By Tracey Porpora
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) A facility to help budding beauty entrepreneurs launch is set to open next fall. Sola Salon Studios touts itself as providing “move-in-ready studios” that allow beauty professionals to launch their own business.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.
The first Sola Salon Studios — a national franchise that employs 10,000 professionals — will be opening in Forest Avenue Shoppers Town in Port Richmond.
Set to open in a 5,000-square-foot space, the concept is one that helps those in the beauty business become entrepreneurs. The organization touts itself as providing “move-in-ready studios” that allow beauty professionals to launch their own business.
Sola Salon Studios will open in the fall, according to Kimco Realty, the owner of the shopping center, which owns six Staten Island shopping plazas, including the soon-to-be-built “Boulevard” in New Dorp.
“We are very excited to bring this concept to Staten Island and to help entrepreneurs in the beauty industry live their dreams, and go into business for themselves,” said Tina Marcopoulos, operations manager for D&M Salon Suites, the local franchisee that also owns and operates Panera Breads on Staten Island.
“We are going to subdivide the space into individual studios for people in the beauty industry, whether they are hair stylists, make-up artists, estheticians, or eye lash or eye brow people. They can lease space from us and run their own business,” she said.
There will be 29 studios and the new facility will house 32 professionals, she said.
“We were introduced to this concept and we got very excited about it. Ninety percent of [the beauty] business is women, and we are looking forward to helping women become entrepreneurs, and helping them run their own businesses,” said Marcopoulos.
She said the entrepreneurs will have 24-hour access to the studios.
“If the business owner is a mom she can operate any time of day that works for her. This is not as if you’re renting space in someone’s salon. This is your business. You are the business owner. You have your business license, along with your cosmetology license,” she said.
