Paul stafford's road to success

Trade is now booming at Paul Stafford's Belfast salon, but just four years ago it nearly went bust - teaching owners Paul and Leisa some crucial business lessons. If Oscar Wilde was right when he said experience is the name we give our mistakes, then top Belfast stylist Paul Stafford has clocked up his fair share of experience.Winner of the Northern Ireland Hairdresser of the Year Award three times, Paul owns and runs Paul Stafford Hair & Beauty, along with his wife Leisa, herself winner of the award in 2004. It's one of Belfast's best-known salons and its impressive list of accolades includes the Belfast Style Awards Most Stylish Space Award in 2003. But four years ago the salon was within three months of going bust: the bank was returning cheques; the beauty rooms were struggling; its café was losing money; and rumours of the salon's demise were flying around the industry. Looking back, Paul knows where he went wrong. "I didn't listen to anyone's advice," he says. "People asked me some difficult questions about the business and I ran away from them. I didn't have the answers. When I open another salon, I'll have those answers and I'll dig much deeper into the business side of the operation." Paul started hairdressing at 15 in Dundalk, close to the Northern Ireland border. Always interested in fashion and music, he rode the wave of the new romantic era of the 1980s and was thrown out of school for colouring his hair orange. He worked in a small salon where he learnt through trial and error. And with most of his peers taking on apprenticeships in traditional trades such as plumbing and building, Paul's family certainly didn't encourage him into hairdressing. It was at the trendy Belfast salon Zakks that Paul made his name as a stylist. A TV spot with Eamonn Holmes raised his profile and encouraged the owners of Zakks to open Stafford in Belfast's city centre in 1991. Feeling burnt-out and lacking creating energy, Paul planned to go freelance until an accountant friend persuaded him to open his own salon. "We took Nicky Clarke as the model - very exclusive, top-end stuff. Good finishes but with a strong fashion edge. We doubled the prices being charged in the city at that time - our prices started at £42." But by 2001 the business, now employing 21 staff, had expanded out of its premises and was left behind by new salons opening in the city. Two years later Paul relocated from his existing 1,800sq ft converted terrace to a 6,000sq ft former warehouse in the city centre's Great Victoria Street. He and Leisa had big ideas for the space - a huge styling area complete with beauty salon, art gallery and café. But, he admits, the minute he signed the lease things started going wrong. "I was over ambitious, particularly with the location," admits Paul. "I thought our brand was bigger than the premises. I was romantically involved with the premises as well - I thought I'd created a little bit of Manhattan in Belfast." The relocation was a £500,000 investment. "We went over budget twice, and having recruited people from other salons we had 34 staff on our books. Our first month's salary bill nearly floored us. Only the top-five staff carried clients through from their old salons and we discovered parking was a problem as well," he says. "We didn't get our figures right from day one - we were over budget and threw good money after bad. We ended up refitting some parts of the salon several times," says Paul. "We were having major problems getting the beauty salon to work, the coffee shop lost money very quickly and by the following March we were in a redundancy situation and within three months of going under." Business advisers told Paul and Leisa that their elite team of 10 stylists were soaking up resources, and not bringing in enough money. In what was a tough, but crucial, decision, six of them were made redundant. "It was heartbreaking," says Paul. "Even thinking about it now I feel it was the lowest point. My health suffered and we had two small children at the time." Among the chaos in 2004 someone from Schwarzkopf Professional suggested Paul entered the Northern Ireland Hairdresser of the Year category at the British Hairdressing Awards. "I couldn't go in for it, as I was in the Hall of Fame, but Leisa entered and won. That raised our profile and turned the business round. I then realised that while I might not be a great businessman, we are great hairdressers, and that Christmas, trade was phenomenal." The business has since gone from strength to strength. "It took three years to recover," says Paul. "And our survival has been down to the loyalty of our staff - all of whom took a pay cut at the time." With an anticipated turnover this year of £1m and 34 staff, Paul Stafford Hair & Beauty boasts an average of between 60 and 75 customers through the doors every day. However, Paul is honest when he says that although the salon's turnover is rising year-on-year, its profit isn't and business at the beauty salon is steady rather than booming. "One thing we have learnt is how to open a salon. We have plans to do another and are in negotiations on a second site. It's easy to get dejected by failure, but incredible how you find the ability to turn it around in the end," Paul says.