Van Council, Owner of the Van Michael Concept Salons

When Van Council opened his first Van Michael salon 37 years ago with his brother and partner, Michael, he had no intention of owning multiple locations. And he certainly didn’t envision 42 licensed Van Michael salons in Tokyo or a location in Miami.

As a young owner — he was only 25 when he opened his first salon in Atlanta — Council was busy as an art director for Joico for a few years, and then he worked for Aveda, doing dozens of shows every year.

Meanwhile, his little salon was growing. And growing and growing and growing. Something had to be done. So Council expanded his 750-square-foot space, and then expanded again. The location, in Atlanta’s hot Buckhead neighborhood, is now 9,000 square feet, with 1,500 square feet dedicated to the New Talent staff. But even that wasn’t even enough for Council’s growing clientele, and new locations had to be opened in order to maintain growth.

Taking the Plunge

 Making the decision to open a second location is not one Council took lightly. He asked questions, did his research and made his move when the time was right.

he says. “Grow where you are. If you aren’t at full capacity, get your systems in place and get busy. The second location isn’t going to be any better.”

Council maintains another key to opening busy, successful new salons is location, location, location.

“Don’t go too far,” he says. “You should only go three to five miles away. Bring a few key stylists with you to get clientele going and you’ll find it’s a whole new market. You may cross over a bit, but not much.”

Taking senior stylists away from your original location may feel a bit risky, but Council says everything works out if you use common sense and good systems.

“You can’t move senior people too far,” says Council. “And your training program has to be in place. We always have people ready to go on the floor in the old location when senior people leave,” he adds.

And, your salon’s brand is still known only five miles away, so building a clientele will be much easier than opening up shop in a city where your salon is unknown, which would be more like starting from scratch rather than opening a new location.

“Never go too big, either,” Council advises. “None of my big salons were big the first day,” he says. “I’ve expanded after they get packed and we can build out.”

Although Council owns multiple locations, he says going from one to two salons was his biggest leap since he had no infrastructure for more than one location. Figuring out inventory for two salons, training the front desk, accounting and all the other details are tricky when you begin managing more than one location.

“Two to three salons was easier. The infrastructure for two salons can stretch to four — accounting, education, etc., are all still in place and you don’t have much additional overhead,” he says.

Currently, Council has five salons with two more opening in fall 2014. All are in the Atlanta area with the exception of one in Miami.

Miami? That’s definitely breaking the five-mile radius rule. Sometimes you have to make an exception to the rule. In Council’s case, he was approached by a friend with the idea to open a location in Miami, and he went for it. With a strong artistic team, Council decided a trendy South Beach location was just what his brand needed.

“Atlanta was short on the model/photographer scene,” he says. “It gives my local salons a little more flair and we’re tied in with the agencies down there.”

But again, Council started small with just two hairdressers. Now, the salon is still small — a little under 2,000 square feet, but it’s open seven days a week and is double shifted. And when they do move to a new location, they’ll double their space.

And how about those salons in Tokyo? How do they fit into the picture?

When Council worked for Joico in the late ’80s, he was in Japan about a half dozen times every year for shows. A group of Japanese businessmen approached him about a licensing deal, and for the past 15 years, he has allowed them to license his name on 42 salons in Tokyo.

At least once a year, about 100 employees from the Japanese salons come to see Council in Atlanta, and he goes there once a year as well. Although he is not involved with these salons on the same level as his own, he is still a mentor and advisor. “I’m the coach,” he says.

Maintaining Your Growth

Most salon owners are not going to find themselves with licensing agreements for overseas salons. And for some owners, multiple locations may even be a stretch. However, every owner is going after the same goal — growth.

This is an area where Council has always excelled. In fact, his salons have never had a down year from a previous year, including the year that put many salons out of business — 2008. His numbers were flat that year, but not down.

“We didn’t have any price increases for about two years,” Council says of the bad economic period. “We spent more time on services and extended our hours. Instead of a 45-minute appointment, we spent an hour and did longer scalp treatments.” The tactic worked. Clients were happy and the salon resumed steady growth when the economy started to pick up.

“There are two reasons we’ve always grown,” he says. “First, we keep our staff. If you don’t turn over hairdressers, they can continue to raise their prices. If you lose one, you usually replace them with someone making less.”

So why do Van Michael stylists stay? They’re happy. They receive benefits like a 401k plan, paid vacation, half of their insurance covered and continuing education.

“We also renovate the salons every five years,” says Council. He strives to be the best because, “If I was an employee, I’d want to work at the best place in town.”

A strong training program is the other big reason business continues to grow. Council always has people training (currently, around 70) and he always has a place to put them, even if it means opening a new salon.

“You also have to create an opportunity for staff to grow,” he says. “If you have art directors, salon directors, coaches, etc., it gives people something to grow into.”

This lesson is one Council has figured out as he has grown his own salons. “I don’t have a choice,” he says. “I’ve got 400 people who want to grow. Every year I’ve got office people who want raises and a career path. My bottom line will shrink if I’m not growing my company, which is why we train new people as much as we can.”

The Evolution of an Owner

Council’s recent growth has led him to hire a full-time maintenance person rather than outsourcing. He also hired someone to start coaching managers on how to coach staff.

He has gladly stopped wearing all the hats in his salon so he can focus on the big picture.

“Now I can afford people better than me to manage the artistic team, do the books, be the janitor, etc. I hire people smarter than me — I couldn’t do half the stuff they do.”

Now, Council’s role is as the company’s visionary. “I’m still in charge of education,” he says. “I have a color and cutting director and make sure the programs are running efficiently.”

2014 NAHA Winner— Salon Team

He’s also still aware of all his numbers and budgets, but focuses more on the fun stuff like booking the salon at shows and photo shoots (the artistic team recently took home the 2014 Salon Team NAHA).

“My real job is to keep hairdressing fun for our staff,” he says. “We have a reputation for the creative side that we need to keep up.”

“I want everyone to feel important,” he says. “I drive around to the salons, drop in at classes, talk to people and meet new talent. I like to keep the energy up. You don’t want to let people get stagnant and complacent.”

Council also decides if and when another location is needed, and he’s involved in designing the salons.

His role is a far cry from his early beginnings as a hairdresser with one location. But as his salons grew, so did he. And rest assured, Van Council’s evolution is far from finished.