Feature Story and Photos By Larry H. Oskin
The Flying Scissors Salon of Clermont has taken a strong leadership position to help their staff, clients and our community. Owned and led by Giovanny and Cris Andrade, the Flying Scissors Salon is a small successful local business that is trying to make a big difference.
Facing Challenges Head-On With A Team Approach! Like many local businesses, the Flying scissors have followed local guidelines to stay closed during the pandemic crisis. They pre-emptively planned for the closure with extra staff meetings and outside business consultants. During the current pandemic closure, they are continuing to hold virtual staff meetings and educational workshops, while also attempting to individually speak and support their clients and staff on a daily and weekly basis. Their staff was instructed and prepared for an unemployment period as best as possible. Giovanny and Cris Andrade have been working with their staff to help advise them about any challenging personal, bank, financial, and life matters. Cris Andrade has been working with their team on personal growth and development as well as on ways to improve their creative hair color artistry. Giovanny has been working on helping with haircutting and business development skills. Their staff loyalty has brightly shined through the dilemma, as everyone wants to address the challenges together, so they can all be part of the solution.
Coronavirus Challenges: Giovanny Andrade notes, “As the owners of the Flying Scissors Salon in Clermont, we represent similar entrepreneurs in our community who are looking for a way to not only keep our doors open but continue to try and serve our clientele through this crisis. Springtime is typically a very busy time of year, yet our hairstyling chairs are now empty, our employees have been laid off and there is no clear end to the pandemic or this financial struggle for all of us. Our urgent concerns are two-fold. First, we want to make sure we have a salon to come back to once the coronavirus concerns are gone. Secondly, we hope to bring our community positivity and hope through our services during this very trying time. As curious as it may sound, something as simple as a haircut or a hair color service can uplift spirits and make someone feel good about themselves.”
Personalized At-Home Haircolor Touch Up Kits: Besides understanding the challenges of desired regular haircuts and grooming; retouching hair color regrowth to cover the roots for many women is a big challenge. Through creative teamwork and brainstorming with their staff to try to solve some of their clients’ potential temporary issues during the isolation period, they developed an At-Home Haircolor Touch Up Kit. Andrade notes, “Each of these hair color kits has a personally and professionally customized formula created for each client along with all the materials needed to properly cover their roots until we are able to again open our doors. This will help protect the look and image of our clients while also protecting the quality and integrity of their hair. Most importantly, we have been providing our clients with a virtual consultation by their professional hairstylists to walk each of our guests through the entire process. We are not only with them for assistance in the hair color service, but we are available to be there to talk with them about how they are coping with this crisis, how their families are doing, and how we might be able to help them in any other way. With social distancing being an important and common new practice, we want to lend an ear and extra love during these difficult times. Who is better to chat about your hair, grooming, and life with, than your hairstylist!”
Community Support: Andrade adds,” We decided to partner with a few local organizations in our community to help out the less fortunate. For example, we have supported a non-profit organization called Mathews Hope Ministry in Winter Garden, Florida. This wonderful group helps those who have become homeless because of unforeseen circumstances. Because of the current crisis, we are facing, we are afraid this organization may become inundated with new families. We donate $5 from each At-Home Haircolor Kit to Mathews Hope Ministry to assist them and the families they support.” The Flying Scissors team has long helped other groups with complimentary haircuts and services including the homeless and children in local foster homes.
Flying Scissors Is A Nationally Respected Salon! The Flying Scissors Salon will celebrate its 12th anniversary in August. They are proud to be nationally respected as a Redken Elite Salon. They have repeatedly been honored by Salon Today magazine as one of the ‘Top 200 Salons’ in America. They have been locally recognized by the South Lake Chamber of Commerce as one of the best local area salons. They are recognized as members of High-Performance Summit Salon Group, the world’s largest salon, and spa consulting services company.
Clean Air Salon! The Flying Scissors Salon has always been carefully concerned and protective with clean air standards for its staff and clients. They have an extraordinary hospital quality air filtration system. They always use Barbicide certified protocols for their equipment. They have prepared with a 20-step process for Covid-19 with smocks, gloves and all the necessary safety measures to protect their staff and clients. This includes plans to host clients at a safe distance using every other salon station. To keep everyone safe, they have already completely explored all of the PPE — Personal Protective Equipment that will be necessary to safely re-open.
The Flying Scissors team has been working on ways to improve their performances for new first-time clients as well as for their regular long-term loyal clients. They are prepared to help their clients with a personal development plan and approach. Their team wants to be completely able to help all of their clients cope emotionally, psychologically, and cosmetically. They have continued training their apprentices through a virtual associate training program. They regularly network with other successful salon owners from across the USA, inclusive of discussing the challenges and opportunities with other salons that have already been approved to re-open in other states. This is a progressive performance-based salon that offers exciting career opportunities based upon proven professional standards in excellence. Team members are rewarded for their salon artistry and client service skills, yet also for their participation in ongoing advanced education, team meetings.
Unique Quality Approach: Owners Giovanny and Cris Andrade are both originally from Ecuador, having first met here in the Orlando area. Together, they share art, creativity, love and leadership to transform the beauty of their staff and clients. Giovanny was originally trained for a career as a microbiologist before becoming a hair designer, so he has taken this coronavirus challenge very personally and professionally to help others get through it all. Cris Andrade is a nationally respected Redken Haircolor Educator. Giovanny notes, “We are all facing a very challenging situation in our lives, yet we firmly believe that if we come together as a community to help support each other in this time of need, we will all end up stronger!”
For more information on the Flying Scissors Salon, they are located at 260 Citrus Tower Boulevard, Suite D in Clermont, Florida 34711. Phone 352-241-6667, email: Info@FlyingScissorsSalon.com and visit: http://FlyingScissorsSalon.com.
