Cutting makes business grow
By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
It's nearly impossible to distinguish between owner and employees at Jung Ja "J.J." Chock's Fantastic Sams salon in 'Ewa Beach.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The owner answers the phone, wears the same black smock as her stylists and speaks in soothing tones. A tiny closet at the back of the shop serves as her office. Blending in, not calling attention to herself and working as a team member rather than leader is exactly what Chock wants.
Stylist Sherryl Syria, left, and salon owner "J.J." Chock work on fellow stylist Ella Marie Delos Reyes at the 'Ewa Beach Fantastic Sams. Chock's first shop, in Waipahu, was the top-grossing outlet in the nation for eight years.
She will not discuss the dedication and business savvy that helped make her Waipahu salon the highest-grossing Fantastic Sams in the nation for eight years running.
"It seems like she puts us before herself," said Sherryl Syria, a stylist who has worked for Chock for 10 years. "She's a very generous lady. She's very humble." As a result, "she holds her employees for a very long time."
This is even more meaningful at a time when salons across the country are having trouble finding and retaining hairdressers to meet the growing demands of aging baby boomers in a $135 billion worldwide beauty industry.
Despite her success, Chock's difficult days are never far behind. She recalls graduating from stylist to salon owner, and the years she struggled to build the Waipahu franchise.
The salon served fewer than 100 clients per week when she took over 13 years ago.
"It was very slow," Chock said. For three years, she employed five stylists and worked seven days a week, from open to close, without a single day off. But she held fast to her philosophy: "Every single client, try best."
Word of mouth attracted clients' family and friends. And they stayed.
The loyalty Chock has inspired in both customers and staff brought national recognition to the Waipahu salon, which provides full-service hair care for more than 1,000 customers per week. Chock's store relinquished its top slot in 2001 to a Mainland salon twice its size.
The 'Ewa Beach salon appears to be on the same path. Open since April next to vacant retail space in the Ewa Beach Shopping Center, it is already the third-highest-grossing Fantastic Sams in the state (behind Waipahu and Kapolei), serving about 450 clients per week.
The chain has moved beyond the gaudy orange chairs found in older salons to a more sophisticated wood grain around the individual stations. Front-of-store product placement and the new muted design helped the Kamehameha Shopping Center salon increase its product sales from 10 percent of revenue to 24 percent, said regional director King Wong.
Chock's 1,600-foot 'Ewa Beach salon features the new design, so she is confident it soon will become the highest-grossing Fantastic Sams in the state and possibly the nation.
But size and product turnover seem to be the least of her concerns. Indeed, she is the rare Hawai'i business owner who does not fixate on the bumps and crashes in the state economy.
"That, I was never worried about," Chock said. Whether because people will always need to get their hair styled (and be willing to pay an average of $13 for it), or because of loyal clients and employees, or her faith, Chock has focused on the business at hand.
And she is looking to purchase another salon in the near future.
Her growing business is a long way from her origins in Korea. She moved to Hawai'i at age 26 and devoted the next nine years to raising her son. When her son reached middle school, Chock attended Trendsetter Beauty College to become a cosmetologist.
Even then, she knew she would own a business. And she knew it would be a "homey place" where people were "happy to come working."
For the next three years, Chock worked as a stylist at the Pearlridge Liberty House salon before gathering $30,000 from her savings and a loan from her sister to purchase the Waipahu salon.
It took about two years to make a profit, she said. And she doesn't take credit for it.
"I didn't speak English well. I didn't read well, I didn't write well," she said. "All that happened because God blessed me.
"Everything I pray, He always answer. When I need a stylist, He always send good stylist."
Lorna Campos seemed to answer one of those prayers.
"She's really a fair and understanding employer," said Campos, busily brushing color on a male customer one morning at 'Ewa Beach.
Campos, who juggles work and raising two children, said Chock encourages a supportive atmosphere in which fellow employees cover for each other, share techniques and avoid "keeping their talents to themselves."
In general, "everybody here gets along," Campos said. "It's pleasant, yeah?"
The atmosphere encourages mutual support. Syria lives in Kapolei and shuttles between the Waipahu and 'Ewa salons. Though it's not convenient, she agreed to do it for Chock.
"I do it for J.J. because she does a lot for us," Syria said.
Regional director Wong credits Chock's success to "exceptional service by the stylists — and she takes care of her stylists."
Fellow salon owner Donna Hee has noticed.
"I like the way she treats her employees," said Hee, who owns the Fantastic Sams in Liliha.
O'ahu is home to 14 Fantastic Sams. Two more will be finished this year, said Wong. Three existing salons will be redone to the new style this year, including Mililani, McCully and Hawai'i Kai.
But the focus for Chock is her family of employees and clients. Her face brightens as she talks of customers who first came to her at age 4 and stay in touch now that they are married.
It boils down to a simple principle. "You work hard, but you have to be good," she said.
"Don't cheat. Be honest."
