EnTrends [ahn-trends]

Taking a Look at How Modern Entrepreneurs Work & Live!

Anthony Lombardi - The Anthony Robert Salon- "Jerseylicious"

Often the voice of reason on the Style Network’s hit television show “Jerseylicious,” Anthony Lombardi is the only male cast member who usually finds himself wrapped up in a whirlwind of drama created by the show’s female cast members.  A real life salon owner in Verona, New Jersey, Lombardi is just as down-to-Earth in real life, as he is on the television show. EnTrends interviewed Lombardi about his business, the Anthony Robert Salon, and how the show has affected his life as an entrepreneur:

Q: How did you start your business?

A: I am a hair dresser by trade. I have been cutting hair and coloring it for fifteen years. About six-and-a-half years ago, I had a falling out with the boss at the salon that I worked for. I had made a move and, unfortunately, I had not researched my move very well. After about two days, I knew that I had made a poor decision but I did not want to move again. Every time you move, some of your clients, as loyal as they are, will fall off. It’s just not smart business to move a lot in this industry.

Around that time, I had just proposed to my wife and we were planning our wedding. I knew that I had to stick things out at the salon I was at, so I stayed there for about a year and a half. One day I was looking at some real estate listings online for fun and I saw that there was a salon for rent in the town where most of my clients were already at. I called the landlord and we worked out a deal for me to rent it out.

I learned a lot of things on the fly after I first opened up my salon. I literally bought one of those books on how to open a business for dummies and I said, “Alright, this is what I am going to do.” I had a few people who I surrounded myself with who were successful in their own businesses. One of them is Brian Martin, the founder of Brand Connections. We go back to grade school. I picked Brian’s brain for a lot of stuff and I learned the rest of the things on the fly.

Q: Where did you get the capital to start up your salon?

A: Basically, it was our wedding money. My wife and I talked about it and I said, we can either sit here, or we can take a chance. We can go on a couple of nice vacations, or we can take a chance. So, we took the wedding money, I maxed out a few credit cards, and we started the business. I didn’t have a lot of money saved up, but I just said, “Let’s go.” The rent for the building was right where I wanted it to be, so it wasn’t going to hold me down, and it was the right opportunity. I mean, that’s what money is for, to use on something like that, right?

My wife has been fantastic. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to get through any of this. Life is about taking calculated chances and I had a dream. I thought that in the worst-case-scenario, I would still have my hands and I could work. I could go out and get a job cutting hair for somebody else. But luckily, that didn’t happen

Q: Does your wife work?

A: Yes. She works because the benefits alone would kill me, being self-employed, especially with our new son. She works for an orthodontist, and she has for fifteen years. We get our health benefits through her job. I have been lucky to get where I am today, and I still have a little ways to go, but maybe that’s my next goal down the road - to get to the point where she can stay home with my son, and any other children that we may have.

Q: Have you had any struggles running your business?

A: If you ask anyone in our industry, you have weeks where things are slow. The phone doesn’t ring and you automatically go into panic mode. You ask yourself, “Where are all my clients? How come no one is calling me?” But I’ve never had any point where I said, “This is it, I am closing up shop.” I have always said, if I can make a dollar doing this, then I am going to do it for myself.

Q: Did you do any publicity, or marketing for your salon, before being on the show?

A: I had done little things, like cutting hair for board of education fundraisers, things with the chamber of commerce, advertising in the local newspapers, but nothing on a large-scale. When I heard that I had an opportunity with the show, I really ran with it.

Q: How did you get involved with the show?

A: I was going to renovate my salon, so I had to close it for a couple of months. I was looking for a place to work out of and a lot of local places didn’t want me to come in to their salons because they that new I wouldn’t be there for long. My sister knew a girl who worked at the Gatsby Salon and said that I should go speak with the owner, Gayle, since I was in search of a place to work out of. Gayle’s salon is about forty minutes away from where my mine was, so she knew that when I left, after my renovations were complete, I would not affect her business.

Gayle was already in talks with the network to do a show at the time, but she had not yet been offered the show. I met with her and she said that the situation would work for her if it worked for me. She put me in touch with the casting people, and they even looked at my salon to film in at one point. But they said that my salon was a little too small. The producers knew that Gayle already said that I could work out of her salon, so that put the ball in motion. They liked me, and they asked me to be on the show too.

I worked at the Gatsby when my salon was closed for renovation and I still go in there one or two days per month. I managed to get some clients there who liked me, so Gayle and I worked out a deal where I go back and forth one Sunday a month, and if that day fills up, then I go back there for a second Sunday each month.

Q: How has the success of the show affected your business, and your life?

A: It has been crazy. People stop me on the street because they recognize me. My salon’s phone has been ringing off the hook. You do get some clients who come in, and you know that they are only the one-time visitors, but you’re still grateful and you provide them with wonderful service. But you know that they are not going to keep coming in every six weeks. The people in our local area have been wonderful though.

The nice part about the show is that the producers have kept things 100% real with me. What you see with me is what you get in real life. I have been married five years, I have a fifteen-month-old son, I have my salon, and I bought a house. Hopefully, viewers will get to see more of my salon on the next season and they will get to witness the craziness that is my life right now, going back and forth between the two salons.

Q: What is next for you and your business?

A: I don’t know exactly what is next. Our show just got picked up for twenty more episodes. We just wrapped up filming eight. I know what filming eight episodes was like and I can only imagine what filming twenty is going to be like. But we’re like one big family when the cast is on set.

An opportunity like this does not present itself very often, and for some people, it never presents itself. So, I am taking things day-by-day. I am also trying to spend as much time with my wife and my son as I can.

I opened up my business five years ago on a shoestring budget, and five years later, I’ve just finished filming eight episodes of a hit television show. I have made money every year and I have never had a year where I lost money, even in the worst economy. I am just blessed. I surround myself with people who I want to be around. People who have come in and out of my salon but weren’t the right fit didn’t last long.

I am still in the same building today as when I first started. But because I started on a shoestring budget, I didn’t get the nice chairs and other fixtures that I wanted because I couldn’t afford them. I got chairs that looked nice, but it wasn’t what my vision was at the time. Now, five years later, I am finally getting to achieve my vision.

Of course, my dream would be to have something even grander than what I have right now. I have three full-time hair dressers and one part-time hair dresser. With the success of the show, maybe it will afford me a bigger location. But I started small, and I just renovated the space. Only time will tell what happens next. If I keep working hard, and God keeps blessing me, then we will see what happens.

Q: What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs starting out?

A: It may sound cliché, but follow your dreams and don’t let anybody stop you. If you want something bad enough, you can just go out and get it. It’s there for the taking. It’s a big world. Go grab a piece of it.