Text: Tanisha Lawrence

Photos: Conquer Hair

 

Matthew Khodayari, owner of Aria Salon & Spa, is not a hairstyl­ist. He has never been formally trained, nor does he style anyone’s hair, yet he and his wife, Mechelle, own a million-dollar salon in the Atlanta area that takes a fresh ap­proach to operating a salon. Khodayari, working in corporate America in the 1990s, somewhat stumbled into the job when he agreed to temporarily run his sister’s salon while she was on maternity leave.

 

“I fell into it. She was going on maternity leave and I was looking for a job, so I went in to help them out, then I realized that it was sort of an undiscovered gem. I really liked it. It’s a feel-good business. Everybody’s happy. I thought that was cool, but I never thought it would be a career move. Little by little I started changing things and getting positive feedback.”

Once he realized the ins and outs of business, he thought about what aspects of corporate America could be incorporated into the salon business to make it better.

 

“I reached the point where I needed to do something more and different. I wanted to take it to the next level. Its difficult to do it when family’s involved, so we parted ways and I did my own thing. I wanted to treat it as a business and employees as technicians and professionals…as white collar and not blue collar.”

He continued to talk about why he calls the cosmetology industry “the last frontier,” com­paring it to the rise of the lucrative restaurant industry.

 

“At one point, the restaurant business was kind of fragmented--mom and pop shops. Then all of a sudden you get corporate America notic­ing the business and for the past years they’ve really tapped in. Now we have all these

corpo­rate-owned restaurant chains,” he said.

 

He believes the salon industry is headed in that same direction.

“The (federal bureau) still recognizes the salon industry as a trade. It has been ignored until now,” he said.

In December 2000, he opened Aria Salon & Spa in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, which he calls unique in that it’s “high-end” and locally owned. Approaching his new business with a corporate mindset, he aimed to address the Instability of the profession. Khodayari says that currently, 85 to 90 percent of the employees at the salon were hired directly out of school and are being paid salary, not commission, that af­fords them benefits, vacation and savings plans including 401K.

“I thought there’s so many fabulous people in the industry, but the majority don’t make a good living and get burnt out. I wanted to make a difference. So when I started my own company, one of the first things I did was get away from commission. We’re a salaried company. Coming from corporate America, I wanted to treat my employees as such. My vision was to create that same type of environment and it was a trying time at the beginning. It’s a hard sale,” he said.

But it worked. Though he doesn’t consider himself a trailblazer, Khodayari’s vision has since grown the company from a quarter of a million in sales, to about 1.5 million within nine years. This year, they signed a contract to open a sec­ond location in Georgia.

 

“There are a lot of people doing this, I kind of follow their lead. I realized that there’s a lot of potential in the business and that typically salons are run by hairdressers in a more emotional way, and not as a business. I wanted to change that,” he said. “When we started, my wife was the only hairdresser with a clientele and I had a massage therapist and a receptionist. The rest is history. We’ve doubled our sales every year we’ve been open. We’re going to hit 1.6 million this year.”

 

But money has not been what has mattered the most in his success. He says, gratifying clients has been the most rewarding and fulfilling benefit of the job.  “Our corporate vision is to replenish and in­spire our team, our families and our community. Our mission is simply to serve. If I was to put it in a nutshell, it’s making a difference. We’re making a difference in the people who work for us that we get from schools who don’t really know what they want to do in life. They grow to become mature professionals. The difference we make in the lives of our customers is something that I take pride in. Not only do they look beau­tiful, they feel replenished,” he said. He also says that the scope of his work still amazes him to this day.  “Every haircut that we do here potentially touches masses of others outside of here. Last year we did 12,000 haircuts. If each touched 10 other people that’d be over 100,000 people,” Khodayari said. His advice to newcomers to the industry has nothing to do with technique or financial benefits, but to treat the business as though it is a vessel for something bigger. “If you think you have a higher calling than what you do on a daily basis, I think its much more gratifying. You feel that you’re not just cut­ting your hair, you’re making a positive change in people’s lives,” he said.

 

To make an appointment at Aria Salon & Spa, call (770) 475-8111 or visit their website at http://www.ariasalonspa.com.

The salon is located at 10 Roswell Rd. Alpharetta, GA 30004.