V for Hair and Beauty and VJ Barbers in Christchurch, New Zealand is a maximalist’s dream—bursting with colour and character everywhere you look, the popular salon has hair, beauty and barbering all under the same roof.
Owner Vicki Odgen O’Fee (right) is an incredible example of leadership and resilience in business. Embarking on her entrepreneurial journey at the age of 18, Vicki has navigated through economic recessions and major natural disasters with unwavering dedication and perseverance. Despite the challenges she’s faced, Vicki has consistently upheld the values of creating a remarkable team culture and fostering an environment of support and inspiration.
The Kitomba team had the pleasure of speaking with Vicki about her journey and her advice to fellow business owners experiencing challenging times. Watch the video below and keep reading to hear her story.
Tell us about your journey
I’ve been in business for over 34 years and created the brand V for Hair and Beauty and VJ Barbers about 13 years ago. At V for Hair and Beauty, our focus is on celebrating women. The letter V symbolises qualities associated with women and their hair, such as vivaciousness, vitality, voluptuousness, and vibrancy—all attributes that reflect the diversity and beauty of women and their hairstyles.
Originally established as a hair salon, we expanded our services to include beauty treatments following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. This decision was driven by the demand from both clients seeking a one-stop destination for all their hair and beauty needs, and speaking to people in the industry who were seeking employment opportunities after being made redundant from their previous jobs. This expansion into offering beauty services led to the creation of all of our services being housed under one roof: Hair, beauty and barbering.
How do you run three different businesses in one?
Despite operating under one roof, each of our businesses cater to different target markets and we offer a tailored client experience for each.
In our hair salon, we specialise in helping women transition to silver-grey hair, a niche we’ve honed over the last six years. We want to help women with this transition and enable them to feel fabulous with their silver-grey hair whether they are 35 or 85. This is something we really pride ourselves in.
Our beauty salon looks after all aspects of beauty such as waxing, henna, tinting, and manicure and pedicure services. We have a tagline that we use “We don’t just do hair, we do beautiful.” Our clients appreciate the convenience of being able to receive multiple services in one visit, from hair styling to eyebrow tinting.
In our barber shop, we cater to discerning men who seek comprehensive grooming services beyond a simple haircut. Our private setting attracts sports stars and celebrities, as it allows them to relax without public interference. In our barber shop, we offer facials, hot steam shaves, and various other grooming services.
We also deliver a great client experience by providing every client with a hot hand towel and access to our selection of herbal teas, coffees, chocolates, and hand lotion. Whether you’re visiting for a quick trim or a consultation, we believe in adding that extra touch of pampering to make you feel truly special. It’s something that doesn’t cost us a lot but it makes the client feel amazing.
I wouldn’t be able to manage all of this without my exceptional team of 13 who ensure every client feels valued and comfortable, fostering trust and loyalty. Even when their preferred stylist or therapist is unavailable, they maintain the same level of care and attention.
With team members who have been with us for several years, we’ve become more than just colleagues—we’re a work family. Georgina, our outstanding manager, has been by my side from the start, and she allows me to focus on strategic aspects like marketing and staff training.
What was the biggest challenge you have faced in business?
The global financial crash was tough, but nothing compared to the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes. Overnight, all stores had to close, and a lot of staff left town, which posed the biggest challenge of my career. It taught me that you just had to keep going no matter what.
Keeping shelves stocked and staff motivated was a daily struggle. Motivating a team during such uncertain times was really challenging, and we found a lot of people hesitant to visit stores due to the fear of another earthquake. One thing we did during this time to keep the team together was just to get some sausages and bread and have a sausage sizzle on a Friday afternoon, where we could debrief and help nurture each other.
But it taught me that day by day you’ve just got to keep going, you have to ring your suppliers, you have to communicate with people. During the earthquakes, there were some tough weeks when I’d have to call the bank manager on a Friday, unsure if I’d be able to cover wages. He’d ask, “Will it clear by Tuesday?” I’d respond, “I’m pretty sure it will.”
I think you’ve just got to keep one step ahead, just keep carrying on, every day’s a new day and I think if times are tough in business, communication is the key.
How do you grow and motivate your team?
Motivating my team involves empowering individuals through skill development and recognising their diverse strengths. We’ve guided over 54 staff members through apprenticeships to professional certification, which paves the way for their success anywhere in the world.
As well as the apprenticeships we’re always upskilling ourselves on a variety of things, including in-salon training, one-on-one sessions with our training manager and senior stylists, and monthly sessions with our product suppliers to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques. We also utilize Zoom trainings for remote learning, allowing our staff to practice and revisit recorded sessions.
I also believe training shouldn’t be about getting one person in the store to train everyone – we encourage knowledge-sharing among staff, leveraging each person’s expertise in areas like hair ups, colouring, and restyling to foster growth across the team.
I’ve also learned that what motivates one person is going to be different from another. You know somebody could be motivated by having their work on social media and being praised publicly, or more rewards tied to performance targets. I also have one-on-one meetings with my staff to ensure their goals and aspirations are heard and supported.
What Kitomba features have helped your business become more successful?
1. Send personalised marketing campaigns with Kitomba’s client lists and marketing features
One thing I like about Kitomba is the way that you can break down your database and personalise client lists to target specific audiences. If we’ve got new clients who have come in for beauty, they’re going to want to hear about something totally different to clients who come in for chemical straightening services.
That’s why we must get their contact information: we bring it into our marketing system and can send them things that they will be interested in rather than doing a shotgun approach to people. Through our Kitomba database, we also send our clients a weekly blog on either hair, beauty or fashion and lifestyle issues – we’ve got a very strong following for that and Kitomba enables us to update them all the time.
Learn more about Kitomba’s marketing features to help you send targeted marketing campaigns.
2. Know your numbers and make data-driven decisions with Kitomba’s industry-leading reports
If you’re just starting with Kitomba, I would be looking at some of the basic reporting and getting my head around that because reporting is everything. In Kitomba you can go in and have a look at all the individual needs and KPIs.
If you’ve got a superstar stylist, but they’re not retaining clients, they’re not really a superstar. They might be doing a flamboyant, wonderful hairdo but they’re not the biggest earners in the salon and you need to see why they’re not retaining clients.
There are so many ways you can look at reporting and the data. How many colours do we do? How many colours does this person do? Why are they not doing more of a different type of colouring service? Does that lead to them needing training? The reporting will help you better understand your business and your staff so you can see areas of improvement.
By looking at the reporting and seeing how everyone is doing with the rebooking, client retention, chemical percentage, retail sales, and retail per client, you’ve got a really good baseline for your business. If you don’t have baseline figures or KPIs to go by you’re just floating.
3. Reduce no-shows and increase bookings with Kitomba Online Booking and deposits
We’ve been using Online Booking for quite some time now, initially with our previous provider. However, Kitomba’s online booking system stands out for the flexibility it offers in setting up deposits for certain services.
For instance, high-value services like makeovers, permanent straightening, and extensive colour work require either full payment upfront or a deposit, ensuring greater commitment from clients and reducing no-shows significantly.
Approximately 80% of our barbershop bookings are made online, so it’s very popular among our clientele, especially men who appreciate the convenience of pre-paid appointments. Similarly, parents booking haircuts for their children find it convenient to pay in advance, which streamlines the process in the salon for everyone involved.
We also have iPads throughout the store so our team can look at Kitomba 1 during the day and they can see the new bookings that have come in without having to be crowding around the front desk. Kitomba and Kitomba 1 just interact and interface together and update the client details really well.
What does success mean to you?
I think that’s something that changes depending on where you are at the stage in your life. Years ago success in business to me would have been when I had seven stores and 70 staff. But when you get there, I don’t think that you’re any happier than having one store and 10 really good staff. So success in business to me now is about having a really good team that wants to work hard, be part of your team, earn a good income, and be loyal to their clients and the business. Seeing people earn a good income through that loyalty and that hard work, is success to me.
What is your advice for fellow business owners who are experiencing challenging times?
I think never give up. I also have this wee saying that I go by: ”Dream, Passion, and Inspire”. What it means is that If you have a dream and you have the passion to follow it through, you’ll inspire others without even realising it.
Having gone through over 30 years of business, I know that there are always be ups and downs but the best thing you can do is go by your gut feeling and never give up.
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