Local Business: Meet Emilio Giglio of Alex Emilio Salon

Alex Emilio Salon has been the go to place for beautiful for hair for more than a decade. Patch caught up with owner Emilio Giglio to learn about this recipe for keeping his staff happy and his clients beautiful.

What have you learned while starting and operating your own business?
Overnight success usually takes about 10 years. In other words, there is no short path to success.

What was the biggest thing that surprised you as a business owner?

How much time and dedication it takes in order for a business to grow.

If you were starting a business today what would you do differently, if anything?

We would be more selective during the hiring process, and not keep people around if they are not a great fit for our company. There is nothing worse than having a disengaged employee.

What’s the best part of owning your own business?

Developing strong relationships with our guests as well as with our employees; and watching our employees succeed.

What have you learned through the challenges of owning your own business?

In our business specifically there tend to be a lot of big personalities and it takes time to learn how to treat people as individuals and understand everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

How important is it for people to support independent business owners in their community?

Independent business is what our country was built on. In order for our economy to stay strong people have to understand the importance of small business in the community. More of the dollars spent in independent business stays within the community versus a large corporation or purchasing online.

What do you love about being an American business owner?

We love the fact that the opportunity is there to be as successful as we want to be.

What is the most important thing that you’ve learned since going into business for yourself?

To schedule our priorities. We both have families and it is very important to us to spend time with our children.

Are there any traditions that have been passed down over the years that your salon follows to this day when it comes to pleasing the client?

A constant topic in our salon is how amazing the head massages are at the shampoo bowl. Over the years our guests have come to expect nothing but the best. We train all of our stylists to cut the hair wet and dry. Wet cutting establishes the shape and foundation of the hair cut. Once the hair is styled we dry cut.

This is where the artistry of each individual stylist comes into play. This is something that we learned from our mentors in the business and have passed this down to all the stylists that we have trained over the years.

What inspires you to get up every morning?

When you love what you do, who you do it with, and where you do it; it is easy to be inspired.

How do you ensure quality in your work?

We are very dedicated to ongoing education. We are committed to being the very best at what we do, so were constantly pushing ourselves to learn new technique. But, we always stay rooted in the fundamentals of classic hairdressing. Our client’s happiness is the most important; we will do whatever it takes to ensure that.

What does good day mean to you and your business?

A good day at Alex Emilio looks like this: familiar faces, new faces, big changes, great conversations, booked solid, everyone leaves happy and looking good.

What makes the people who work for your business unique?

Something that we hear from our guests is our environment is always welcoming, and we always work together as a team to create an amazing experience for everyone that walks through our door. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork