Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly and Mark O’Day.
Kelly and Mark, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After nearly 16 years as a stylist, and a lot of pushing from my husband Mark, we decided to embark on the adventure of small business ownership and open Vivid Salon April 1, 2012. The transition from stylist to business owner was not an easy one. There are many facets to running a successful salon, many of which are not my strong suits, hence my husband Mark and I partnership in Vivid Salon. I head all things creative, creative direction of the salon, training of staff, continued education, product knowledge, guest relations, along with working creatively behind the chair 4 days a week. Mark supports all things business, payroll, taxes, inventory and ordering, goal setting and number tracking, etc. I believe that our partnership is the basis for our thriving business.
Along with our partnership, our focus is on creating amazing guest experiences, through thorough guest consultations, continued stylist education, and our want to provide an experience that includes the best in product and services available.
After 4 years at our Salon location, we realized that Vivid Salon needed a larger, state of the art, salon space to allow us and our team to continue to grow. We began a search for our dream space. Thankfully we found a location 1/2 mile from the original and embarked on the task of building our vision.
Our brand-new Salon will open fall 2017!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, smooth is not how we would describe it. For Kelly, the perspective is always style first, which on the positive allows us to connect with our staff.
For Mark, because he is not a stylist, learning the idiosyncrasies of a multifaceted industry was a challenge, but his ability to connect the business with the creative was vital. There is always a giant learning curve when started anything new. Like any other area, there are many choices in products.
One major decision that has helped us immensely was our partnership with Evolve Salon Systems. Their distribution of the best hair care products and business support classes have been instrumental in our fast growth and continued ability to provide our guests with the best products available. Our partnership allows us to use brands that support our small business not large retailers.
Vivid Salon – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Vivid Salon is “Where Vibrant Beauty Happens!’. That is our culture and our motto. We provide full-service hair care ranging from precision wet and dry haircutting, all facets of hair color, keratin treatments and special occasion hair styling. We pride ourselves on providing on-trend looks, specifically our expertise in corrective color and fashion color looks. As a company, we are most proud of our communication and relationships with our guests, new and returning. Our intention is to always create the experiences in salon our guests want and need.
We set ourselves apart with the choices that we make in our product use and partnerships. We choose to utilize Color.Me by Kevin Murphy because of its performance but also the ingredients. Our hair color choices are 100% ammonia and PPD Free. Also, all of our products, hair color and retail items, are PETA approved and Cruelty-Free, Sulphate and Paraben Free. Our new location will also include a complete salon recycling program, thru a partnership with Green Circle, allowing Vivid Salon to create a Green salon where nearly all salon waste, including hair clippings, will be recycled and repurposed.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It is hard to choose one moment, but our success and rate of growth in 5 short years astound us and we are so grateful. Grateful for our team of talented employees and guests that continue to come through our doors every day.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1095 Lakeview Ave Unit 5 Dracut, ma 01826 (new location opening fall 2017)
- Website: vividbeautysalon.com
- Phone: 978-455-8741
- Email: kelly@vividbeautysalon.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/kellyvividsalon/ , instagram.com/markvividsalon/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Vivid-Salon-353571631361661/
- Twitter: @Vivid_Salon , @KellyVividsalon
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