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About DarlaClick the play button 2 times to hear the audio My name is Darla Di Grandi-Aguilera, I have been a licensed cosmetologist since 1986 and a salon owner since 1989. I was a High School drop out and my only formal education is cosmetology school. Not that I'm proud of that, but I just want you to know that I'm not a business major here to pitch you a sales class. I am a true hairdresser here to share with you my "secrets to success". I come from the days of commission only, 60-70%, "that's my client not yours, so don't even look or talk in my direction." If I worked all day and I didn't have a client, I didn't make a dime. I knew back then I wanted to change the way hairdressers were being treated. I didn't understand why all other jobs came with respect and benefits and hairdressers were treated as a lower working class. I wanted to own the first salon that paid an hourly wage, offered a benefit package and treated hairdressers as real employees with Rights & Respect. So one day another hairdresser and I opened a salon together. Over the next years I toyed with ideas, gradually implemented benefits, went from Rental to Commission and started building a new type of salon mentality. Nine years later my partner and I decided to go our separate ways and this is when I was able to implement all my ideas on how clients should be treated & hairdressers should be compensated. I don't like to boast, but I want to share my journey with you so I can prove my point. Looking back at what I have gone through and seeing where I am today, I realize that I must be doing something right. The day my partner and I split was the same day my husband of 9 years and I filed for divorce. 11 years into the business, I was starting over again. Amidst all my emotions, I dove headfirst into my business, since I had no one to worry about but me and my employees. I was now working harder than I ever had before. 6 days a week, morning to night, just like a lot of you do now. I was hiring, training, building, educating, motivating as fast as I could and planning how to create my new Salon. With all of my visions in place, I was going to open our cities first Day Spa. I was unable to get a loan so I had to get creative and raise the money to start the construction (learn more about how I raised over $100,000.00). Three months after splitting with my partner and having her take my top producer with her; I was hospitalized in intensive care with Peritonitis. A major organ bacterial infection that I developed while on a mission in Mexico. I had to have 6 major organs operated on. This was a very serious illness and I endured a long recovery, but my business and I survived. One year later, I opened the doors to our cities first Day Spa. 10 days after opening, I was struck by more illness. I was unable to walk so I called an ambulance and off to the hospital I went. I was admitted into Intensive Care with blood clots in my leg, from my ankle to my thigh. The blood clots had broken off and were traveling throughout my body. Doctors couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't go to my brain or heart and kill me, but luckily they settled in my lungs instead of my heart. As I lay in the hospital, not knowing if I was going to live or die, my business carried on. I came to realize my new way of business was working just as I had planned. Ten months after I fully recovered, I was struck again. This time, ten years of back pain from Degenerative Disc Disease had finally caught up with me. I was given no choice but to undergo major back surgery. I had been in my new salon less than one year, and the prospect of missing three to six more months of work was grim to say the least. But I knew I could make it work. The entire time I was laid up, I watched my changes working even more and knew then that I was on to something BIG for Salon Owners. Little did I know how much it was going to save my own business. Six months after returning to work, I was given the miracle that I had been chasing for over twelve years. My new wonderful husband and I had become pregnant. Four months into the pregnancy I ended up in the emergency room again. I was told that I would have to be hospitalized in complete bed rest until I delivered and that was potentially up to four more months. How many people can say they can keep there doors open through that!!!! Unfortunately, one month into my bed rest, on my birthday, I delivered a premature baby girl. So after getting over the loss of my little miracle and missing another two months of work, my changes have proven to be invincible. Back to work and exactly six months to the calendar date, 2 weeks before Christmas, I was back in the emergency room again, only this time, paralyzed from my chest down. After an MRI, I was told I had a 9mm lesion on my spine and they needed to test for cancer. I was admitted into the hospital for further tests and an MRI of my brain which showed 5 more lesions. Which gave the doctors the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, not cancer. That was wonderful news to me at that point, but I knew from that day forward that my life was going to change. I convinced the doctors to let me out of the hospital for Christmas and during my three-month recovery, my passion for sharing my ways of business grew so strong. I was on to something, I wanted to change the industry, even if I had to do it "one salon at a time". In my mission to share my success, I had been given an opportunity to speak to a large group of salon owners and to share some of my "secrets to success". During the planning of this event, five months after recovering from my first bout with MS, I was blessed again with becoming pregnant. With the joy of being pregnant and the excitement of planning my biggest speaking event ever, I was on cloud nine. 1 month before my scheduled event I went for a routine check up and was sent directly to the hospital where I was admitted for complete bed rest, Again! After one month in the hospital, on the actual morning of my big speaking event and three days before my birthday, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Three days later, on my birthday, we buried our little girl. After mourning the loss of another child and dealing with the heartbreak and sadness, the only thing I could do was focus on the good. So back to work I went, realizing that I had a wonderful husband, employees that believed in me, and a business that was completely self-sustaining. Meanwhile I still had the ever-burning desires to become a mother. Against doctors orders, I was able to convince my husband to try one more time for a child. The doctors told us that if I did become pregnant again that I would be bed ridden for the entire pregnancy and that there would be no guarantee that I would make it to full term. Yes, I became pregnant one more time. Now a very high-risk pregnancy due to my age as well as the previous losses, the doctors sewed up my uterus and sent me straight to bed. I was not about to lie in bed and do nothing. So while laying there over the course of 8 months, I built my business even stronger, through strategies, systems, education, motivation and inspiration. I planned, designed, sketched and organized our next new salon. I had also started coaching other salon owners, sharing my "secrets to success", teaching how to "step out from behind the chair" and how to "take back control of their salons". All from bed. As they say, from all bad comes something good. I completed my pregnancy and again had a baby girl, who is perfect! Our new 3600 square foot Salon and Day Spa is growing at a pace we can barely keep up. We moved into our new beautiful location with 13 team members and now exactly one year later we have over 30 associates. Finally, I made it, and it happened again. Doctors said I needed another back surgery. This time my answer was, no problem, lets do it! And so we did. So, here I am today, never knowing where I will be tomorrow. I can't imagine anyone hearing or reading about my journey and saying they can't do something because of their situation in life. I have taken my little hair salon from 1100 sq. feet and $100,000.00 a year to 5700 sq. feet and doing over $1,500,000.00. Not many people can say they have done that. Today I am able to provide the best package around, a system "unlike any other", created through many years of trials and conversions. We have lived every system under the hair industry Sun, from rental to commission to sliding scale to half and half, under the table, over the table, legal, illegal, tips on the books, off the books. Until finally, opening the valleys first and only NO-TIPPING Salon and Day Spa. It's not just about the money, its about dignity, trust, respect, belief, support and honesty that creates loyalty, which in return provides success. I am 100% out from behind the chair by choice, with medical, dental, paid education, 401K, paid vacation, paid assistants, apprentice program, positive team huddles, salon coordinators, HR/PR, office manager and General manager. Just ask me how I did it, one step at a time. Let me go back to the beginning. The day my partner and I split, I realized that I needed to take back control of my salon", that's exactly what I did and look what happened!
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