Willows Hair
No more bad hair days: Willows Hair benefits from the Group2Grow programme
Samantha Holden from Willows Hair, Gosfield, Halstead tells us how the Group2Grow programme helped her gain the confidence to take her business to new heights.
Samantha has worked in the hairdressing industry for almost 30 years, growing her personal brand along the way and arriving at Willows Hair nearly 15 years ago.
After having various partnerships over the years, she decided to make a go of it herself – creating the Willows Hair salon and business that embodied her ethos of delivering top quality salon service to her clients. When lockdowns struck and the industry came to a standstill, it gave her a chance to think about the direction she’d like to take Willows Hair and how she might get there.
“The lockdowns gave me the chance to really think about what I wanted to do with the business, and gave me a different mindset. Today I have two really great stylists, and between the three of us it’s just growing and growing. We’re getting new clients like we’ve never experienced before, and one of the stylists that I took on has now become a partner in the business.
That’s enabled me to really step back, so I can start to really focus on understanding the core of the marketing and finance, and how we can grow.”
What sets Willows Hair and Samantha’s team apart from other salons in the area is their dedication to providing quality service to their customers; from booking their appointment, until they arrive back home with their fresh new locks. A large focus for her is looking after her staff by encouraging regular education on the latest hair science and trends, so they’re always ahead of the curve on what they can offer clients, as well as providing the best aftercare that will continue after the appointments have finished.
Their impressive Instagram profile, ran by one of Samantha’s stylists, showcases their work, while engaging with current and potential clients alike, and adding to their all round engagement with the community of clients they’ve built up over the years.
Samantha says that her success in building her clientele over the years has been due to the experience she aims to provide for her customers, which she’s hopes to build on in the future.
“Even if things have gone pear shaped, I’ve always been able to build a clientele. A lot of my clients have been with me for 25, 30 years - and it is because I do make an effort to become involved with them and build that relationship. That’s important to people, making them feel like somebody when they’re in your chair.”
In 2021 the salon gained a Customer Service award from Salon IQ off the back of their client reviews, and they aim to continue their streak and keep momentum by investing in more services that will set them apart from the rest.
Slowly making her dreams for the business a reality, Samantha and the team have just launched a refurbished relaxation room where they’ll be doing all the shampooing. The plan is to continue to focus on providing additional special touches to their salon experience – the team already offer complimentary head massages, but Samantha says they can always take it to the next level to cement the ‘spa experience’ when clients visit them. Little things make the difference, with taking service to the next level by creating customer profiles and noting little details about their likes and dislikes to create a bespoke experience for appointments – down to noting which customers like extra teabags in their tea.
A brand new relaxation room for the Willows Hair clients
After finding out about the Group2Grow peer network programme from a local business Facebook group, Samantha thought that the programme might help her to overcome the obstacles she was facing in growing her business; from a changing industry post lockdown, to being able to find a balance between taking a step back and growing her business.
“For me, balance is a big part of my philosophy. From lockdown, people want a better life balance and I tried to implement that for my team by making sure they’re not working every weekend and late night. For myself, I wanted to remain hands on while being able to step back and work on my business too.”
The Group2Grow programme, a Peer Network provided by business support initiative Backing Essex Business and fully funded by Essex County Council, was created to bring business leaders together to discuss common problems and work together to share experiences and knowledge to help each business move forward. Each group consists of around 8-10 businesspeople, who meet for 8 free 2 hour sessions, hosted by an experienced business coach who helps to guide each meeting, and encourages an open discussion on challenges faced by the group and then centres the session content around. In additional to this, each participant receives 3 hours 1:2:1 mentoring with the coach to discuss their individual goals, challenges they’re facing, and changes they can make to get there.
“The Group2Grow sessions helped me to understand what I already knew and made me realised that despite what your business is, we all have the same challenges. We might look after them in a different way, but it was mainly that we all had the same challenges which was really interesting.
It was comforting, and it gave me a great deal of confidence to do what I knew I needed to do for my business”
The change in mindset and peace of mind that the Group2Grow sessions gave Samantha gave her the confidence to work on the bigger picture for her business.
“When you’re a business owner you feel like you’re on your own, and sometimes in your head too much, but Group2Grow helps you to come out of your head and really think. That was the great thing for me.
My team have been the key in backing me up and helping to keep everything running while I step back and focus on the development of the business. I learnt about myself: letting go, and having to trust that someone else will take the reigns. Group2Grow helped with that, because it’s talking to other people who have had exactly the same issues.
It’s given me freedom – I had the courage and understanding of my own knowledge that I could stop doing the hairdressing on the salon floor and and actually work on the business, which is something I’ve been trying to do for years. I’ve now achieved that and it’s working really well.”
“It gave me the confidence and the understanding of what I already knew, to be able to put it into practice and achieve what I wanted for my business.”
If you are looking to grow your Essex business and feel you could benefit from the experience and knowledge of others, applications for the 2022 Group2Grow programme are now open.
The programme is open to all, including start-ups, sole traders, established businesses and larger organisations. All business sectors are eligible, including B2B and B2C, whether they provide products or services (or both).
