The Next Generation of Inspirational Salon Owners with Joe Hemmings from Bloggs Salons – Hair Life with Nathan Plumridge

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Joe Hemmings, a multi-salon owner, multi-award winner, and part of the new generation of salon owners that are challenging the norms by giving his team and his guests truly something different. KEY TAKEAWAYS I started on the 13th July 2010 and it naturally evolved from doing A-Levels at school to apprenticeships. I was talked out of becoming a hairdresser at school because it wasn’t seen as a great career, and ever since then I’ve had a bit of a bugbear to prove people wrong, it can be a great career. I went self-employed at first to get a feel for accounts and paperwork. Then I opened my own salon and went from there. I learned a lot more lessons than I thought I was going to! For the first year I was on my own at the shop, working 12-hour days six days a week to pay off what I’d spent setting the salon up. Then I started to employ. I feel like I’ve just about nailed balancing multiple salons, I didn’t for years and years. Thankfully my partner is massively supportive. My working week is: Mondays is my day for personal development or pushing myself (two years ago I started doing public speaking workshops, for example), Tuesday is a management day where I spend it with the managers of the shops, Wednesday is clientele from 8am-8pm, Thursday is free so I can be with my team, Friday I’m with my daughters, Saturday in the salon and Sunday is my day off. Though that’s a recent thing. I took until Covid for me to pass on certain jobs to other people in the company so I can spend more time with my family. What is culture? It’s so hard to put your finger on it, and every salon id different. But I think it’s what people do every day without even thinking about it. You don’t need contracts written down every day to create culture, it’s just how people behave, what they believe in, and I’m really passionate on that – I want a team where everyone is equal, the same as the owner. I’ll do the bins, sweep the floors and the apprentices can do a blow dry or a toner. I try to mix it up as much as I can to keep it a level playing field. We’ve all worked for bosses in the past where you’re terrified you’ll make a mistake and you’ll get an absolute rollicking on the shop floor or in front of everybody. You don’t get the best out of people in that situation. You need to get people who want to be themselves and celebrate them being themselves and working how they want to work under the umbrella of a company where everyone is an individual, but they come together and work together. BEST MOMENTS ‘The first person I employed was an old boss of mine who had retired. I wanted someone I could trust and knew how to run their own business.’ ‘Be the bigger person and go with your gut feeling.’ ‘Delegation wasn’t something I naturally wanted to do because from day one I always held all the strings and made the decisions, it was my business my way. But, in the last few years, I’ve realised that’s the wrong attitude to have as a business owner. You should have people alongside you in the business who can make decisions that have an impact on the business.’ ‘Recently I’ve had a couple of members of staff go through really tough times, and everybody steps up, everyone helps them out, no one blames anyone. We move clients around, people on their day off comes in, people stay late. That, to me, means more than awards ever will.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Joe Hemmings is the owner of Bloggs Salons: My passion within hairdressing was to create something special that everyone involved could be proud of and that betters its people’s lives. The salon is such a creative and fun place to be and has been built on the incredible loyalty by the team and also our clients who over the years have become one big family. The community that we have built around us means that our salons aren’t just places to get your hair done but where you can be you and tell your own story. My favourite celebrity hairstyle is Michelle Williams as she looks beautiful with a short pixie crop or a grown out bob. My passion is shorter styles whether it be a pixie or bob but still allowing femininity and a softness within the style. Website: https://www.bloggssalons.co.uk/ Socials: @joehemmingshair ABOUT THE HOST Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences. CONTACT DETAILS  www.hairlifeshow.com Instagram is @nathan.hairlife  Email me at [email protected] This show was brought to you by Progressive Media