'I could see my father's business was failing, but no one listened to me'

FROM A VERY young age, I always wanted to be an accountant. I don’t know why, I just did – but I also wanted to run my own business.

When I was 13, I used to help my dad in the salon he owned. I would wash customers’ hair, sweep the floors and take out the curlers.

I could see that the business wasn’t doing very well, because not as many people were coming in as before and the regulars were of the slightly older generation who weren’t willing to let him put the prices up.

Or it was the case that he was too kind and didn’t want to put the prices up.

Even at 13, I could see this. I was learning from his mistakes and have applied that to my own two businesses. I learned you need to charge what you’re worth, and you can’t be afraid to do that.

Eventually the business wrapped up. I had ideas about how to fix the business, but back then children weren’t listened to.

Adults didn’t see teenagers as having the potential to be entrepreneurs, so you did as you were told and got on with what was needed.

Now I have a nine-year-old daughter, and I always listen to what she has to say to me. If she asks me something, I will help her and give her feedback. And likewise, anything she suggests or if she has any comments for the business, I will listen to her.

Marsha Abrahams

Study, travel, study

I went and studied accounting for three years and then got the backpacking bug, which led me to travel for a few years.

So I put my studies on hold and visited about 60 countries – I didn’t do anything by half measure. But when I came back, I got my head down because I wanted to get my qualifications.

I got a job with a data storage company called StorageTek and it took me to the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

It was in that job that I put the wheels in motion to start my first business. Many of the friends I made in the Netherlands got moved to different parts of the world, so every three or four months we would visit each other and have a day at the spa.

One time I was visiting a friend who moved to Dublin. When we looked up spas we found the nearest place to get to was Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, but we didn’t have a car.

One of the girls said, “Do you think there is a market here in Dublin for a day spa?”, and that was the start of us launching The Buff Day Spa – a one-day spa business in Dublin.

We were the first day spa in the city centre. Sure there were spas in some places outside Dublin, but nothing people could walk into in Dublin just for a few hours.

We did a year worth of research and found there was a market and I was invited to come on as the finance person to do the accounts, the business plan and those kinds of things. It felt right to me and I thought, what do I have to lose?

We spent about six months trying to find the right location for the business and then another six months refurbishing the space to get it ready.

I was still working for StorageTek in 2002 as we set up that business, saving up money to put into the company because we had to bootstrap it to get it off the ground.

We had wonderful business projections, but we quickly learned the startup rule – halve your revenue and double your costs.

We heard stories about how banks would be willing to give us a loan, but when it came down to it, that wasn’t the case. We couldn’t get anything from anybody.

If you wanted a loan for a house that was no problem, but when it came to business, banks were more cautious – also we had no track record of running a business either.

The Buff Day Spa

An idea I couldn’t let go

A few years later we were looking to either open up another spa, bring a skincare range into the Buff Day Spa or manufacture our own product.

There was a trade show I had heard about in Las Vegas for skincare, but someone told me the biggest one is actually in Bologna in Italy which was on in two weeks.

I’m a great believer that timing is everything, so I got on a flight and got the last room in the town. By the end of the trade show I had 10 different brands I was interested in, but the Juliette Armand range was head and shoulders above the rest.

In the discussions they said they really liked me, but putting the brand exclusively in one store wouldn’t grow it as quick as they wanted to.

I walked away from that meeting knowing that their product was too good to let someone else have it. So I sold my share in the business to get the money to bring the brand to Ireland.

I was giving up a lot and taking a bit of a risk. I had got to a point in spa where I could work flexible hours around my children. I also had more commitments, including a mortgage.

Juliette Armand skin care products

Lessons

I think I learned so many lessons from the spa, so this time round I don’t think I’ve made as many mistakes.

I used to call it my baby, and I couldn’t let go within the business. But I came into this venture with a whole different mindset, because I couldn’t make that mistake of getting into the habit of trying to do everything myself.

For instance, from the word ‘go’ I got in a dedicated salesperson. That was a tough move for me as I considered myself the best seller, but I needed to focus on the wider marketing strategy.

It was hard to relinquish control, but it turns out she’s a better salesperson than me and the business wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have a person in charge of sales.

From my experiences at the spa, I’ve also learned to spend the money on the business when it needs it.

The downside of my financial background was that I was always drawn to the cheapest option, but I’ve learned over the years that cheapest is not always the best and now I seek out the best-value option.

As an accountant, I have always watched the pennies in business and cash flow is most certainly my king. But the next time round it was different.

When we launched the spa, we never did a big launch event, but for Juliette Armand I put a significant amount of money into a six-month PR campaign to make sure the name got out there.

I’ve also learned how to classify and prioritise customers through sessions with the Plato Business Development group.

You need to put your customers into levels and offer different services to them. Hearing that advice made me realise I was putting too much effort into my least profitable accounts.

I subsequently made the decision to only deal with brick-and-mortar beauty salons and not to supply mobile therapists.

Sometimes you’re at a stage in business where you want any money coming in the door, but after a while you need to make sure you are dedicating the right amount of time to the best accounts.

Marsha Abrahams is the managing director of Juliette Armand Ireland. This article was written in conversation with Killian Woods as part of a series on business mistakes and what can be learned from them.

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