Marissa Martin - Building House of Tone, a Nashville salon, for $50K

Alan Li (00:01)
Welcome to opening soon, a podcast where we interview retail founders about how they started and run their brick and mortar businesses. I'm your host, Alan Li, I run Signs and Mirrors where we make beautiful signs and furniture for retail stores. I also help run FotoLab a self-portrait studio with locations in New York city and Houston.

Alan Li (00:20)
Today's guest Marissa Martin is the co-founder of House of Tone, a boutique salon based in Nashville, Tennessee. Marissa found her passion for hair and beauty early on, building a decade-long career, working behind the chair and styling some very high-profile clients. In 2025, she and her partner Gabby opened House of Tone, not with a million dollar build-out, but in a clever live workspace that transformed into a salon with just $50,000 of their own savings. Within two months, they had paid back their entire investment and built a profitable business

all while preserving their work-life balance, which was very important to Marissa and Gabby. In this episode, we dive into how Marissa built her career, why she turned down outside investors, and the process of building and designing a salon that's beautiful without breaking the bank. This is a great episode for anyone thinking about opening a brick and mortar location and how to do it without sacrificing quality of life.

Speaker 2 (01:12)
Marissa, thanks so much for joining the Opengsoon Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:16)
Absolutely. Thanks for inviting me.

Speaker 2 (01:18)
So really excited to dive into House of Tone and what you've built. But before we go in, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background and how you got to where you are today.

Speaker 1 (01:27)
Yeah, awesome. I am born and raised in Nashville. So my salon is currently still in Nashville. Even though I grew up in the South, there's something about me that always still kind of felt like a city girl. I just, I never really knew like what my future was going to hold for me. But growing up, I just was obsessed with all things beauty. I was constantly playing makeover and doing hair on my friends for proms. I was the one like doing their hair and makeup. And so I went to a

college prep high school, but something about like all of the jobs that you seem to go to college for just never quite felt right to me. And we took a personality test and sort of a job placement test my junior year of high school. And again, it was everything that I was doing seemed to lean more creative, but I didn't want to be an interior designer. I didn't want to be a painter. So I was like, what is it that I'm most passionate about? And the things that seemed to always

kind of come forward with hair and makeup.

Speaker 2 (02:29)
What was your personality? Was this the Myers-Briggs?

Speaker 1 (02:32)
I don't think so. was something in school. like they were trying to play, yeah, it was some high school test and that's been 20 years now. saying so. There's no idea. I don't remember. But I feel like because it was a college prep school, they just really wanted you to kind of find wherever your home would be. But an interesting thing kind of ensued, which was that my passions, again, lining more towards anything beauty and, you know, kind of fashion related.

It wasn't necessarily the things that you go to college for. And I feel like our parents' generation was the generation where their parents had trade jobs and the most successful people that came out of your grandparents' age were the ones who went to college and became CEOs or bankers or whatever. And so then our parents saw the value in everyone going to college. Well, then our generation hit and everyone going to college meant there weren't enough people to do trade jobs.

And so even though it felt weird to kind of tell my parents that I wanted to go to college, honestly, I wanted to go to college because I still wanted to be an authority. I wanted to go to frat parties. I wanted to go to SEC football games. Like I wanted the college experience, but I was like, I don't know what I would go to college for. Like the job that I feel like that's going to fulfill me the most is something that involves beauty and fashion and, you know, being able to be creative. And so I,

hit them with a weird plan. was like, I think that I want to go to college for three years. I want the college experience. I want to, you know, make friends, make memories. But at the same time, I'm afraid to graduate and then go to cosmetology school and then be a year behind to everyone else who graduated and went right into the workforce. So I was like, I have a weird plan. If I help pay for college,

Can I go for three years? My senior year, can I leave, do cosmetology school, graduate the same time everyone else graduated, and then when everyone else moves home, then I'm behind the chair and ready to pick up all my clients.

Speaker 2 (04:44)
and cosmetology school is one year.

Speaker 1 (04:46)
Yet in Tennessee, I went to one that was full time and so it ended up being 10 months. Again, I was in high school and I just had these great thoughts of, I don't want to be a year behind making money and being able to move out of my parents' house or again, just making money compared to everybody else. So they were skeptical.

Speaker 2 (05:05)
As a parent should be, yes.

Speaker 1 (05:07)
Yeah,

they're like, you don't want to finish and graduate. And I was like, I just I don't feel like it lines up with my plan. And so they're like, if you pay for it, then you can go as long as you need to. I couldn't totally I definitely I still went to college, but I couldn't overly indulge in, you know, party and be too wild because had I lost, we have the Hope Scholarship in Tennessee. So if I ended up like losing the Hope Scholarship, which is that extra bit of money.

then my parents were like, if we have to pay so that you can finish until your junior year, then you're going to finish school. So I still had to stay on top of my academics and make sure that I kept up good enough grades. And yeah, my junior year hit and it was time to peace out.

Speaker 2 (05:52)
Well, I guess two really interesting questions pop up immediately is one, it's so interesting that you had this conviction or this plan as a high schooler. Cause when I was in high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I just thought college was like the next fun step and didn't plan at all. Second question is how did you pay for college?

Speaker 1 (06:15)
So one, Hope Scholarship definitely helped. And then two, during the summers, I worked as a, it was called a float girl. So at a wave pool area around Nashville. I wasn't a lifeguard, but I just was a float girl. So just literally busting my butt. And then this year going into college, I did a bunch of either speech or writing essay competitions for scholarships.

So I mean, there would be times where I would go to like a private room in a Raffordese and like stand in front of a group of 10 veterans because it was just their, I don't know, like they just came up with a scholarship to help people go to college. And so, yeah, I was like standing up in front of 10 people and whatever their prompt was and just hoping that I won. So yeah, just stacking away money and hoping for the best.

Speaker 2 (07:07)
That's really impressive. And how did you have that conviction so early on? Was it just innate or were you inspired by someone?

Speaker 1 (07:14)
To be honest, I don't know. I don't have anyone in my family who does anything cosmetology-wise or honestly anything creative. Like everyone is pretty much in the corporate world. That's a great question. I've never thought of it. But I just know that like I have memories from a really young age of collecting makeup boxes and like now it would be unsanitary to use makeup for 10 plus years. like old makeup that my grandma had or that my older cousins had. ⁓

And I would just have these makeup kits full of just makeup and I was constantly playing. I was getting hair books from the library and like figuring out how to cut layers and cut bangs. So from a young age, I was doing that. And then I was obsessed with magazines. just, the internet wasn't kind of as prevalent as it is today. So I would buy every cosmopolitan, every allure, and I went straight to the beauty section with each one. So.

I was also the person in school who was either straightening my hair, wearing extensions, or playing with different hairstyles before other people seemed to.

Speaker 2 (08:21)
Well, that's really cool that you're able to discover your passion at such a young age, because I know a lot of people search for that for a long time. You finish three years of college, you go to one year of cosmetology school, and what happens next?

Speaker 1 (08:35)
In school, I went for business management. The hope was or the thought was if one day I decide to open up my own salon, I've got some sort of a knowledge to it. I think that also made it easier for my parents to tell people like, she's in college for business management in case she wants to open up a salon because she plans on leaving. I know that that kind of cringed them out a little bit. And then again, having a daughter who didn't finish college, like I left after my junior year, but

I think they believed in me enough to where they believed when they were pitching to other people, but she's going to cosmetology school and she's going to be a really good hairdresser. I don't know, a parent, honestly, as to myself, to be a college dropout was kind of a tough thing to wrap my mind around. Even though I believed in my plan, there was a part of me that was like, I hope that people don't think I'm dropping out just because. During school, I had sorority sisters who

I, before every date party, before formals, I put a sign up sheet on my door with the times and people would rush. They would text me, what time are you putting up the sheet? Because people would want their hairstyle, their makeup done. And I learned my lesson that the more I kind of let in, then I couldn't get myself ready for stuff. it was almost like my first booking system. Like people came, they ran to the door, they filled out their time slot. And then once it was over, it was over. So.

People were kind of like, darn, I'll get you on the next one.

Speaker 2 (10:06)
that's so natural and organic.

Speaker 1 (10:08)
So

I feel like things continue to prove themselves that this is what I wanted to do. And so yeah, I, at end of my junior year, I left and went to a cosmetology school. And it was interesting being 21 at the time. And, you know, a lot of these people are coming, at least in my class, they were coming straight out of high school, or they were just in search of whatever they were.

you know, hoping to do with their life and to be a little bit older and then just to know that like this wasn't just a phase for me. Yeah, it was interesting to sort of navigate again one of those ego things of I've dropped out of college and I'm sitting here, but like this is the plan and you just got to keep pushing forward.

Speaker 2 (10:58)
Dropping out of college, think, back then, was definitely not the norm. And I think nowadays, especially in tech and some of these other industries, it's considered almost even cool to drop out. It's like, ⁓ I dropped out in my first year to run my own business or do a startup. But back then, it was very against the norm and not easy to do at all.

Speaker 1 (11:19)
Yeah, and it seems now like people not going to college is a lot more acceptable.

Speaker 2 (11:25)
Yes, especially as technology comes for all the traditional desk jobs. It's like I'm paying so much to go to college for job insecurity. And then there's a shift back to the trades, it seems, where AI is not going to disrupt roofing or plumbing or cosmetology. It's interesting how these things sway. You think it goes in this one direction forever, but it sort of shifts back.

Speaker 1 (11:51)
Well, and I would say too, so I graduated high school in 2009 and 2008 was the big kind of market crash. And that was another, I think, kind of selling point or something to my parents was that even though was going into college, I was doing business in case I wanted to open up my own salon, the plan to be a hairdresser, they kind of used the fun fact of, know, hairdressing was one of the three jobs that didn't get affected in the 2008, you know, market crash.

So even though it's considered a luxury, it's also a necessity. know, like usually a guy still needs some sort of a cleanup at least to look presentable or women with gray still needed to get their hair colored. So whether it was a full necessity for people or I think studies kind of showed that during that time people restructured or reprioritized how they spent money and

still looking good and feeling good or at least looking the part of maybe the market crash not affecting them, you know, was important to them. I think it was nursing, hair styling and something else were the three jobs that had no kind of dip.

Speaker 2 (13:04)
that's cool. So after you finished cosmetology school, did you go work as a hairdresser for another salon or what happens after you graduate?

Speaker 1 (13:14)
Yes, I did. I think being born and raised in Nashville, have a big kind of community and network around me. And so during cosmetology school, I had a lot of people who trusted me in doing their hair while I was still learning. So I'd actually built up a pretty big clientele then. I had a job secured for once I got out. And I'll never forget my dad crying at graduation being like, I think because I was completing something, like I was completing my college and

the sentiment behind it being like there are people graduating from college still not knowing what they want to do. And I've graduated and am going into exactly what I want to do and have a full clientele already behind me. And yeah, I went to my first salon and it was a tough salon, very rigorous, lots of goals and numbers that you had to hit. And

I think it was good to get out of beauty school and to get into something with some structure. And then at the same point, I was realizing that some of the things that were the most important, which were building relationships, building new clients, and doing great hair, ended up falling by the wayside if you didn't meet some of your numbers. So if you didn't sell enough retail, if you didn't do enough treatments or something, you didn't get to progress, which means that you didn't get to make more money, essentially.

And so after a year of that, was kind of like, at the end, get why the structure is there from a business standpoint. It's how a business makes more money. But I was like, what's the most important to me is actually creating good hair and building good relationships.

Speaker 2 (14:56)
Just so I understand that piece, you're saying some of the salons have certain performance indicators where you have to hit a number of sales or other metrics, and if you don't hit those, then they don't give you more clients?

Speaker 1 (15:10)
They don't, yeah, essentially not maybe more clients, but this one in particular, ⁓ it's called Summit Salons. So that's not the salon name, but it's just sort of like the business model that they go by is a summit system. And essentially there's all these numbers that you have to meet. And it helps, I think if someone is maybe a hairstylist who's new to the game or needs the structure.

because the next salon that I was in, that I spent my whole career at, had no structure, which I was ready for that at that point. But I could almost see people who I was like, wish that you had a harder structure in place because I feel like you need it to stay focused.

Speaker 2 (15:53)
So it's really dependent on the hairstylist. If you're motivated and know what you want, you probably want less structure. But if you don't really know, you prefer the more structured piece.

Speaker 1 (16:03)
Yes. And that salon that I was at, was right out of beauty school. They had sort of a smaller salon to step into the big one. And the thing with summit salons is all the numbers that you have to meet. You have to meet them for three months in a row before moving to the next level. And the next level allows you to raise your prices and the numbers to kind of like ease up a little bit at that point. But say you're on month three and you miss one column out of the 10 requirements.

you start back and you have to do a whole nother three months because they want to see consistency, which I get, but I ended up realizing that the pushy salesperson just wasn't me. And so, yeah, my next salon that I went to, it was the home that I needed for, and I was there for 10 years. So it became a perfect balance of it grew into structure. It started with no structure. And I think more people got put in place at the salon and helped it to get more structure.

But yeah, it was the perfect balance of like, okay, now I've got this business mindset built in me, but now I'm ready to just go back and focus on like the hair and not make sure that you bought shampoo and conditioner when he left, you know?

Speaker 2 (17:16)
Tell me a little bit more about the experience there. Cause I've read a bit online that you also had some really cool high profile clients as well. Was that through the next salon or is that through your own client base? How did that happen?

Speaker 1 (17:28)
Definitely through the next salon, so the owner of that salon has a really close connection to a big country music star. And I think at that point she was wanting to phase out of just doing her hair styling and makeup on the roads, but not necessarily her hair color. And so very early on she trusted me enough to be like, would you want to try to do her hair color?

I did and it went well. So thankfully it stuck. And then I feel like Nashville is just one of those places where, especially, you know, 11 years ago at this point, Instagram is still, it wasn't as blown up as it has become now. And I think businesses with like celebrity or influencer clientels were a few far in between. And so that salon and because of our owner and the business that she built,

it had a lot of at least country music at the time, famous faces attached to it. And then the minute that you post one, and again, Instagram just wasn't as big then, it became like, okay, so this is the person and this is the salon that you have to go to. And then I think with there only being one of me, the more people that sort of come in, they start to see other people. And yeah, that salon just became kind of known as, you know, a pretty rock.

Yeah, go to Salon.

Speaker 2 (18:56)
many other stylists were there, how big was the salon that you were at for 10 years?

Speaker 1 (19:01)
Oh my gosh, it grew a ton. When I first started, there was probably maybe 15. And you had a couple of assistants that sort of ran around and helped everyone. And then I was the first one who was like, I need an assistant like permanently beside me. So can we hire someone like just for me? And then when that happened and people saw how helpful that was, more people started to be like, let me have someone.

So then we probably grew into like 20 stylists, but then we would have 10 assistants. When then what ends up happening, which all of these little nuggets along the way have been super helpful for my own business, because I understand the salon where I came from became a beast. She has a barber shop. She has another salon that basically, when all the assistants got done with their program, they needed somewhere to go. There were no more chairs at the salon I worked at.

So she opened up another business so that they could have another salon. At one point, the kind of new guys on the scene, but some girls ended up staying and they've been there for nine years. But yeah, it's a wheel that once you kind of started, how do you get it to stop? So yeah, I would say now, like I can remember Christmas pictures and there's a hundred people in the picture. From assistants to all the salons, to she opened up some other businesses that were like sweet style, but all under the collection of

you know, her main salon. So she is a very smart businesswoman.

Speaker 2 (20:29)
Tell me about when you started getting the itch or getting prepared to launch your own salon. Walk me through that process because nine, 10 years is a long time.

Speaker 1 (20:39)
It is. I think that people expected me to open up something a lot earlier. I just have always been someone who I really love a work-life balance. And I do think it ended up happening at the perfect time. But I also think that I didn't want to rush things. wanted when, actually I didn't think that I wanted to open up my own salon for a long time. And still the concept that it is today, it's really small.

I don't love people management. And so I love the idea of creating my own brand and having people in my own space and creating my own experience. But the thought of having a ton of people to manage and their schedules and their clients and their emotions on a day to day and I still to this day, I don't know that I love that. But again, my front salon is really small, so I haven't had to dive into that.

Speaker 2 (21:37)
That's a big portion of running a business. It's people and you deal with people. And especially, think people who are really good at their trades, that can sometimes be a tough transition because it's like, ⁓ I'm really good at my job and doing what I do. I would love to do this on my own for more people, but then you have to deal with the corporate incorporation. You have to deal with hiring. You have to deal with paying taxes, like all the stuff that comes with running a business and not doing the work that you love doing.

Speaker 1 (22:06)
Yeah,

maybe that's not talked about enough in the hair industry because I feel like there are so many people and still at the salon that you get to a certain point where you are maxed out on clients, you're maxed out on days. I had hit the top of what I could really charge to not just absolutely out price myself in Nashville. And at the same time, it wasn't necessarily about more money. I was very fortunate that I

worked four days a week, I had a really good schedule, I made really good money. But at the same time, for a lot of years, that meant that I got to focus on my personal life. I traveled, I had three day weekends where I spent time doing whatever I wanted to do. But at some point you do have that inner thing that's like, need more. But I didn't know what I needed more look like. It wasn't more money. I didn't wanna not raise my prices but work more days, more work wasn't necessarily it.

And so I just for years kept trying to think about, you know, is it that I teach classes? Is it that I start a haircare brand? Like, what is it? And nothing really felt right. And at some point it was like this idea hit me that it feels like the next thing to do is to open up a salon. But when you open up a salon, the only thing that pops in your head is it's big. You know, it's got multiple people. Or you could go into a salon suite.

And I just also never saw myself walking into a solo room with just me and just a shampoo chair. And so one day I just was thinking about it and I was like, I feel like I want something intimate. The salon that I worked at upstairs had way, way, way less chairs than downstairs. So there were some days or some times that I was the only one up there and my clients left it.

still felt like a salon, but it didn't feel like we were just in a room by ourselves.

Speaker 2 (24:02)
And how many chairs and how big was that upper space that felt more intimate?

Speaker 1 (24:07)
I would say upstairs had, it had five stations, but I sort of occupied two, but there were days and times where just two of us would work, or all four of us could be working. And so even the days just two of us worked, it still felt social enough, if that made sense, a salon and sort of like, you know, the barbershop talk, people talking to the stylist or to the client next to them. So being in a room by myself just didn't seem.

quite what I wanted to provide for people. And so one day I was like, I feel like if I just found a small enough space that me plus one other person, we would both have two chairs. We could have one assistant that we shared and then have a front desk. That still feels like a mini salon. And I sort of pitched that to some clients, like, how do you feel on the days when no one else is here without really letting them know? And they loved it. Some people specifically booked the days or the times.

when no one else was there. And so yeah, that was in the fall of 2023. I didn't know if I was gonna do it with someone. I didn't know if it would just be me and then I would just have someone that I knew working beside me. But I started to approach some of my super business smart friends who've started a lot of companies and just being like, okay, this is what I'm thinking. The only thing is I didn't really have money to start it.

In my head, you needed hundreds of thousands, but I either had enough to shoot towards, you know, maybe pitching it towards investors or I had a lot of equity in my house that I thought that I could use. And that friend of mine was like, honestly, I think you need even more than you have because when you pitch it to people, you need to be able to say, I have all of this stake in the game, but can I have your money as well?

Speaker 2 (26:04)
you have notable skin in the game so that they feel comfortable giving you more money too.

Speaker 1 (26:08)
Yeah. And so I was like, okay. Plus I felt like my idea needed to be refined a little bit. And so I was like, okay, see you at 2023, I'm going to spend 2024 really like hunkering down, you know, changing my lifestyle, saving a bunch of money and then going towards this next thing. And then in February of 2024, one of my previous assistants, but she became a stylist obviously afterwards and she worked at the salon that I worked at.

When she was my assistant, she was always like, will you open up your own salon? And this was in 2020. And at that point, I just did not want to open up anything at all. She kind of like kept questioning over the next year. And I was like, I just, don't know if that's for me. So then she dropped it, never spoke of it again. And then one day she randomly messaged him was like, Hey, so when are you going to open up your own salon? And we had not talked about it in four years. And I was like, that is so weird because I'm ready.

Let's Meet. And it ended up being like kind of a very godsend moment. There were some pieces in thinking about opening up my own salon that I was questioning, and that was the work-life balance. I was nervous about doing something on my own and working 24-7.

Speaker 2 (27:26)
Yeah, no, that's true. mean, running a business is a mostly 24 seven job, especially like early on when you're just starting out. So Gabby reaches out, she's asking you when to open, you're starting to think about it. What happens next? Do you go out to raise funding? Do you pull your money together? Do you find a space? Walk me through it.

Speaker 1 (27:45)
Yeah, we basically were like, what does this look like going forwards and how do we want to spend our money? And to be honest, the thought of an investor was not something that made me super excited. I feel really passionate about this and my thoughts and what I want to build. And so when you have an investor, obviously you're bringing someone else into, you know, all the decision making with you. And we weighed a lot of options and

definitely decided that investors were not the way that we wanted to go. We went through bank options as well. And basically in this time, we're also trying to figure out what things look like. How big of a space do we need? Writing out a business plan. And let's just say that that was probably one of the most like mind bending years I've ever had. Yes.

Speaker 2 (28:36)
2024.

Speaker 1 (28:38)
We have this phrase that we say and we still say it to this day and it's that we're just girls. Like that's what we feel like. Like there were so many things to where we would meet with a businessman and he would ask us a question and we would just be like, we have no idea. How do you learn this? Like, how do you learn to start a business? We listened to the podcast, we read the books, but we had salon consulting meetings. We just talked to anyone and everyone that we could, but we were so in over our heads.

And I think with the vision that we had for the aesthetic of the place, our vision was a million dollars.

Speaker 2 (29:18)
As it should be, you want something beautiful. You want to provide a nice space for your clients, but just starting out, maybe it's a bit much. So.

Speaker 1 (29:25)
Yeah. And you've got everyone saying, as we're trying to talk through all these things, maybe your first one doesn't have to be the best one. But in my head, I'm like, I'm about to sign a multi-year lease and you only get one first impression. And so at the time, I thought I would almost rather have this huge loan or whatever behind me than create a first impression and then have to start again when I felt like the money or the business model became better after three years.

We also specifically wanted this area of town called Wedgwood, Houston. It's got the Soho house. It's got some fun restaurants. We've got an Hermes coming up. Like I'm a Soho member myself. So I just know how much research they put into where they dropped their location. And I knew that they saw something in the future for this area. And I was like, this is where we have to be. We don't want to be downtown. We don't want to be back out in the residential area where we were.

We have to be here. The bad part about it is everyone wants to be there right now. Square footage was insane. Trying to find a space was insane. We ended up falling into a dream space. It was gonna be brand new. We were gonna be building it from the ground up. They loved the mood board that we had decided to have for our salon and what the aesthetic was gonna look like. But again, it was gonna cost us a million dollars. And I remember

after working on it, so we hadn't officially signed anything. But going through all of the construction meetings and interior design meetings, at some point our responses to each other started to get a little slower and a little less excited. And I just texted her one day and I was like, pulse check, how you doing? And she was like, I am stressed. And I was like, me too. I think we pulled out. And so what ended up hitting me was I would be creating this

luxury, one of a kind, nothing else like it space in Nashville. And I would be so in debt and poor, you know, like I would be working to repay this forever. Also, the only way that that was going to work was the vision from the two of us with two chairs became we needed eight people to work there to make the business model and then enough money to, you know,

come through to be able to pay for the space and the low. And so again, it was like, we have to find eight people that are good and then we have to manage everybody. And we still have to work full-time as stylists behind the chair. Like everything just seemed like it wasn't meant to be. So we pulled out and we were like, you know what, if it's meant to be, everything had just felt so aligned, something will come up. And another stylist at the salon that we were at, she left and she decided to do her own thing.

Speaker 2 (32:06)
What happens?

Speaker 1 (32:21)
And we looked up and all of sudden she posted and she had like a full functioning salon within a month. And we were like, where did you go and what did you just do? We've been working for eight months and don't even have anything signed. So there was a building in Wedgwood, Houston, which is the area where we like. And at the bottom of the apartment buildings, all of the units that are street front are called live work units. And so you can have a business or you can work there.

So she ended up getting a one bedroom unit and creating basically like a two person salon. And we were like, do you mind if we come and look at the other units and are we stepping on your toes? And she was like, no, not at all. So again, just things kind of fell into place perfectly. A two unit space, so it's around 1,300 square feet opened up.

We were looking for something that was a thousand to fifteen hundred for our original plan. And then when we realized the cost of what that would be, two of us would have never paid off what it costs to renovate it. And then our monthly expenses. So that's where we needed more stylus. We needed a bigger space and then was a million dollars. So, yeah, we looked at this space. So essentially it is an apartment, but no one lives there.

in hours, obviously. You can do as much or little construction as you want to. You just have to get everything approved. So basically it had all the things that we needed. It had the washer dryer, it has bathrooms, it has a refrigerator. And so we went in and sort of just said, okay, with what's already here, what can we do to the space that transforms it from an apartment to a salon so that no one kind of knows what they're walking into?

And yeah, we signed a lease a month later and hit the ground running with starting to renovate.

Speaker 2 (34:18)
it.

How much was the rent for this?

Speaker 1 (34:20)
It is $3,200, but because you're technically in an apartment building, it includes most of your utilities. So we're also not really hit with a utility bill. You got to sign a short or long of a lease as you wanted. So we signed a two and a half year lease. They've never owned us alone before. So we were like, let's just see how it works, you know? Also see how we like the space. At that point, we may want to build something else, move somewhere else.

But ultimately we ended up putting 50,000 of our own money into it for renovations, for buying inventory, for buying all the furniture and everything. So definitely by the time it was time to open, we were like, we have no money. We need to open and start making it back. But then the beauty of it is we came from a salon that was commissioned. And so now we make all of our own money. And so honestly, just,

can't even believe it happened. Like we ended up being able to go from say the 50,000 is what we put into it. We got back to zero from there in two months. And so after two months, we've been profitable ever since.

Speaker 2 (35:34)
So you made over around 50k in profit in two months. That's incredible. Tell me a little bit before we dive into the business port and all the numbers, I wish I'm really excited to do. How did you design this? Did you use a third party? know, who helped with the renovations? You'd use an architect and then tell me all that.

Speaker 1 (35:54)
Even the first day that Gabby was like, when do you want to open up your own salon? I'm ready. The day that we met, we sort of both turned our iPads around to each other and our Pinterest mood boards were the exact same, which I knew. I was like, we're both going to turn it around on three because I already know, because I know her. I was like, we are envisioning the same thing. So our pictures for the type of salon that we wanted were the same. So decorating and figuring out our aesthetic has been really easy.

We both love more neutrals, a little bit more, less patterns, less busyness. We're really drawn to wabi-sabi and to pandi styles. Through traveling a lot, I love the look of just like concrete and stone and a little bit of weatheredness. And so in an apartment that was already built, there's obviously some things that were already picked up for you. Black was not in our color scheme and our color palette, and our kitchen is fully black. So

you know, figuring out how to basically block that off to soften the space was important to us. We used one of her clients, her husband is a contractor. So he helped us with like the plumbing of adding in shampoo bowls.

Speaker 2 (37:07)
So the designs, basically both came up with yourself and touched up the space. That's really cool. Is that how you found our sidewalk signs too?

Speaker 1 (37:15)
It's like every single little piece of everything was so important to me. And so when it came time for the sidewalk sign, I Pinterest the heck out of sidewalk signs. So again, we're on a strip with everyone and everyone in the morning walks out and they put out their sidewalk sign. Our salon is, it feels kind of tucked in on the corner. And so I knew the sidewalk sign had to be eye catching. To be honest, the mirror aspect isn't necessarily the same vibe as what the inside has.

But when I saw the ones that were on that kind of followed the scheme of wood or more canvas, I was like, I just don't think that that screams loud enough, like, hey, look at me. There was one Pinterest ad that I saw of you guys and immediately I was like, that's it. We have so many influencer clients. We have so many of our normal clients who like taking photos. And I just thought as many people like to take photos in the chair. ⁓

For someone to then be able to like walk out on the sidewalk and also snap a photo as they're leaving or coming in, I just was like, okay, free marketing. Obviously it costs to do the sign, but then it's like free marketing after that with all the photos. It's been such a hit.

Speaker 2 (38:27)
Definitely.

Really, I'm so glad to hear that.

Speaker 1 (38:32)
Yeah, I also set a little dog treat jar beside it. We're in an apartment building, so there's so many dogs. The amount of people who get their dogs a treat and then even like smile with their dogs in the mirror is so cute. Like they take photos and post those.

Speaker 2 (38:47)
I love that. I obviously follow your account and I see some of the tag photos and it's really cool to see that.

Speaker 1 (38:52)
Yeah, it's been awesome.

Speaker 2 (38:54)
And now diving back into the business, tell me a little bit about how it was getting clients over to your new salon, how many people are coming in every week or month.

Speaker 1 (39:05)
was pretty positive that my clients would follow me. I've just really curated this special bunch of people who are really loyal and they've always been really excited for me to do my own thing. So I knew that my clients would follow. Gabby was pretty sure her clients would follow also, but then she had some room for some new clients, which we wanted because it is kind of a weird concept to open up a salon that only has two people and doesn't really have room for new people to come.

people get excited about a salon in the area. And then to be told one person isn't taking new clients and then the other person doesn't have that many spots. Yeah, it's been a funny thing to navigate, but luckily we've been very fortunate. And again, because of the space that we're in, we get a ton of walk by traffic. Both Gabby and I are big about posting on social media. So even just the thought of people see a post and they call. ⁓

or email and want a book has been awesome. I mean, the power of social media, just feel like even if you don't want to, you have to show up on social media. It's a new business nowadays.

Speaker 2 (40:14)
know that before you were working four days a week and you had three days off and work-life balance is important to you. So tell me about the number of hours that you're working at the new studio and how that work-life balance has maybe shifted or changed.

Speaker 1 (40:29)
Yeah, I still worked the same amount of time. And I think, again, we both figured out, so has Gabby, the cost of what we're doing is very low. And so we were able to work the same amount, pay our bills, and then still pay ourselves. Now, there were some things that we foresaw coming down the road. Like, we really wanted a front desk person. So we actually didn't hire a front desk manager until July.

And so there was kind of this weird transition of us walking our clients up to the desk and checking them out or pre-booking them. But from a luxury point of view, I just really wanted clients to be greeted as they walked in the door. I wanted them to be offered a drink and have someone else checking them out and spending time with them. The thought of paying someone else was kind of a future thought because again, that's an extra expense that we weren't quite ready for.

But we actually hit a moment where we have four chairs. We each have two. Gabby sort of noticed that she wasn't using her extra chair as much. And so she said, what are your thoughts on maybe hiring another person? So whereas we thought that would be down the line and ended up coming a lot sooner, she came with a full clientele. And because of that, she is on a commission basis. So some people do a booth rent with their chair. We decided to still work with the commission.

kind of business structure. And so because of that, she keeps part of her money. And then the money that we got, which is now extra money, pays for us to have a front desk person.

Speaker 2 (42:08)
So walk me a little bit through the timeline, because you said you hired the front desk in July and then you brought on this new stylist at what time and when did you exactly open your doors to?

Speaker 1 (42:18)
So we opened on February 16th, 2025. Realized probably in April, just some of the kinks, like having a front desk person was really important to us. Okay, so how do we get there? Do we continue? Because you have to remember, we've sunk all this money into the business and then basically we got back to zero. And then now we're rebuilding things again. So the thought of...

Now let's take some of the money that we're making and push it away again. You know, we were like, do we really want to keep living in this, you know, change of lifestyle life? Or again, we see this empty chair. Do we go ahead and a little bit sooner try to fill the chair and make the extra money that way? So in April, we kind of got wind of some people who were looking to make some changes in their career.

And so through a conversation with another stylist, she decided that she was ready to also, you know, make a change and believed in us, loved the space, loved the kind of future plans that we have with our business in the space. And I think it is so humbling to know that like only two months after opening something, someone is like, I believe in you guys enough that I'm willing to leave my steady career and jump into this new salon.

So she started at the end of May.

Speaker 2 (43:46)
So it seems like you've been able to keep that work-life balance that you had previously and also hire a few people to help out. Have there been any, I know there were lot of difficulties to get the salon open, but have there been any challenges with the salon being open that were unexpected?

Speaker 1 (44:04)
think going back to like the very first salon that I mentioned that I was at for a really long time and it's kind of like once the ball gets rolling, you see how a business grows and needs more stylists and needs more space. So we are limited with the space that we have. There are times when the three of us are working and if two of us or more have more than one client at a time.

the space can feel small. You know, we almost, we've run out of chairs to work with. Now we've got some areas of the salon that we can turn into maybe more stations. And so we're at the point where we're navigating, what does that look like? Do we need to take away a seating area and technically create another station? And again, we have an assistant. She is about to leave her assistant program and become a stylist. And so.

she will be a fourth person added in the mix, which again, now we've grown from the three of us to it's about to be six. And then you just think about down the road, know, so then that assistant gets done with her program in a year. So now she's a fifth person who needs a spot. So yeah, navigating how you grow in the small space that you've got. At the same time, Gabby and I work Monday through Thursday. So

Monday there's the opportunity for another person and Friday and Saturdays there's opportunities for more people.

Speaker 2 (45:36)
⁓ I see. You still want to keep it open, but you prefer Monday through Thursdays.

Speaker 1 (45:41)
Yes, it's it's not ideal to work those days. You know, feel like most people, if they can have their weekends off, they want the typical Friday, Saturday. And so knowing from a business mindset, those are times and stations that are not being used to make money. It's kind of like, know, like I want to figure out how to maximize space and time at the same time. How do you pitch?

Fridays and Saturdays to someone and be like, but you don't get to work Monday through Thursday.

Speaker 2 (46:12)
That's true. Well, maybe it's the sacrifice they have to make if they're early in their career and they're hungry and want to build up their client base.

Speaker 1 (46:20)
Yeah, that's what I've mentioned her. I'm like, if someone really wants, you know, to work for the brand enough, that's what they'll do. Or maybe it's something with how things have changed. Nashville is a huge bachelorette city. It's a huge wedding city. So we've talked about maybe do we market our space as a space that you can rent if you do freelance hair and makeup for weddings. So we wouldn't ever really post like that they're available, but they might use our space on a Saturday if.

you know, they need a space to do a whole bridal team or something. So that brings in some random money. Eventually in the future, we would love to teach classes. So again, it being open on the weekends to teach classes. We love to do events with people and kind of connect with people in the community too. So we've got some fun plans for those. And again, not having a fully booked Saturday is kind of clutch when you need to use it for an event instead. So.

Speaker 2 (47:14)
That's really exciting. Do you foresee yourself opening up multiple locations down the line or what does the plan look like two, three years down the line?

Speaker 1 (47:25)
don't

know yet. You know, like, we've only been open less than six months, around six months. I still love to do hair. And so I'm not ready to leave behind the chair yet, but I am learning that there is going to be a time where I need to step away from behind the chair to do more admin work. So more locations could come. I also love to travel. So selfishly, I would love a place in another state so that

It sort of like, spreads the brand out a little bit outside of Tennessee as well, but also kind of fulfills that personal work-life balance. But that's again where building the brand of House of Tone is really important to me. I feel like my career is established, but I really want to create something that people want to work at, they want to come to. It's like, I don't just want to build a business, I want to build a club that people want to join.

navigating still doing my day-to-day clients while also trying to figure out fun ways to kind of keep building the brand so that in the future I can give myself the opportunity to sort of expand in whatever way comes.

Speaker 2 (48:35)
That's really cool. And I really love that you have certain priorities in life and one of them being work-life balance and sticking to that because it's so easy to end up working all day 24-7 being on call because you can always do something for a business as you know. But setting those boundaries and showing other people that you can have both. You can run a successful business and you can...

have a lifestyle that you look forward to, and it doesn't always have to clash with each other. Because I think hustle culture is really prevalent throughout social media, but this is really refreshing to hear. So thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 1 (49:14)
Yeah, and I think we say all the time, like the timeline and getting into, because again, my ego at one point was, you know, a little bit embarrassed about the fact that we were in an apartment, even though people come in and they would never even guess it's an apartment. It kind of blows people's minds every time they see it. I get to do this job and still live the life that I want to live. I still get to travel. I still get to go out to eat. I can still do all the fun things. Had I done the big salon.

that was a million dollars that would have been gorgeous and probably what people expected, this big grand thing for my first time, I would have been a poser. I would have had this luxury space and then on the backside, not been able to travel, not been able to buy new things, not been able to go out to fun dinners or whatever without feeling guilty that you've got this million dollar loan. I hope that people also take away that it's like,

Speaker 2 (50:07)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:11)
Again, as a hairstylist, what can be your next move? So trying to find, I had never heard of anyone doing a live workspace. So trying to find something like that, that already has the bones in it, that you don't have to go in and do this huge remodel. We put a lot of elbow grease into it. We painted everything ourselves. We had friends and family come and help. So again, like starting up with not a huge amount of debt to us.

and just being able to kind of dive in and still do what we love. And we honestly, we love working together. We love what we're doing. And we just think all the time, we just should have done this so much sooner.

Speaker 2 (50:50)
That maybe leads into my last question. Knowing sort of what you know now over your 10 plus year career and having run the business over the last six months, is there anything you would have changed knowing what you know now?

Speaker 1 (51:04)
Honestly, no, I am a big, I don't have regrets person. I believe everything happens for a reason. even as far as like the timeline to how, you know, as long as I waited to do my own salon, the timeline of what last year kind of ensued of, you know, searching for spaces and talking to banks and all of that, the space that we're in currently wasn't even available until almost the time that we signed the lease. So,

I think that had I decided years earlier or had I listened to the pressure of everyone else, you know, expecting me to leave and start my own thing, I just think I wouldn't have mentally been ready, financially been ready. And then the situation that I'm in wouldn't have been available. So yeah, no, I wouldn't change anything.

Speaker 2 (51:53)
Throughout this interview, I could tell that you've had this compass even since you were in high school and you sort of stick to your own plan and march to the beat of your own drum. That's really cool. So thank you so much for sharing your story, Marissa. And if people are interested in learning more about you or reaching out, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Speaker 1 (52:13)
Yeah, my hair Instagram is Marissa Martin hair. And then our salon's Instagram is official House of Tone. So they can hit up either one.

Speaker 2 (52:22)
Awesome. Well, thanks again. Looking forward to hearing more about your continued success.

Speaker 1 (52:28)
Awesome, thank you so much, I appreciate you.

Alan Li (52:32)
Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, feel free to visit openingsoonpodcast.com for all of our episodes online. If you run a retail store and need updated furniture or signage, please feel free to visit www.signsandmirrors.com. Lastly, if you have any feedback or would to be a guest on the show, email me at alan, A-L-A-N, at signsandmirrors.com. I promise I'll respond. Thanks for listening.