Loyal customers help salon thrive
By Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writer
Over the sounds of the roaring blow-dryers, constant chatter and the ringing phones of the Salonne Rovette, the details of owner Rovette Woll's business philosophy are constantly in practice.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Clients — whether they are being cut, colored, waxed, glossed, buffed, bleached or foiled — are treated like family in Woll's small neighborhood shop in the heart of Kailua. She knows their names, their family triumphs and sometimes, she even knows their failures. It's a practice that is growing scarce in today's world of chain salons and high-end boutiques.
Rovette Woll, right, owner of Salonne Rovette, colors Hina Stancil's hair while Eva Naganuma, a stylist who works with Woll, braids Kaui Antone's. Woll cares about her clients deeply; that, she says, has helped fuel her salon's success.
But much of what keeps this business growing is a strong belief that what the client wants is what matters and what clients want is to be made to feel better emotionally as well as physically.
"Rovette really is a really great hair stylist, and a great person as well, who really cares about her customers," said Lynn Ige, a Salonne Rovette client and a teacher at Benjamin Parker Elementary in Kane'ohe.
With business practices like these, Woll tries to set Salonne Rovette apart from other salons, and it has helped the little 900-square-foot shop in the Kailua Business Center increase its sales over the past three years despite the state's slow economy, while expanding its customer base to nearly 300 regular clients. Woll's husband, Jason Woll, estimates annual sales for the salon's services and products have grown from $72,000 in 2000 to $85,000 in 2001 and should hit $120,000 in 2002.
For Woll, 39, her salon is not just a business, or even a career, but a lifestyle she says she would not trade for anything.
"I guess you could say you sometimes really live your life through the clients," she said.
It has always been that way with Woll, who started as the family makeup and hair stylist while still in the seventh grade growing up in Kane'ohe.
"I always knew that is what I wanted to do," Woll said.
After graduating from Castle High School in 1981, she went on to three years of beauty school training while working evenings at a local pizza parlor. After beauty school, Woll went to work in a variety of salons, eventually renting her own space in a Kane'ohe salon where she worked for 13 years perfecting her craft. She traveled to Los Angeles annually for advanced training by some of the biggest names in hair styling and was offered jobs on the Mainland and in Japan, but decided to stay in Hawai'i.
"It would have been exciting to live in L.A., but I don't think you could find clients like I have anywhere but in Hawai'i. Hawai'i is really a special place," Woll said.
Then with a dream and $10,000 borrowed from family members, Woll was encouraged by her husband to open her own salon.
"It was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life," Woll said. "My husband really believed in me and sometimes that makes you believe in yourself more."
To help keep costs down, her husband and family friends helped with renovations to get the shop ready. Woll's mother handles many of the administrative chores for the shop while her father takes on much of the cleaning.
Many of Woll's customers from Kane'ohe followed her to Kailua, but she also acquired new ones along the way from places as far away as Hawai'i Kai and Mililani.
"I am actually not taking any more clients right now. Many of them book appointments for the whole year so it is hard to fit new people in," Woll said.
But being on her own was not easy. Her expenses more than tripled what she paid in Kane'ohe and she was forced to raise prices on her mostly middle- to upper-income clientele. The shop charges about $29 on average for a shampoo and cut.
Along the way, Woll met Eva Naganuma, who now rents space in the shop as a second hair stylist. Salonne Rovette has expanded its offerings of waxings and other services that are popular with customers today.
"I don't know what kind of plans for expansion we have right now," Woll said. She said she is hoping her success will allow her to spend more time with her family in the new year.
But then again, everyone at Salonne Rovette is family.
Reach Frank Cho at 525-8088, or at fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.
