Summa's Beauty Salon

As a lifelong worker in the salon industry, Karen Chandler Browne realized a longstanding dream when she became the owner of Summa’s Beauty Salon in November 2008. Summa’s first opened its doors in 1964 and has been at its present location in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania since 1985. Formerly an employee of the salon, Karen assumed ownership in late 2008, the culmination of a hairstyling career that began in 1972.

Karen came to Widener’s Small Business Development Center in late spring of 2009 along with her husband, Ken Browne. The Brownes were looking for any assistance the center could offer to help them better run their business. Because she had purchased an existing business, Karen had a sizable clientele from day one and her extensive industry experience enabled her to keep day-to-day operations at the salon under control. Yet during the initial consultation with the Brownes, it was determined that the business might benefit from an online presence. Despite being in existence for over four decades, Summa’s Beauty Salon did not have a website.

While word-of-mouth is a prime form of promotion in the salon industry, the Brownes felt that having a web presence was becoming increasing important in today’s age. In addition, by launching a site within months of assuming ownership, the Brownes might convince existing customers that they were quite willing to match (and even surpass) the high standards set by the previous owners. The Brownes also realized that having a website would give them a medium to convince prospective customers to patronize Summa’s. Rather than be forced to give prospective customers an impromptu ‘pitch,’ the Brownes could merely direct them to their website for more information. The Brownes felt this would give them a simple yet professional way to market to prospective customers.

Starting in early 2009, graduate students at Widener’s SBDC formed an educational website development program. This program was designed to allow small businesses to gain a web presence in a cost-effective manner. With this program, the center assists clients in building informational business sites but, more importantly, the program is also designed to teach clients how to personally maintain their sites on an ongoing basis. This allows clients to both assume personal responsibility for their site’s contents and avoid paying costly fees to web developers.

It was quickly determined that the Brownes were ideally suited for the website development program. They began working with graduate assistant Andy Rymarczuk. Over the course of several weeks, the Brownes typically came in once per week for a website building/education session. During these sessions, the Brownes created a website equipped with both graphics and text, but also began to learn the sometimes difficult process of ongoing site maintenance. By June of 2009, the website was completed and published online and the Brownes were equipped with the knowledge to maintain their site on a permanent basis. This allowed the Brownes the best of both worlds: the ability to offer a sophisticated web presence without the corresponding development and maintenance fees. Despite entering the SBDC without any substantial IT knowledge, the Brownes now own a salon that offers great service in a tech savvy fashion.

Several existing customers were very impressed that the new ownership was able to launch a website for the salon. The Brownes also believe the site will prove a useful tool in attracting new customers. Shortly after purchasing the business, the Brownes paid for advertising space in a local newspaper but these ads could not direct potential customers to a website for more information. Now that the site has been launched, the Brownes believe the advertising process will be much more effective.

Editor’s Note – Be sure to visit Summa’s Beauty Salon on the web at: www.SummaHair.com