Beauty school owner goes from dropout to dean | Business Archive Site - cleveland.com

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Beauty school owner goes from dropout to dean
By Roger Mezger
October 22, 2008, 6:49PM

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Chris Stephens/The Plain DealerNeCole Cumberlander is dean of The Ohio Academy, a Paul Mitchell Partner School, with locations in Twinsburg and Columbus. With 260 students total, revenues have reached $4.5 million in five years.
NeCole Cumberlander can't tell you what the communications professor was saying the last time she found herself daydreaming in class. But she vividly recalls walking out of his lecture because it was the same day she dropped out of Ohio State University.

Bored and itching to pursue a lifelong interest, she left campus, drove across town and enrolled in a beauty school.

Now that dropout runs a beauty school -- The Ohio Academy, a Paul Mitchell Partner School. She and her husband, Orlando, bought franchise rights to the Paul Mitchell brand in Ohio five years ago. Annual revenue for their first two locations, in Twinsburg and Columbus, is $4.5 million and growing. A Youngstown location should be open by this time next year.
About NeCole Cumberlander

Title: Dean of The Ohio Academy, a Paul Mitchell Partner School

Best Advice: Understand your culture and run your company according to your culture. If you don't create a culture, a culture will create itself in your business. And it may not be the one you want. In fact it probably won't be.

How to Build a Business: Get mentors that are already where you want to be. And don't be afraid to ask questions. People are generally willing to give you information.


Cumberlander has become passionate about helping students realize their dreams in the beauty industry. When she doesn't know something, she's quick to call on the network of salon owners she built over years of traveling to conferences and participating in hair shows.

And, as president of the Professional Beauty Association, a worldwide association of beauty manufacturers, distributors and salon owners, her network is vast.

These days Cumberlander, 41, of Solon, is comfortable talking business. That wasn't always the case for the former hair stylist. Eight years ago, she even worried about losing her first business, Noire et Blanc salon in Cleveland.

'I really enjoyed the art,' Cumberlander said. 'I wasn't excited about the business side. . . . I thought doing great hair was enough.'

She had spent 10 years working as a stylist at three salons before she persuaded her husband that they should take a $50,000 home equity line of credit to open the salon.

The award-winning, modern salon looked chic. Good customer service and marketing were the focus. Write-ups in national publications followed, including a ranking in Salon Today as one of the 200 fastest-growing salons in the country. But with 10 employees, the business wasn't profitable.

At a lot of salons, stylists rent booth space. Her model was to pay stylists commissions of 50 to 60 percent. After looking at the books, an accountant told her that even though the salon was primarily a cash business, overhead costs exceeded revenues.

'It took a long time for me to realize that all I had done was bought myself a job, and it wasn't a good one,' she said. 'I had long hours. I couldn't take a paycheck. Sometimes I was dipping into our savings.'

Around the same time, she attended a salon owners' convention in Miami where she heard small business guru Michael Gerber tell the audience to start working on their businesses, not in their businesses.

It wasn't the first time she had heard that message, but it was the first time she was ready to take action.

'I had to make changes or my business was going to close,' Cumberlander recalls.

She started reaching out to mentors and colleagues.

'The bottom line is, I didn't know any better, and I didn't want to ask anyone for help. I was afraid they'd think I should have known more about basic business operations.'

It didn't take long to realize that she needed to make lots of changes: reducing commissions, enforcing a dress code, imposing penalties for being late, setting a mandatory work schedule.

Within a month, six of the 10 employees had quit. 'I was devastated,' she said.

With new hires, the culture changed. Sales increased. Her marketing got savvier, and less expensive.

National customer service consultant and author John R. Di Julius III said Cumberlander proves that passion and determination are the two of the strongest attributes an entrepreneur can possess.

He met Cumberlander soon after she started Noire et Blanc. Di Julius and his wife, Stacy, own John Robert's Spa, which has grown to five Northeast Ohio locations and more than 150 employees.

'She probably has been in over her head a few times in her different business ventures, but it doesn't matter,' Di Julius said. 'NeCole will do whatever is necessary to rise above it and not only figure it out, but make it a huge success.'

Cumberlander is a sponge now, soaking up tips on running a successful business. Learning has always been important to her. The difference is, for many years all she wanted to learn about was her craft.

That's why she risked taking grief from her family by dropping out of college to go to beauty school.

'I was bored to death because [college] wasn't my passion,' she said. 'I felt like I was wasting time and money' -- money she had earned in the Air Force Reserves. 'I kept thinking, 'I have to follow my dreams.' '

That was the easy part. She didn't tell her parents for two weeks. 'I had to muster up enough courage to call them,' she said. 'I've known what I wanted to do since I was in high school, when I first asked to go to beauty school. But they said, 'Absolutely not. You will go to college.' '

These days, she doesn't mind trying to persuade students' parents to allow them to go to beauty school. It's not always an easy sell.

'So many people think that college is the only option, but it's not,' Cumberlander said.

Even though 15 of her more than 260 students are in Paris right now doing advanced studies and participating in international hair shows, she knows that's not the image of hair stylists in most parents' minds.

'Can't you just envision the beautician in movies, popping gum while doing hair?' she laughed.

Her own mother, Victoria Reese of Columbus, recalls signs of her daughter's lifelong interest from an early age.

When most girls were playing with baby dolls, Cumberlander fixated on the doll's hair, using Kool-Aid, magic markers and nail polish to give highlights. Later, she practiced new styles on her baby sister. In high school, she kept a stack of fashion and beauty magazines by her bedside.

Six months after obtaining her cosmetology license she auditioned to be a Paul Mitchell national educator, a position usually reserved for a more seasoned stylist. A year later she was traveling on the national circuit, teaching stylists advanced hair techniques.

So it probably seemed only natural that six years ago, a co-founder of the Paul Mitchell Schools, a nationwide chain of 107 beauty schools, approached Cumberlander about buying a franchise.

The move made sense to her. Her salon business had peaked at $1 million in sales, with no room to grow. Owning a franchise meant having a well-defined operating plan to follow. Plus, she was eager to train students. With a $600,000 loan from Huntington Bank she converted a former CVS drugstore in Twinsburg into her first beauty school.

Last year, Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Cumberlander to the Ohio State Board of cosmetology, a governing board for cosmetologists, nail technicians and independent contractors.

'She's not afraid to speak her mind if she knows something about a topic,' said Kevin Miller, the board's executive director. 'She's not worried about what other people might think. It's OK if you don't agree with her.'

Cumberlander has had a lot of practice communicating -- doing what she enjoys most, listening and talking to students.

'I've always been into education. And I've always felt like beauty schools could be better,' she said. 'I'm building another business and trying to make a difference.'"

Steve Thompson's Profile in Spoke's business contact directory | Spoke

Steve Thompson's Profile in Spoke's business contact directory | Spoke: "Steve Thompson's Biography

Steve Thompson Chairman, Board Member Steve Thompson has been a licensed cosmetologist for seventeen years and a salon owner for eight years. Mr. Thompson joined the Board in May of 2003, when Governor Bob Taft signed a new measure, at the urging of the Ohio Independent Cosmetologists and Barbers Association (OICBA), updating many sections of the laws that govern Cosmetology. One of the provisions was adding a member to the Cosmetology Board to represent the interests of Independent Contractors. Since that time, Steve has served as President of OICBA which provides association benefits to its members. Ohio is the first state with this unique Independent Contractor's license and the OICBA is the first and only type associations for these professionals. Mr. Thompson's passion for cosmetology is driven by not only the great people in the industry, but also the superb professional products and educational opportunities that are made available in the beauty industry. As cosmetologists, Steve feels that all individuals in the profession have a duty to serve our clients with the utmost of professionalism, since we come into contact with them more than their attorney, physician, accountant or other professional person. In addition to being fully dedicated to the industry and OICBA, he credits much of his achievements to his wife who is also a dedicated cosmetologist and their two wonderful young sons. State of Ohio website, Ohio.gov Ohio Stylist magazine First Stop Business Connection © 2005 Ohio State Board of Cosmetology, All rights reserved. Phone: 614-466-3834 :|: FAX: 614-644-6880
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