From Behind-the-Chair Stylist to Multi-Location Salon CEO
Case Study - Laura Khesin
"I loved the new, outside perspective, and I could tell she had the experience helping people, like me, grow. I loved the scalability that I felt I could achieve with Andrea as my coach."
Business: Society Beauty Bar (two boutique salon locations)
Industries: Beauty, Salons, Brick-and-Mortar, Service-Based
Coaching with Andrea: Since 2024
The Challenge
Running two boutique salon locations, Laura had a thriving first location and a newer, larger second salon that was still being financially subsidized by location one. She was doing significant work behind the chair while trying to carry the responsibilities of owning and growing two locations. She needed a coach with experience beyond the salon industry to help her scale Society Beauty Bar into a true multi-location brand and step fully into a CEO role.
Laura had worked with an industry-specific coach before, but opening the second location revealed she needed something different:
"I wanted to work with somebody outside of the salon industry. I felt like I was at a point now with a second location that I needed, and wanted a fresh business perspective. I didn't want to work with someone in the industry. I needed a new lens."
Her second location wasn't yet self-sustaining, and she was still heavily behind the chair:
"My second location was not fully funding itself. The first location was helping it, which I was fine with, but I didn't want that to be the solution for the long term."
The Solution
Through Andrea's coaching, Laura made decisive shifts from operator to CEO. Andrea challenged her to confront what hard thing she'd been avoiding, and Laura realized it was cutting back her time behind the chair.
Coaching included:
CEO operating model and strategic capacity building
Multi-location scaling strategy and systems
Leadership vision development and team buy-in
Delegation framework and capacity offloading
Custom leadership program design for salon team
Ongoing Voxer access and retreat experiences
Peer community with other ambitious women leaders
Results:
Second, larger location shifted from subsidized to self-sustaining and profitable
Reduced behind-the-chair time and successfully offloaded about two-thirds of her clientele to free up CEO capacity
Shared a bigger multi-location vision with her team and increased buy-in
Launched a formal leadership program for her team with Andrea to grow internal leaders
Stepped fully into CEO role with intentional time allocation and strategic focus
Created clear, shared vision for future multi-location scaling
Transformations at a Glance
| Category | Before | While Working with Andrea |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Second location not yet self-sustaining; supported by location one | Second location fully self-funded and profitable |
| Team | Vision for growth not fully shared | Team bought into larger vision; leadership program launched |
| Systems | Second salon still in "baby stage" with higher overhead | Stronger structure by location; systems built for multi-location scaling |
| Mindset | Hesitant to share big goals; heavily behind the chair | Stepping into CEO role, owning the vision, making aligned decisions |
| Lifestyle | Behind-the-chair hours limiting leadership capacity | Reduced chair time; more room for strategy and leading both salons |
"I've always said this, I feel like I make my biggest strides when I'm in coaching than when I'm not. As long as I'm dreaming big, I should be in coaching because that's when my biggest strides happen."
Laura Khesin
Owner, Society Beauty Bar