[00:00:00] Antony Whitaker: Welcome to the Grow My Salon Business podcast, where we focus on the business side of hairdressing. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker, and I'll be talking to thought leaders in the hairdressing industry, discussing insightful, provocative, and inspiring ideas that matter. So get ready to learn, get ready to be challenged, get ready to be inspired, and most importantly, get ready to grow your salon business. 
[00:00:29] Antony Whitaker: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Grow My Salon Business Podcast. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker. And as always, it's great to have you here with us today. Now, as I've said before, being in business is a journey. And like all journeys, there are often unexpected surprises along the way. And sometimes.
[00:00:48] Antony Whitaker: The surprises are that good things happen that you hadn't expected. And so things work out better than planned. Other times there are surprises in the form of problems as the business owner that you have to [00:01:00] deal with. Either way, you have to plan ahead and know what and when to compromise and know how to pivot when necessary, because running a business is never easy.
[00:01:10] Antony Whitaker: And no matter how prepared you are, there will always be challenges that you hadn't anticipated along the way. Now, my guest on today's episode is Australian hairdresser, Daniel D'Orio, who has been in business for 11 years, but this year he made the decision to relocate his business. And this episode is part three and the final part of the journey that a salon owner goes through when they decide.
[00:01:35] Antony Whitaker: To open a new salon. Now the first episode was episode 179 and that came out on the 14th of February this year. The second episode was 194 and that came out on the 30th of May and in each episode we followed his journey and all the ups and downs in real time along the way. Now I know that he's finally got the salon open, so we'll pick up [00:02:00] where we left off, and that was with building delays and a degree of the unknown. So, welcome back Daniel, I am excited to hear about what's been happening since we last spoke.
[00:02:12] Daniel Dilorio: Thank you, Antony. That was a fantastic intro to be honest. I've got some goosebumps listening back to that. It was very nice to hear. So thank you.
[00:02:20] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, well, it's, it's, uh, you know, 2023 has been a strange year. I mean, it's a bit difficult to say what year hasn't been a strange year of late, but it's certainly been a strange year, but you've been on quite a journey. And sometimes when you condense it down into a couple of sentences like that, it doesn't do it credit.
[00:02:36] Antony Whitaker: But, uh, I know, that as per our previous episodes that you're, you know, a very open book and, and excited to share, what this journey of relocating, I mean, you had a salon before, you know, of relocating has been like, and I know that what you've set up until now has helped a lot of people.
[00:02:53] Antony Whitaker: And I know that this, uh, last episode, I'm sure we'll do that as well. So, uh, as I alluded to in the intro, you have got the, uh, the salon open. So, well, tell us about that day. Tell us about open day that, that day where you finally, get the doors open and people start coming into the new location and paying.
[00:03:13] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah, 100%. Uh, I can honestly say that it is. It's amazing to finally be there and furthermore to that, it's amazing to finally have it all behind me. Um, you mentioned there that it's been, you know, over three episodes now that we've recorded it and I'm very thankful for that opportunity because as much as some people have reached out and said that I've been helping them, it's actually nice to hear myself back.
[00:03:38] Daniel Dilorio: I think in the last episode, I was getting some praise about how composed and how I had it all together. And then, yeah, if you were a fly on the wall for the last few months, it was. A version of that. And then most of the other time it was definitely the polar opposite. That's for sure. But we did it. Open day was fantastic.
[00:03:55] Daniel Dilorio: It was, um, you know, as cliche as it may sound, a dream come true. We've been looking at this salon on paper for, you know, close to 14 15 months. And, you know, there was a lot of weight behind the decision. Were we making the right decision? Were we spending too much money? Was everybody going to follow? All of those types of questions, but...
[00:04:19] Daniel Dilorio: It was just like, you just open that key and you turn in on day one and, you know, I had a very nice moment in the morning with Laura before all of the staff had turned up and anybody had turned up for the first day and it was a lot of emotion, definitely, because, you know, it's a beautiful place, it's a beautiful dream, and it's just one of those places now where I feel like there's a man who had an idea and had a purpose and strapped it to car and drove it really fast to make it a reality.
[00:04:50] Daniel Dilorio: And being in there, there's, there's nothing more rewarding now. So it's, it's absolutely excellent to be there.
[00:04:57] Antony Whitaker: good. Good. Okay. Now I've sort of followed the journey on on Instagram So I sort of you know, I've been vaguely aware of the different stages and I know when we last spoke you were talking about how you were going to have a a gap between the old salon and Closing and the new salon opening and the whole purpose of that was about training.
[00:05:17] Antony Whitaker: Um, uh, so, so tell us about that because I did see on instagram that you did actually do that. I weren't sure if that was going to happen. So, so what was the purpose of that? How did that all go?
[00:05:28] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah. So we had about seven business days or 10 days turnaround in between the two. Um, and we sort of created that space because We were transitioning from a boutique salon in a private location as such and moving into, you know, a high traffic shopping. So there were lots of elements of the business that needed to be changed and trained on.
[00:05:51] Daniel Dilorio: So we use that week. I called it a retreat week and we didn't go anywhere fantastic. But we had, you know, we sort of started the week with a bit of perspective. We sat in the empty old salon, um, and we did some training and we really focused on what it was going to be looking like welcoming walking trade.
[00:06:09] Daniel Dilorio: And we also revisited some of our social media focus moving into. The next few days, we just had everything as a combination between, um, stocking the new salon lunches. We had a wellness day. We all just went and got a movie and had some popcorn. Uh, and then we had a full day in the academy where our brand partners welcomed us into the academy.
[00:06:32] Daniel Dilorio: We had all of our product training, all of our revisit of our focus. We had an opportunity to do each other's hair. I took everyone out for dinner. Uh, we had a few drinks, had some emotional words like I always do. They had the weekend to themselves. And then the two days before we reopened in our new location was literally focused on, you know, staff development, making sure we were comfortable where everything was in the salon.
[00:06:55] Daniel Dilorio: Uh, we did all of our marketing shoots and campaigns and photos. So we had all of our content looking amazing and, and ultimately just making sure that we were 100 percent confident come Wednesday morning. Once we opened the salon that we were ready to rock, we were rested, and we were well hearsed for what was ahead. Was it 100 percent successful? Yeah, I would say 98%, but the 2 percent was just things that we just did not expect, and I suppose working in that boutique salon and then moving into a high traffic walk by trade, it was just something that we had to con consistently keep training on in the first couple of weeks to get it right.
[00:07:30] Daniel Dilorio: So whilst the week off was amazing, there was still more training once we got in there for sure.
[00:07:36] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, well, you can't, you can't anticipate everything like, um,
[00:07:39] Daniel Dilorio: definitely not.
[00:07:40] Antony Whitaker: uh, you know, on pay, as you said at the beginning, it was an idea on paper and, and, you know, we're going to talk about this in lots of different ways as we, you know, discuss this for the next, you know, 45 minutes or so, but yeah, you, you can't anticipate everything.
[00:07:53] Antony Whitaker: When you get real people in there, real clients, real stuff and, uh, and dealing with the, you know, the physical space that you actually have, as opposed to what it looks like on a piece of paper, it's bound to throw up some challenges. Um, before we get into that, just, just tell us about the transition from one location to the other.
[00:08:12] Antony Whitaker: Was there any big challenges there in terms of, I'm not even sure really what I'm asking here. You know, part of me is asking about the sort of physical stuff, the taking stuff from one location to the other. Um, another part of me maybe is asking about this, that, that sort of, you know, that sort of emotional transition in terms of the, you know, the, the client experience, the team experience, you know, did that throw up any surprises for you?
[00:08:43] Antony Whitaker: That sort of stuff?
[00:08:46] Daniel Dilorio: um, physical. It was hard work. It was very hard work and mentally and emotionally, it was all hard work. Um, you know, I tried to take some of that time in between the two salons to have. Some moments to myself, but as a roll on effect of that, it did result in some days being nearly close to 16 hours in set up because, you know, it's one thing to pack down a full salon.
[00:09:14] Daniel Dilorio: It's another thing to get it all back to my house, and there was another thing to get it to the salon, but then it was the next step to set it up. And whilst there was days where we used the team to set up most of it. There were just elements like the technology side of things who was going to set up the computer, the internet, make sure the phones were connected and all of those fine steps from there.
[00:09:35] Daniel Dilorio: It was about making sure there was little things like the systems and the processes revolving around cleaning lists and what not couldn't be created until I was in the environment to do that. Um, they were the hardest parts because as a roll on effect, I was taken away from my home. for a long period of time, barely got to see my daughter awake.
[00:09:55] Daniel Dilorio: So as it got towards the ends and I, and I finally had my moment towards the ends where I could reflect on it all. Yeah, it was a massive weight out of me, not even off my shoulders, just completely out of me. Um, and the perspective of that, I suppose. Looking back at it was always going to be worthwhile, but it was sort of like I had that moment to look back and think, well, what type of a leader did I look like during that period?
[00:10:21] Daniel Dilorio: And what? What? What type of an example was that for my team? And I suppose that was sort of showcased on their commitment because they were paid during that period off, but they were also their long hours as well. And they were happy to commit their time and they could see the benefits and the value of putting in that extra work in terms of the clients.
[00:10:41] Daniel Dilorio: I think we did a lot of hard work marketing that we would be closed. Um, we did a lot of text message campaigns because everybody sees their text messages. So even in that period off while we had the phones diverted, we've we had minimal, minimal phone calls. We had some general inquiries, but it was quiet.
[00:11:00] Daniel Dilorio: It was well documented. So once we had opened, I suppose as much as all that hard work was behind us, once we were open. It was just as hard because we had so many visitors. We had so many phone calls. Plus, we had all of the new interest for the centre. So, you know, that period from, say, closing on the 5th of August and reopening on the 16th of August, it really stretched all the way up basically to the end of August.
[00:11:26] Daniel Dilorio: It was a lot of hard work. A lot of mental capacity was required to keep a good face on to look fresh in the morning and to keep those long hours going and then add those to the teething issues that you have as well.
[00:11:38] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay. Um, the old premises, what, what, what happened to that? Because I know there was the possibility of trying to get someone else to take it off your hand with all the fixtures and fittings, et cetera, uh, which is obviously a nice thing if that can happen. Uh, what, what was the end result with that?
[00:11:54] Daniel Dilorio: Uh, so I sold everything individually and that paid for the trades people to return it back to square and I gave the keys to the, to the landlord and said goodbye to all of that. Unfortunately, I had two people who were interested, both of which came from Facebook marketplace. Uh, I had no luck with any of the brokers.
[00:12:13] Daniel Dilorio: I had plenty of time wasters on Facebook marketplace, but I had two. That were concrete and two handshake agreements as such for two people who wanted the premises, but I said, there's no point shaking my hand. You need to go and get the least that you want, and then you can come back to me and pay me the money as such.
[00:12:30] Daniel Dilorio: And neither one of them could get a deal with the landlord. And yeah, so I basically said to the landlord, I need to know latest by the Friday before. Um, they couldn't get any deals. I then offered them the joinery. I said, I'll take everything else. I'll leave you the joinery. You can continue to market it as a hairdresser, joinery free of charge.
[00:12:50] Daniel Dilorio: They didn't want that either. So literally closed my doors Saturday, 5 p. m. I left the salon 1 a. m. on Sunday morning. I was back there at 6 a. m. Sunday, and I left there again at 6 pm. that night and just got everything absolutely demolished, sold, ripped out. And that way I could be at my retreat week on Monday morning as if nothing had happened.
[00:13:15] Daniel Dilorio: So I didn't need the extra stress or the pressure.
[00:13:18] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[00:13:19] Daniel Dilorio: You know, I, I, we parted ways with the fact that we may not sell that salon and we were always conscious of the fact that the beautiful salon and the renovation that we did have paved the way for the opportunity that we have today. So it already paid itself off and sure, cashing in is always nice.
[00:13:36] Daniel Dilorio: But, you know, knowing what I know now, if I had more cash, I probably just would have spent more cash on my salon anyway. So everything was just like part and parcel and we said goodbye to it and that
[00:13:46] Antony Whitaker: Okay. And is it, is it still vacant or is there someone else now gone in there?
[00:13:52] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah, and I say that with a smile on my face because I wasn't very on good terms with my landlord, but I think he's going to struggle a long time to fill that place. Unfortunately.
[00:14:03] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. All right. Well, let's move on from that. Do you miss anything about it? About the old place? Because there's often a, you know, it was a part of your journey. It was a part of your life. Is there anything about it that you miss? Whether it's the, I don't know, the parking or the light or the, you know, the size of the break room or something.
[00:14:22] Antony Whitaker: Is there anything there that you look back at and go, actually, that was good.
[00:14:27] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah. I mean, I think I'm always going to have a soft spot for my first location, especially because I went there as a work experience kid and thought I was going to own it forever. Um But at this stage, it's just, it's still too soon to, to miss anything. I think it's just how much we love our new place and how much I have longed for a new opportunity that I look back at it and I still see a version of myself that is like, you made the right choice.
[00:14:55] Daniel Dilorio: There is. nothing keeping me there and, um, have no regrets about any of that. Of course, my neighbour who was the dentist, you know, I knew him the whole time I was there, the guy who owned the deli, I knew them the whole time were there, you know, you're going to miss those relationships, but
[00:15:10] Antony Whitaker: relationships.
[00:15:11] Daniel Dilorio: I've already got relationships in my new place too, with some people there.
[00:15:14] Daniel Dilorio: And you know, those things, not that they're replaceable people, but
[00:15:18] Antony Whitaker: Hmm.
[00:15:19] Daniel Dilorio: what you liked about those things are replaceable so far. So
[00:15:22] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay.
[00:15:23] Daniel Dilorio: think it's safe to say I don't a hundred percent miss it.
[00:15:25] Antony Whitaker: All right. Now, um, the listeners who may have been listening to the previous two or may not have, might remember that there's 11 miles between the old location and the new location. I'm correct in saying that, aren't I? 11, 11 miles thereabouts, which is a significant, um, distance. I know you talk in Ks, don't you?
[00:15:46] Antony Whitaker: Was it 15 kilometers?
[00:15:47] Daniel Dilorio: it's about 18, 17, 18 kilometers.
[00:15:49] Antony Whitaker: Okay. 17, 18 kilometers, which is about 11 miles, uh, which is a long way for clients to consistently, you know, like a lot of them will go at the beginning. Oh yeah, I'm [00:16:00] definitely going to go and they might go once or twice. So it's still really early days to see whether they maintain that tradition.
[00:16:06] Antony Whitaker: Uh, but I know that you'd sort of factored in if I'm right in saying you said that you anticipate 50 percent would follow. What, what's that looking like so far in terms of clients following?
[00:16:18] Daniel Dilorio: I would say it's at about 70 percent so far. Um, which, which I have to mention as well that I'm extremely grateful for in this moment. The center in which we work at is miles ahead of its time. I tell my clients it's like Vegas because there is nothing around us yet. But the infrastructure and what is already in the pipeline with town planning, we know that it's going to be a hub.
[00:16:43] Daniel Dilorio: And when I look at the other businesses in the center, my heart goes out to them because there is just only drips and drabs of walk by trade. And instantly we great, we gained the reputation of just like, holy shit, this guy is fully booked every day because What has followed [00:17:00] us plus the new interest we've been stacked each day.
[00:17:03] Daniel Dilorio: And for that, I'm grateful for for those who have followed us. You're 100 percent right. They may or may not continue. Uh, the biggest thing that I've just had to continuously remind myself in a really modest and honest way is that yes, we are 17 km away, but truthfully, I don't think anybody's doing what we're doing within 17 km anyway.
[00:17:26] Daniel Dilorio: And the center itself has a lot more for the patrons to enjoy when they come there. It's a very much a central service place, and that's been the biggest feedback we've had so far. They come here, they can do their groceries, they can go to the phone repair store. They've got somewhere to eat. There's so much more for them to do.
[00:17:44] Daniel Dilorio: It has inconvenienced a few, definitely, and we expected that. But I, I would, I'm safe to assume that so far it's at about 70%, which has been an extreme help, especially in the early stages of business. I think I look back to myself 10 years ago, [00:18:00] knowing what I know now, you'd have to have some real courage to, to open up in today's climate.
[00:18:06] Daniel Dilorio: And of course, I wouldn't have went there with, you know, eight staff and the overheads that I have, but watching. what people are working towards the offers that they're offering people to get people through the door, the walk by trade and minimal. It would be a very challenging start to life. Uh, without those who have followed us.
[00:18:24] Daniel Dilorio: So I'm constantly reminding at least once a week the staff to express gratitude every single client that I remember from the other place, whether they're mine or they're not, I tell them, thank you for making the journey. I really appreciate that and just keep expressing that to as much as I can out loud to continuously remind myself not to forget what it actually means for those people to continue to follow us.
[00:18:46] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. And are you, um, are you saying that in the centre itself there's a lot of other vacant shops when you said it's a bit like Vegas, there's nothing around us? Is it in
[00:18:55] Daniel Dilorio: No, it's Vegas. It's Vegas in the sense that when you drive to Vegas, it's just [00:19:00] land and then pull these buildings apart out of nowhere. And our shopping centre is literally that at the moment because all the town planning around it, whilst it was all approved at the same time, Woolworths the landlord were the only ones that had the confidence to continue to build.
[00:19:14] Daniel Dilorio: So all of the medium density housing, the mixed, um, I think it's sort of like mixed, mixed business has been approved and there's been some high rise apartments approved. All of those went on hold when the climate started to become tough. But my center, you could walk around it and you would laugh because right now the staircases that lead nowhere, but you know, when the town planning is finished, the center is literally right in the hub of it.
[00:19:38] Daniel Dilorio: So,
[00:19:39] Antony Whitaker: Okay. So it'll only get better. Go from
[00:19:41] Daniel Dilorio: uh, yeah, definitely,
[00:19:42] Antony Whitaker: Cool. Okay. All right. Um, and what about your team? Because it's not just about clients traveling 18 kilometres, 11 miles every day. It's also about your team. So their journey has dramatically changed. Um, has that had any negative impact on anybody?
[00:19:59] Daniel Dilorio: I [00:20:00] wouldn't say negative. We have had one resignation since we've been there. Uh, but out of all of the staff, all except two, uh, very much closer to work now. Uh, and enjoy the drive, which is fantastic 'cause it's completely against traffic. The two who have to travel a bit further, also drive against traffic.
[00:20:21] Daniel Dilorio: The one who chose to resign, though, has been a version of a discussion for the last 12 months about her direction, her path, her love and her focus. And I suppose in one way, the new distance driving to the new salon and the new feeling surrounding the culture and the vibe that we've created. Has sort of created a space where she's comfortable enough to come forward and say, I think it's time that I have a break and step back.
[00:20:48] Daniel Dilorio: Everything seems to be quite strong and confident here. And I'm, I'm, I'm honestly, you know, I really love the fact that we've been able to create a space where she's confident enough to come forward and not feel guilty for leaving something behind. She has been with me since day one, basically. So we're very happy for her to make that new change and we don't want to.
[00:21:10] Daniel Dilorio: I mean, we knew just as much as the clients may not follow that it may inconvenience staff as well, but
[00:21:15] Antony Whitaker: Sure. Yeah.
[00:21:16] Daniel Dilorio: you can't weigh in all of your future decisions around, you know, a handful of people. And I definitely don't want anybody to feel like that they're forced to be there as well. So for those who are still continuing the journey, I've had nothing but positivity.
[00:21:28] Daniel Dilorio: We had a check in after two weeks. Uh, and next week will be six weeks that we've been in there. And I always check in with them every month and have a half an hour chat. So, uh, constantly just checking in and everybody really, really enjoying themselves and you can see it in their performance. You can see it in their smiles.
[00:21:43] Daniel Dilorio: You can see it in their uniforms, you can see it in their hair. That's just, you know, it's, it's been nothing but positive so far for those who are really enjoying it. So
[00:21:52] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's often the case that when you relocate or open a new, you know, premises as well, that, that you sometimes do lose people that are, that, that there's a degree of inevitability about it because there's a, there's a big change has just happened and I think you sort of just alluded to it.
[00:22:11] Antony Whitaker: It makes them feel safe about making change in their life as well. And so I often say that to settle on us that you should, you shouldn't not anticipate that because it will often happen. Thank you. Um, what's, uh, what's been the biggest surprise about the new location? Has there been anything happen that you, you know, hadn't anticipated that, that is, you know, like being, whether it's a good surprise or a bad surprise?
[00:22:35] Antony Whitaker: Is there, is there anything about it that, uh, has stuck out?
[00:22:40] Daniel Dilorio: the biggest surprise to me, I would have to say as a business perspective, I wouldn't say anything else has surprised me more is how much I actually feel like I've started business again. And even though I just had a nice long spiel about how many people have continuously followed all of my KPIs, my targets, what used to be important in a boutique salon now being in a high traffic.
[00:23:07] Daniel Dilorio: Shopping center salon. It's completely different. And my margins, my numbers, my targets, my expected rebooking rates. So many things are skewed that it's almost as if like there's no point me looking at September last year's report and having a look at September this year's report and saying, wow, I mean, we've had an instant increase.
[00:23:30] Daniel Dilorio: We expected that. But take out the bottom line and have it looking at your numbers. Everything is completely skewed into two new numbers. And I, I, I'm surprised and I absolutely love it because complacency. Was a big factor in wanting to look for a new challenge in the old salon. And now we're in the new salon and that complacency about knowing your bottom line, knowing your targets, being on top of your staff for their performance.
[00:23:59] Daniel Dilorio: All of that's out the window because I genuinely don't know. I haven't had a full month, like a full month. I mean, from September one to September 30, I haven't had a full month to know. Okay, well that was my outgoings for September. This is my ingoings. This was our percentage for retail. This was our percentage for rebooking.
[00:24:16] Daniel Dilorio: And it's just rebooking is the biggest one. Like we always had a strong over 80 percent rebooking rate. Teach us the offer two in advance is more important. And now it's just sort of like you get that many walk ins who are just like, you got time for a quick blow dry and you just, you'll probably never see them again.
[00:24:32] Daniel Dilorio: Right. But it's almost impossible to win that type of client over. So rebooking has dropped significantly, but I'm in a point now where I need more time, more data to determine is that important, important here, or should I be looking at a different statistic? And I think like even just in, you know, I think when I look back at Bosley, my old salon, um, People only came there because they researched us.
[00:24:58] Daniel Dilorio: Now I've just got people who are just at Woolworths and they thought, Oh shit, that place looks nice. I'm just going to see if they're free and I'll come back tomorrow. So that's been my biggest surprise that I'm back in a position and I have to rethink all of my targets. I have to be looking at my bottom line again.
[00:25:15] Daniel Dilorio: I have to be driving. New versions of new targets amongst all of my team to get it right. And I mean, the bottom line is the bottom line. We know that, but it's everything else that makes it tick and function and helps my staff feel more professional and rewarded for what they do that has to be rethought and reevaluated over the months to come.
[00:25:33] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Like you say, six weeks so far. It's too early to.
[00:25:37] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah.
[00:25:37] Antony Whitaker: To see any real trend that you can bank on, so to speak, but, but everything so far has, uh, look positive in line with that You know, obviously, in the planning stages, you could have got this shop, or you could have got that shop.
[00:25:50] Antony Whitaker: And maybe you went with the one you went with, because maybe it was a bit smaller or something, um, than another option that you might have had in the center. I'm imagining this. I might be completely wrong here. Right? Um, now that you've got the doors open, is there a part of you that's going, Damn, I wish I'd got the bigger one because I can see this is really going to work here.
[00:26:11] Antony Whitaker: We're really going to benefit a lot from, you know, walk in traffic or something. Is that, is there anything like that going on in your head? Or is again, is it too early to say
[00:26:19] Daniel Dilorio: To be honest, they gave me the best spot, but I mean that in the sense, I mean that in the sense that they had planned the center. So they gave me the location and whilst it had a handful of cons, um, in, in terms of design elements, what they expected for it, I've got two glass walls, so on and so forth. If you, if you check out my Instagram, you'll see the fit out, you know what I mean?
[00:26:42] Daniel Dilorio: It had its cons, but when we went into there, all of the locations were allocated to what they wanted. In terms of, yeah, in terms of prime position, if you park underground and you come up the escalators, we are the first door that you see and the only elevator and the only staircase in the centre to get to the medical, dental, and gym, you have to walk past my salon and we've spent a bomb on marketing.
[00:27:07] Daniel Dilorio: I'm sure you've seen it online. We've got these beautiful blade walls in between all the blade walls. You can see into the salon, but behind the blade walls is all about branding led lights. Absolutely stunning. So we maximised the opportunity of having what I consider to be the best location in the shopping centre.
[00:27:25] Daniel Dilorio: But we don't have, I can't take my, I can't say that that was my doing. It was just, this is
[00:27:30] Antony Whitaker: good luck. Good fortune. Fantastic.
[00:27:32] Daniel Dilorio: it. And to be entirely honest, when I say cons before, we made these blade walls and then it was like two weeks before we were open and Woolworths came out on site and they're like, Oh, you know, really love what you're doing with the salon.
[00:27:45] Daniel Dilorio: There was a lot of concern about what you were actually going to do on this wall and whether or not we were going to let you do it. And he goes, but no, not to worry. Everything's fine. We're really happy. And once I heard that we're really happy, I said, well, not for anything. I said, but what did you want me to do?
[00:28:01] Daniel Dilorio: I said, you gave me two glass walls. Then you told me to consider the privacy. I said, if you wanted the glass covered, why didn't you just give me gyprock walls? And now you tell me I've got to clean the walls too, that it's not your responsibility. So. There are pros and there are cons, but it was just interesting how they even thought, Oh, you know, maybe we could have done something more with that, but they gave me the spot and I believe we did more with it.
[00:28:24] Daniel Dilorio: So,
[00:28:25] Antony Whitaker: yeah, yeah. What's it like, um, you know, before you had a, I mean, I don't know him, I'm just sort of imagining, you had a local landlord. A guy who owned a couple of shops and a strip shopping center or half a dozen shops, whatever it was, um, uh, as opposed to now you're dealing with a big, you know, international brand.
[00:28:51] Antony Whitaker: Um, what's that been like in terms of, you know, dealing with a new center management company compared to, you know, the local Joe, the landlord you had before.
[00:29:03] Daniel Dilorio: um, communication is much more efficient in our new location and my communication is beginning to fizzle out directly with Woolworths and moving over to the managing agents who is Collier's also a global brand. Um, but she's also on site full time. That's where her office is, and she's assigned to that.
[00:29:24] Daniel Dilorio: So her door, as far as I know, is completely open. I'm yet to go and have a reason to go up there just yet, but she also waltzes around and I just tell her whenever you're around, come in and have a blow dry. And she keeps, she's actually English, but she keeps saying, why is there something wrong with my hair?
[00:29:38] Daniel Dilorio: I said, no, just come in and have a couple and get your hair done. That's what we're here for. Right? So I haven't had too much of a concern in terms of communication. I do have. Some questions about some things that I'm not happy with, but I'm gonna wait till I get to a point where I've shown that I don't miss my bills.
[00:29:58] Daniel Dilorio: I've shown that I'm always there. I've shown that my shop's always clean. Once I start to build that rapport and that trust, then I'll probably head up into the office and address some of the concerns and see if I can continue to tweak some things my way. But in comparison to the old place, I used to say, I used to call.
[00:30:16] Daniel Dilorio: I wouldn't get a call back. Earlier than a week, I used to email. If I've got an email, it was a couple of words here. I would email. I'll get something back by the end of the day for sure. So, so far much
[00:30:28] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Good. Good. All right. Now, I know we talked about this a little bit last time. Um, uh, I've seen many salons that look beautiful on paper. Like, you know, you get these great CAD drawings from the architect, designer, whatever. And it looks fabulous. But then when it's actually built, you often find that.
[00:30:49] Antony Whitaker: When you're in that real space, as opposed to just the 3D drawing of it, that you think, gosh, I wish this was a bit higher or a bit lower, or I wish we had a bit more width between the chairs or, you know, I wish the retail had been put on that wall instead of this wall. Uh, now that you're in there and the, the, the practicalities of having a salon full of staff and a salon full of clients and, you know, the, the movement of people, um, is there anything that you're looking at wishing that was, you know, done differently?
[00:31:20] Daniel Dilorio: truthfully at this stage, only one element. Um, and it's my new, because. Um, she loves sitting in that chair and she works in that space quite comfortably. But had I have had a bit more of a level of head, I should have measured the distance between a particular chair and a particular wall and could have created a bit more space using what I had.
[00:31:43] Daniel Dilorio: Other than that, um, I would have to say that it's been an adjustment because it's much more narrow than our old salon, but overall it's, it's working quite efficiently. We've got a ton of storage. which is great and nothing is exposed. Everything is hidden, which makes it even nicer and more appealing. But yeah, I think just everybody sort of gravitated to chairs that they, in our old salon, we had our own chairs, especially post COVID, everyone didn't really move.
[00:32:10] Daniel Dilorio: Right. So now that we've been in the new place other than myself and say, Angie, who's my manager in training, we don't really move chairs too often, but the rest of the girls just enjoy floating and getting around. And I think the only. It's not even a negative, but the only thing that our old salon had that the new salon doesn't have, we have the center island is where we have our waiting area and where we mix our colors.
[00:32:34] Daniel Dilorio: We sort of, having that island, it sort of cuts off the banter from one side of the salon to the other. Uh, and that was a beautiful element that we had in Bosley Park. And we haven't 100 percent lost it. You just sort of got to duck and look under the bench and still say your cheeky comment to each other and have a laugh.
[00:32:51] Daniel Dilorio: But other than that. It's honestly, it's been really, really nice. I just, I mean, you know me well enough to know that I've just every time I see something hit the floor, I'm like, wipe that up or clean that wall or get that. What's this doing here? Because I just want it to be immaculate for as long as possible.
[00:33:07] Daniel Dilorio: But at the same token, it's, you know, we're working in there too. So it's gotta have a bit of wear and tear as well. So you have to have a little bit of leeway with that.
[00:33:15] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I, I, there's another thing that you and I had spoken about in your old salon about retail and where you had it located. And then when you relocated it, um, if I'm right in saying your retail sales improved when you did that. And I know that when you were designing the new salon. The retail was back down the back again.
[00:33:35] Antony Whitaker: Um, I think I'm right in saying that. And I was sort of saying, well, hang on in a mall, you should be really at that retail nearer the front door because you do get a lot more walk and traffic, et cetera, that will come specifically for retail. Um, how's, I know it's early days yet. How is the positioning of retail, et cetera, gone in terms of, you know, sales?
[00:33:55] Antony Whitaker: is it working for you or against you? Is it like, you know, what's happening there?
[00:33:59] Daniel Dilorio:  So far, retail has improved by 4%, I would say, uh, which is an instant improvement. There would be, I'd say, probably 2 percent of that is walk in, just people who quickly pop in and know you're the go to for hair. Uh, the other half of that is, is just the staff being a little more professional, a little more enjoy.
[00:34:19] Daniel Dilorio: There's a little bit more enjoyment around placing the products on the shelf, communicating about them, and just You know, in our week off, we just really focused on what it takes to be a professional hairdresser and not, uh, you know, too often you get into that category of... Oh, I'm not very good at retail because I don't like selling things, but it's just, I just tried to get my team in the headspace of let's just become educational and I know that we already do it well, but let's make more of an emphasis.
[00:34:47] Daniel Dilorio: Let's be educational professionals. So I think when you combine the fact that we're in a shopping center, we have a grand, grand, grand retail shelf with led lighting and it's beautiful and it's always fully stacked and it's nice and congested. [00:35:00] And you combine all those things together, we've seen an instant improvement, which is absolutely fantastic.
[00:35:06] Antony Whitaker: Okay, good. And I know you said that, you know, one of the things you'd notice straight away about the new location is that before you were in like a, like a strip. of shops, shopping center. Um, whereas now it's more of like a, more of like a mall environment. I'm correct in saying that, aren't I? Right. Okay.
[00:35:24] Antony Whitaker: Um, and you said you'd be, you'd noticed straight away that you're getting drop ins that people just popping in saying, can I get a blow dryer or whatever? Um, is it the same type of client that you were getting before? Has the demographic changed at all?
[00:35:38] Daniel Dilorio: Um, yes and no, we are getting a lot of local interest, which is still, uh, we, we market to a bigger bracket than what most marketers would probably not agree with. But like we Preferred to be working with between, you know, 25 to 45 sort of works within our bracket. There are definitely younger families around, so it's working within our bracket.
[00:36:04] Daniel Dilorio: But one thing that I have noticed the most with the walk ins is our fit out is sort of separating the inquiries a little bit for us. And what I mean by that is we have. Particular people who walk in and they don't even care what it costs. They just say, I want to get my hair done here. Book me in. We have some other people who sort of waltz in and they ask you the questions and they get you the information and then they're sort of like, cool, I'll give you a call.
[00:36:33] Daniel Dilorio: And then you literally just have the other person who's just like, you got time for a blow dry? Nah, it's all good. All right. See you later. Bye. And happy either way. So. Sort of have a varying degree of the type of people to come in. Um, and it's still too early to know if we've been able to win any of them over.
[00:36:50] Daniel Dilorio: I'd say probably from my memory so far, I'd say we'd have between five and 10 who have already come back for their second visit since. So,
[00:36:58] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Yeah. And if you change your The price point at all, or is the price point the same as to the old salon?
[00:37:05] Daniel Dilorio: yeah, price point is the same. We just made one internal change, um, because Woolworths has quite a strong, sustainable approach. Um, and we made that shift to say goodbye to our sustainable partner, but begin to continue to be sustainable inside. So by making that change, we were able to take that fee out of their price, but left it on their price.
[00:37:31] Daniel Dilorio: So that helped us grow our revenue without inconveniencing our price point within our, with our clients. If that makes sense.
[00:37:39] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, it does. And I just want to say, uh, to the audience, if they didn't listen to the previous episodes and you hear Daniel saying Woolworths, uh, Woolworths is the managing agent of the, Uh, or the owner, I should say, of this center. Is that correct? Yeah, they're the owner of the center. And Woolworths in the UK and in the US, uh, I don't believe exists anymore at all.
[00:38:01] Antony Whitaker: Uh, so, um, yeah, it's a totally separate entity to the old Woolworths that used to be in the UK and originally started in the United States. Um, so yeah, so that's what that's all about. It's not, he's not, he's not in. Don't imagine a Woolworths,
[00:38:15] Daniel Dilorio: yeah,
[00:38:17] Antony Whitaker: don't imagine an old Woolworths and think, what's he got a salon in there for?
[00:38:20] Antony Whitaker: That just happens to be the name of the, of the person who owns this
[00:38:24] Daniel Dilorio: yeah,
[00:38:24] Antony Whitaker: uh, which are very successful in the, in the Australian market. So, sorry, what were you going to say?
[00:38:29] Daniel Dilorio: no, I was just going to say, well, it wasn't an easy decision to make to, to part ways with sustainable salons as such, it was just more knowing that we had spent the last three years being focused on sustainability, separating all of our materials and giving it to the right place. But when we were looking at.
[00:38:46] Daniel Dilorio: What we expected our overheads to be, how we could manage putting ourselves in a position of the current economic climate and considering all things for us, it worked out to say that if we part ways and continue to do the recycling ourselves and trust that Woolworths is doing the right part, all of our clients won't see a notice, won't notice a change in their price.
[00:39:08] Daniel Dilorio: But we will see a change in our bottom line and expressing that to sustainable salons. They were completely receptive and totally understood. And they thanked me for my transparency. And of course, I said, when the time is right, and we know that we have that margin again, we'll be back. But knowing that we're partnering with somebody who is already putting that at the front of the mind and we're separating the materials, we know that we can still say that we are working towards sustainability too.
[00:39:31] Daniel Dilorio: So,
[00:39:32] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay. Good point. All right. Um, what about the budget? The B word? Uh, obviously when you set out at the beginning of this project, you, you know, you do the math as to, well, what is this going to cost? And you know, budgets are a bit like rubber bands sometimes. Um, and you know, there's always things, I think I sort of said this in the introduction that there's, you know, challenges that happen and compromises that have to be made.
[00:39:56] Antony Whitaker: And you were very lucky in that you had. Um, [00:40:00] your brother working with you, who's a shop fitter, who, who designed and built or I don't know if he designed, but he, he built, uh, the, the basic shop fit, which is handy to, uh, have someone in the family that does that. But overall, now that you're in there, you're out of the old place, that's done and dusted.
[00:40:15] Antony Whitaker: You're into the new place. It's up and running. Um, I'm assuming that the, you know, the, the, the bills have been paid, et cetera. Um, did you keep the budget on track?
[00:40:26] Daniel Dilorio: no,
[00:40:27] Antony Whitaker: No.
[00:40:28] Daniel Dilorio: no,
[00:40:29] Antony Whitaker: Oh, there's a surprise.
[00:40:30] Daniel Dilorio: No, but you
[00:40:32] Antony Whitaker: So, so how far off track was it
[00:40:36] Daniel Dilorio: Oh
[00:40:37] Antony Whitaker: as a percentage or dollar value entirely up to you?
[00:40:41] Daniel Dilorio: yeah. I would say we were nearly, yeah, nearly close to 40 over budget. Give or take. There were things that had changed from when we had quotes to when we actually built because of all the delays, there were those percentages, there were other things that we just didn't factor in, uh, that came into the equation.
[00:41:03] Daniel Dilorio: At one point in my shop front. was quoted 9, 000 and it was going to come in at 40 grand. Like there were things that were just constantly adding to pressures that we had to deal with and we had to handle. Um, and now it's my broker come in and got a haircut and he said to me, how did we go anyway? Did we work out?
[00:41:22] Daniel Dilorio: I said, Oh, we went over budget and he said, we know we probably could have squeezed a bit more. And I said, yeah, I know. But if you squeeze the bit more than I probably would have just spent that and gone over that too. I think it's just, One of those cases that once you start doing nice things and you start seeing nice things, you can make some changes in other places.
[00:41:37] Daniel Dilorio: But even in a completely empty shell with not, everything was brand new. Everything was being built. There were still things that had a rise that was just like, Oh my God, we're going to have to fork out for that now. And that's what it is. And when you're that far in, you just get it done. And thankfully Laura and I were prepared personally as well to.
[00:41:57] Daniel Dilorio: So, you know, support that and yeah, so whilst, whilst it would have been nice to stick to budget, it's is what it is and it's done now and just keep working hard and continue to pay it off. So
[00:42:10] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, well, 40 is not too bad. Um, you know, 40, 000 Aussie dollars. So, you know, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's not a, I mean, obviously, that's a blowout, but it's not the end of the world sort of
[00:42:22] Daniel Dilorio: no,
[00:42:23] Antony Whitaker: Um, so, yeah, so, so that's good. Well done. Um, what would you do different? If you were doing it again, knowing that what you know now, if you could go back to this time 12 months ago, where it was sort of an idea in your head, um, you know, and then the bits gradually have all come together.
[00:42:43] Antony Whitaker: Is there anything you'd do different?
[00:42:45] Daniel Dilorio: yeah, 100 percent and not, not work during the whole process. I just, there were a lot of clients who have sat in my chair for a very long time. So we're completely understanding and we're very flexible when I was having some really bad days during the build process. But yeah, if I had a chance to do it all again, I would make sure that I wasn't taking appointments that my other salon was.
[00:43:10] Daniel Dilorio: And I could just be on site focusing on one thing and one thing only. Um, and not selling, not short changing my clients from being on the phone and stressed and emails and back and forward. And, you know, that version of myself to on particular days in front of my staff. So in terms of that, I would definitely want to change that in the future.
[00:43:31] Daniel Dilorio: And, you know, to do that, I'd have to be in a better financial position and with a stronger. History behind me with business, I suppose, and a better support network. So not to say that I don't have any of those things, but I think if you look at our climate today, it wasn't wasn't the time to take six weeks off work to build the new salon.
[00:43:50] Daniel Dilorio: It was going to cost me too much to do that. Um, and in hindsight, when I look back at myself for the last 18 months and now in my new location, Um, that would be the 100 percent thing that I would change is just how much I've given it in my personal time, taking away from my family time, my dinner time, my time with my wife, all of those things was there for 18 months.
[00:44:16] Daniel Dilorio: But in that last six weeks, it was just, it was multiplied. And in hindsight, I should have just done one thing and that one thing should have just been focusing on the builds. Given that all of my attention and knowing that everything was going to be okay, had I've left that behind, so I don't know if that was the answer you're looking for, but that's definitely the one thing that I would
[00:44:35] Antony Whitaker: yeah, no, that's, that's interesting. Yeah. So you can say it's a sort of a time management thing, but I mean, it's the practicalities of your, you're a big revenue producer, you need the revenue, you've got to be producing revenue, but you've also got the shop that going on and all the, all the stuff that goes with it.
[00:44:51] Antony Whitaker: And as I alluded to, even though. You know, you had your brother doing the, you know, the shop fit stuff. There's still so much else that goes on in the background. So many phone calls, so many emails, so many people tapping you on the shoulder that you wished you'd not tried to, do too much at the same time.
[00:45:08] Antony Whitaker: That's interesting. Okay. Um, what did you, what did you learn? What'd you learn about yourself or what'd you learn about business or, you know, a bit of both?
[00:45:20] Daniel Dilorio: Ah, what did I learn about myself? That's a very good question, Antony. You know, I just, I think, um, It's amazing what you can do as a human when you really stretch yourself thin. It's also amazing how much you can. Yeah, I don't even know how I want to answer that. I have to admit without getting emotional about anything that
[00:45:48] Antony Whitaker: It's okay. Yeah.
[00:45:49] Daniel Dilorio: to be entirely honest.
[00:45:51] Daniel Dilorio: What I learned was just, um, I suppose through it all as busy as I was and as challenged as I was and as stressed as I was about money, about expectations, about delivering and so on and so forth. I think. I just learned how important it is to have a good, steady routine at home and value those parts of your life, express that gratitude for what you had.
[00:46:16] Daniel Dilorio: I mean, when I say I went 18 months without having breakfast with my daughter and having a hot meal when I get home, I genuinely mean that at the moment I got into my new salon, I'm driving against traffic, I have breakfast with my family every single morning and I get dinner with my. family every single night.
[00:46:33] Daniel Dilorio: And I learned that that's just, that's your bread and butter. That's your rock. And you can be, you, you can be the best, you can be the best hairdresser. You can be full of skill. You can be a great leader, but you can't be any of that unless you're a good man at home and you're a good man for the people who mean the most to you as well.
[00:46:52] Daniel Dilorio: So in and amongst all of that journey, I learned that a lot about myself, that, you know, without my home, without my family, without my drive. I can't be that person. I need to be at work. And since I've gotten into my new salon, I've learned that less is more and stop, stop, stop stressing about shit that I just don't need to stress about and adding it to my before hours work.
[00:47:14] Daniel Dilorio: And you just niggle on so many small little things and then the big thing comes and the first thing you need to sacrifice is what time you wake up and what time you get home. So I don't, I don't really even know if that's a, that's a good answer to your
[00:47:25] Antony Whitaker: No, that's a very good answer. That's a very good answer. So, so I appreciate that. Um, last thing I just want to ask you then is like the old salon ballpark. What was the, what was the sort of financially, what was it? What was a really killer week in the old location? What was your best week?
[00:47:45] Daniel Dilorio: Uh, I only ever talk ex GST, which is for everyone is the goods and services tax. Um, a killer week in the old salon, not a Christmas period. Um, and if I had, you know, my four seniors and myself, I would be happy with anything between say 11 and 13. Uh, 1, 000
[00:48:08] Antony Whitaker: and
[00:48:08] Daniel Dilorio: ex GST. I mean, that was enough for me to. Um, run it, you know, 2%, 3 percent of a margin, um, without unnecessary stress. Um, I suppose the next question you're going to ask
[00:48:21] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So the next question I'm going to ask you, what is the potential, uh, for the new location? Cause ultimately that's why you do this. You go and spend a couple of hundred grand on a new salon fit out. Um, your, you have the potential to grow a little bit more within those four walls.
[00:48:38] Antony Whitaker: Um, in terms of team numbers, I think it's only a little bit more. You have the potential to grow, but, if you were doing 11, 11 a week. Uh, and that was a considered a good week. What would you be considering a good week,in the new salon? You know, let's give it six months. What, where would you like to be?
[00:48:56] Daniel Dilorio: Well, I can tell you now my slowest week so far has been 15.
[00:49:00] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. So it's only, yeah.
[00:49:03] Daniel Dilorio: yeah. I mean, overall for the month, it looks like it's going to be close to 15 percent above, uh, what my normal three, uh, three month averages, uh, in six months. Yeah. I mean, given the staff and change that I have and dispersing what we currently have across.
[00:49:21] Daniel Dilorio: Um, and if I can accelerate my juniors training to welcome more of those walking blow dries and so on and so forth, I can definitely see that being Upwards of 16 consistently a week, um, which is, I suppose in one breath is probably what I expected, but in the same token, it's sort of like, it's great to build the revenue.
[00:49:43] Daniel Dilorio: It's just a matter of managing the revenue better as well, as you know, once you start having more money, you spend more money. So don't want to get caught up in that and definitely have more overheads in the new location. And we spoke about it earlier in the podcast. It's still too early to know exactly what all my numbers are.
[00:50:01] Daniel Dilorio: I have bigger bills now, I still haven't got an electricity bill, so on and so forth. So whilst there's been a significant increase so far, definitely remaining grounded in the early stages. And of course, with an increase in revenue means you're spending more on colour, you're spending more on your retail that's sitting on the shelf and so on and so forth.
[00:50:20] Daniel Dilorio: So yeah, I think in six months time, I'd have a direct answer for you for sure, but we are expecting. Uh, to, to continue on the trajectory that we're on between 10 and 15 percent of an instant increase. So,
[00:50:32] Antony Whitaker: Right. So in the old salon on average, so, you 12 months or whatever, uh, how many money producing staff did you have in there?
[00:50:42] Daniel Dilorio: uh, money producing staff in the old salon, inclusive of Laura. She was only there two days a week. There was six of us.
[00:50:51] Antony Whitaker: Six of you. Okay. And in the new salon, what's the potential for money producing staff?
[00:50:57] Daniel Dilorio: Maximum that I think I could have with money earning stuff in the new salon would be about eight, I think, but that's.
[00:51:05] Antony Whitaker: huge growth numbers in terms of
[00:51:06] Daniel Dilorio: but it's, it's eight. If I follow the center's core hours, if I was to open my salon more within the hours or within the shopping center hours, like Woolworths for argument's sake, added two or three late nights and had rotating teams on 38 hour weeks, you can have a lot more.
[00:51:24] Daniel Dilorio: And, you know,I think that will be the biggest, the biggest question for myself in the near future because Being in this shopping center, everybody around me, the nail spa next to me, this is his fourth location that he's built with Woolworths, the news agency, this is his third location, the barber is up to like seven, the laser clinics up to two, the opportunity to expand with companies like this will come and go.
[00:51:50] Daniel Dilorio: I think the biggest thing that we may have to factor in in the future is, do we expand within our four walls or do we expand in locations if the opportunity was to arise? And I would say that the first one, expanding within your own four walls, is definitely a viable option in the near future.
[00:52:07] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, the answer's both, I suppose, isn't it? Because you're not gonna be paying any more rent. Like the rent's obviously a killer, uh, in a location like that. So you're not gonna be paying any more rent by being opening more hours. And the more hours you open them, the more profitable you're gonna be. So and so that's all about what you've just said, which is about, rotating.
[00:52:24] Antony Whitaker: different shifts and having, having people, if we were talking 10 years ago, we wouldn't be talking so freely about having people that do two days a week, three days a week, whatever it is. Uh, these days, if you want to succeed in business, I think you have to do that. and that's good for you. If you want to be open eventually seven days a week and in a mall type environment, that's often, you know, the, the way you make money out of it, because you're not paying any more rent, but you have to balance that with what you said about.
[00:52:49] Antony Whitaker: Trying to keep a work life balance, not just for you, but for your team. And so that's all about having the right people that want to work those sort of shifts and being able to have the systems and, you know, management infrastructure so that that all works and, and, uh, knowing you, I know that you'll be able to do that.
[00:53:07] Antony Whitaker: So I'm going to, I'm going to predict that, you know, some 20, 000 weeks, um, this time in 12, 12 months time. I hope I'm right.
[00:53:15] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah.
[00:53:16] Antony Whitaker: and then, and then that'll be really good.
[00:53:19] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah.
[00:53:19] Antony Whitaker: Okay. All right. Well, listen, um, where can people connect with you, uh, on Instagram or other social media channels for those people that, uh, and I'll put these links in the show notes for today's podcast.
[00:53:30] Antony Whitaker: But if you just want to spell that out, because it's, it catches people out sometimes where you spell your surname.
[00:53:36] Daniel Dilorio: Yeah. So, uh, all of our handles actually got updated since the last time we spoke. So, the main, yeah, the main salon page is, uh, D double I. O. R. I. O. dot the hairdresser and on there we've got some excellent new marketing content. If you scroll down, you'll see an image of me. You can click onto that and that will link directly to my personal page as well.
[00:54:03] Daniel Dilorio: so d double i o r i o hair. com. au is our website.
[00:54:10] Antony Whitaker: Great. Okay. Well, I'll make sure that I put those in the show notes for today's podcast. So if you're listening to this podcast with Daniel and you've enjoyed it, do me a favor, take a screenshot on your phone, share it to your Instagram stories, and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review on the Apple podcast app.
[00:54:27] Antony Whitaker: Um, So to wrap up, Daniel, I want to thank you for, you know, like we started out on this journey, you and I probably floated this idea 12 months ago. And when you told me about this new salon, and I thought that'd be a really interesting story for a lot of people to follow. And you've been very open and honest and transparent about, you know, the highs and the lows and the.
[00:54:47] Antony Whitaker: You know, the ups and downs, so to speak, of what this has taken to bring it to reality. I obviously haven't physically seen the salon, but I've seen that the journey of it, obviously seen on Instagram, et cetera. I think you've done a fantastic job of it. And, uh, and I think it will just go from strength to strength.
[00:55:04] Antony Whitaker: So, uh, congratulations. I think, it's well deserved.
[00:55:07] Daniel Dilorio: Thank you, Antony. And thank you for inviting me along for the journey because, um, it's a very powerful opportunity to reflect for myself as well. I think all three podcasts had three different versions of myself as well. So thank you. and I truly hope that it's helps anybody in any way, shape or form, um, and in their journeys as well.
[00:55:29] Daniel Dilorio: So thank you.
[00:55:30] Antony Whitaker: Fantastic. Thanks again. 
[00:55:31] Antony Whitaker: Thank you for listening to today's podcast If you'd like to connect with us you'll find us at Grow My Salon business.com or on Facebook and Instagram at Grow My Salon business And if you enjoy tuning into our podcast make sure that you subscribe like and share it with your friends Until next time this is Antony Whitaker wishing you continued success