted to do hair in the same way that I did. I deeply admired her dedication to education – both for herself and her clients – and our shared passion for making haircare a more affirming, inclusive experience. Once we started investing more in learning about this kind of haircare, we quickly realized that there was a real need in our community for a safer space salon option, especially for folks in the queer community and people with textured hair – and that’s how Good Sister was born!

My favorite thing about having Alexa as a business partner is that, even though we are very different (and balance each other well), we share the same core mission for what we want Good Sister to be – a space where everyone can feel welcome showing up exactly as they are and leave with an expertly crafted haircut that’s tailored to suit their lifestyle, their texture, and their daily needs. There is a lot of comfort in knowing that you and your business partner share the same WHY – which is what we continually come back to time and time again whenever we hit a bump in the road. I’ll forever be grateful that I found someone that I admire so much professionally and trust so much personally to do this crazy small business ownership thing with!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Authenticity and niching down were the key to building my audience on social media. I always focused on building quality, engaged followers vs. viral level, mindless follows that didn’t actually build my business. I put my face out there consistently and spoke to my audience directly – because people want to know YOU and the person/business they are investing in more than ever. I was very clear about my values and mission, and was not afraid to talk exclusively about my niche specialties vs. catering to the crowd. To this day, Good Sister has thrived off of word of mouth, online reviews, and social media alone. We have never once paid for advertising, and I think it’s a testament to how our authentic, straight forward business ethos speaks for itself and stands out in an otherwise heavily saturated area for hair salons.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodsisterstudio.com
• Instagram: @meglandis.hair @goodsisterstudio.com
• Other: https://www.vagaro.com/goodsisterstudio

Image Credits

Rachael Crowe of Ok Crowe Photography