Lucknow: Since its inception in Gurugram, Haryana, on February 28, 2000, Cut and Style Salon as a chain has steadily established itself as a brand that typifies a robust physique, a sharp intellect, a pristine soul, and a duty to serve humanity. With 100 outlets pan India, 20 cities covered and 23 years of styling, it has steadfastly pushed the customer service quotient to the next level.
Making inroads into Lucknow, a new franchisee of the chain has now opened in Lucknow’s Vishal Khand. The salon is spearheaded by Vivek and Shweta, both lifestyle enthusiasts who have cut their teeth in the corporate world for little over a decade. Gracing the inauguration ceremony were top names from the city including wife of Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak, Namrata Pathak and among the special guests were Fashion designer Asma Hussain among others.
For Shweta personally this is a dream come true as it brings to life her dream of owning a salon. Shweta says – I personally am a great fan of Salons and I keep going to the salons regularly. With me operating out of Gurugram and Noida, I visited many outlets, but I always liked the services of Cut and Style. Once I started liking their work, I chanced up on the idea of setting up a franchise of the same brand. One of the things that has stayed with me for quite some time has been their pedicure and customer service . I also appreciate the best massage service and the spas that have had a deep impact on me. At this newly launched outlet which is the first in Lucknow, one can expect services ranging from skin to hair, makeup, a private section for ladies serving women with a unique private approach, proper facial and unique bridal room where one can get hair spa, massage, cutting and other unisex services in keeping with the ethos of the brand.
Shweta underlines – we are looking at price which is cheaper while not compromising on the quality of service, which covers aspects like good area, proper training module, and giving the worker a proper one week training. With one flagship store in Gomti Nagar the next pitstop will be Jankipuram. While Lucknow is a different market altogether, building a clientele definitely will take time. In Delhi NCR footfall is not a challenge, because they have a steady flow from Monday to Friday. However in case of Lucknow with an IAS, IPS lobby mostly weekends and evenings are going to be the rush hours . The couple who own the franchisee are keeping in mind a rigorous marketing strategy.
For Shweta, the resistance from the family aside, her husband Vivek and well meaning friends have given her the courage to finally take the plunge as an entrepreneur. It is her husband Vivek, who initiated the conversation with these brands so that she could finally turn her dream into reality. She is also candid in her confession that it is both hard work and money. To shatter the glass ceiling as a businesswoman she says you will have to study a lot, don’t dream alone, do sufficient market research, do proper recce, make sure you do a SWOT analysis, assess what the public wants, make sure you study the right cosmetics that you are going to deliver, factor in the pricing and above all make sure hygiene is at its best.
Even Shweta knows that in a city like Lucknow, retaining man power and training good staff can be a humongous task. She says for a franchise like hers training the staff, giving incentive, having the right marketing mix, good innovation, boasting of a good product range, maintaining services and quality are at its best and finally networking together can help a brand like hers grow through word of mouth with large impact on ground.
