Butterfly Studio Salon owner Kattia Solano had to make new plans in a hurry when a steam pipe explosion temporarily forced her from her salon.

Butterfly Studio Salon owner Kattia Solano had to make new plans in a hurry when a steam pipe explosion temporarily forced her from her salon.

After a steam pipe explosion forced salon owner Kattia Solano from her building for five days, she turned to colleagues for help. “I literally sent text messages in desperation to figure out where we were going to service our clients,” says Solano, whose Butterfly Studio Salon is located in the Flatiron District of New York. “The support and love that we received from other salon owners and their team members was extremely touching. Big and small, they opened their homes and hearts to us.”

Kattia Solano

Kattia Solano

After experiencing the steam pipe crisis, Solano offers some advice to other salon owners who may be faced with a crisis at work — whether a flood, natural disaster, blackout, walkout, health scare, or other unexpected challenge.

Do’s • Keep good relationships with other salons, especially the ones located in your area. We have been extremely lucky to have salons open their doors to us, from uptown to downtown throughout several occasions.

  • Obtain interruption insurance to protect yourself from most situations. It’s pricey, but worth it. Make sure you know exactly what you can be covered for.
  • Obtain cloud-based software so you have access to all of your clients’ information and you can easily communicate with them. This helps so much, especially when you need to access notes and formulas.
  • Keep an extra set of tools for your entire team so that if you can’t gain access to your space, they will have their tools to work with.

Don’ts

  • Panic! You have to keep your team and clients safe and reassure them that everyone is doing their best to get back to business as usual.
  • Assume that people are getting updates and information from social media. You must make the effort to follow up personally.  
  • Hesitate to accept help from brand partners and team members. We literally had people lend and deliver product from their trunks and go shopping in different locations to get all the products and color we needed. 

 This story first appeared in Salon Today.

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