Today we’d like to introduce you to David Colonna and Erica Stratton.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I would love to say that we were always the “Dynamic Duo” and that everything that we wanted to create just magically happened, but as we all know, it typically doesn’t.
My passion for all things beautiful started early in my life, I would spend hours drawing, re-creating and designing parts of life that caught my eye. I loved the arts, but, I was also extremely technical and always had an interest in science. The more that I pushed art and creation into my father’s ideas of what I would become, the more I was pushed by him back to science. You can imagine that a guy, from the south, growing up in the 70s and 80s did not break his father’s door down with a statement of “I want to be a hairdresser”. My father had an open mind, but not for his son, he had a very narrow mind of what I would become. This later fell apart as I drifted away from pre-med and ended up going to college with a different focus. After college, 8 years in the military, and a ton of travel, I ended up in the beautiful city of Boston where my parents were from originally.
This lead to a great career in helping others……. however, I always wished that I was involved in the beauty industry.
Then I met Erica. My stylist at a trendy, hip and fun Intercoiffure salon in Woburn. She was young, beautiful and full of life. We became “Salon Friends”. Basically we would chat every other Friday about her choice to become a hairdresser after 2 years of nursing school, she would tell me about all the shows, the industry and everything that she was doing as a stylist. It was amazingly inspirational.
I am still a client of hers……..
Erica had done 2 years of nursing at UMass and after a lot of consideration she decided to go to school instead to become a hairdresser.
During our “Salon Friendship” we spoke many times about how I wished I had become a stylist, the reasons I was afraid to do it and life in general.
Fast forward to 2012, Erica had opened her own salon, I was still a client, and we were both successful individually. I was managing multiple locations for a franchise and she was growing her newly opened space. I mentioned that if she had any questions about the ins and outs of running a business, she could always ask me.
The salon was growing fast, I was helping her with business items behind the scenes and she offered me an opportunity to go to a Kevin Murphy hair show in Dallas with her and the team.
I was mesmerized, I met Kevin, and he said you should be a stylist if you love it so much. I returned to Boston, enrolled in school, gave up a 20+ year career, jumped in with both feet and luckily I had the resources, the drive and the desire to do well.
Immediately following hair school, I took an advanced class every weekend, for about 14 months. I wanted to become a great stylist, I wanted to be as good as Erica, I wanted to give our clients the very best.
This became the NV way. We teamed up, worked together, discussed our industry dreams and put them to an action plan.
We both were very fortunate to be introduced to the team at Calligraphy Cut in January of 2016. We were honored and humbled when they accepted us into their training program to become Black Star Certified. We became the only certified salon in New England. After the initial certification we became Silver Star Certified, Gold Star Certified and now we are both Certified Gold Star National Educators for Calligraphy Cut USA.
Erica was honored to be interviewed and accepted into the prestigious organization, Intercoiffure America / Canada in 2016, I was interviewed and accepted in 2017. Intercoiffure is hands down the most amazing group of talented business leaders, mentors and artists in our industry. Their focus is inspiring and furthering the careers of talented stylists and that coincides completely with our focus at NV the Salon.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our industry has many obstacles created simply by people that want to tear others down instead of building others up.
But so does life. Life has its challenges. We believe that everyone should find a reason to build others up, never tear down someone else for personal gain.
We started out in a small space, we had the respect of our clients, but, we didn’t hit the lottery. We had limited resources, we were humble and hungry to grow, and however, we needed to focus on what was at hand. We spent our time, making sure our clients were happy, educating our team and hoping to grow.
Most companies, I mean most….70% of them wouldn’t take our call. The titans wanted potential titans. We were lucky that Evolve Salon Systems saw the potential of our dream, they put some of the best products in our salon and gave us the push we needed.
In September of 2014, we found our new space, 5 times larger than our current space. We were scared and excited to take on the expense of the build out and design of NV The Salon. We knew we had to grow, we knew we had to move, we couldn’t pass up this space. But easy, not remotely. It was a major undertaking. The space was raw, unfinished and intimidating.
We liquidated our savings, put our house hunting on the back burner and continued to rent so that we could afford to build the new space. We were well over budget, but we knew if we could just push forward we would see our dream of creating a “Destination for hair and beauty, on Main Street, Stoneham would finally come to fruition. It still gives me a little heartache saying all of this, but we would not change it for the world.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with NV The Salon – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our Mission Statement outlines who we are as a company:
We WILL enthusiastically exceed every guests’ expectations by offering world class salon services and products, led by a team, whose core values of Honesty, Integrity, Continuing Education, Innovation, Passion and Commitment, drive us to deliver our very best, every day, to you, our clients.
We are the only Salon in New England that is Calligraphy Cut Certified.
Calligraphy Cut is a revolution in haircutting. The tool gives us the ability to cut us every strand of a client’s hair at a precise and controlled angel that produces almost 300 percent more surface area, resulting in fuller and more voluminous hair. Because of this angle we can also cut movement into the hair, which allows easier styling, a decrease in blow-dry time and creates hair that is full of life, bounce and radiance. The tool cannot be purchased, you must become certified to use it and the initial certification requires 18+ hours of cutting instruction and theory. Each subsequent level, Silver and Gold require 18+ hours each to become certified in those levels. Each level focuses on different abilities of the tool and the stylist that will be using it to create a synergistic connection throughout the haircut and styling process.
We are one of only 7 salons in Massachusetts, and 17 in New England that are “A” Members of Intercoiffure America / Canada.
Intercoiffure is the most powerful and influential organization in the hair dressing industry. Only the highest prized leading hair salon owners hold membership into this organization. The Intercoiffure organization determines the standards of our industry and shares this responsibility with membership from over 50 other countries.
We believe in Education first, before all else and we dedicate 10% of our gross sales annually to the education and innovation of our team.
We are very proud of our team, we travel to shows and events multiple times a year and we really do consider all of them part of our family.
In 2019 we are officially launching NV – The Academy, which will give all stylists at all levels the ability to book classes with a member of our team to help further their career.
We are also very honored to carry the brands that we carry, Kevin Murphy, HairDreams, GlamGlow, Artemes Lashes, Infinity Sun Airbrush Tanning, Revita Lash and other top brands.
We are a predominantly green salon, we offer Apple IPad at every station to reduce publication waste, we do not have one standard bulb in the salon, when we designed the space it was designed with all LED bulbs to reduce our footprint on the environment. We also do email receipts, use minimal paper product producing less waste than when we were 5 times smaller.
We are joining Green Circle salons this year to produce even less waste from our color and haircutting services.
David also serves as a PBA State Captain, volunteering his time to help ensure the viability of our industry in the great state of Massachusetts. The State Captains are available to help the PBA and State Offices with decisions regarding regulation and licensing.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
NV The Academy in 2019.
We have NAHA and Salon Today 200 Aspirations. We want to produce work that gets us recognized locally, regionally and nationally.
We hope to expand our salon to offer more Skin and Make-up Services, launching NV Skin.
We are client centric, so we hope to grow as our clients grow. We hope to one day have the best reviewed team in Boston and surrounding areas. We are only as great as our client’s think we are, so that is an important goal for us.
We hope to see Calligraphy Cut reach more of the talented salons and stylists in the area and the country, it really is a revolution.
We hope to meet, inspire, be inspired by and mentor many more inductees into Intercoiffure in the future.
Contact Info:
- Address: 335 Main Street, Suite 102
Stoneaham, Massachusetts, 02180 - Website: https://www.nvthesalon.com
- Phone: 781-435-1858
- Email: info@nvthesalon.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nvthesalon instagram.com/nvtheprodigy
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nvthesalon
- Twitter: @nvthesalon @nvtheprodigy
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nv-the-salon-stoneham?osq=nv+the+salon
- Other: www.calligraphycut.com www.intercoiffure.com
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