Today we’d like to introduce you to Sally Parks.
Hi Sally, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
It all started in the mid-1990s when I was a student at the University of Texas. I had suffered from eczema since I was a kid. Itchy, scaly, red spots on my arms and knees that seemed to get worse the more I moisturized. I started using a prescription steroid cream from my doctor, and it helped, but it always came back. While at UT, I had my first experience visiting an Aveda hair salon. I loved the ethos of the line and learned more about the products and the ingredients. After starting to use the line at home, I realized one day that my eczema wasn’t as bad as it had been. I didn’t make the connection at first but finally realized that the heavily fragranced hair and body products from the popular mall stores were what was causing my outbreaks.
After graduating, I went into the marketing field. I loved what I did but always had a plan to start my own business one day. I even kept a notebook that I filled with ideas for my future endeavor! Around 2011, after 15 years working for others, I started earnestly planning for the future, researching some of my ideas and trying to figure out what would I would do.
Sitting in a nail salon one day, getting a pedicure, something I’d done 100 times before, the technician brought out a big 5 gallon tub of fluorescent blue “scrub” that she used during my service. Having been so careful for so many years about what I put on my body, I thought to myself that there had to be a better option for salons. That’s when the idea of creating a nail spa that focused on using clean products came to me. Since artificial fragrance was what caused me so much pain for so many years, I was determined at that point to create a place where I knew I, and others like me, would appreciate a cleaner alternative. One that was free of fumes from acrylic nail services and that only used products that were free of parabens, phthalates, and artificial fragrance. And from there – Plum was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting a nail salon when you have no experience in the industry is not an easy task. I used the skills learned in the corporate world to manage the business side of things and turned to the experts to learn about the services. Informing people of why we are different was the biggest challenge. While we’re seeing a big change in the industry now, eight years ago, people didn’t understand why our services were more expensive and took longer than at the corner nail shops that are so ubiquitous. Explaining that quality products and higher attention to detail, not to mention paying a fair wage and operating legally (i.e., claiming all of our income and paying taxes on employee wages), meant that our prices needed to be higher.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our clients appreciate Plum because of the care and thought that goes into our services and how they are delivered. I personally choose and review every product and every ingredient in them before allowing them to be used in our services. Other things, like using materials with recycled components in our build-out, using cotton instead of petroleum-derived polyester and plastic in our towels and even our toe separators, are the little things that not everyone notices but are important to many of our clients. We want to be good stewards to the Earth and to our employees, as well. This industry is rife with illegal employment practices, and it’s extremely important for me to provide a safe environment where my staff is treated fairly. We even offer health insurance, which is extremely rare in salon and spa industry.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Years ago, when I was daydreaming about starting a business, I was talking to my husband about how crazy it was. We’d worked for so long to create our lives, and jumping into business ownership in an industry we had no experience in was definitely frightening. He basically said if I wasn’t scared, it meant I was stupid – and while it was such an off the cuff comment, it’s stuck with me since then!
Pricing:
- Glow Pedicure $55 – out most popular service
- Gel Mani $50 – our specialty!
- Non-tox GelX Extensions $70 – the clean way to get those long claws!
- Targeted Facail $75 – or $59 with our Head2Toe Membership! Our estheticians are amazing and use products by Rhonda Allison!
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@plumspaaustin.com
- Website: www.plumspaaustin.com
- Instagram: @plumspaaustin
- Facebook: @plumnails
