Arax TerOvsepyan is the owner of Glamourax, a hair salon and retail location in Burbank, California. She started as an entrepreneur and took over her mother-in-law’s salon operations in 2019.
Glamourax is one of the top salons in the area with more than 385 five-star reviews on Yelp. Glamourax provides high-end hair care, cuts, color, extensions, bridal glam, and specialty scalp facials with steam caps.
The objective
Arax wanted salon-specific software that made it easy for her to switch from pen and paper when scheduling staff. She wanted to simplify, centralize, and automate her business operations to save time and money.
The challenge
When Glamourax started, Arax was doing all accounting for income and expenses with pen and paper. She was managing bookings with Google Calendar with personal email addresses and couldn’t take credit card payments. As the business sold in-person services and retail goods, Arax was looking for a centralized solution to manage her team and clients and sell items and services integrated into a single solution. She needed something user-friendly and minimalist so her staff and clients could use it, too.
When she was investigating options, many of the payment solutions felt clunky. She wanted to connect appointments and retail sales with a single tool to maximize efficiency. She crunched the numbers across other booking, marketing, and online store providers. Square made the most financial and practical sense.
As we moved away from pen-and-paper booking, we needed software that would be user-friendly and help the salon run smoother ”
Arax TerOvsepya → Glamourax Owner
The solution: Square Appointments
Square has the solutions Arax needs to run her business.
With Square Appointments, she has an all-in-one solution for managing bookings, payments, and her team. She has a customizable, free online booking site; clients can book with her staff any time. For in-store and remote services and retail sales, she can take payments with Square Terminal, Square Reader, or the free Square Appointments mobile application. She can meticulously track reports to ensure sales and operations are the most efficient; she can leverage inventory tracking and alerts to keep her salon fully stocked. Since she has a team of stylists with broad experience, she’s set up commission tiers. Each member has customized earnings based on their items and services sold. The team’s earnings sync with Square Payroll, which ensures on-time and accurate payments
Her stylists manage their own accounts with the salon. They enjoy the flexibility to book their own clients, take detailed notes about their preferences, and directly accept payments or send invoices. Square Appointments makes everything run smoothly, letting Arax focus on running the business.
The centralized aspect of Square is just what I was looking for. From booking appointments to payroll to point of sale for payments, everything is in one place, and it is incredibly easy to use. ”
Arax TerOvsepya → Glamourax Owner
Square saves Arax time and money and ensures a better Glamourax client experience.
A client can book on the Glamourax website using Square Appointments. The salon team keeps careful notes in Square Appointments about each client — from hair color history to inspiration photos and preferences to specific products — so that every team member has the right information. The team records everything, down to the last gram of product used, while ensuring photos are captured at the end of each appointment for future reference. This is essential to building trust with clients and ensuring a consistent, positive experience. After the appointment, the stylist can check out the client using the free Appointments mobile application right from their station, making payments quick and easy.
Arax leverages resource management, which lets her assign resources, such as shampoo bowls and salon stations, with each booking. That way they’ll know if a resource won’t be available for a time slot, and they can book other services around it.
“Square Appointments has all the information my team needs to provide their clients the best experience. Since the appointment is already booked, when the service is done they just click into it and check out. Those little seconds add up, and it’s the small things that save time and reduce stress. When my staff is cheerful and happy, the clients have a better experience.”
The salon sells retail products and uses Square to manage inventory and sales. Arax leverages low-stock alerts and gets notified when a product is running low, which has been a huge time-saver and relieved her of a highly manual process.
During the pandemic, Square helped Glamourax stay afloat. When clients couldn’t come to the salon, Arax and her team used client notes to create personalized boxes of hair care products that clients could order online and pick up from the porch of the salon. (The salon sold hundreds of boxes when they were closed.)
As a young female founder, Square has helped me build confidence as a business owner. It has helped me wear multiple hats as an artist, a team leader, and a mother. And I take pride in using the best for everything — the best products for my clients and the best products to run my business. ”
Arax TerOvsepya → Glamourax Owner
Arax is also a full-time mother to two boys, one with special needs. This is why she relies heavily on business tools to help save time and keep her business running. With Square Appointments, Arax saves 12–18 hours a week by automating her services. Even her accountant saves time with Square Payroll.
Square Appointments further helps manage client relationships: Clients can book directly through the online booking site to choose services with their favorite provider. Costs are shown up front. When an appointment is booked, the client automatically receives an email or a text message notification as a confirmation. Automatic reminders are sent so they never miss an appointment.
For her makeup artists, Arax sends an invoice to the client before the artist’s on-site arrival. In the salon, clients pay immediately after the appointment, in full with tip, so payments are always accounted for. By automating the payment process with clear, upfront pricing, this alleviates any discomfort of negotiating or justifying a price. Her stylists now focus on their client and craft.
Arax sets up customized commission rates for her team based on items and services sold. This connects directly to Square Payroll, so Arax can see her team’s earnings over time.
“It’s easy with Square Appointments. You just input an employee, how much commission they earn on retail or service sales, and then you see their full earnings directly in Square Payroll. And the commission is just the right incentive to keep inventory moving in the salon.”
Glamourax has seen massive revenue boosts over the past two years. The business saw 42% average sales growth from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2022. This accounts for some closures throughout the year during Covid. Arax loves to pull sales reports and staff earnings so she can closely monitor every aspect of her business. Glamourax has been profitable all year, which really makes her happy.
Quick stats
With Square, Glamourax has improved in the following metrics, in spite of the impact of the Covid lockdowns. Glamourax’s two-year sales figure timespan reflects this:
- 3,940% gross sales increase, January–March 2020 to January–March 2022
- 2,737% increase in the total number of sales, January–March 2020 to January–March 2022
- 42% average sales growth, first quarter of 2020 compared to first quarter 2022
- 12–18 hours a week in time savings
- 128% increase in retail and services sales once commissions were set up
“We have team meetings just on how to use Square more efficiently as a team. When my team knows how to use Square better, the business runs better.”
“The Square Dashboard is my favorite tool because I can check all of my business stats and see how we’ve grown over time.”
