At eighteen years old, this South Boston native had already been working odd jobs for five years. Motivated by fashion, design, and the competitiveness of high school sports, he was anxious to find a career where he could thrive, be the best, and make real money. It was one afternoon while out hanging with friends that his buddy needed to stop by a hair salon on prestigious Newbury Street in Boston to get something from his sister who was working there. And it was there where this entrepreneur found his calling. The salon was bright, busy with customers, and filled with beautiful women. The three friends left the salon and made an agreement that they would all sign up for hair dressing school. This one followed through, joining a school where there were 190 students, of which three, including him, were male. No sooner did he finish school did he land at the most notable salon in Boston, John Dellaria, working first as a salon assistant and then as a personal assistant for John Dellaria himself, an industry celebrity who traveled the country doing hair shows, styling the famous, and creating art through hair styling. By 22 years old, this entrepreneur was educating others on the art of style at John Dellaria while simultaneously managing the Newbury Street salon. By 24 he was travelling the world, presenting cutting edge styling techniques in front of hundreds of people at a time, and when his mentor eventually moved to NYC, this entrepreneur split his time between Boston and New York, managing salons, building the Dellaria training platform, and learning how to build a business.
His name is Marc Harris and he is a celebrity caliber stylist and the entrepreneur behind the Marc Harris brand with four locations including his newest flagship salon at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, one of three salons in Equinox Sports Clubs in Boston and New York City, and the other his original location on Newbury Street in Boston. His most recent accomplishment is a private residents-only salon located in the 60 story Millennium Tower complex in the heart of Boston. He is married to the former Miss Massachusetts USA, Maria Lekkakos, who is, in and of herself, a business tycoon and founder of M. Lekkakos Salon, Spa and Boutique located in the North Shore of Massachusetts. His salons are famous amongst Bostonians and New Yorkers, as he offers a unique combination of cutting-edge style with a relaxed atmosphere and down to earth service. His team has won numerous local and national awards and accolades, and he is a regular industry expert for national television and news outlets.
I recently sat down with this luminary stylist and entrepreneur, Marc Harris to find out what it takes to build a business on the cutting edge, and here is what he had to say:
Reinvent the Blueprint: Harris says that if you want to be on the cutting edge of business, you must first become world class at what you do, and then you must disrupt the current business models. Marc opened his first salon in 1989. For twenty years, he perfected the way he delivers services while simultaneously building an internal system for delivering world class quality salon services every single time a customer walks into any of his salons. His plan all along, was to create the system so that he could roll out exceptional salons across the country as amenities to businesses with large client economies. “There are many businesses with large customer volumes coupled with bricks and mortar locations, and I have created a partnership model that adds a trifecta of opportunity for such businesses. My partnership model adds value to the partner business by (1) keeping existing customers on the premises for salon and spa services, (2) bringing potential new customers to the premises for additional salon and spa service, and (3) offering the business owner additional low risk, high ROI profitability for physical space on the premises that is underutilized.” Harris initially launched his idea via a partnership with Equinox Sports Clubs and he just opened his third location within Equinox at Rockefeller Center in New York City. As well, he pitched his blueprint to the partners at the new Millennium Tower, a 60 story luxury living high-rise in Boston, and now Marc Harris is the managing partner for the in-house Flex Salon and Spa which provides services to residents-only at the luxury condo development. Harris says that it took him 20 years to perfect this new salon partnership blueprint, and so now his time is spent culling through the myriad of opportunities presented from new potential partners around the country.
Embrace Your Creative Side: Harris says that most of what he has learned about style, business, and life, was learned by getting out from behind the chair and studying life outside of the salon. He says that he encourages his own employees and stylists to do the same. He believes that the best stylists are the ones who are creative and business savvy, and that for them to find inspiration, they must get out and study art, architecture, fashion, business and the like. Harris says that the partnership blueprint he has created for his salon allows for massive scaling over the next several years. Yet, he points out that there is a very specific art to scaling the creativity of the people who make each salon special. Therefore, as part of his training program, he encourages the team to get out of the salon regularly so that they can find new ideas that inspire them to be better. Harris recognizes that his success as a salon entrepreneur is a byproduct of the success of each individual team member, and so he pushes his people to evolve regularly by getting out in the world and experiencing whatever they are passionate about. Harris says that if there’s one mistake he sometimes sees other salon owners make it is that they are adamant about their people staying chained behind the chair 24/7, yet Harris says he knows first-hand that the best of the best find their inspiration elsewhere and bring it back to the salon where they then turn it into their own form of art.
Embrace People Who Disagree: Harris says that his favorite kind of people in the world are the ones who disagree with him. He says that most people will listen to you and offer cordial dialogue, but it’s the people who challenge your ideas and thoughts who really move you forward. Harris says that he loves it when one of his team members questions the way something is being done. He says that anytime someone within the organization questions the way you are doing it, it demonstrates that the person really cares about the company. He says that these are also massive opportunities to consider new and innovative ways to evolve the business. Harris says that he has spent an entire lifetime traveling the world and noticing how people interact, deliver service, add value, and build their brands. When he notices something new or different, he thinks about how it would apply to his business, and often he pivots the way he’s doing something so that his business is always progressing. He says that the only thing better than doing this himself is having an army of people doing it with him. Therefore, when someone speaks up and offers a different view or a better way to do things, Harris says he is always happy to stop and listen.
Surround Yourself With People Who Get You: Harris says that for most entrepreneurs, including himself, entrepreneurship is a lifestyle that is all consuming. Work leaks into every second of every day. He points out that there are days when you think you will have it easy, and something goes wrong and you end up working until midnight. He says that the only possible way to build a successful empire is to make sure you have a support system of people who understand you. Harris says that he’s extremely thankful for his wife, Maria, who not only understands what it’s like being an entrepreneur, but also goes out of her way to support his journey. He says that he is lucky to have fallen in love with someone who tolerates his madness. He says that sometimes he’s so passionate about the work he’s doing, he doesn’t step back and look at how his actions are affecting others, and Maria is the one who will bring it to his attention and pull him back down to earth. As well, he says Maria is his number one motivator, cheerleader, and best friend. Harris says that when it comes to friends, family, business partners, and team members, it’s essential to surround yourself with people who understand what makes you tick. He says that you must keep your circle small and it must be peppered with the people who will push you, pull you back, and sometimes let you coast in neutral.
Marc Harris, a 30 year veteran of the salon world, is a creator, a visionary, and an entrepreneur. He has reinvented salon management by offering luxury developers like Millennium Towers, and high end service providers like Equinox Sports Clubs, a fresh approach to bringing high value services to their clients while creating a shared profit model. As he embarks on exciting opportunities over the next decade, his strategy is quite simple; he will just keep doing what he does, firmly grounded on the cutting edge.