Taking over a family business with clo and flo

Sisters Chloe and Florence Bella recently launched Clo and Flo; a luxury hair salon situated in their father's former celebrated South Kensington salon, Bellissima. Clo and Flo was born out of the sisters' desire to continue the family business, combining traditional values with a modern update. Chloe, who has a background in events management, is the salon director and general manager, while Florence uses her experience training with her father to take the helm as senior stylist in the salon. We caught up with the sisters to find out more about taking over a family business. What’s your family’s hairdressing background? Both of our parents are hairdressers, so we grew up in salons. Our mother started when she was 16 years old and our father started out when he was 14. At his peak, our father was running three salons in Fulham, Chelsea and South Kensington so we would float between all of them and help out at weekends. Even our friends used to get a Saturday job at the salon for extra pocket money. Did you know that you wanted to go into hairdressing from a young age? Clo: Apart from knowing about the business and the social aspect of it, I didn't really have much interest in hairdressing at a young age. It was only as I got older and the opportunity came about for me to take over from a business point of view that I become interested. I love the business aspect and the day-to-day running of the salon, as well as growing the Clo & Flo brand. Flo: I'm the opposite of Clo. I've always been quite creative and enjoyed this side more than the business side. I'm also very into fashion and I feel that I can express this through my job by keeping up to date with the latest trends. I used to love being in the salon and trialling different hairstyles, and always had a close watch on the stylists that were working for mum and dad at the time. I left school, went travelling and when I got back was eager to give it a go. I quickly made a decision that I wanted to stick at it. I get huge satisfaction from making my clients happy on a day to day basis. It’s a really rewarding profession to be in. Where did you train? Clo: I worked as an events manager for many years, so I became very organised. In turn, this has helped with my role in the salon from a social and business point of view. Flo: I learned from my father. I didn't attend a school for hairdressing or go on any courses to being with. It was just practice, practice, practice within the salon. In the last couple of years, I have been on some advanced courses so that I can learn more about the current trends and the latest techniques. When did you make the decision to launch your own brand within the salon? Even though the previous name of Bellissima came about as our surmane was Bellas, we felt it wasn't unique enough and could easily be copied. We also wanted it to reflect who we were. We wanted it to be playful, fashionable and young. We played around with some names and then one day it just clicked and felt right. Has it been difficult taking over the reins from your father? It was very challenging at first. When Clo came on board, she took over from the manager. He had been with the business for 20 years and acted as our father's right hand man. As a result, he felt pushed out and left the salon along with another senior stylist who had been with my father for 10 years, taking 70% of the business with them. Really we built up the existing clientele today from scratch. This was a challenge to begin with, but in the long run it has strengthened the business. Alongside this, our father was very critical about our work and how we were running the salon and it was always a case of 'I know best'. What he didn't understand was that we were trying to build a brand. In his day, it wasn't as important. He always ran a business based solely on client satisfaction - which of course is very important, but we wanted to take it a step further. Building a brand entails creating the right image in the salon and we had a very different perspective of how we wanted it to look from how he envisaged it, so it was a constant battle between the three of us. At first he was aprehensive with the change of name, but as we got busier, we then got more positive feedback from clients which in turn made him realize we were doing something right - he now loves the name! It wasn’t untill about a year and a half of hard work and proving to him how serious we were that he decided to take a backseat and let us get on with it. However from time to time, he still likes to have it his way! How have you carved your own brand to differentiate your work from the existing salon? We are both always at the salon and ensure consistency when customers visit. We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and have a very personal relationship with all of our clients. Because we grew up in the area, we have a lot in common with our clients. We are also really meticulous when it comes to our own hair, so we are really adamant that our clients receive the same standards as we would expect. What are your plans for the salon in the future? We'd like to open a second salon or open a bigger salon so that we can expand the business. We would like our own product range one day too. What advice would you give to hairdressing families who might find themselves in a similar situation? Only do it if you are really passionate and committed, as it takes a lot of hard work and compromise. We both had to be very patient and really had to prove to our father that we were serious for him to fully hand over the business. It is also very personal, so you have to make sure that you talk about everything as there will be disagreements. If you can’t find a happy medium, it's not worth losing your family relationship for business. When it comes down to it, we are all in this together and always want the best for one another.