Salon Owners Welfare Association Hosts Annual Meeting in Delhi
Salon Owners Welfare Association (SOWA) recently brought its members together in New Delhi for their first annual meeting to understand the current issues faced by the salon industry and take measures to address them. The event was supported by luxury hair and beauty brand Maison D’ Auraine, which had recently announced an initiative called ‘Project Green Salons’ that focuses on promoting sustainability in the salon industry. The hot topic for the day was how the industry lack structure and the need for improving educational opportunities.
Over 100 members of the salon-owners fraternity were present at the meeting to discuss challenges that they face on a daily basis – out of which GST, home services, and staff poaching gained prominence. The key members shared their narrative on how these issues can be tackled for the growth and development of the industry. The slogan ‘I Support SOWA’ was introduced as a mark of identity for salons who will henceforth work coherently with the association to fight urgent issues plaguing the business including the menace of Salon-at-Home Services offered through apps.
The event was hosted by actor Manish Goel in the presence of Kusum Goel of Meghna Beauty Parlour, Nirmal Randhawa of Indica Salons, Prem Israni of Geetanjali Salons, Sanjay Dutta of LOOKS Salon, Nirmal Randhawa of India Makeover Studios, Umesh and Meenakshi Dutt of Meenakshi Dutt Makeovers, Pinky Singh of Sahiba Salons, Dr Bharti Taneja of ALPS Beauty Group; Naina Arora of Naina Arora Make-up Studio & Academy, and other eminent salon business owners. Ritoo Jhha, Editor of Beauty Launchpad was felicitated on the occasion, for her continued efforts and support for the industry.
“The association was formed two years ago when GST was introduced. Clients were hesitant to pay 18% GST and due to competition, many people started setting up smaller salons to get the tax exemption. Salon chains and large-medium salons where online GST payments were in place started losing clients to these small salons where GST wasn’t applied to their bill. App-based home services had also cut into our client-base as more and more prefer this option. This situation led all of us to come together and we visited Manoj Tiwari to raise the issue. He heard us out but no solution materialised out of the meeting. Following this, we created our association to share such concerns and find solutions for the same.” – Nirmal Randhawa
“This was the first annual meeting of Salon Owners Welfare Association and we currently have about 150 members. There are plans to expand the association across the country so that we stand united to grow and support each other to eliminate the challenges that come with competition in the market. It was my dream to have an association for salon owners in India. We meet on a monthly basis and discuss various issues on the forum. We request everyone, brands and salons – to support us in this initiative. The benefits of this platform are several – it gives us an opportunity to come together and support each other to grow together. We are thankful to all those who attended the event as well as Arpit Jain who supported us. We also thank Beauty launchpad for their continued support.” – Kusum Goel
“The main concerns of the association are that we need stability for the industry’s workforce so that they do not switch salons too often. We need to understand the reasons behind this as well as analyse their needs better. Some people also misuse the situation and that is why it is important to launch an academy through our association where we can train them to follow the right practises. It would be possible to hire staff easily as well and avoid the need to poach them, which is another major challenge for salon owners, currently. These are the key concerns at this stage.” – Prem Israni
“I think that the salon industry is moving at a very aggressive pace and there are a lot of young and established entrepreneurs in the business. However, there is not one common platform that brings them together; there are exhibitions and great shows but everyone wants to sell their brands on such platforms. What we saw today with SOWA is a new initiative where the salon owners and entrepreneurs are coming together to address the key issues which they are facing on a day-to-day basis. Since we all work closely with business owners, we wanted to support them and be a part of this initiative, so that this can develop further and more problems can be addressed.” – Arpita Jain, Founder & Managing Director – Maison D’ Auraine
“Today was my first time at a SOWA meeting and it’s a great initiative as long as we work seriously. There are a lot of great people in the association who will take things to another level. I really look forward to the growth of this industry initiative in a good way – this really needs to be channelised as there are many collective concerns, especially the education part is really missing when it comes to not only not our staff but our customers also. If we seriously work, it will definitely help bring a change. “ – Naina Arora
