Friday, August 14, 2009
Two friends start their dream business together in Salem
Amy Pruett (left) and Kelley Hill opened Style One after years of friendship. — Miranda Adkins, So Salem
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Amy Pruett and Kelley Hill met a long time ago, seven years to be nearly exact, through mutual friends when Hill was still at Glenvar High School and had a curfew. They'd always shared the dream of owning their own hair salon, and when Hill became established in the business of cutting hair, they started out on the dream. "In hair-business, that's the way to go," said Pruett. She had been at Hair Designs Unlimited for 10 years.
"Most hairdressers go into the business to start their own hair salon," Hill said. She also started working for the same Salem hair salon when she completed her work at Bar Palme.
"We both had talked about it for a long time, in general, we both knew what we wanted to do with it," Pruett said.
So in early March, the two found the building to start their dream in. They were leasing the salon space that was operated by another hairstylist in the already-established Style One space on College Avenue across from Andrew Lewis.
They'd discussed starting out in a newly constructed building or owning their own property, but both of those ideas had too much overhead and too many unknown variables and expenses. Hill and Pruett said they were especially glad of their choice when their air conditioner broke down -- and they weren't the ones who had to fix it.
The mission is "to keep it simple," Hill said. They're just going to do hair now, and they have a tanning bed from the previous leasees that they're maintaining because it's still there.
It took them about a month to gut and renovate the salon, and their first customer's hair was cut in the last week of March. The goals they set for themselves seem as if they're being accomplished already.
We want "just to be as busy as possible and just do good work. We want to be known as a good salon," Pruett said. "We've had a lot of people coming in and trying us out."
Their husbands, Brad Pruett and Adam Hill, get along, too, and that's good news. Other than spending at least 43 hours a week at work together, Amy and Kelly also hang out on the weekends, after work, and even on vacation.
