Susan Presents The Chic Entrepreneur

Well, rats. My fun post-conference stay with friends in San Francisco got cut short when I contracted a nasty case of asthmatic bronchitis. I'm slowly feeling better, but still not tracking all that well. Luckily for us all, I have a guest blogger today!

As a nonfiction writer, Elizabeth Gordon is a bit of a departure for us here at Quills. But if any of you are budding entrepreneurs or already own a business that you'd like to kick up to the next level, she's got a book for you! Please welcome Elizabeth.

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Thank you so much for inviting me to blog on Running with Quills during my Chic Book Tour. F. Scott Fitzgerald put it best when he said, "Writers aren't exactly people...they're a whole lot of people trying to be one person.” Ain’t that the truth? And I can say with certainty that each of the six of you are a whole lot of interesting people.

As a businesswoman with a particular passion for helping women entrepreneurs create businesses that succeed with sass and style, I’ve wanted to write a guide book that spoke to women since opening my own consulting firm in 2005. I read a lot of business books while I worked for Fortune 500 companies and I read a lot more when I struck off on my own. And truthfully, most of those books nearly put me to sleep, others just re-canned the same old information. I wanted to write a book that I would want to read – one that would keep me intrigued and turning the page…a lot like a good novel does. That’s why my book, The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels uses contrasting fictional stories at the end of each chapter to reinforce the lessons taught.

Check out a short excerpt from my upcoming business novel HERE COMES THE BUSINESS: HOW TO SURVIVE THE STARTUP IN STYLE:

Background note: Twenty-four year old Charlotte Young is struggling to create an event planning business in Atlanta, Georgia. While she is a resourceful hard worker, she cannot seem to make her business lucrative. Charlotte moonlights as an alcohol promotions girl in order to make ends meet and finance her fledgling business. She is desperate to uncover the secrets to turning her company into a flourishing business. In this bit, she decided to splurge on the haircut and go to Cherry, an established salon in the upscale section of Atlanta called Buckhead. She was going to see a less-experienced and thus less expensive stylist, so the cut wouldn’t break the bank. Still, it was costly considering her meager budget. Cherry created a huge buzz around Atlanta since it’s opening two years before. Charlotte is eager to find out what made it so special…

For the past two years, Charlotte had been getting her hair cut at Scissors, which was next to the dollar store in a strip mall a few miles from where she lived. It was convenient and inexpensive, but every time she got home, she found that she had to pull out her own scissors to snip some chunk of hair that had been overlooked. After each visit, she felt wholly unsatisfied with the thirteen-dollar bargain haircut.

When Charlotte entered Cherry, she was greeted warmly by the receptionist, Ami, who showed her to a changing room. There, Charlotte traded her own shirt for one of the twenty pressed black T-shirts with big red cherries on them hanging on the rack, and put on a clean black robe. When she walked out, Ami offered her a choice of sparkling water, herbal tea or a mimosa to drink.

As Charlotte sipped her tea and reclined on a leather couch in the sleek reception area, she flipped through the latest style book. She noticed that, unlike the books that sat on the front table at Scissors, the models’ hairstyles were not perms from the 1980s. She took a deep breath of the delicious, cinnamon-scented air and looked around. Everything at Cherry was modern and stylish. From the business card holders on the front desk to the art on the walls, not a detail had been overlooked. Charlotte felt like she had arrived. A posh-looking woman walked in and Ami introduced her as Lola, Charlotte’s stylist for the day.

Lola was tall and lean and had a short bob of black hair that angled down around her ovular face. She wore a black pencil skirt and a black, scoop neck top just like the other Cherry employees, but what set Lola apart were her large, bright red lips and her sparkling, blue eyes.

Charlotte was used to getting her haircut by Marge at Scissors. Marge was average in height with a pear shaped body that was unfortunately accentuated by a different floral-patterned spandex outfit at each visit. Charlotte was a firm believer that spandex was strictly to be worn for workout attire. Marge was very nice, though. She and Charlotte got along well, but something about the way Lola presented herself made Charlotte feel good and gave her an automatic confidence about the coming haircut.

Charlotte found it interesting how presentation had such a strong influence on the perception of service and quality. Lola hadn’t even done anything yet and already Charlotte was giving her rave mental reviews.

Charlotte followed Lola into the salon and sat in the soft, black, leather chair and wondered if this same principle applied to the perception of her business offering as well.
As Lola moved the chair up several inches and began running her hands through Charlotte’s long blonde hair, giving her scalp the occasional soothing scratch with her long fingernails, Charlotte looked into the mirror in front of her and thought about how the quality professional cut she wanted was just part of what she was buying at Cherry. She was paying for the whole experience and that’s what made it worth the higher price.

“Okay Char, what were you thinking today?” Lola asked with a bit of a northern accent that Charlotte couldn’t quite place.

“Well, I need a big change. I think I want to go short, but not too short. Professional but also fashionable and stylish, ya know?” she asked in a hesitant voice, hoping that Lola would understand.

“What kind of work do you do?” Lola asked quickly.

“I’m an event planner,” Charlotte said.

“Oh really? With who?” Lola asked.

“Um, with myself… I mean, I have my own business,” Charlotte stammered as she watched her face blush in the mirror.

“Wow, good for you,” Lola said, surprising Charlotte with admiration in her tone. “I’ve always wanted to have my own salon, but I’ve never had the guts to do it. You are so brave.”

Shaking off her embarrassment, Charlotte sat up straight and said, “Thanks, but I haven’t quite made it to the big time yet.”

“Well when you do, it will be pretty sweet,” Lola told her. “Jimmy, the owner here, he stops in to check on things once a week. Walks around, talks to everyone, gives managers an update, looks at some reports. Spends the rest of his time hanging out with his wife and kids. He basically only has to work when he wants to. Nice life, huh? So back to your look…”

“Yes, well, in order me to build a successful business like Jimmy’s, I need people to start taking me and my business more seriously. I’m good at what I do, and I really think I need to look more like a successful business owner, not like some kid fresh out of college.”

“I know exactly what you need. If you’ll trust me, I’ll give you a look that says, ‘I’m on top of it.’ We’ll do short with some layers to keep the body under control.”

Just hearing Lola say these words with complete confidence and understanding, Charlotte knew that she could trust her. This would be a big change, but she was ready. It was time to create a new self-image for this sophisticated and successful, “on top of it,” planner.

“Okay. Let’s do it,” Charlotte said.

Lola gently massaged Charlotte’s head, neck and shoulders before washing her hair and getting to work on the cut. As chunks of blonde hair sailed to the floor, Charlotte fell into a lull and started thinking about the differences in the two places that she could get her hair cut, Scissors or Cherry.

Scissors was a small space in a high-traffic part of town. It ran on low prices and high volume. The shop was nondescript, with slightly dated décor revealing their intent to keep their costs down. Despite seeming busy, it was always minimally staffed. The goal seemed to be to get customers in and out as quickly as possible. Marge had never asked Charlotte what she did for a living. Even though she was a regular, there was no real relationship. Often, there would be only one or two people working in Scissors at a time and the same person who was cutting hair would also have to answer the telephone every time it rang and greet the customers. Many times things fell through the cracks at Scissors. Customers weren’t taken care of on time, appointments weren’t in the book, the precision of the cut was off, the dye bottles didn’t get refilled. It was a mediocre salon.

Charlotte was sure this lack of professionalism was responsible for the missed pieces of hair she ended up trimming herself later on. Undoubtedly, Scissors would stay open for years to come, limping along, but the chances that people would remain satisfied and faithful to it and make it a highly prosperous salon were slim. People like Charlotte would end up getting sick of the low price/low quality tradeoff and go elsewhere every now and then to treat themselves. These same people would eventually start to make more money and leave Scissors for a better place and never return.

Similarly, the best stylists at Scissors would also realize that the loyal, big tippers were going elsewhere. They would seek out another salon that did more to build a strong brand and a reputation with a good clientele that allowed them to reach their professional goals. Scissors would remain a perpetual training ground for those fresh out of beauty school and a dumping ground for those with minimal ambition and desire.

Then there was Cherry, a place that ran on high quality, high prices and loyal customers. Charlotte looked around and saw rows of chairs full of upscale clients and trendy, skilled workers cutting hair with the concentration and passion of someone crafting a sculpture. Cherry radiated wealth and success.

When her cut was complete, Charlotte’s hair looked so healthy and sharp she could hardly believe the difference it made in her appearance. Now she looked like a real businesswoman. Charlotte wondered what other changes she needed to make in her life that were this simple and yet would have such a dramatic impact.
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Stories are the best ways to learn – that’s why personal history is always passed through stories and not charts and graphs. Sometimes it is not enough just tell people what to do. It is more powerful when you can immerse them in a story that shows them how and why and leaves them with a lasting artistic impression as well as practical advice. If you could learn business lessons through dialogue and an entertaining plotline that you could relate to, would you be more tempted to buy and read a business book?