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Salonpreneur Revolution: Empowering Independent Pros

Salonpreneur Revolution: Empowering Independent Pros

Last updated on: May 6, 2025 at 11:37 am by Gleb Tsipursky

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Salonpreneur Revolution: Empowering Independent Pros 2025-05-06T11:37:54-04:00 Gleb Tsipursky

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Empowering beauty professionals as entrepreneurs

The beauty industry is currently undergoing a significant transformation fueled by entrepreneurship and innovation. Traditional salon models are making way for an increased demand for fresh concepts that offer beauty professionals greater independence, flexibility, and career empowerment to become a “salonpreneur.”

Empowering Entrepreneurial Freedom

A number of players exist in the beauty entrepreneur space. For instance, Phenix Salon Suites offers luxury salon suites for independent beauty professionals. The focus is on providing a high-end, boutique experience for both the salon professionals and their clients.

Salons by JC provides customizable salon suites for a variety of beauty service professionals. Salons by JC emphasizes flexibility and personalization in their salon setups, catering to a diverse range of beauty services.

My Salon Suite offers upscale, fully-equipped salon suites, My Salon Suite focuses on providing beauty professionals with a luxurious and professional environment. They emphasize privacy, comfort, and a high-end experience for both the salon owners and their clients.

Salon Plaza targets beauty professionals looking for a more intimate, personalized salon experience. Salon Plaza offers a variety of suite sizes and layouts to accommodate different types of beauty services.

Salon Lofts focuses on providing creative freedom to beauty professionals, with individual spaces that stylists can personalize to their taste. This brand emphasizes the individuality and creativity of its stylists.

One of the leaders in this movement is Sola Salons. I recently had the opportunity to speak with the Chief Operating Officer of Sola Salons, Jordan Levine, parent company to Sola Salons, about the company’s role in shaping the future of the industry and supporting independent beauty professionals to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. With a growing franchise network of nearly 700 locations and a community of over 20,000 beauty professionals, Sola Salons serves as a blueprint for success in the evolving salon landscape.

As Levine explained, “Sola Salons led a paradigm shift in the salon industry by providing beauty professionals with the resources and support they need to become independent entrepreneurs.” The company’s innovative salon suite model offers beauty professionals access to a private studio to showcase their personal talent and style. Sola gives individuals the freedom to be their own boss by renting their own salon suite space, while also benefiting from working with an established brand. This includes marketing support, education, training, and a strong sense of community and mentorship.

This approach caters to the increasing number of beauty pros seeking autonomy and creative freedom. Sola franchisees play a vital role in this by providing the much-needed support for beauty professionals to thrive. “Our franchisees are deeply passionate about this mission, and they understand the economic opportunities,” said Levine. Beyond hair, Sola Salons is also seeing a surge in demand from beauty professionals specializing in non-hair services like nails, lashes, injectables, and more.

Building Community and Sharing Knowledge

Levine emphasized the importance of “connection, education and support” within the Sola network. The company partners with leading brands to develop customized educational and training content for their vast community of over 20,000+ beauty pros. Sola’s annual three-day Sola Sessions event brings together hundreds of Sola professionals for impactful networking, skill-building, and industry education seminars. During this event, beauty pros from across the country come together to participate in breakout sessions with industry experts to learn about a spectrum of topics from artistic techniques to business strategies like crisis management, pricing strategies, marketing 101, and customer service.

“We recognize that staying at the forefront of industry trends and continuously refining one’s skills is paramount for success in the beauty industry,” said Levine. These initiatives underscore Sola’s mission to empower while fostering meaningful relationships and idea exchange.” Mentorship is another integral aspect of Sola Salons’ educational approach, allowing experienced professionals within the community to guide and coach newer entrants or those transitioning into independent salon ownership.

Levine also emphasized technology as a growth and education catalyst. Sola equips beauty pros with digital tools and training like on-demand video tutorials, webinars, and interactive workshops to bolster their online presence. The company invests heavily in platforms that support beauty pros in managing their business and clients, such as their proprietary BookNow technology, which allows pros to enable booking for their customers.

Designed for Connection

Levine further emphasized that Sola’s physical salon spaces are thoughtfully designed to foster relationship-building and to balance independence with collaboration. Private salon suites allow for focus and are complemented by common areas that encourage spontaneous interactions and camaraderie. “Lounge spaces, break areas, and communal gathering spots provide opportunities for professionals to connect, share experiences, and build relationships,” explained Levine.

Digital platforms like the SolaPro app further link this national community, where beauty pros can access all of their educational materials, manage their websites, and learn about exclusive opportunities to engage with industry leaders. Levine shared, “This collaborative environment encourages a sense of community, where individuals can tap into the collective knowledge and experiences of their peers.”

Upholding Standards of Excellence and Propelling Growth

Levine emphasized that maintaining brand integrity across Sola’s vast network is of utmost importance. Careful selection of beauty professionals and specialized, ongoing training come together to ensure consistent quality and standards of excellence are maintained across salons. According to Levine, Sola Pros tend to hail from high-end salons, and bring with them a high level of artistic expertise, customer service, and salon hospitality.

Strategic partnerships with leading brands and participation in prominent events like New York Fashion Week also allow Sola to lead in education and industry evolution. “Our scale gives us access to brands that smaller concepts might not be able to reach,” said Levine. The brand’s BeautyHive e-commerce platform distributes backbar and wholesale retail exclusively to Sola professionals and carries all the industry essential lines including Olaplex, Alterna, and Pureology.

Inclusive Leadership for Strategic Success

An essential aspect of effective leadership is the ability to recognize and mitigate cognitive biases. As leaders make strategic decisions, cognitive biases like confirmation bias or the halo effect can impair objectivity and lead to suboptimal outcomes if left unchecked. Levine explained that Sola Salons proactively seeks diverse perspectives from franchisees, beauty professionals, and customers to counteract potential biases. “We have a highly engaged Franchisee Advisory Board that contributes to our annual priorities, and they help us to engage the larger community in strategic initiatives through a robust program of working groups,” said Levine.

By continually gathering input from different and diverse stakeholders, assumptions can be challenged and blind spots revealed. According to Levine, this collective approach “helps us to stay nimble and agile despite our size.” Consciously minimizing bias enables objective assessments, allowing Sola Salons to evolve based on facts rather than beliefs skewed by bias.

Forging the Future with a Brand Mission

Sola Salons’ expansion is rooted in staying true to its core values, engaging franchisees, and embracing innovation. “We benefit from the collective experience of these franchise owners, who have a very close connection with their beauty professionals. Looking ahead, Sola will continue pioneering internationally, with a keen focus on the Canadian market. Sola Salons’ attractiveness to prospective franchisees lie in its proven business model that offers a stable stream of recurring revenue and can be scaled with minimal operational overhead.

The company is also actively forming partnerships to empower the next generation of beauty professionals including Beauty Changes Lives, a nonprofit dedicated to make the beauty profession a first-choice career. According to Levine, “This partnership will continue to grow in 2024 and affirms Sola Salons’ commitment to building confidence in independent beauty professionals who aspire to further their careers in the industry. By upholding its mission of empowerment and evolving strategically, Sola Salons is well-positioned to continue shaping the future of the industry.”

Shaping the Future of Beauty

Through innovative salon suite concepts, unwavering support for its diverse community of beauty professionals, and a commitment to continuous learning, Sola Salons has not just adapted to change but has become the driving force behind it. Jordan Levine’s leadership, coupled with a culture of inclusivity and bias mitigation, ensures that Sola Salons’ global expansion and partnerships signal a promising future where beauty professionals, guided by the legacy of Sola Salons, will continue to redefine the standards of success and excellence in this dynamic and evolving sector.

Key Take-Away

The beauty industry is shifting toward empowering beauty professionals to become independent entrepreneurs, offering greater flexibility and career control…>Click to tweet

Image credit: cottonbro studio/pexels

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky was named “Office Whisperer” by The New York Times for helping leaders overcome frustrations with hybrid work and Generative AI. He serves as the CEO of the future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. Dr. Gleb wrote seven best-selling books, and his two most recent ones are Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams and ChatGPT for Thought Leaders and Content Creators: Unlocking the Potential of Generative AI for Innovative and Effective Content Creation. His cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 650 articles and 550 interviews in Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, Fox News, Time, Business Insider, Fortune, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His writing was translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Korean, French, Vietnamese, German, and other languages. His expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, and speaking and training for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. It also comes from over 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist, with 8 years as a lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill and 7 years as a professor at Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.

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About Dr. Gleb Tsipursky

Known as the Disaster Avoidance Expert, Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is on a mission to protect leaders from dangerous judgment errors known as cognitive biases, which devastate bottom lines and bring down high-flying careers. His expertise and passion is developing the most effective and profitable decision-making strategies, based on pragmatic business experience and cutting-edge behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience, to empower leaders to avoid business disasters and maximize their bottom lines. You can learn more here https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/glebtsipursky/ The bestselling author of several books, Dr. Tsipursky is best known for his national bestseller on avoiding disasters and achieving success in business and other life areas, The Truth Seeker’s Handbook: A Science-Based Guide. His next book, Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters, is forthcoming with Career Press in November 2019. It’s the first book to focus on cognitive biases in business leadership and reveal how leaders can overcome these dangerous judgment errors effectively. After that he’s publishing The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships with New Harbinger in April 2020, the first book to focus on cognitive biases in professional and personal relationships and illustrate how we can defeat these dangerous judgment errors in our relationships. See more information here https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/author-page/ Dr. Tsipursky’s cutting-edge thought leadership was featured in over 400 articles he published and over 350 interviews he gave to popular venues that include Fast Company, CBS News, Time, Scientific American, Psychology Today, The Conversation, Business Insider, Government Executive, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Inc. Magazine, and many others, as you can see here https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/media/ Dr. Tsipursky's expertise comes from over 20 years of consulting, coaching, speaking, and training for businesses and nonprofits. He serves as the CEO of the boutique consulting, coaching, and training firm Disaster Avoidance Experts, which uses a proprietary methodology based on groundbreaking research to help leaders and organizations maximize their bottom lines by addressing potential threats, seizing unexpected opportunities, and resolving persistent personnel problems. His clients include Aflac, Balance Employment Assistance Provider, Edison Welding Institute, Fifth Third Bank, Honda, IBM, International Coaches Federation, Ohio Hospitals Association, National Association of Women Business Owners, Sentinel Real Estate, The Society for Human Resource Management, RealManage, The Columbus Foundation, Vistage, Wells Fargo, the World Wildlife Fund, and over a hundred others who achieve outstanding client results. You can learn more about that here: https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/about Dr. Tsipursky also has a strong research and teaching background in behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience with over 15 years in academia, including 7 years as a professor at the Ohio State University and before that a Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His dozens of peer-reviewed academic publications include journals such as Behavior and Social Issues, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, and International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy. His civic service includes over 4 years as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Intentional Insights, an educational nonprofit advocating for research-based decision-making in all life areas. He also co-founded the Pro-Truth Pledge, a civic project to promote truthfulness and integrity for individual professionals and leaders in the same way that the Better Business Bureau serves as a commitment for businesses. He serves on the Advisory Board of Canonical Debate Lab and Planet Purpose, and is on the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal Behavior and Social Issues. A highly in-demand international speaker, Dr. Tsipursky has over two decades of professional speaking experience across North America, Europe, and Australia. He gets top marks from audiences for his highly facilitative, interactive, and humor-filled speaking style and the way he thoroughly customizes speeches for diverse audiences. Meeting planners describe Dr. Tsipursky as "very relatable," as "a snap to work with," and as someone who "does everything that you would want a speaker to do." Drawing on best practices in adult learning, his programs address the wide spectrum of diverse learning styles, as attested by enthusiastic client testimonials and references. He regularly shares the stage with prominent leaders, for example recently speaking on a roundtable panel with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Elhadj As Sy, Chancellor of Austria Brigitte Bierlein, CEO of Penguin Random House Markus Dohle, and billionaire philanthropist and Chair of the Bertelsmann Management Company Liz Mohn. You can learn more about his speaking and see videos here: https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/speaking/ Dr. Tsipursky earned his PhD in the History of Behavioral Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011, his M.A. at Harvard University in 2004, and his B.A. at New York University in 2002. He lives in and travels from Columbus, OH. In his free time, he enjoys tennis, hiking, and playing with his two cats, and most importantly, he makes sure to spend abundant quality time with his wife to avoid disasters in his personal life. Learn more about him at https://DisasterAvoidanceExperts.com/GlebTsipursky, contact him at Gleb[at]DisasterAvoidanceExperts[dot]com, follow him on Instagram @dr_gleb_tsipursky and Twitter @gleb_tsipursky. Most importantly, help yourself avoid disasters and maximize success, and get a free copy of the “Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace,” by signing up for his free Wise Decision Maker Course at https:// DisasterAvoidanceExperts.com/Subscribe You can read more about the author here.

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