Montana Schmidt welcomes Beauty Launchpad to The Craft: A Mane Artery in Danville, IL.
Courtesy of The Craft: A Mane Artery
Montana Schmidt (@paintslikeschmidt) welcomes Beauty Launchpad to The Craft: A Mane Artery in Danville, IL. Step inside to learn the salon's backstory, what inspired the look, what services and products clients can expect from the salon and learn more about Montana's journey as a stylist.
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Montana Schmidt (@paintslikeschmidt) welcomes Beauty Launchpad to The Craft: A Mane Artery in Danville, IL. Step inside to learn the salon's backstory, what inspired the look, what services and products clients can expect from the salon and learn more about Montana's journey as a stylist.
The Backstory
I’ve always wanted to open my own salon, but I didn’t want to just jump into it. I worked with my mentor for 10 years, and he had a huge part in getting me prepared. He really helped me figure out what I wanted from my business and what kind of environment I wanted to have for my team. My goal is to help my artists to be prepared and grow into being able to one day open up their own space as well, whether that be a solo suite or business of their own. So far in the past 2.5 years of opening, we have been able to have two of our artists take the plunge to open up their own successful businesses!
The Look
The aesthetic of my salon I was going for was a gothic/boho vibe! I bought a demolition-worthy Victorian house and completely restored it into my dream salon. I wanted to play off of the gothic features, but I wanted to warm it up a little bit with some boho accents. The amount of plants really adds to the space since we have so much natural light and, as a bonus, some natural filtration so the chemical smells aren’t as powerful.
Signature Services
Our services have varied so much since opening. We offer hair color, cutting and hair extensions services on our first level. The second level consists of varying rentals. Currently, we offer esthetic/skin services, waxing, brow tinting/laminations and lash extensions! With our past renters, we have also offered tattoos, permanent makeup and botox/injections. The tattoo services were exclusive to our salon in the area and, at the time, so were botox and injections. We are also the only salon that offers all types of extension installation methods.
The Goods
We retail R&Co, OLAPLEX, Victory Barber and Line One Hair products available for our clients. Our esthetician also has Circadia products available for all your skin care needs.
Social Butterfly
We are active on multiple social media platforms for our clients and readers. You can give us a follow on Instagram (@thecraftama), TikTok (@thecraftama) and Facebook (The Craft a Mane Artery).
What's Next?
Our goal is to expand our team even more and to bring in house education. Most salons in the area don’t provide education for their team, especially being in a very small town as it’s more difficult to bring educators in. We’ve already been able to bring in one class this year, and I’m wanting to start offering quarterly classes. We are also looking into bringing back our tattoo and permanent makeup services.
+Details
Owner: Montana Schmidt
Est: October 31, 2021. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. We have our annual Halloween open house/trunk or treat every year where we bring in local guest artists!
Salon Location: Danville, IL
Staff Members: 5 Artists
Chairs: We have 4 chairs (including me) and 3 suites.
Up Close With the Salon Owner
What was your first job in the industry?
I tried out assisting for the first two months of my career, and it just didn’t work for me. So, I took the plunge into rental until I opened my salon.
What inspires you?
Other artists inspire me. The industry isn’t the same as when I started. I get to see all the talent in the world and the passion and the drive with how big social media is. And not just with hair! I find inspiration with anyone in the arts industry to keep pushing myself for more.
What was the most challenging thing that happened while opening your salon?
The renovations and finding my ideal team were the two most difficult challenges I faced. I started the renovations during COVID, which I knew was a huge risk. With how bad of a state my building was in, it just took a lot of time and patience to get it where I wanted to. To this day, I’m still making changes to the space. Finding my ideal team was also a challenge and still is! I know that’s something that will always be a challenge. Looking for artists whose vision match up with the visions I have can be difficult. I have a very intense hiring process to make sure that not only they are a good fit for the salon, but so they can see if the salon is a good fit for them.
What makes your salon unique and stand out?
Our salon was the first in town to take any artists on our team. So not only do we take on salon and spa services, but we consider anyone in the arts field welcome to join our team. We thrive on being creative and bringing a community of artists together. Our team culture is also unique. Because we are a hybrid salon consisting of rental and commission based artists, our renters get that feel of having that team environment like a commission salon while our commission based artists get to see how the day to day and different business structure works for a rental based artist. Not only that, but how our mission is to build artists up to owning their own business versus keeping them on our team forever. Everyone deserves to grow!
What takeaway do you hope clients have after a visit at your salon?
We want our clients to leave feeling like they had a luxurious experience in our small town and, of course, a fun and friendly environment! We want them to feel like their best and beautiful selves. We all make sure to acknowledge everyone who walks through the door, so they feel welcome and invited. They always comment how they love how every artist gets a personal relationship with them even if they aren’t their client.
What piece of advice would you give to a new salon owner?
You will make mistakes as an owner, and you always will. No salon owner is perfect. You’ll take away a learning experience from every person that leaves, every person that stays, the first time you have to pay a repair bill, etc. Being a salon owner isn’t for the weak. You are always working to make your business the best you want it to be.
What changes would you like to see in the industry to help salon owners and their stylists grow and thrive?
I think a huge thing is for everyone to take accountability. Take accountability as a salon owner. Take accountability as a stylist. I feel like in today’s day and age, we all go straight to a defense mode instead of taking a step back and saying, “Okay, this is what I should have done differently." We also have an issue of going to the “Why isn’t this happening for me?” Taking the accountability to be like, "Okay, I need to do more of this, so I can get towards my goal" really needs to be your mindset.
What hair trends do you expect to see most in your salon this fall?
We have noticed that lighter coppers are hot! We expect to get more requests for those strawberry blonde, golden/honey blonde and more of the lighter copper and warm tones. We love how many clients are embracing the warmth!
