Mentor and former salon owner Matt Buchan recommended a Partners Retreat for co-owners D’Arcy and Lancer. The point was to “to cover whatever things you feel need to be covered, especially long term stuff that can easily get missed in the day to day grind.”
What a great idea! Now how to execute? Having never attended a business retreat before, let alone organized one, there was much research to be done (Lancer’s forte), and some negotiations to have happen beforehand.
We rented out a room at Impact Hub Seattle, because we wanted to stay local and limit our retreat time to 5 hours. We started out by examining the history and milestones of Emerson Salon. Lancer has been working in the 909 E Pike salon location since 2006- before it became Emerson Salon. D’Arcy came on board shortly afterward, in 2008. Much was shared and learned, and food was to be had! Lunch and snacks were catered in by Specialty’s Seattle. The experience was great! We had so much food, and our luncheon arrived on time, with great packaging. It also included an activity- a word search, which D’Arcy finished first!
We then walked around Occidental Park and played foosball- a real treat for us. Usually our lunches occur between clients and we’ve got 20 minutes to eat, then get back to business.
After we finished all of our agenda items (including adding another one to the list), we needed some quiet time. 15 minutes to be exact, of silence, at the Waterfall Garden park in Pioneer Square. Ahhh, silence! Another luxury we don’t often get in our line of business.
We finished our retreat early. Here are the outcomes:
- We discussed our lease in the building, and we’re happy to say that we’ll be renewing our salon location lease for another 3 years.
- We went over our Partnership Agreement- you know that document you draft up at the beginning of a business relationship and usually never look at again? Contracts do need tending to, if one uses them in one’s business (which we do!)
- We also mapped out the transferring of the retail and supplies from Hair Guy Lancer back into the salon. Lancer’s been running the retail and supplies business along with his own service business since 2012, and co-owning and operating Emerson Salon with D’Arcy since 2014, and is happy to now have the opportunity to transfer these assets back into the salon business entity (and also have D’Arcy’s assistance with these tasks.) When this has transacted, you will notice a business name change on your Square receipts!
You’re all stuck with us for at least another 3 years!
