What it Takes to Build a Top Beauty Business

Daniel Landroche: 

Everyone deserves a living wage. And if as a business you can't do that, I think there is some introspection needed and some examination on your business model because you can't become a successful business by exploiting cheap labor.

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Make every moment matter.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

Daniel Landroche is the lead solutions architect and in-house reporting expert at Boulevard. In addition to his work as a consultant, he has 12 years of experience working in high end hair salons. Daniel complements his salon industry knowledge with additional experience in management, operations, payroll, finance, HR, and marketing. Daniel channels his wide breadth of experience and knowledge into his passions for creating content and real solutions that help professionals find new ways to be more efficient.

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Welcome everyone! We are so excited to be sitting here with Daniel Landroche. So Daniel's had an incredible career in the salon industry and now works with us over at Boulevard. So many of our incredible customers are very familiar with Daniel and the work that he provides. And Who better than Daniel to talk about what those top businesses have in common and some cool strategies that we can all implement within our businesses. So we're super excited to have you, Daniel. Welcome. 

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Daniel Landroche:

Thank you. So excited to be here. 

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So before we get into the meat and potatoes, let's go ahead and hear a little bit about you. Tell us about your career, who you are. We'd love to know more. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah. Uh, well, uh, my name is Daniel Landroche. I am a lead solutions architect at Boulevard and I've been there for about 20 years. And that's just a fancy way of saying that I help find solutions for our customers if they have complex problems, a lot of times around data and reporting. And before, uh, joining the team at Boulevard, I worked in high end salons for about 12 years and five of those years with Shinalie here.

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And yeah, I had a very similar story, I think, to a lot of us who joined Boulevard from the industry, which is, I started out at the front desk as a receptionist, worked my way up into management, into operations. And dealt with, uh, a lot of things. So financials, bookkeeping, payroll, inventory management, HR, you know, wore a lot of hats. It's one of the great things that I love about Boulevard is that we have so many people, uh, on our team that come from the industry because it really lets us communicate to customers on their level in a language that they understand. It really puts them at ease and it makes it so much easier to get to what they really are talking about.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

That's so true. We really do have our own language and you can feel it when someone's faking it. 

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Daniel Landroche:

Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

Very cool, Daniel. So what originally brought you to the beauty industry? Cause I know you have had a career in like acting, modeling, you've done a lot of things. So what actually brought you to the beauty industry and what made you stay?

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Daniel Landroche:

It was really not something that I had planned. It just kind of happened. I fell into it, you know, that sort of that trajectory of working your way up and really like, figuring out how to make a business successful, that kind of grabbed me. And then with Boulevard, I'm able to do a similar thing, but from a completely different perspective, I'm able to look at these businesses and see the things that they're going through very similar to the situations that, you know, we went through and take that perspective, uh, that's outside and, and, and help them see it from a different angle. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

Sometimes it's easier to look at it from that bird's eye view when you have a little bit of separation, right? Where you get that tunnel vision where you're like, Oh my God, I didn't even think of that. Like I just needed one person to come in and take a look at what we're doing and help me piece this together. So you're that, you're those eyes. Very cool, Daniel. I know we have tons of folks who are probably listening that are super grateful for the time that they've had with you. So very excited to talk about this with you.

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From your experience, what are some of the characteristics that these businesses have that end up being uber successful? Like, is there a formula? Like, is there a common ground with them? I'd love to know more there. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah, I think there's definitely some key things. That a lot of them have in common. One of the first things that comes to mind isn't really like groundbreaking, but it's like truly understanding financials, you know and from like a three 60 point of view, not just like paying attention to your sales, but like really knowing, you know, what your expenses and your overhead is and really being dialed into those, like on a regular basis and understanding exactly what your PNL looks like, what your cashflow looks like, understanding what your cost of goods are and your cost of labor. And even if you're not a numbers person, because a lot of us aren't, you know, and that's totally okay. You just have to, you know, acknowledge that and figure out how to act on it. 

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So like, maybe that means somebody on your team plays that role for you, or you have a really great accountant that you keep in touch with regularly. I think it's not always the best idea. To ignore this world because you're not financially minded or, you know, you're maybe more creative and then only get feedback from, you know, your accountant once a quarter or once a year, because you can't really act on that. You need to be able to constantly be able to see what's happening in your business so you can course correct along the way. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

So don't just look at the past, like figure out, take that info and then figure out the strategy for the future and do it correctly. Consistently like every day. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah.Yeah, totally. And then kind of related another big thing in common with a lot of these top businesses Is that they really use data to their benefit. They're constantly looking at that. They're constantly looking at their retention and different metrics and trying to figure out what metrics are the most meaningful for them.

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I would say there's not like a silver bullet in terms of what you should focus on when you're looking at data. It really is so dependent on your specific business. You know, obviously a lot of these businesses have the same base metrics and things that they're looking at, you know, pre-booking retention, returning appointment rate and stuff like that, but not everything is going to work for every business. You know, so you need to be able to figure out what makes the most impact to your business. If you're paying attention to it and you're able to make changes that then you see an impact, you can figure out that, Oh, that's something that's really important to our business. That's something I'm able to make actionable changes on and then related to that.

Is like being flexible and adaptable. If you're seeing that something isn't working, being able to course correct and figure out another way forward. I think an example of that is, you know, a few years ago, there was a big trend of like these concepts that are pretty like. Focused in what they're offering, you know, like… 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

A single service?

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Daniel Landroche: 

A single service, maybe a couple of different options around it, but it's very, very focused, which I love.

I think it's great, I love a simple menu of services. It's easy for the consumer to understand, but lately I've been noticing a lot of these are like adding back additional services into them. And I don't think that's like anything against the original idea. The concept is still great. It's just, they're, they're able to be flexible and adapt with the market changes, right? They're understanding that, Hey, maybe we need to, we need to offer a little something else to keep the trajectory of our growth going, right? 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

That's very cool. So almost like meeting the client where they're at and their needs as, as things evolve, like not being afraid to do that, even if you were like, Oh, we are only offering this one service, but now we're going to add on like a couple of add ons to to highlight that and make that even better is what you're saying.

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Daniel Landroche: 

Totally. Yeah. Understanding where the market is, because you're not, you can't just offer the same thing and just hope that it's going to work forever. You have to evolve as a business, like still stay true to your identity and your vision, but like, move with what you know, people are going to want. That doesn't mean you're just always chasing trends. You can do it in a way that still feels authentic to your business. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

And like well researched. Yeah. And actually find the data on a lot of this stuff. Absolutely. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

How would you say these businesses differentiate themselves from others? Like we know we are in a market, it's like a billion dollar industry. There's so many, we're like in Los Angeles right now. We could go and find a hair salon, like a couple on like one block even, you know, um, how are they standing out? 

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Daniel Landroche: 

I think. like it can't be overstated the importance of a strong brand. You look at all these top businesses and you can instantly recognize who they are from their brand, you know, and it's a very solid, continuous brand across all of their – everywhere that they show up, whether it's their website or their socials in store, it all feels very cohesive. And as a consumer. I think that's very comforting. You're able to identify and latch onto that. 

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It's, it's much harder if you have a wishy-washy like brand. Maybe you haven't figured out exactly who you are. It's hard to market that. Like, how would you put out ads that like, Are showing your customers or your potential customers like who you are if you don't really understand who you are So like really figuring that out and and sticking to it and like moving forward, 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

You know I'm a sucker for some good branding so I totally agree but that's such an interesting point because I have heard stories from folks that You know Maybe this is the first time that they left the states and they're like in Japan or Thailand or or Mexico wherever. And they're like, I'm just going to go into this McDonald's for two seconds because I'm getting a little overwhelmed with like what's out there, but they know this McDonald's is so consistent and it's going to feel like whatever American city that they're from and they're going to be at home for just a moment, you know?

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So I think there's a lot of power in branding. And would you say, you know, how, how important is branding? When it comes to like the multi location strategy, like for people who are wanting to see like 30 locations across multiple states, like what, how important is their branding then? 

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Daniel Landroche:
Yeah, I think,  I mean, it's one of the top, one of the top things, right? You can't really create a large, large company. Without that solid, like, base of branding, like, if you're, you know, whether or not you're, like, doing franchises or you're opening them all yourself, like, you want people to recognize your location. Regardless of where it is, you know, like across the United States.

Like if I'm going to New York, I know, “Oh, I know that place from LA. Like I'm going to stop in there.” Right. You want to be able to have a, uh, national, a global brand that can connect to, to anybody. So yeah, super important for multi locations. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

Brand recognition all the way. Can you share any examples of some of the innovative strategies or anything that you felt like really stood out with like some of these businesses. Something that was different or exciting that maybe some of our listeners would have no idea about?

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah I think again, maybe this one's not super groundbreaking, but it definitely feels like something that these businesses are really really focusing on and that's The idea of a membership, right? And maybe even not in a membership in an industry that typically hasn't had a membership, right?

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You know, we're not seeing a ton of those in salons, but like they're great tools for, for client retention, for adding on services, adding on more value to, to tickets and these businesses. When they do it, they do it well, right? It's like, one, it's their bread and butter, and it really works for them. And maybe that's not the right tool for everybody, but exploring that and seeing how maybe for your business, it would be possible, uh, I think would be really a great idea.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: And what are some common challenges like some of these businesses face? 

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Daniel Landroche: 

I think universally it's, it's pretty much like labor and staffing. Whether that's recruiting and retention of the staff or just the overall management and cost, because the cost of, of staffing is, you know, it's so, it's so high. And for a lot of, especially smaller businesses, like it could be one of your, if not your highest category of expenses. And so I think that makes it really difficult. And it also can tend to put Businesses at odds with their employees, right? Because you're looking at them, you're not looking at them in terms of what they're doing for your business. You're looking at them in how much they cost. They become like an enemy or an antagonist. And that's, that can start to get really unhealthy because if you feel that way as a business owner, you know, your staff are gonna like, get those vibes from you as well. 

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And then I think. You know, in terms of what some of these companies are doing is really standardizing their compensation and pay structures, right? Especially in the hair world. I know a lot of times you make deals because you need to, right? You're like, you're going to say, Oh, I'm going to give this person higher because like at this point in time, at the stage of my company, I need this person. I want them, right? And then you have all these people all over the place, you get very protective, you want to make sure, like, now no employee can talk to each other about their commission rates, it's like all secret hush hush and then when one finds out, it becomes a big thing.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: It's a drama in the kitchen.  

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Daniel Landroche: 

And so, obviously, sometimes you can't avoid that, but like, being able to standardize that and really tell them, like, this is what it looks like. You have, you know, you can go up to this level, you can move, there's options for your career going forward, but these are the parameters and everyone is on the same, same level, right? Everyone knows exactly what to expect. It also takes a lot of that unconscious bias out of those deals that we're making with these people. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

Thos, like, handshake deals where there's like no career path, like involved there. So for someone who's maybe just starting out or thinking that they're wanting to revamp what they've done with their employees, you're saying really focus on that career path and trajectory of coming in and where you end up in that senior role. Like what does that look like and keeping that consistent across your entire employee base. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah, definitely like making sure everyone knows exactly what's expected of them to be able to move up, right? To be able to increase their wages, their commissions, their hourly, whatever it may be, whatever your structure is, they should know a very clear career path. Otherwise, there's not a lot of incentive for them to stay. because they can find something else that maybe they could know that they grow in. And this doesn't have to be just service providers, it can be all of your other staff as well. They should clearly know that there's a future for them at your business. Otherwise, you get into the trap of like front desk people just, you know, coming and going. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

The revolving door. Yeah, yeah, totally, totally.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

I know we see this a lot in the med spa industry, and I know you've worked with like a lot of other membership businesses where the membership sales, the package sales, like end up being like another way to incentivize the staff members in sales where they can make a little extra money there. Like, uh, talk to us about that. I'd love to know more about that. Cause I think, you know, even for me as a former salon manager, you know, I was always looking for those additional revenue streams for, for people that were outside of services, outside of products. So I would love to know if, if there's any details you can share about how folks have set that up.

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah. That's super common with these packages, uh, and membership heavy businesses is really whether or not you're incentivizing, um, you know, your front desk or even your service providers and figuring out exactly. The best way to, to commission on those or to bonus on those things. I will mention that when you're thinking about all of this, I feel like it's super important to not overcomplicate the pay, the compensation structure. Because it can get really complex, really fast.

And that puts a, like a, a level of. Confusion between you and your staff, because now they can't easily, a lot of times they're not numbers people. They want to be able to know exactly what they're going to make from, from what they can see. And when it's a bunch of different, like crazy metrics and you have to hit all these different things and they have no idea how to figure out how much they're going to make, then it becomes less of an incentive and more just of a guess for them, right? They don't actually understand what's going on. And then they're, they're not going to end up selling because of that. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

Yeah, I can imagine it's very hard to retain someone who's just simply confused about their paycheck, you know? I know like we've all experienced that, you know We've had to work in California salons where there's been tons of like labor law changes, and they've been great in protecting the employee, but it did leave Confusion and I know like having to handle that as like a salon manager when you're just trying to do your best and make sure everyone makes a good living and do all of that, it could feel like a lot of pressure. So, I love the fact that you said keep it as simple as possible where people couldn't do an easy calculation and figure out like, “hey, you know, I saw this many packages so this many memberships here's what I did in services and I should be about this place if I'm doing my math right.”

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah, absolutely. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

What role would you say like staff training and development plays in retaining people and even creating a stronger business? 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah, I think that plays, uh, right into the same hand as like career growth and like a plan for what that looks like. Even when we're looking at our front desk, like if we're not actively engaging in them to be better at what they're doing and growing as individuals. Again, they're just going to be a revolving door. You're not going to see any interest in actually working from them. They're just going to come in, clock in, clock out and leave. I think the best jobs that I've ever had. My boss has taken an active interest and seeing me better myself, not even just within the context of the job, but even personally, and that's made me want to stay right.

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That's made me want to grow within the business. That's made me want to achieve more. In the business. And so like really, really taking an interest in those individuals is a great idea. And it obviously it's hard, especially when you're at scale and you have a lot of, a lot of employees, a lot of locations, but it's a really important cultural element I think for these businesses.

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah. I think that's a great point. And I know you're our numbers guy, but I have to ask, like, how important are the soft skills? I feel like we keep hearing like. You know, connect with them as people, mentor, and things like that. Like, would you say that's important in areas like this, even when we're thinking about these numbers?

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah. I think it's, it's really easy to get in the trap of stepping away from your employees and, and just, you know, even potentially seeing them as disposable, but really treating, just treating them as humans, treating them as, as worthy of the time. I mean, a bad manager is going to lose you so many staff members, so many service providers, like having somebody there, whether that's a manager or whether as a business owner, that's you being able to engage with them on a human level and not even like as, you know, as your manager, as your boss, as your owner. That goes a long way. You know, there was a great episode about mental health, being able to focus on them and, and know that like, there is a life outside of the job that they're doing for you. And like.

showing that you understand that and you realize that and they are not just, you know, a job to you. They're not just a person filling a role. There's more to them and they have a potential. If you do that, they have so much more potential for you as a business. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

That's so true. I have to say, like, in my early 20s, I love to talk about, like, how I f*** things up.You know, the mistakes I made, like, in my early years. And, you know, we knew each other back then and we were working together. I, I really think it wasn't until I was able to develop my soft skills that I was actually able to help people understand their numbers, which I never thought that was a connection that I need to make because you think numbers think finances you think data you're like, oh, it's cut and dry numbers don't lie. And that's so true, but you know how we take those numbers and create real strategies like you really have to tap into your soft skills of connecting with people and understanding who they are as a person. What drives them, what motivates them, getting rid of that, like, leave your sh*t at the door type attitude and knowing that this is a person first and how I effectively communicate with them will help them actually reach these goals, like professionally, personally and so on. So I think that's such, such an interesting take, where more people need to connect the heart to the mind almost, you know, and, and kind of bring it into one place.

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So very cool. What trends do you see happening in the salon industry or even like self care generally, like around, like, for example, you mentioned the single service businesses, like what trends do you think are coming or just like feel around the horizon? 

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Daniel Landroche: 

I think I'm going to stick with the, the, the labor topic. And maybe it's just hopeful thinking, but I feel like there it's overdue for like a recentering and on the importance of the worker in our industry. A lot of times, you know, as I said before, they are thought of as disposable or as something that is just sort of like a necessary evil, but our employees, our service providers, like they are essential to our business. They are no less important than a client, right? They are making your business happen. You could not survive without them. 

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So why is it okay that like we have, we hold clients at a really high standard and then, you know, service providers or employees are held to a different standard, right? Like we should, they are both our clients as a business. We need to elevate them. Everyone deserves a living wage and if as a business You can't do that. I think there is some introspection needed and some examination on your business model because you can't become a successful business by exploiting Cheap labor, right? Like not truly, it's not going to be able to be scalable.

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You're not going to be able to continue it on. It's not sustainable. And everybody, you know, nobody, nobody deserves to live in poverty. And I think sometimes we excuse ourselves as small business owners. Because it's not, it seems not feasible, right? And, totally, it's very hard. I, I completely get it. You know, like I have been in those situations where we're paying people, you know, minimum wage and still having to cut them to try to get under budget and those things. And it's very, very difficult as a business, but that doesn't mean it's not an all or nothing thing either. You know, you can still strive to, to be fair and equitable. Because at the end of the day, if you're paying your employee's minimum wage, you're telling them that you would pay them less if you could. And that, that is really something that is felt, you know, by them. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

That's very true. That's very true. Or like, You know, I know we see this in like the restaurant industry too, where in some states people have like a, it's a three dollar like hourly rate because they know they're going to get tips, they're going to have the tips covered, even though tip, tipping is not required, you know, I know as a culture, we do that here, but you know, you go outside of the states and that's not so much of a thing. So yeah, it's almost like looking at some of the clients to, hey, like, you know, pick up the difference.

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Where I'm slacking, like you're going to give them a tip and then they're going to be okay when that should be this nice, like, you know, cream on the top that this little bit of extra that they're getting that they don't necessarily need to live on. And we see a lot of folks doing that. And you're right, it is difficult. We see some very low profit margins at times. But I do think people need to stop making the employee the enemy and be like, “Oh, they're all just leaving or they're just doing that”. They're going to suites or whatever, and taking a look at the business from a holistic standpoint and figuring out like, what are my holes here?

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Like I've had, I've had so many owners tell me that they have retention problems. Like I can't retain my staff members, but when you dig deeper, they actually had a marketing problem. They didn't have enough new clients calling in trying to book appointments to actually fill the books of those team members. So then they left because they're like, I gotta go make money, right? So I think people sometimes need to take a look and a deeper look, as you were saying, and figuring out what the issue actually is. Because you actually might not have a team retention problem. You're, you probably just have some other holes that, that you need to fill up and, and figure out a path forward.

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And, you know, for anyone who's listening in where maybe some of this seems impossible and overwhelming, I think it's about taking the next step. It's like, okay, what's one step towards a better version of this and little by little, like this doesn't need to be an overnight change. Like it's impossible, but striving to do better essentially is like what you're saying.

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Daniel Landroche:

Yeah, definitely. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

Yeah. Very cool. So Daniel, the next couple of questions we ask everyone. So this one's called the good, the bad and the ugly. Give us a story. It could be an achievement, an embarrassing story, client horror story, whatever you want. We want some insider info. Let's hear it. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

This is, this is less of like a single story and more of a, the totality of an experience. But, you know, when, when we started working at the last salon that we worked at, you know, at the very beginning, it was very, early on, it was a brand new place. And there were times where, you know, it was very slow, like uncomfortably slow. The phone wasn't ringing. There was nobody in there. And you know, it worries you like, you're like, especially, you know, we were newer in our careers and you're like, am I going to have a job in a little bit? Being able to experience that. Sort of low or that like anxiety. And then fast forwarding to five years later, when we had three locations, like, and all the ups and downs, you know, within it, but it was just kind of amazing to like, have that experience and obviously go through that with you, but like being able to see the growth of a business from the inside, being able to have an impact on that, it's like, I don't know. It's super rewarding. Maybe just a reminder to a lot of people that it is a journey. It's not like necessarily where you are right now isn't where you're gonna be. You can like, you can grow, you can get to where you want to be and just enjoy it along the way. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

Yeah, trust the process a little bit, right?

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Yeah, I think that's a really good one. And I, I definitely relate to that because I remember there were times where like, Is the phone plugged in? I'm like, Oh no. Okay. It is plugged in. No one, no one's calling. That's actually what's going on. And then literally within a couple of months we were making like millions of dollars, which was an insane experience, you know? So yeah, for those listening in, like stay true to what you're doing, stay true to your band. Keep studying the data, keep working on the soft skills. It really takes like a well rounded operations team to really go to the next level. So yeah, don't just get discouraged by the low profit margins now. Like you never know when something's going to take off, so that's a really good one, Daniel. I love that. 

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Yeah. Um, so our final question will be, how do you define success? 

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Daniel Landroche: 

I think I would define success as Leaving the world a better place. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

I love that. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Like, leaving, you know, your friends, your family, your community, your neighbors. Whatever it might be your co workers, you know, like leaving it a better place. Uplifting people. I don't really buy in to the like the race to the top. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: Mmm. Yeah…

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Daniel Landroche: 

I don't know. It's lonely at the top. I'm not sure like why would you want to be up there alone? Like if you can't uplift everybody you like, love and care about So yeah, like and and that doesn't mean something monumental, you know. Doing a haircut that changes a person's outlook on the day. That is so impactful. Giving somebody a facial that makes them feel like themselves for the first time. You know, those are things that are super important just because we live within the confines of capitalism doesn't mean we have to use those tools against our own people. Right. Like let's, let's lift everybody up. Let's push everybody forward. Let's like. Progress. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe: 

I love that and it sounds like you're saying like build your legacy and like it your legacy isn't like yourself It's like what you leave behind. 

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Daniel Landroche: 

Yeah. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

You know, that's so beautiful. I love that. Thank you so much for Daniel. I have always learned so much from you. So I was super excited to do this interview. You are an incredible co-worker and a wonderful friend So I've enjoyed getting to know you. We've been working together for like 11 years now. We're like, we're like a married couple, like in the work, in the work life. Again, thank you so much for being here and doing this and sharing all of your incredible knowledge with us and the wonderful customers at Boulevard.

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Daniel Landroche: 

Thank you so much. Yeah, this was amazing. 

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Shanalie Wijesinghe:

Thanks Daniel.

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