Hey, what's up, everybody?

Welcome back to the Hair Justice Strong show.

We have a special edition.

We are ground zero for a new Salon in Washington, D.C. i'm here with the owners, Gabby and Frankie, and we're going to take a little tour, and this will be part one of a docu series of their entire experience.

So, Gabby and Frankie, why don't you introduce yourselves?

Gabby, you want to go first?

Tell us a little, you know, anything about yourself, like how long you've been in the industry, what's your favorite thing to.

Favorite type of work to do, and anything about the space or anything you want.

Cool.

Yeah.

I'm Gabby.

I've been a hairstylist for seven years now, and I've been in D.C. for about four of those years.

I'm very passionate about hair cutting and hair in general.

I love coloring.

I love doing hair.

But right now, I feel a very strong pull into leadership and managing, and that's where my heart is at.

So I'm really excited for this space to open up and step into that role.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Frankie.

I'm Frankie, and I've been in the industry for about 15, 16 years.

In and out, licensed since 2011.

I've been a barber primarily, and as of lately, I've been experimenting a little bit with more stylish techniques, especially in your course.

Yeah.

Earlier this year.

So I'm gonna do a lot.

A little bit more of that.

Awesome.

So tell me a little bit about the space.

Like, your.

Your background is barbering.

Right.

And your background is.

Do you do cut and cut?

Do you do color?

I don't do color.

Okay.

I used to do primarily color, and then I switched over to just haircutting, and right now I do mostly dry cuts.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so just for the audience to add something, what's your favorite haircut?

Right now, to cut.

Ooh.

I just love a really long, soft, layered hair Haircut.

Yeah.

Awesome.

I'm in it right now.

Awesome.

How about you?

What is the type of work that you're.

What's your favorite thing to do right now?

Well, lately, I've been really into the longer, overgrown mali.

Okay.

Square layers on men.

I feel like that's gotten a lot more popular.

Yeah.

And after I finally nailed it, it's been kind of like a lot of what I want people to ask me nice.

But not a lot of what I'm doing anymore, because everybody wants fades again.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, let's give us the tour.

Let's take us on a.

So this is the front door.

We walk in this way and then take us from there.

All right, so you walk in through here.

And our vision is this middle area will be our waiting area and receptionist table.

So the receptionist desk will be back against the wall.

And then we'll have seats here, couch.

And then to either side there will be four stations.

So we have eight stations in total.

Two long tables on either side with four stations each.

And we use these moldings as the center focal point.

Yeah.

For the stations.

So that's this main room.

And then we'll do retail, little coffee area here for clients.

And this is the main room for clients.

And then going in through this space, this is going to be the kitchen for the stylist.

So we're going to close this off.

And this will only be for.

For staff.

If you look in there, that's the old door to the bathroom.

Okay.

Yeah, that's a part of our build out.

We had to close this door here and switch it to the other room.

Why did you have to do that?

Because we don't want it to be open to the public.

So we want clients to be able to access the bathroom without going into the kitchen.

I see.

At first it was all the way up.

Oh, it was a walkthrough into.

Okay, got it.

Okay.

And then we'll put our washer machine and dryer machine in here.

And this can be for mixing, color preparation, prepping or food or whatever that looks like for the stylist.

All right, cool.

Look at this beautiful wall we had to open up for the bathroom entrance.

So this room here will be our.

Where the wash bowls will be.

So this is going to be our little Zen area in the salon.

That's why the walls are darker.

We're also going to paint the ceilings a little darker.

The lighting will be dimmer.

And this will place three shampoo bowls.

Here, little division here.

And then we're going to have a little dividing wall right here to create a hallway.

And then you can hang up your coats, or if you're changing into a robe, you can hang that up there.

And then it's going to create a little separation from the people that are in the resting area versus going into the restroom.

So that door is going away also.

That's just going to be.

Okay.

Just open.

Yeah, we're going to open this.

We're going to open this doorway a little bit more.

So it's more like an entrance.

And then this was, I think, the.

One of the biggest things, aside from the plumbing and electrical work, was having to knock Out a whole brick wall, but it opened up the bathroom to this room.

So.

Yeah, yeah, let's.

I have.

I have.

I definitely have questions.

Well.

Well, let's finish the tour, because there's a room on the other side.

Yeah, that's our break room.

Okay, cool.

Okay, so I'll take you.

Yeah.

Come on.

Break room.

Because we actually have to have running water, so we congregate here.

But this is where we do our mix.

Gotcha.

Yeah, but that's what we really like.

Okay.

We wanted to create a space where it's very comfortable for our staff, stylists, assistants, receptionist.

Just a real break room where you can go and reset.

So we want to make it nice and comfortable.

Also put in some inspiration on the wall so that you can just relax before you have to get back into the busy floor.

So.

So this is our break room.

And my idea here is to make.

Have a big table where we can sit and eat or study or whatever you got to do, but also have some seating area that is comfortable.

You can come and rest, read a book, do whatever you got to do in between your clients.

And we'll put a little mini fridge here, a microwave.

This is luxurious.

Yeah.

Have you all ever worked in a space that had a.

No, no.

But I am very excited for it.

Y.

Look at that window.

Look at this window right here.

I mean, yeah, that's a amazing, like, window for light and for view to see the meter.

You watch your car.

Yeah.

I want to create a little space.

Like, if you want to work on your social media and you don't have to do it out on the floor, you can come back here, you can sit, grab a snack, relax.

Nice.

That was the idea.

Is it a fireplace?

Is this fireplace working?

Or.

I don't know.

We have to ask about that.

But it is beautiful.

It's like, 120 years old.

We could probably put one of those, like, heater fake ones in.

Or if you don't want the heat, you could probably just get, like, a fake thing for the fire during the winter.

Yeah.

It looks like someone was using it, so at some point it worked.

If it works, I'll take it.

So.

So what's the name of this place?

Corte.

And what does quartet mean?

Quarte stands for cut.

Okay.

So we like to focus on haircuts.

Nice.

It's also a word that means the same, and it's felt the same in Portuguese and in Spanish.

Cool.

Also nice and clean.

Straight to the point.

We like how it sounds.

And, yeah, I think it brings a Little bit of hard to remember.

Yeah.

A little bit of our culture into it, too.

And I feel like in both our cultures, it's very warm and welcoming.

Okay.

You visit the Dominican Republic or Brazil, and people are like, come on, you're at home.

And that's what we want to incorporate.

We have a little bit of a tropical vibe sprinkled around for the decor and all too.

Yeah.

Okay.

You'll see some of the decoration we have.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Okay, so this is looking great.

I mean, first of all, I asked the question when we first walked in, but can we get.

Can we get the camera on this?

All this ornate, like, plastering work that's.

So it just adds.

I mean.

And you said this was already here.

Yeah.

So what was this before?

Do you know, like a student, maybe physical therapy type office?

I mean, this.

This type of work, at some point.

I think it was either a monastery store or an office for a monastery school, from what I understand.

But an office.

Okay.

There were definitely a carpet office, like, office carpeting in here and.

Yeah.

All right.

Oh, we'll show you some of those clips.

Okay, so let's.

Let's get into this.

All right, first of all, how long has it been for you to get to this part point?

Oh, it's been an eternity.

When did we sign the lease?

We signed in March 15th.

March 15th.

And today is August 2024.

And we were sure that if all goes wrong, we're opening mid June.

Okay, so you're two months.

Two months behind.

And I think that we will.

I think that a comfortable date to kind of aim for.

We're not putting any pressure on it this time.

I think I was really heartbroken when we didn't reach our June date.

So I think before September is what we're optimistic about.

But flexible.

And what.

What ha.

What have.

What are the main.

And like, anybody in the audience that is.

Has been through this process, they're, like, totally feeling this right now.

They totally are seeing you.

I feel like the people who are aspiring to go through it or have never been through it or never thought about it, they would probably like to know what.

What's taken so long, you know?

Permits.

Permits.

Yeah.

We applied for permits shortly after we signed the lease, maybe like a day or two after.

Our landlord was already in contact with an architectural office who applied for the permits.

It just took a really long time.

I think in part, it was the city that maybe they're understaffed and behind schedule.

And also the architectural office, you have.

All these different departments that aren't necessarily in communication with each other.

It's not as seamless.

So you had.

You had different permits you had to get.

Yeah, we had to do architectural drawings.

Okay.

Which you have to wait a few business days for the architect to develop them, and then he sends them to you.

It's never going to be right on the first time, apparently.

I didn't know that.

And then it takes a few more business days for him to adjust.

Is there more money involved if they don't get it right and they have to do it?

I don't think so.

Okay.

All right.

I think you pay up front.

Okay.

Or in our case, we worked out a deal with our landlord.

We are taking responsibility for half of everything that is spent during this process.

Okay.

And he's doing everything up front.

He's paying it up front, and we'll pay him back.

So we got a good deal.

We both want each other to succeed at this.

That's amazing.

How did you meet the landlord?

We're driving by drive.

We just would drive by the call.

Like knock or whatever.

Yeah.

We would drive by the city often.

And see what they're talking about, call us.

That's incredible.

Like a day later.

That's incredible.

But from the day we toured this place until we signed the lease, it was probably like five months, December 2nd.

Wow.

So the space, you got lucky that the space didn't get rented too, then, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That also gave us a little bit.

We felt a little bolder with that because we're like, oh, oh, it's not gone yet.

So.

So negotiating might have a little bit.

Of leverage to some degree.

Total.

Initially, we were really aiming for a first floor location.

We wanted this.

We wanted this.

We still want this space to be our home for the next five, ten years with all the effort we're putting into it.

So we wanted a first location.

And so this was always in the back burner.

I was like, well, we have that.

One to fall back to the storefront.

But we like the decor on the wall.

Yeah.

Well, in the windows and the views.

Yeah.

Natural light on both sides coming through.

Yeah.

So what has been the most expensive thing that you've had to do so far and how much did it cost?

Just to give people who have no idea.

It's a little bit.

It's all expensive.

It's very expensive.

There's a pretty common one.

Okay.

That after you spend way more than you can ever calculate you're gonna spend, we run out of the cushion.

We negotiated for free rent.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Every Month in the space that you're not utilizing is definitely where you're actually.

Generating an income at the same time.

Because we're both booth rentals, so we're both paying our rent every week at our booth rent location.

We're also paying rent at home, and then we get to pay rent for our business.

She was actually doing commission, so she.

She was paying even more before she did the temporary booth rent situation.

Okay.

Yeah.

So by going independent, we were able.

To save a little bit.

Yeah.

And you were able to also create some space between the old business and the new business.

Exactly.

Which tends to.

From talking to people seems to be like, when there's a gap from you working somewhere to becoming an owner, it tends to make the relationship easier to maintain.

That's just like, from interviewing people.

It's case by case basis.

But yeah.

Anyway.

Okay, so, yeah, so losing the cushion means that you're paying rent at both of your booths.

Plus.

Plus here, not generating the income that we calculated that was gonna cover our expenses.

So when we realized it was just, like, out of nowhere, when we realized June was not a thing that was going to happen for us, we reached out to the landlord and we're like, try to work out an extra month.

They gave us two months.

Okay.

A free rent, a little buffer.

Okay.

Which is courtesy.

They're not required to give you anything, but it is common courtesy to get two up to three months.

So we try to haggle for that third month.

Yeah, but they wanted to take this whole room for one month, free rent.

I'm like, no, thank you.

But they wanted to take the best part of the room with.

Yeah, the half of the room.

They were going to cut off this whole part.

And they're like, yeah, we'll keep the rent the same and we'll give you another month.

Like, but then you're taking all the square footage away from us.

Yeah, but they all.

But in a time of desperation.

I think it's average at that point.

Yeah.

I think it's easy to say yes to something that won't be beneficial in the future because you're so desperate.

And it's like, okay, I could save a couple thousand dollars, but at what.

Point we'll just take that out.

We want to keep the whole.

Every single inch of that space right now.

Because we already have.

We already had to go through hours and hours of lining up where we're going to put our stations because there was always an impediment.

We kept losing a station with every layout.

Then why were you Losing stations.

Like what?

Because they're always.

Every layout that we thought about, you'd always lose some space that people could walk behind you or access something or access the front desk.

Gotcha.

Block and exit.

Like walkways.

Are always not accounted for until we drew it or put down tape.

And we're like, oh, yeah.

Because it's not.

I think, like, if you're a brand new salon and you're not buying the business from another owner and you get to structure it, we really want to prioritize the comfort of everybody that's working here.

So if that means having an extra 3 foot of space behind it, I didn't want to compromise that just to have a layout that would fit more people in.

So we managed to fit eight people but still give them the comfort of people walking past you.

Yeah, it was all here.

We're changing it, but it was all in here.

Yeah.

It's pretty good lighting though, for walking into, you know.

Yeah.

We noticed that the fact that it's pointing to the ceiling, it creates this soft.

Yeah.

Light.

So.

Yeah, we still get a lot of hard shadows.

Yeah, exactly.

So hopefully we don't get rid of.

It, but hopefully we can still play it out because we want a little bit more light.

Yeah.

So we're gonna get more beams, but gotta find a way to diffuse this since it's not gonna bounce off the ceiling.

Nice.

Yeah.

This is awesome.

Well, you said you had some questions.

Well, my question was, like, how much did that cost to break cut through that brick wall?

Like, I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure it's hard to itemize everything because it's part of a big thing.

But like, we got really lucky with our connections, I think.

Yeah.

Our contractor.

Don't burn bridges.

Okay.

My contractor, I've been.

I hadn't been in contact with him for a few years, but he's a longtime client of mine.

I know him for about a decade and just kind of cold calling.

Just shot.

Shot in the dark.

Hey, you have any references for me?

I'm in.

In the market for a contractor.

I know that's your expertise.

Yeah, I love an estimate or a reference.

He just showed up.

He said, I'll be there.

We'll do a walkthrough.

Gave us a beautiful quote, but again, it was like a family favorite.

Gotcha.

Just unexpected, out of nowhere.

So remember your clients.

Remember your clients.

Don't get mad if they leave you for another stylist because they might become.

Your general contractor and save you more money than you would have Made off of them doing their hair.

You never know.

You did not lie.

That's awesome.

And then so like when you did the demo, I guess you pulled up all the carpets and then all this stuff is.

They were.

Do they lay new floors?

Well, they had to rip it out.

All the electrical goes under the floor and then they pulled it out.

So we had to tell them how many outlets we wanted for each station where we wanted it.

So we came in and we measured everything.

The architectural drawings had to have these things accurately placed so they can pass the inspection that we just passed last week.

This week.

Last week.

Yeah.

So if there was, if there was like, okay, so the, the, the.

The most unexpected things were the, the permits and then the timing.

Eating.

Eating into your lease snake.

The timing where your construction isn't done before your lease is supposed to start.

Also getting a couple of months grace period remembering your clients because.

And, and then knowing that it's gonna be a lot more money than you might kind of like do your own calculations for.

That sounds cliche, but that it's so real, so true.

That's like the truest thing.

It's gonna take longer and it's gonna cost more.

And they always say it'll take three times, it'll take five times, six times as long and as costly.

Yeah, that's not an exaggeration.

Yeah.

So if there was one specific surprise other than what we talked about, that along this process, like you learned about the construction process or a thing that you're like, oh my gosh, that's going to cost us more money than I thought.

Any.

Any other surprises that you'd like to share?

I have a surprise.

I was surprised at how nobody knows anything.

Like people don't even know what's going on in their own department.

So I didn't know how important it was or how useful it would have been for me to had already had a contractor and an architect ready to go within my negotiations.

Because I'm thinking, oh, you call state board or the department of labor or whatever and they can point at resources or tell you exactly what type of things to look for.

They're just like, you need this and this and this permit and nobody knows what sources you need in order to accomplish them.

So you're always having lack of clarity.

But I will say this waiting period hasn't been totally negative for us.

And now that we're almost at the end of it, we can see that clearly.

We had time to work on things that are not seen but I think are very important.

To us and to the business.

And that's been to work on prepping ourselves for a place of leadership.

And how are we going to.

To take everyone here and pour into their business and to grow our staff?

I had no idea how to do any of that, and it was giving me a lot of anxiety.

I'm like, what do you mean we're gonna have employees?

This is crazy.

I've never done that before.

So I went on a deep dive and searched for someone that fit our needs.

And I've done six months of training, getting ready to do another six months.

And I think that that's been so valuable to do before we start.

Cause I feel like it gave us a lot more of a foundation than we had previously.

So it hasn't been totally bad.

There has been so good that came with it too.

Yeah.

Awesome.

All right, so let's wrap this up.

Where are.

What are the next steps?

Yeah, what are the next steps?

Opening now.

An opening.

Yeah.

What, like, what are you waiting on right now?

Currently just cleared the inspection that we needed before patching up all the work that was done on the floor.

Okay.

Now we're going to lay down floors, finish painting.

We need a final inspection.

I'm assuming you're speaking, like, legally and operational.

Sure.

Or whatever.

Yeah.

Like, anything that comes to mind that's, you know, is coming up next.

Yeah.

Finishing inspection.

Health inspection.

Business.

Because electrical and the plumbing's done.

Done.

Yeah.

Okay, so you just need to lay the floors, faint paint, and put all the furniture where it is.

And then last minute touches.

Okay.

So you're in the final stretch.

Yeah.

And then pass the last two inspections.

Then we're good to go.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Cool.

All right, so one piece of advice from each of you that for the person watching that wants to do this.

Okay.

I can go first.

It might be scary when we're saying all these things, but it has been the one thing that's kept me waking up every day super excited for the day.

So don't shy away from it.

If that is something that you feel you're called to do, you can do it.

Yeah.

Times 10.

Yes.

For me.

Save your money as much as possible.

It's not always possible, but save as much money as possible.

More than you think you'll ever need.

Network, keep contacts, architect, contractor, and anything in between.

It'll smoothen up everything.

Like.

Yeah, we got lucky that a lot of things landed in place for us.

We're extremely lucky.

But I feel like all the things we got lucky with are essential things that everybody needs going into any type of development, so.

Awesome.

Awesome.

All right, well, thank you for this.

And we look forward to checking in maybe in a few months, depending on, you know, you saying that you're expecting to be open in, like, two months from now.

Okay.

So let you all get open.

If you have some sort of party, we'll be there.

Otherwise, even if it's before you have a party, we should come back and we should check in and see where you're at.

Awesome.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, good job, and this is looking beautiful, and we look forward to seeing what's next.

Appreciate you guys.

Thank you.

All right, until next time.

See ya.

Have a good one.