After years of visiting Shear Talent Salon as a client, Anna Fanning took a shot at her favorite salon and bought the business.
Now, 10 years later, Fanning is celebrating her tenth year anniversary as owner, a time span where she’s seen a lot of changes. The business observed the anniversary with a 10-year celebration with food and raffles, which included free services and products.
Fanning said they were at a building by the old Ace Hardware store for her first six years as owner, before moving to their current site in 2012, located at 921 S. Highway 160.
Fanning doesn’t have a background in hair or nails, but she owns and manages the shop. Her being able to work well with others is something that drew her to the business.
“I’m a people person,” Fanning said. “It just seemed like something I’d be interested in doing and at the time I was kind of not working, so it was a good fit for me.”
Now a decade in, Fanning explained that she wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for her customers.
“To me, the whole thing that I’m about is the client,” she said. “When the clients come into our shop I want them to be comfortable, and feel like they’re at home. I want them to be comfortable asking us any questions so that we can help their needs.
“I just want to give back to the client, because without them, my staff wouldn’t be able to do their job. So it’s an important thing.”
Fanning said in the beauty business, sticking around is key, as having that reliable customer base makes all the difference.
“It’s important to have longevity,” Fanning said. “So many salons open and then they close after a few years. I’ve been very fortunate, as everyone that works for the salon now has been in the business for many years. We’re talking some 20, some 30 years.”
Many of Fanning’s employees have either owned or managed a salon in the past which helps her, because Fanning said they know what it takes to make the business work.
Through the years Fanning said she hasn’t seen much change in the industry, aside from when the recession hit, but having those loyal customers helped the business make it through the tough financial time.
“When it (the recession) hit, people just weren’t coming in as often,” she said. “We have a lot of seniors, so we have clients that are here every week regardless. For whatever reason, they can’t do their own hair or their nails so they’re always here. We have a lot of those type of clients here that are weekly clients. Then you have some that are monthly clients. You just have to work around all your client days.”
Fanning is all about her employees. Despite keeping the place up and running for the last decade, she didn’t want the spotlight to be on her, she wanted it to be on her staff.
The staff relationship with Fanning is a strong one, made evident by some of the employees being with her just as long as she’s owned the place.
“I opened up the shop in November 2006 and Angel Harvey has been with me since January of 2007,” she said. “So she’s been with me all this time.”
“Everyone that works here works together. We’re a team,” she said. “We all get along here and we’re all professionals and my staff deserves a lot of credit, because without them we wouldn’t have any business anyway.”
Looking ahead, Shear Talent will begin to offer some new services in the coming year if all works out as planned, as Fanning is always looking to provide her customers with the latest in beauty care.
“We’re looking to expand the salon and have more of a spa area,” she said. “We’re looking to bring in a gal who wants to do permanent makeup and she also does camouflage makeup for cancer victims. Also, we’re looking to add a couple more massage therapists.
“We already have a gal who does facials and we also do the spray tan, all of that and we’re also going to try and have a small boutique in the front of the store.”
Shear Talent is holding a Christmas raffle. For any customer that comes into the store for a service, they get a free raffle ticket. Names will be drawn before Christmas for the drawing which will include several prizes.
For more information or to schedule a service contact Shear Talent at 775-727-4496.
Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.