By Bizna Brand Analyst
Tole Shuma has been in the salon industry for over a decade. He started out his business, Kichana Hair Finesse in 2006 and since then, he has seen positive growth and expanded to other ventures such as cosmetics and men’s grooming as well.
Popping into the magnificently set-up hair care establishment on a Wednesday afternoon, I am faced with no option but read a magazine and wait a few minutes since Tole is a little busy. Kichana Hair Finesse is located on the third floor of Kenwood House in Kimathi Street. Next to it, there are a couple of other high-end salons so I wonder what the competition might be like.
As soon as Tole is ready to talk to me, we step into his office and I ask him about that.
“Competition is stiff but we are all about providing excellent services to our customers. As a result, they keep on coming back. The only problem I have with competition is that it creates a high rate of employee turnover in our industry. Even if you are a good boss, it’s hard to pin down your staff since some will always keep getting better offers salary-wise and leaving.”
The thing is, you don’t always find so many men in the salon industry. Traditionally, it’s been a female-dominated industry and guys like Tole are countable. The spects-donning entrepreneur says that it’s his passion for art and fashion that made him venture into the hair business.
“ I enjoyed making people look good ever since I was young. I was the guy my fellow students would go to when they wanted advice on how to groom. I almost ignored my passion at first as I went to college to study Tours and Travel but then a pal of mine convinced me to get into the hair industry and the rest is history. I realized this is what I was born to do.” Tole reminisces.
After completing his touring course, Tole joined Hair and Beauty school. He did small jobs In various salons to raise his fees before he decided he could do it on his own and started his own hair care center. The reason he opted for CBD as the location for his business instead of the residential estates is because he had done most of his jobs in town and a huge portion of the clientele also loved getting their hair done in the city. In that regard, it would have been unwise for him to set up shop elsewhere. He explains,
“In this business, you create bonds with clients. While I was employed in town, I made friends with plenty of customers. To make it easier for them to keep getting to me, I set up my business in the CBD. I also considered the fact the women with fat handbags don’t get their hair done in the estates. They are choosy. They do it here.”
Kichana Hair Finesse gets an impressive customer flow. Weekdays are slower days but there’s never room to breathe on weekends. I was eager to find out how much he makes in a month but he was coy with the figures saying he’d rather keep the financial books private. I didn’t press further since he might have his reasons and that’s understandable. The good thing is that he has never been in debt. No loans too. He breaks even every month and manages to pay all his employees their respective salaries in due time.
“I started the business from savings as well as little funds that I got from friends and relatives. I believe in growing slowly rather than taking huge loans to push yourself higher then get in trouble,” says Tole
Some of the challenges he has encountered include the emergence of counterfeit beauty products in the market. Clients want to be constantly assured that the products used on them are of high quality. Another problem is rogué staff. Some people get hired but they don’t come with the right mentality and attitude. They also aren’t willing to listen to authority. Because of that, Tole focuses more on mentality and desire when hiring other than formal factors such as job experience and papers.
On his advice to people who want to get into the salon business?
“Be passionate and have a business plan. Know where you want to be. Have targets so as to avoid mistakes. Mistakes are costly in an industry like ours. Do a lot of research and see how you are going to be different for the next salon.”
Keep going Tole.