John paul dejoria on the paul mitchell success story

More than two decades ago John Paul DeJoria joined forces with his friend Paul Mitchell, and launched John Paul Mitchell Systems – the phenomenon which is Paul Mitchell. In 1989, Paul Mitchell passed away and his son, Angus, soon followed in his father’s footsteps and worked tirelessly to earn the respect of his peers as company co-owner. The Paul Mitchell story in many ways exemplifies the American dream. It began with just US$700 and is now the largest professional single line privately owned brand in the US. The rest, as they say, is history, but it’s one of the most interesting and motivating tales of hairdressing history you’ll ever hear.How did you meet Paul Mitchell? JPD: I met Paul in the early 70s at a beauty convention, through a mutual friend. We started the company in 1980. Did you come from a hairdressing background? JPD: No, I come from a background of marketing and product formulations. I worked for Redken, The Institute of Trichology and also as a consultant. I gained a great understanding of what products really worked and what didn’t. So how did the company, Paul Mitchell, begin? JPD: Paul was a great hair stylist and he had tried to create a product line, but it didn’t work. We put our heads together and come up with a unique product line – starting the company – John Paul Mitchell Systems. We decided at the beginning that we would always be in the professional industry, and as Paul was the hairdresser, and I was not, we decided to use his name on the products. The professional products market is quite different in the US to the UK and a lot of professional products are sold in the supermarket and drug stores. Is Paul Mitchell? JPD: Most of our competitors are. If you ever find Paul Mitchell in any drug store or supermarket, it is counterfeit or black market product. We only ever sell to distributors and salons. There can’t be many companies that do this? JPD: We are the only major company in the US that is only in the professional beauty industry and promises to remain. We will take counterfeit products off the shelves. I advertise on television to tell people that if you see a Paul Mitchell product in a drug store it is fake. The real Paul Mitchell is only found in salons. Have you never been tempted to go down that road? JPD: Never. How much of a risk was it? JPD: We risked everything.We started this company with US$700. Paul and I literally put our money together and that was all we had. I slept in my car for the first two weeks and then we got our initial ingredients on 30 days credit. Was the size of the risk a contributing factor in the huge success of the brand? JPD: It definitely did contribute to the success, but it would have been nicer if we could have eaten three meals a day in the early days! But at least you now appreciate the good time... JPD: There is no doubt that because of the way the company started it made us very determined. But also there is the issue of fate - if a backer had come in with the money then we wouldn’t have owned all the company, as it goes, no one did, and we are the only owners. Was the company an instant success? JPD: No. It took us two years to pay our bills on time. We started with Shampoo One, Shampoo Two and The Conditioner, then four months later Hair Sculpting Lotion came along. But it was still two years before we could pay our bills on time. Did you not think what on earth are we doing, we can’t even pay our bills? JPD: No. There was no doubt, although we didn’t realise we would be as big as we are today. When did the company really take off? JPD: We had very small distribution initially and it was only after two years when we had a little extra money and could start paying our bills that we could travel and get more distributors. That’s very inspiring for anybody who is starting out in business. JPD: Well, it certainly wasn’t easy for us, it was very difficult and we appreciate everything we have. Why have you never sold your company? JPD: Every other major company in the US has been sold, but we are not for sale. The main reason is because when Paul and I had absolutely nothing we promised hairdressers that if we ever had a chance to make it, we would never sell. If we went to the retail market we could be three times the size, but I have everything I want right now and I will stick by my word. It’s simply not for sale. Why do you think you have continued to be such a success? JPD: People realise that we are only in the professional market, we support the hairdresser and we make products that really work. We believe that success unshared is failure. Moving back to the products themselves, the packaging hasn’t changed much over the years. Why is that? JPD: It was done by necessity in the early days. Black lettering on a white bottle cost two cents, and colour was eight cents and we didn’t have the money to pay for colour. But as it turned out, the black and white was unisex and has been hugely successful. We have tweaked our packaging slightly and recently have been adding very subtle colour, but only to categorise the products. It is incredible that a company which has been going for 27 years has been able to sustain the same packaging. Why do you think that is? JPD: Firstly, the products in the bottle are incredible, and secondly, people like what we represent. Do you ever slow down and take time out? JPD: No. This is my life and my whole lifestyle is about this company. To summarise, what would you say is the key factor that has made the company such a success? JPD: Passion for the beauty industry. If it wasn’t for passion we wouldn’t be here. When Paul Mitchell passed away in 1989, how successful was the company? Did he see it become successful? JPD: It was more successful than he or I could ever imagine. It was 17 years ago and we were very successful for our time, so yes, Paul did see success. He once said to me, ‘John Paul, as an educator we have many associates that I have trained and some are better than I ever was’. That, to him, was the ultimate accolade.