We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki Scott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nikki , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.
My companies gives 10% of the monthly sales back to the community. Some months we only serve our sponsored children and others we feed the community or meet a need that was brought to our attention by a customer/friend. We do 2/3 community events throughout the year to help the under privileged children in our communities and we do operation Christmas child every October.
Giving back is the core of who we are as individuals and it overflows into how we operate our businesses.
Nikki , 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 am a hairstylist that does only men’s hair. Being a female in this industry was hard at first because I felt like I always had to prove myself or work harder to show the guys I was as good as them. So I started a barbershop that provides women with a safe atmosphere to grow and learn about the men’s hair industry without judgement or fear of sexual harassment. I wasn’t trying to fix a problem for my clients, I was trying to fix a problem for the hairstylist. This created an amazing work environment that men were drawn to because you can feel the difference when you walk into my barbershop or my family hairsalon. We are started our second location with families in mind. Giving them a place that kids can go and play while mom gets her hair done or the children can get there haircut in a place they feel like is inviting for them as well. Our staff is highly trained for our friends that needs a little extra support and accommodations to meet their specific needs, whether physical or mental we try to meet everyone where they are. We not only give a portion of the sales away but we give our time as well. In the salon taking our time to meet the need, out at a hair cutting event or serving meals to the community we stay as active as time allows.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My husband and I opened our first store 10 years ago. He was in Afghanistan working as I built up the clientele to help us afford for him come home again. We built a strong team that worked well with each other. This grew us to 2 national awards for fasting growing salon in the nation as well as many awards in our community. We had so many stylist and customers that in Feb of 2020 we purchased a second location to help with the spacing problem we were having. Then… the bottom fell out… Covid hit and wiped out our industry. Workers were afraid to return and clients were afraid of being that close…4 pages for regulations to follow it was a mess. We went from 17 stylist and 3 receptionist in one store to now having 6 employees, half the clients and 2 locations. The last 6 went to 3 and we had to rebuild from scratch all over again. So we took what worked in the past and hit the ground running. Used the shut down to train new stylist and redo the inside of one location as the manager finished the new location inside decor. Once the state opened us back up it was go time. Little did I know that in this rebuild phase I was lose my husband and business partner. The rebuild took a back seat for a little while as I tried to pull myself back together. I was just there going through the motions for a long time. This caused a downfall in business at an already hard time because my head wasn’t in the game. I am so grateful for my amazing staff that kept the business moving forward as I was going the motions. Fast forward to today… my head is clear again and I have been for the 3rd time going back to the basics and trying to grow both locations. Back out in the community and earning business one haircut at time. Marketing and rebuilding the brand my husband and I were so proud of. The rebuild looks a little different because I’m my barbershop I have started building suits to rent out to help others grow there business. It’s new for us but as long as I stay true to the brand and to my staff I know we will see our old glory days again it will just be different because I was building a business for our lively hood and now I am building our business for a legacy.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Oddly enough I met my husband through a friend that was cutting his hair. He asked her if she had any single friends and she gave him my number. We went out on a blind date and it was love at first site. 14 years of the most amazing journeys and growth that I could ever ask for. This is why I just had to write about how we overcome so much in life to find each other, changed our lives for each other and the future for our son. His story had to be told.
Contact Info:
- Other: I have multiple ways but it will depend on how the story goes on which we should share. www.cuttingcave.com www.shearedtreasures.com www.booksbynikkiscott.com Social for all 3 businesses as well
Image Credits
Two crafty cats