Role: Co-Owner & Style Director
Company: BEAUHUAS Salon
Track Record: You never switch off running a business
THE POST
Co-owner and style director at BeauHaus hair and express beauty.
THE POST-HOLDER
After working for a year with award-winning salon Terence Paul in Manchester and eight years for Peter Mark in Belfast’s city centre, Donna took over Paul Shapiro in Belfast and together with business partner Sandy Keane, they created BeauHuas.
The salon was recently awarded the prestigious L’Oreal Colour Specialist qualification, a highly respected award in the industry with only a handful of hairdressers in Northern Ireland holding the accolade.
As an ambassador for the L’Oreal professional team, over the next two years Donna will work closely with the L’Oreal London academy, keeping BeauHaus one step ahead of the com-petition with the most up-to-date looks and trends The salon, which opened in December 2012, also offers a range of beauty services including a nail bar, lash and eyebrow bar and make-up application.
TRACK RECORD
Saintfield mum-of-two, Kerry-Ann Ferreira previously worked as a Candidate
7.15am I get up and dressed and get my five-year-old son Dillon ready. 8.30am – I drop Dillon to school and head into the city centre to work.
9am – I arrive at the salon and have a quick cuppa and a meeting with the BeauHaus team.
This is usually very informal and we call it our ‘huddle’ meeting, as we tend to huddle around reception and discuss the day ahead including checking client lists, salon presentation, upcoming training and generally any issues the team wish to discuss.
Communication within our small team is extremely important but I’m very lucky to be working with the crew I have – they’re all bubbly, pleasant, good listeners (which is key to being a good stylist) and excellent at their job.
Our morning meeting is great for motivation and creating the buzz amongst the team which definitely is reflected in a client’s overall BeauHaus experience.
9.30am – My first client arrives, if I’m in the salon I will usually have around five or six clients throughout the day, grabbing a quick cuppa and bite to eat in between.
Everything from colours, cuts, curly blow-dries – we have lots of regular clients and so it’s nice to catch up with them too.
It’s one of the aspects I really love about my job, meeting lots of people and getting to have a good chinwag while creating beautiful hairstyles.
1pm – I grab some lunch – if it’s a busy day in the salon then I tend to just grab a really quick bite taking around 15 or 20 minutes, or I wait until after the lunchtime rush.
Lunchtime can be quite busy in the salon, as that’s when a lot of our clients come in to get their hair done – because we are situated in the city centre, we’re ideally located for lots of busy working women.
2pm – If we have a lull after lunch, I use this time to catch up on any admin, book training, organise the team diary and ensure the salon is clean and tidy after the morning clients so we are prepared for the afternoon ahead.
No two days are the same, some days I may be working out of the salon on a shoot all day, other days I’m on a training course with L’Oreal in London or spending some of the day training my team to pass on the new skills I have learned at the academy to develop theirs.
We have quite a lot of weddings in the salon which I just love, the atmosphere is always fabulous!
We have brides who come into the salon with their bridesmaids to get ready but we also call out to houses too – I love doing weddings.
I ensure both myself and the style team undergo regular training as it’s really important for us to ensure a high standard so we can offer the best and most up-to-date service to our clients.
I love watching a client’s reaction when they walk out of the salon confident xith their head held high – it’s very rewarding!
5.30pm – I usually finish up in the salon at this time to go to collect my son and leave closing up the salon in my team’s capable hands.
I arrive home and job two begins!
6pm – Dillon and I sit down and do any homework and read together before I start making dinner.
I love cooking and experimenting, especially fine dining with good wine to accompany it!
7pm – depending on the weather we either head to the park for a kick around after dinner or embark on a few competitive Wii sport games.
He’s a typical wee boy with lots of energy so burning a bit of that off before bedtime is always a good thing!
8.30pm – Once I have Dillon tucked up in bed I prepare a few notes for the team meeting in the morning, or if I have a shoot the next day I read through my brief and get organised for that I try to switch off with a movie or I spend time reading some favourite hair blogs for inspiration!
You never really switch off from work when you are running your own business.