As the pandemic forced salons to close across the country in 2020, owners and their team members had to pivot, designing new avenues to bring in revenue while their doors were shuttered, incorporating stringent new safety and social distancing procedures, and getting creative with their budgets to weather the challenges of the year.

SALON TODAY’s landmark salon business competition also shifted, temporarily abandoning its sharp focus on growth, and instead choosing to celebrate the business successes of 2019 and the tales of leadership and heroism for 2020.

To make this large story a little easier to digest for our readers, we’re breaking it into segments alphabetically. Here is the 2021 Honorees for Salons starting with the letter G.

Garbo A Salon & Spa
Austin, TX
garboasalon.com
Marsha Power
SQUARE FEET: 2,400; 1,600
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 33
AVERAGE CUT & STYLE: $55
BEST-SELLING RETAIL: Aveda
COLOR: Aveda
SKIN CARE: Aveda, Skinceuticals 
NAIL CARE: OPI, CND
TECH SUPPORT: SalonBiz, Slack, Reach
ASSOCIATIONS: PBA, 2 to 10 
“We created Bubble and Blowouts packages for neighboring residential communities that have a social activity budget each month. They package comes with catered food, champagne and blowouts for the first 30 sign-ups. This led to a large increase in new guests from those communities.” 

Ginger Bay Salon & Spa
St. Louis, MO
gingerbay.com
Laura A. Ortmann
SQUARE FEET: 10,000; 3,000
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 82
AVERAGE CUT & STYLE: $55
BEST-SELLING RETAIL: Aveda
COLOR: Aveda, Redken
SKIN CARE: Aveda, Murad, Cosmedix
NAIL CARE: CND, OPI
TECH SUPPORT: Meevo 2, Textel, Reach, Salon Clouds Plus, Vish
ASSOCIATIONS: ICA, PBA
“After attending career fairs and asking for students’ social media handles and graduation dates, we are able to stay in contact with the ones who show the most interest in Ginger Bay. In 2019, 60% of our new hires were recruited through Instagram communication.” 

Glow Beauty Boutique
Braintree, MA
glowbeautyb.com
Shelley North
SQUARE FEET: 1,900
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 17
BASIC FACIAL: $85
SKIN CARE: Control Corrective, Cln & Drty, Glow
TECH SUPPORT: Phorest
ASSOCIATIONS: PBA
“By hiring an RN to do injectables, we created a whole new revenue stream. The initial purchase for the product and increase in the insurance was a little scary, but we mapped it out and created a plan for the ROI and watched rebooking and marketing carefully.  The new service brought in $59,011 total revenue and continues to grow today.”

Graeber & Company
Boise, ID
graeberandcompany.com
Shelby Bills and Odell England
SQUARE FEET: 4,600
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 32
AVERAGE CUT & STYLE: $42
BEST-SELLING RETAIL: Aveda
COLOR: Aveda
SKIN CARE: Aveda
NAIL CARE: OPI, Kira Sky
TECH SUPPORT: SalonBiz, Zeezor
ASSOCIATIONS: PBA, Idaho Beauty Professionals Association
“As a member of the High Performance Salon Academy, our co-owner was able to participate in 6:00 am crisis calls with other salon owners across the country. The Academy brought in experts from all fields to help advise salon owners on everything from unemployment and the PPP loan to infection control, and this proved to be an invaluable resource for our salon.”

Great Lengths Hair Salon
Memphis, TN
Greatlengthssalonmemphis.com
Carol Bakowicz
SQUARE FEET: 2,100
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 10
AVERAGE CUT & STYLE: $75
BEST-SELLING RETAIL: Inner Sense, DevaCurl, Brazilian Blowout
COLOR: Goldwell, Artego, Phytologie
SKIN CARE: Farmhouse Fresh, Hydra Facial
TECH SUPPORT: STX, Vish, Hootsuite 
ASSOCIATIONS: CC
“We implemented the basket system where recommended products are gathered, given to the front desk and placed in a basket with the client’s name on it. When guests are checking out, the receptionist shows the client the basket and asks them which products they’d like to take home. We went up 14% in retail with this program.”

Grow
Knoxville, TN
growknoxville.com
Shane Archer
SQUARE FEET: 5,300
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 23
AVERAGE CUT & STYLE: $65
BEST-SELLING RETAIL: L'anza
COLOR: L'anza
SKIN CARE: Glo Skin Beauty
TECH SUPPORT: SalonBiz, Demandforce
ASSOCIATIONS: ICA, PBA
“My salon company was fortunate enough, even in the midst of a global pandemic, to allocate separate positions to three exceptional women that not only help run my business, but add to our total productivity. One was promoted to salon coordinator, one to business manager and the third to wedding coordinator and business manager.”