By Scott Sloan, Sloans

After 25 years in this industry, I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty- running a super salon is a unique challenge. When the ATO judges the average salon as having 2.2 staff members, and I’m looking at around 30 team members walking through the doors each day, I know we’re operating in a different universe.

When we’re talking super salon, we aren’t talking the big salon groups and franchises with multiple businesses, we’re talking salons with one or two businesses, but with each of them huge in size and scale.

If you’re thinking about scaling up, or you’re curious about what it takes to stay motivated when you’re managing what essentially amounts to a small army of hairdressers, support staff, and everything in between, let me share some hard-won insights from the floor.

The Numbers Game

Let’s start with the sheer scale. We have three dishwashers. Three! That’s more dishwashers than most salons have total staff members. We’re part of a rare breed in today’s industry and when people visit Sloans for the first time, they’re often shocked by our size and energy. Part of a small group of fellow super salons alongside Circles, Woohoo, Buoy Salon and Rokstar to name a few, we are constantly juggling big pressure.

The financial reality is stark. Our wages percentage versus the industry average is significantly higher because when you scale to our size, you need support staff. Lots of them. Plus, Sloans advertising and marketing spend sits well above the industry average percentage because we have so many more columns to fill every single day. Every empty chair represents a much bigger impact on the bottom line than it would in a smaller operation, so you really need to know your numbers and be well prepared before you look to expand.

Building Your Village

Among our staff members, not all are revenuegenerating stylists and that’s exactly how it should be. The larger your salon gets, the more you realise that support staff aren’t just helpful, they’re fundamental. That’s why, in addition to 3 Apprentices and 2 Salon Managers, we employ 4 Salon Assistants and 2 Salon Co-ordinators. Most of their tasks might seem menial, but they’re vital for the salon to run smoothly, especially on days when we have limited apprentices which, let’s face it, is a growing problem across our industry.

I employ local university students who are more than happy to sweep hair, clean, make coffee, unload those dishwashers, and handle washes at the basin. Many stay with us for four or five years while they complete their studies and it’s a win-win situation. They get flexible work that fits around their academic schedule, and I get reliable support staff. More importantly, we’re supporting our local community, giving young people work experience and a steady income during their university years.

We also employ people with disabilities, recognising that diversity isn’t just good for society, it’s good for business as different perspectives and experiences make us stronger as a team.

One of our salon receptionists is even an old client which was such a coup for us. She understands our culture intimately because she lived it as a customer first and that kind of deep understanding of what we’re about is invaluable when you’re trying to maintain consistency across such a large operation.

The People Puzzle

Managing 30 staff members means 30 different personalities, 30 different motivations, and 30 different ways of doing things. A big team requires processes, more comprehensive training programs, regular staff meetings, and above all, leadership by example. I need to show up and demonstrate the standards we expect and support my managers to deliver. This is fundamental to maintaining consistency, which becomes exponentially harder as you scale up. The reality is that staff join our team with vastly different core skills and techniques.

While it’s fantastic to support diversity and individuality, and that’s very much the Sloans way, our clients need consistency for the greater good of the brand. This creates a constant balancing act between empowering individual team members and ensuring everyone delivers the Sloans experience our clients deserve and expect.

Implementing cultural changes also becomes a massive undertaking when you’re not just changing a few team members’ ways of working, but shifting multiple mindsets simultaneously. This is where cultivating a positive personality mix in your team becomes crucial as you can’t have everyone wanting to be rockstars – you need people who are happy to play supporting roles and do it brilliantly.

We’ve invested in team psychology training to identify different personality types within the current team to help me understand how to work with each individual, and to help team members understand how they can best contribute to our collective success. Understanding whether someone is naturally a leader, a supporter, a creative, or a process-driven individual helps you put them in positions where they’ll thrive and better understand how to motivate them.

Brand-First Strategy

One of the key advantages of our scale is flexibility as we can move guests between stylists to accommodate schedules and preferences. However, this flexibility only works with a strong brand foundation and consistently excellent service standards across all team members, so it’s particularly important for us to lead with a brand-first marketing approach. This builds loyalty to Sloans as a whole by emphasising team achievements, salon accolades, and our collective expertise, alongside any individual profiles, to maintain a consistent flow of new clients.

This is where I’ve learned the value of outsourcing to experts. I’ve been working with Jo Coles from Lily Blue, our marketing specialist, for 15 years now. She understands the industry, our brand, our challenges, and our goals better than anyone and has become an unofficial 2IC guiding us on the right path behind the scenes. We also outsource our accounts, bookkeeping, and payroll.

While I still keep my hand in everything and stay on top of the details, recognising what you should delegate versus what you need to control directly is crucial for sanity and success.

Saying Yes to Support

One of the trickiest parts of running a super salon is that most of the resources available to salon owners simply aren’t relevant to operations our size. The challenges we face, the solutions we need, the scale of our problems, it’s all different and that can feel, at times, isolating.

This is where building strong relationships with industry partners becomes invaluable. I lean heavily on our Business Development Manager from L’Oréal to help analyse and drive salon performance and ensure accountability. They understand our scale and can provide relevant guidance on team member training, sales performance, and operational efficiency that actually applies to our situation.

I also look directly to my fellow super salon owners for advice. I think people expect that there is so much competition, but in fact they are some of my biggest supporters. Take my friend Kirstie Stafford, former owner of Woohoo as an example. She and I were building scale in our businesses at the same time, so we often leaned on each other for honest conversations and sanity checks.

These partnerships have become important sounding boards over the years. When you’re facing challenges that feel unique to your situation, having industry professionals who can offer practical solutions makes all the difference.

The Motivation That Endures

After 25 years, what keeps me motivated isn’t just our business success, though that’s certainly satisfying. It’s the community we’ve built. Every day brings new challenges when you’re managing this scale of operation, but it also brings new opportunities to make a positive impact. Whether it’s watching dozens of staff working together on the floor, an apprentice who develops all the way into a senior team member, or a long-time client who still walks in and says it feels like home, these moments remind me why I chose to build something bigger than the average salon.

The super salon path isn’t for everyone, and it certainly isn’t easy. But for those of us who’ve chosen it, the key is remembering that we’re not just running salons, we’re building communities, creating opportunities, and making a difference on a scale that goes far beyond great hair.

2.2 staff members might be average, but I’d argue that sometimes, being extraordinary means being willing to take on the challenges that come with being anything but average.

How You Can Dream Big Towards A Super Salon

Master the people puzzle early: Implement team psychology training to understand different personality types and create processes that balance individual strengths with brand consistency.

Shift your marketing mindset: Move from individual stylist marketing to brand-focused strategies that fill multiple columns consistently and build client loyalty to your salon.

Outsource strategically: Partner with specialists in marketing, accounting etc. who understand your scale and can provide relevant guidance.

Build industry partnerships: Leverage relationships with supplier business development managers who can offer practical solutions and accountability at your operational level.

Plan for higher operational costs: Budget for aboveaverage wages and marketing percentages that come with super salon scale, and understand the financial impact of empty chairs.

Focus on community impact: Remember that scaling up means creating more opportunities for team members, clients, and your local community, so let this bigger purpose drive your motivation through challenging growth phases.

SSXX

@sloanssalons