Welcome to another episode of Beauty Babble. Today we're exploring the advantages of studio rentals as an option for beauty professionals aspiring to be their own bosses. We're joined by Fadi Moukhaiber and Ali Meghji, the owners of the Village Salon Studios in Winnipeg. And they are going to share their insights, experiences and round it off with some helpful tips for all you beauty pros wanting to be in a studio space. Welcome to the show and thank you for joining us. Thanks for having us. Thank you I'm going to pass it over to each of you. Why don't you Take a few minutes to introduce yourselves. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Ali, why don't you start us off? My name is Ali Meghji. I'm the current owner of Village Salon Studios in Winnipeg. My background is in hotels actually. So I have a lot of experience in hospitality and what it takes. To be in the service industry and how to be successful in the service industry. And just the, the melds and meshes of being in hospitality and having a salon studio go hand in hand. So I'm excited to bring that different perspective to studio rentals. We can't wait to hear more about it. Pass it over to Fadi. Yeah. Hi. So my name is Fadim Moukhaiber. I've been in the beauty industry for, since 2004. I started my first salon in Edmonton. I expanded to having three different salons.. And I found one of the biggest concerns and issues that Most salon owners had was staff. When I discovered the studio concept, I, I fell in love with it. I wanted to do it back in 2010, I think, or 11 when I saw the first, my first one in in the States. But the cost was so. Immense. And I just had too many things on the go, so I didn't wanna take that risk. And then when Ali and I, Ali and I have been best friends for about 15, 16 years now, Ali, those are, you know, yeah. I. , we're talking and talking about how the economy is and how, , staffing is. And so we're like,, let's do this together. This is a great concept. We can help people. We can mentor people. We can see people succeed. And that's what we did. And so far it's been, it's been amazing.. It's been about eight months. We're getting close to a year. So about eight, nine months right now. I think our first tenant moved in, in March of 2023. Can you tell us a little bit about about the village? Give us your pitch about the village just for our listeners that don't know, because we're all familiar with it. So what is it? Where is it? , Yeah. Village. The Village Salon Studios is located on 55 Arthur, which is in the exchange district. Super vibrant area of Winnipeg. Huge arts district. Gorgeous historical buildings, which we're located in one of them. Happy to be located in one of them. This building is is, we've kept all of the beautiful characteristics of a heritage building. And for those that are not familiar with a heritage building, exposed brick. Think hardwood floors. Think huge timber posts. You know, we created this really kind of cozy environment for salon beauty professionals to be in to be able to run their business in a safe environment with the sport of mentors such as fatty and I it's it's, you know, it's, it's a place where you can operate your business. 24 seven without having any sort of encumbrance. So you set your own hours, you set your own work schedule. It's your own business, whatever you do in that particular space is, is up to you as far as how you operate your business. Fadi and I don't get involved in that, but we do offer, however, is this amazing mentorship program where. You know, if you don't know how to start a business, we help you, we help you register your business. We help you figure out the, you know, the little quirks that, you know, happened with the government on how to do things, which a lot of people get really kind of antsy about, right? It's like, Oh my God, how do I do this? Well, we help you through all that. So you don't have to, right. You don't have to worry about it. We're kind of like a partner, but we're not a partner. We're just kind of side by side. You know, we're not in your business, but we try to help you as much as possible to make sure that your business is successful. Your success is our success. And how has been, how has it been with this is probably new for most tenants. Have they done this before the type of business operation? And what would their take on the fact that now? They have two people that would help them on the business level, because I know that's one of the, the biggest challenges in this industry is that everyone wants to be their own boss, their own owner. But, you know, maybe don't really know all of the ins and outs of it. And it's great that you have this mentorship because it's, it's huge for people to understand. So what was their, I get positive and negative out of that aspect. Was there anything that you can share with that? Either of you? Well, the, I can, I definitely could. I, you know, been, been an industry for so long and working with, with stylists and estheticians or massage therapists. They they definitely do not learn anything about business in schools. So when it comes to numbers and business, they're really scared of even learning it or attempting it. And the amazing thing about, you know, having studio salon concept is that you have so many beauty professionals that come together and create the dynamic network and community in the same place. Yet each person can put their own like neat fingerprint on the environment. So what we do is we guide them. We help them. . And that's what makes this such a great partnership. In a way, because we're not your business partner. We don't have, we don't want anything from your profit. We don't want anything from your money. We want to see you succeed. And it's been very successful. And we, we have like, we started the group chat group that Ali kind of monitors and deals with. And it's just amazing. Like yesterday, they were just sending out, you know, sharing how they want to promote for Christmas, how they want to do that stuff. So it's really nice to see. And, you know, I just. Sent one of them a tip about she wanted to do she was going to give a 75 gift card towards, you know, anything, or she was going to donate the product. So I just sent her a tip, said, , I think you should just do a service, you know, donate a service so you can gain that customer coming into your space, not just the product, because you do a product, you're not, you're probably not going to see them. You'll probably have to ship it to them or mail it to them. . So just simple things like that, that, you know, they find so amazing, you know, helpful to them and even some of the network that we create for them for the distributors, suppliers, we, because we've been in the business for so long, so little tips go a long way. And we know that not everybody needs this type of mentorship. We have individuals that have never run a business before. We have individuals also that have been successful in perhaps chair rental, and they want to move to the next step in their professional environment, right? They want to offer a little more service, a little more of that personalized. Just with each client being able to offer so much more of that personal service matters so much because it increases your loyalty at the end of the day, having a chair rental versus having a salon studio is a huge step because now you get to create that environment that you want to be able to be able to have that tailor made service for that client every single time. So. We have this business mentorship program and it runs really, really well. We sit down with individuals, we look at their numbers, we look at their books and you know, it's as much as they want or as little as they want. We also have salon professionals that have been doing this for a long time and they've got their business set and they just want that next step. And that's something we offer them. So it's as little as they want or as much as they want in the mentorship program as well. It's completely tailor made for them. That's great. So when it comes to the studio concept, you have professionals from a variety of service providers, different types. Tell us a little bit about that because I think sometimes, initially in my mind when I first heard about it, I thought this is hair, you know, hairstylist. But it's surprising because you have a lot of other professionals. I'm going to pass it to you. Tell us a bit about the tenants that you have. iT's, it's been a real surprise for us as well. Cause when we first started this project, we honestly thought that we'd get a ton of hair. And Winnipeg has really pleasantly surprised us. We have tattoo artists. We have permanent makeup artists. We have lash artists, brow artists. We have laser so, you know, laser therapy. We have nurse practitioner, so Botox you know, platelet hair hair. But, you know, plate. Sorry. Platelet replacement therapy. That's a mouthful that I can never get out. But, you know, like just a ton of different services that we provide. You know facials, you know, like when it comes to like, you know, just So it is a beauty hub at the end of the day, what we really wanted. We have achieved, you know, we could always use more hairstylists, believe it or not. But even the hairstylists we have are not all the same. There are some that are extensionists, some that are color specialists. Some that do, we have a barber, so it's just men's hair. We have a hairstylist that. Specifically works with movie studio here, so they're not, you know, the best part about this community that we've built is that it's not a competing community. It's a community which actually helps each other and promotes each other and creates this amazing vibrancy of Working together in camaraderie. These are amazing things. You're not on an Island when you're in our environment, you're actually working together with other like minded professionals that are complimenting your services and not competing against your services, and that is what makes the village salon studio so special. It's not competing with each other. And that's what creates the, like Ali said, it creates that culture of sharing and it makes that family that makes it really special. So it's, it's been amazing. And I love it. I, it's so different than having salons. We're in the salon, you know, stylist field. Competitive to where it's, Oh, this is my client. Why is she doing my client or why is so and so taking, you know, dealing with my client today, but it depends on the culture that you build in your salon. And what made me successful was, you know, I always built my salons on all for one, one for all, we share everything. And that's why. You know, I kind of embedded that in the culture of the salon, but it's so difficult to achieve in a six chair salon or in a four chair salon when you have, you know, stylists that don't want to lose that client. However, with this, with this formula, with this concept, It's like, Oh, so and so just referred me a client. Oh, so and so referred me a client. So it's been working amazing and we see it and it's, it's very successful. So I, I recommend to anybody, any, in any city you are, if you have the opportunity to go and rent a studio, just do it because it's the new way. And it's the best way. And it's the most economical way. Yeah. Add to that is I was just going to mention. It is a unique situation that you guys have set up, because with your businesses and your background that you have, you understand the whole idea of, you know, team effort, everyone's involved, you're not truly, yet you are competing in the beauty industry, everyone is, but at the same time you open their lenses to see the beauty. What they have in front of them, because not all the studios do that. And they, they hold back and they're missing out on the huge opportunity to network within with each other. And I think that's one of the reasons why it looks beautiful and people want to go do it. And then they realize what it, they're not succeeding, but they're not seeing the why behind it. And I think that's the unique part that you bring to this whole aspect. So lucky Winnipeg that they have you guys out there running this. But yeah, I think that's a great thing to touch on. So if anyone is looking at doing studio rentals, they should really look at and maybe introduce themselves maybe to the others, see their aspect and what's going on and, and how they can do, because you're really almost starting, every time you move in this industry, you are almost starting over again, because not everyone will follow you, right? Unless you've been in it for a very, very long time, you, you develop that rapport and that relationship, but if you're bouncing around year to year, it's, it's a tough go and it's a hustle. So I like that you pointed that out that everyone's working together. So bravo. Nice to hear. Actually, you know, prices competitive as well, you know, in in in the Winnipeg market, I think, in most markets around the same thing. So we've kept it very competitive with chair rental. So, I mean, if you're in a chair rental right now, you could be in a salon studio environment. And you could, you know, you have so much more control. You know, one of the things that fatty, you know, brings to the table is hitting incredible, you know, experience, but also fatty understands products sales because he's been, he has a business that offers retail product sales, and so he knows how much. You know, he can show an individual how much they're losing on just their retail alone when they're, you know, just working in a chair versus, you know, the advantage of having a salon studio literally almost paid for your rent, your entire rent. So it's, it's, it's just an incredible way to just slide over. And, you know, and, you know, most of your clients do you follow like you're like you were saying the biggest, you know, thing is like, well, my clients follow me, but if you are a good stylist, they're going to follow you at the end of the day, and to be in a salon studio, you know, obviously, and if you already been a few chair runs, you need to have that, that clientele, but they will follow you 100 percent I don't know if we mentioned, but The village is the first of its kind in Winnipeg. There are studio rentals across in various cities, but in Winnipeg, you guys are the first. What are some challenges that you've heard, or fears maybe, from people who think it's a cool concept, but what is the hesitation? What are the common issues that have come up, and maybe how would you address those? Of the biggest things was You know, people, you know, people hesitate on moving because they're afraid, you know, whether it's 10 minutes away or 15 minutes away or half an hour away. Like I just, we just got a new tenant who moved 45 minutes away from where she was. She's been doing here for five years and she found that probably 30 percent of her clientele works downtown, which is makes, which makes it so much more convenient for them to be here. And she's like. You know, if I'm going to lose that 10 percent of people that aren't going to follow me because they don't have, you know, access to transportation, I'm okay, because those are not my best clients. And this is, I'm probably going to gain 20 or 30 percent more clients here. She goes, cause I have the freedom to work the hours I want to work. I have the freedom to book whenever I want to book. I have the freedom to, you know, be here seven days a week. The freedom to do whatever you want. I'm like, absolutely. So, so those are one of the biggest things. I think that a lot of the other challenges we found because during COVID, like every downtown in every city kind of took a hit and it was kind of like people were staying away from downtown. It's that mindset that, Oh, there's no parking or there's no this or there's no, it's not safe, but we've created that. You know, security for them. So we have an attached parking lot. That's, you know, services, 26 studios where your client can park. We have a 24 seven security. We have actually security guards that monitor the space and walk around to make them feel safe. But we've never had any issues. Nobody's ever had any issues. And the city of Winnipeg is investing a lot of money into reviving downtown, especially the exchange district. And the one big thing is that they're doing is there. Giving small business grants to all small business owners, which a lot of hairstylists and people in the beauty industry have no, no knowledge about that stuff that's out there. So when they reach out to us, We help them, we guide them, we give them the links, we give them the tips, we tell them what to do and how to do it. And I think three of the 11 tenants that are in there have already gotten their grants and they're so happy with it and they think it's amazing. So there's a lot more grants to give out. I think they, they still have another 1. 5 million to give out. So like, okay. Yeah. So, so we told, we encouraged everybody to apply for it because it's there to be used. So you're always updating and informing them too, which is amazing. Absolutely. And Winnipeg being such a good small town community, it's they still have that mindset. They still act like it's a small town. So everybody, the word gets out so fast. So we're like I encourage everybody who's listening to this, even if you're in a different city, if you. Have any questions or you need any help or any tips, please reach out to our Instagram and don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to help and mentor and guide you. Yeah. One of the things that I wanted to mention is that this is quite a passion project for Fadi and I. This is not just like about business. We really. You know, want to help business owners grow. I mean, it's one of our passions. We want to be able to give back. We've been business owners for such a long time. We know how hard it is to succeed. And we'll be able to offer that, that knowledge. We want everybody to succeed. We don't care if you're necessarily in our space. If you have a question about salon ownership, contact us. We'll be more than happy to help you you know, because we know that you may not be in an area and even in Winnipeg, or you might not even be in our city, but we're open. We're open to everybody to contact us. If you got a question, give us a shout. We are an open book. We really want to help. We'll, we'll put your contact information in the show description so folks can reach out to you. So on that note of wanting to help and we're kind of coming to the end of our episode. Can you share some essential tips or factors that folks who are thinking of starting their own studio should consider? Well, I mean, the biggest thing is to consider is, you know, you know, do you, are you, are you a licensed, you know, are you licensed and do you have, you know, a certain amount of clientele, right? If you're just starting out. And you're just coming out of school, you know, you probably need a little bit of time to gain that clientele and working in a salon environment is not necessarily a bad thing. It's a good thing at the end of the day to get that, you know, initial experience. But once you've been in the industry, once you have your clientele, you know, you really are the artist and you really should be able to keep. 100 percent of your income and not have to share that. And and, and so for, for us, that's the biggest tip is be confident in yourself. Be confident in the, in the artists that you are and value your, your art. And if you value your art, you should be able to. To keep all of your clients and be able to move into a space that you create specifically for your client. So that's, I think that's the biggest thing. Fadi, do you have anything to add? Yeah, absolutely. I think I, I think what Ali said is spot on. However, the, the one more thing that I would add is that. If you're unhappy, get out of where you're working, that's the biggest,, killer to your business, , be happy, create your own space, create your own. That's what gives the studios an advantage over anything else. . You know, just get out, go get any studio, go rent a chair. Renting a chair in salon doesn't give you that freedom. You, you're going to keep hopping from one place to the other renting chairs. Just go and get your own studio, create your own environment, have your freedom and be happy. Because even if you lose 20 percent of your customers, that happiness will create you 20 percent more in income because you're happy, you're more productive, you're, you're just, you're just. Loving what you're doing. You're not going there and regretting having to be at work all day also want to, I want to add that, you know, a typical hairstylist moving from a salon environment as working in a salon environment is going to make about 30 percent more at least 30 percent more per year in income that's. That's, that's significant at the end of the day, at least 30 percent more. So, you know, those are huge numbers that you're leaving on the table. So that's something to definitely consider and think about. We'd love to have you, by the way, in our space, just so everybody knows. Like I said, we'll put the links in the description for everyone to reach out. Thank you. Yes. And then you'll update your social media when you have other locations that where they'll find out where you're at in the future. That's right. Absolutely. Excellent. Well, thanks for having us, ladies. Yeah, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate your time and the energy. You know what it takes to do these things. So thanks again for joining us and we are going to end it there to reach out. If you have any questions, as you said, you take advantage of their offer because they are genuinely offering it. So enjoy your rest of your day. Everyone. Thank you. ​