The beauty industry is currently undergoing a significant transformation fueled by entrepreneurship and innovation. Traditional salon models are making way for an increased demand for fresh concepts that offer beauty professionals greater independence, flexibility, and career empowerment to become a “salonpreneur.”
Empowering Entrepreneurial Freedom
A number of players exist in the beauty entrepreneur space. For instance, Phenix Salon Suites offers luxury salon suites for independent beauty professionals. The focus is on providing a high-end, boutique experience for both the salon professionals and their clients.
Salons by JC provides customizable salon suites for a variety of beauty service professionals. Salons by JC emphasizes flexibility and personalization in their salon setups, catering to a diverse range of beauty services.
My Salon Suite offers upscale, fully-equipped salon suites, My Salon Suite focuses on providing beauty professionals with a luxurious and professional environment. They emphasize privacy, comfort, and a high-end experience for both the salon owners and their clients.
Salon Plaza targets beauty professionals looking for a more intimate, personalized salon experience. Salon Plaza offers a variety of suite sizes and layouts to accommodate different types of beauty services.
Salon Lofts focuses on providing creative freedom to beauty professionals, with individual spaces that stylists can personalize to their taste. This brand emphasizes the individuality and creativity of its stylists.
One of the leaders in this movement is Sola Salons. I recently had the opportunity to speak with the Chief Operating Officer of Sola Salons, Jordan Levine, parent company to Sola Salons, about the company’s role in shaping the future of the industry and supporting independent beauty professionals to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. With a growing franchise network of nearly 700 locations and a community of over 20,000 beauty professionals, Sola Salons serves as a blueprint for success in the evolving salon landscape.
As Levine explained, “Sola Salons led a paradigm shift in the salon industry by providing beauty professionals with the resources and support they need to become independent entrepreneurs.” The company’s innovative salon suite model offers beauty professionals access to a private studio to showcase their personal talent and style. Sola gives individuals the freedom to be their own boss by renting their own salon suite space, while also benefiting from working with an established brand. This includes marketing support, education, training, and a strong sense of community and mentorship.
This approach caters to the increasing number of beauty pros seeking autonomy and creative freedom. Sola franchisees play a vital role in this by providing the much-needed support for beauty professionals to thrive. “Our franchisees are deeply passionate about this mission, and they understand the economic opportunities,” said Levine. Beyond hair, Sola Salons is also seeing a surge in demand from beauty professionals specializing in non-hair services like nails, lashes, injectables, and more.
Building Community and Sharing Knowledge
Levine emphasized the importance of “connection, education and support” within the Sola network. The company partners with leading brands to develop customized educational and training content for their vast community of over 20,000+ beauty pros. Sola’s annual three-day Sola Sessions event brings together hundreds of Sola professionals for impactful networking, skill-building, and industry education seminars. During this event, beauty pros from across the country come together to participate in breakout sessions with industry experts to learn about a spectrum of topics from artistic techniques to business strategies like crisis management, pricing strategies, marketing 101, and customer service.
“We recognize that staying at the forefront of industry trends and continuously refining one’s skills is paramount for success in the beauty industry,” said Levine. These initiatives underscore Sola’s mission to empower while fostering meaningful relationships and idea exchange.” Mentorship is another integral aspect of Sola Salons’ educational approach, allowing experienced professionals within the community to guide and coach newer entrants or those transitioning into independent salon ownership.
Levine also emphasized technology as a growth and education catalyst. Sola equips beauty pros with digital tools and training like on-demand video tutorials, webinars, and interactive workshops to bolster their online presence. The company invests heavily in platforms that support beauty pros in managing their business and clients, such as their proprietary BookNow technology, which allows pros to enable booking for their customers.
Designed for Connection
Levine further emphasized that Sola’s physical salon spaces are thoughtfully designed to foster relationship-building and to balance independence with collaboration. Private salon suites allow for focus and are complemented by common areas that encourage spontaneous interactions and camaraderie. “Lounge spaces, break areas, and communal gathering spots provide opportunities for professionals to connect, share experiences, and build relationships,” explained Levine.
Digital platforms like the SolaPro app further link this national community, where beauty pros can access all of their educational materials, manage their websites, and learn about exclusive opportunities to engage with industry leaders. Levine shared, “This collaborative environment encourages a sense of community, where individuals can tap into the collective knowledge and experiences of their peers.”
Upholding Standards of Excellence and Propelling Growth
Levine emphasized that maintaining brand integrity across Sola’s vast network is of utmost importance. Careful selection of beauty professionals and specialized, ongoing training come together to ensure consistent quality and standards of excellence are maintained across salons. According to Levine, Sola Pros tend to hail from high-end salons, and bring with them a high level of artistic expertise, customer service, and salon hospitality.
Strategic partnerships with leading brands and participation in prominent events like New York Fashion Week also allow Sola to lead in education and industry evolution. “Our scale gives us access to brands that smaller concepts might not be able to reach,” said Levine. The brand’s BeautyHive e-commerce platform distributes backbar and wholesale retail exclusively to Sola professionals and carries all the industry essential lines including Olaplex, Alterna, and Pureology.
Inclusive Leadership for Strategic Success
An essential aspect of effective leadership is the ability to recognize and mitigate cognitive biases. As leaders make strategic decisions, cognitive biases like confirmation bias or the halo effect can impair objectivity and lead to suboptimal outcomes if left unchecked. Levine explained that Sola Salons proactively seeks diverse perspectives from franchisees, beauty professionals, and customers to counteract potential biases. “We have a highly engaged Franchisee Advisory Board that contributes to our annual priorities, and they help us to engage the larger community in strategic initiatives through a robust program of working groups,” said Levine.
By continually gathering input from different and diverse stakeholders, assumptions can be challenged and blind spots revealed. According to Levine, this collective approach “helps us to stay nimble and agile despite our size.” Consciously minimizing bias enables objective assessments, allowing Sola Salons to evolve based on facts rather than beliefs skewed by bias.
Forging the Future with a Brand Mission
Sola Salons’ expansion is rooted in staying true to its core values, engaging franchisees, and embracing innovation. “We benefit from the collective experience of these franchise owners, who have a very close connection with their beauty professionals. Looking ahead, Sola will continue pioneering internationally, with a keen focus on the Canadian market. Sola Salons’ attractiveness to prospective franchisees lie in its proven business model that offers a stable stream of recurring revenue and can be scaled with minimal operational overhead.
The company is also actively forming partnerships to empower the next generation of beauty professionals including Beauty Changes Lives, a nonprofit dedicated to make the beauty profession a first-choice career. According to Levine, “This partnership will continue to grow in 2024 and affirms Sola Salons’ commitment to building confidence in independent beauty professionals who aspire to further their careers in the industry. By upholding its mission of empowerment and evolving strategically, Sola Salons is well-positioned to continue shaping the future of the industry.”
Shaping the Future of Beauty
Through innovative salon suite concepts, unwavering support for its diverse community of beauty professionals, and a commitment to continuous learning, Sola Salons has not just adapted to change but has become the driving force behind it. Jordan Levine’s leadership, coupled with a culture of inclusivity and bias mitigation, ensures that Sola Salons’ global expansion and partnerships signal a promising future where beauty professionals, guided by the legacy of Sola Salons, will continue to redefine the standards of success and excellence in this dynamic and evolving sector.
Key Take-Away
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Image credit: cottonbro studio/pexels
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky was named “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times for helping leaders overcome frustrations with hybrid work and Generative AI. He serves as the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote seven best-selling books, and his two most recent ones are Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams and ChatGPT for Thought Leaders and Content Creators: Unlocking the Potential of Generative AI for Innovative and Effective Content Creation. His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Korean, French, Vietnamese, German, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.
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