GEORGIA “G” TOURNAI
Owner, G TOURNAI Hair + Creative Studio | Educator + Salon Consultant
EPISODES
How I "Came Out" After Building a Business "In The Closet"
Tune in to hear G Tournai (@gtournai) as they share their journey of building a business within limitations. Discover how their struggle with authenticity and readiness for change motivated them to embrace their true selves and assist others in creating secure, inclusive, and genuine spaces.
Key Takeaways
After shaving a trans friend’s hair and seeing the transformation, Georgia (aka G) knew they wanted to do hair!
G went to school, started at Supercuts, then moved to a new small town and started working at a local shop, then got approached to buy a barbershop!
The barber shop owner financed the loan to buy the business (aka seller financing). This relationship turned into a mentorship, and G still stays in touch with this person!
Starting off, G appreciated the community in which this shop is located but had to handle a small town mindset and their issues.
A new landlord bought the building and decided to take the barbershop!
The relationship of a customer became G's investor!
Moving locations while your old location will be your competitor is a stressful experience, but G made it happen with the help of friends, family, and even a client!
Take online business courses! It helped G understand what they were doing!
Focusing on building the business and respecting the brand and the history of the shop caused G to keep their sexual preference and gender identity to themselves. This coupled with the readiness to end running this business, G sold the business, maintained the property, and embarked on their own thing.
G now helps other salons update their business and space to be safe, accessible, and authentic to you, the owner.
New Entrepreneurs: Write a business plan, know your dream clients and pursue them, and work when others do not work
Equality in Pricing: A Deep Dive into Inclusion vs. Gender-Based Models
Tune in to hear G Tournai (@gtournai) speak in depth on varying pricing structures and ask: "why do you still have gender-based prices?"
Key Takeaways
Gender-based pricing for haircuts does not make sense anymore. You used to have beauty and barber shops where the women and men (respectively) would go weekly to get their hair done. Now, everything is a hybrid. Men get color and blowouts, and women get clipper cuts!
The easiest transition away from gender-based pricing is based on the length of hair: clipper cut>short cut>long cut.
Gender-based pricing is not a political, social, or religious issue but a moral one. Is it okay to charge different prices for the same haircut solely based on gender?
If you want to give out discounts, for whatever reason, do not discount your services! Referral program for free products...give away products, not services, so you do not build a clientele always looking for discounts.
Time-based pricing makes more sense for those who perform more time-intensive services, such as extensions and color corrections.
Shorter services could turn into a debate with time-based pricing. If you finish a cut 5 minutes earlier than usual, do you give the customer a discount? Does the customer hassle you about the start time even though their appointment time is different from the start time?...consider all of this before making your decision.
Do not specialize right away in your career. You should take time to learn the basics of a wide variety of work because you may not know how much you will love and be happy doing a service you never imagined!
