It’s a good time to get going…
Hi all, my names Patrick Marrow and I’ve been meaning to write a blog for a number of months now, maybe even years! Not for any other reason than to initially keep clients or anyone else informed and interested on what’s going on at the salon. It turns out that being subjected to countless episodes of ‘Sex And The City’ by my sisters whilst growing up had more of an impact on me than I thought. Though I’m no Carrie Bradshaw, and I’m certainly not as rich, I figured now is a good a time as any to get going.
That’s whats missing…
Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I’m a good talker, it’s probably one of my best assets. So it seems like a pretty weird thing to effectively have that day to day, meandering conversation with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds snatched away. Yeah Zoom and FaceTime are great, but the intimacy of seeing peoples emotions, the reactions to the stories we tell, the huge group conversations amongst everyones clients, the thrill of seeing peoples eyes light up when they see the finished look, the shitty dad jokes, the gossip and the fifteen-to-twenty minute team meeting we have before the day kicks off…thats what’s missing.
Hair by Patrick Marrow of Hive Manchester
Time to take stock…
After closing the salon, succumbing to the inevitability of this shits-how we’re all enduring and the panic ebbed away, I felt like it was time to take stock and look at what I could do to make sure the team and the salon remained in a strong position moving forward. I was fortunate enough to have a really good pupilage when I was at my old salon on how running a business is exactly, that, a business, so we were in a strong position already, but it was time to set out on rewriting the business plan for 2020. Honestly; that didn’t take long. When there’s little finance to contend with and projections are so volatile, it’s easy. Then, naturally, it seemed like a good idea to do the jobs I have been procrastinating on around the house and garden ( it’s worth noting that I’m fairly OCD and generally a very clean person anyway, so in three days; that was all done done.) I’ve set projects around the house, built a 8x7ft golf net to practice my game into, sold stuff on eBay, rearranged my plants 1000 times, all this, done.
Colouring Dolls Heads, Making Tutorials and Online Classes…
And through all of that, I was guilty about how I hadn’t really picked up my hair tools in weeks and more importantly how I wasn’t at all bothered by it. What the hell was wrong with me? Maybe it was time to look to social media for inspiration and force the issue. Maybe that would be the shot in the arm I needed? But like it often is, I was just overloaded with content. Terabytes of videos on my feed of stuff that just wasn’t inspiring me. Until I realised something. The one common factor that tied all of these posts, IGTV’s and webinar videos together; we’re all in the same boat. Hairdressers trying to get that same fix of the things we love about our jobs, colouring dolls heads, making tutorials and watching online classes are our way of recreating that feeling of being in the salon that I miss, the sounds, the smells, the energy.
Isn’t that inspiring?
Hair by Patrick Marrow of Hive MCR
Creatives can’t sit and wait for things to come…
We are creatives. It’s as simple as that. Creative people can’t just sit and wait for things to come to them, it just manifests itself in different ways. Hyperactivity, impulsivity, rebelliousness, critical thinking, precision and conscientiousness all come together to form this amazing industry and its people. And that’s amazing. Sure its in different ways, some will work on their skills as hairdressers, some will improve on their skills as business owners, some will wait for the time where they feel like this imposed home-holiday is over and they’re recharged.
Patrick working on a photographic shoot.
Banging salon doors open again…
Either way, one thing is for sure, we’re gonna have people banging our salon doors down because they miss us as much as we miss them (their hair tbh). We’ll be there & we’ll be better for it, but are you ready?
Pat.x
Special thanks to today’s special guest blogger Patrick Marrow of Hive MCR
Follow Patrick on Instagram @patrickmarrow
Website: hivehairmcr.com
Why not visit our Podcast interview ‘Starting a New Salon Business From Scratch’ with Patrick Marrow HERE
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