American Salon Opening Looking for helpers

[windeguy]

Gordito's is a good example of a nice start-up...

If one is looking for encouraging signs.................

Agreed, Gorditos fit a need for a DIFFERENT STYLE OF FOOD than already exists here. Did you notice that just around the corner there is another Mexican restaurant now? The Indian restaurant just a few feet away did not make it.

Anyone starting a business here that becomes successful is subject to copycats. Take a drive up to Jarabacoa, for example. A very good and successful rib joint called Parada de Jesus was there. Now there are two more places on the same hill featuring ribs.

The OP has a chance if there really is a critical mass of "gringas with straight hair" that like her services. Then watch out for the copycats after she overcomes the other issues with doing business here.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

She has a good location.....right by Checkpoint. Women can get a color or cut while their husbands have a beer- or vice versa. It will have high visibility due to Checkpoint being right there. Checkpoint always seems to have clients, any time of day or evening. Parking may be problematic, but clients can always part down at the bottom of the hill.

Let's give her a chance.

~ Lindsey

 

[the gorgon]

She has a good location.....right by Checkpoint. Women can get a color or cut while their husbands have a beer- or vice versa. It will have high visibility due to Checkpoint being right there. Checkpoint always seems to have clients, any time of day or evening. Parking may be problematic, but clients can always part down at the bottom of the hill.

Let's give her a chance.

~ Lindsey

when you say "high visibility" do you mean the wives will have a direct line of sight to their husbands, to make sure they are not chatting up a strumpet while they are under the dryer?

 

[AlterEgo]

Agreed, Gorditos fit a need for a DIFFERENT STYLE OF FOOD than already exists here. Did you notice that just around the corner there is another Mexican restaurant now? The Indian restaurant just a few feet away did not make it.

Anyone starting a business here that becomes successful is subject to copycats. Take a drive up to Jarabacoa, for example. A very good and successful rib joint called Parada de Jesus was there. Now there are two more places on the same hill featuring ribs.

The OP has a chance if there really is a critical mass of "gringas with straight hair" that like her services. Then watch out for the copycats after she overcomes the other issues with doing business here.

I agree with your basic premise - about the copycats.

A bit of a difference here though, because Joe-Shmoe can't just open a salon to compete, would have to be someone with American, Canadian or European training in cosmetology. Not a lot of that going on in DR.

If she's good at what she does, women will come from a distance for her services.

 

[the gorgon]

Agreed, Gorditos fit a need for a DIFFERENT STYLE OF FOOD than already exists here. Did you notice that just around the corner there is another Mexican restaurant now? The Indian restaurant just a few feet away did not make it.

Anyone starting a business here that becomes successful is subject to copycats. Take a drive up to Jarabacoa, for example. A very good and successful rib joint called Parada de Jesus was there. Now there are two more places on the same hill featuring ribs.

The OP has a chance if there really is a critical mass of "gringas with straight hair" that like her services. Then watch out for the copycats after she overcomes the other issues with doing business here.

windy, on the subject of copycats near Jarabacoa; how about them mazorca guys?

you are absolutely right about the need for a different style of food. how many pizza shops does POP need? yet, some guy is going to great lengths to set up some elaborate parlor on 27 febrero. this is the center of the caribbean, yet you can't get a roti or jerk chicken anywhere.

 

[Jumbo]

Anyone starting a business here that becomes successful is subject to copycats.

Oh so true! Set up a tattoo shop in Cerro Alto ( STI ) and now there are 10. Sold the business for a new moto. I think i made out on the deal.

 

[windeguy]

windy, on the subject of copycats near Jarabacoa; how about them mazorca guys?

you are absolutely right about the need for a different style of food. how many pizza shops does POP need? yet, some guy is going to great lengths to set up some elaborate parlor on 27 febrero. this is the center of the caribbean, yet you can't get a roti or jerk chicken anywhere.

Yes the 20 plus people all selling the exact same type of "cake" is quite amazing on the lower strip of road to Jarabacoa. While competition is good for the consumer, that cannot be good for the seller.

As for different foods, there is little desire for spicy food on this island, so you won't see much jerk chicken for sale (nor the need for hot sauce as is being discussed in another thread).

 

[the gorgon]

Yes the 20 plus people all selling the exact same type of "cake" is quite amazing on the lower strip of road to Jarabacoa. While competition is good for the consumer, that cannot be good for the seller.

As for different foods, there is little desire for spicy food on this island, so you won't see much jerk chicken for sale (nor the need for hot sauce as is being discussed in another thread).

there is also mild jerk, which does not call for the peppers...

also, there are tremendous caribbean seafood dishes, like conch soup, curried conch, and lobster prepared Bahamian or Jamaican style , which are favorites of visitors to those places. if you are making a restaurant to cater to foreigners, i see no reason to sell him something he can get on the day he goes home.

 

[bilko]

there is also mild jerk, which does not call for the peppers...

also, there are tremendous caribbean seafood dishes, like conch soup, curried conch, and lobster prepared Bahamian or Jamaican style , which are favorites of visitors to those places. if you are making a restaurant to cater to foreigners, i see no reason to sell him something he can get on the day he goes home.

Don't forget conch fritters, mmm.

 

[AlterEgo]

Back on topic please.

 

[Criss Colon]

For some reason, here inthe DR, they like to place like business right next to one another.
In SD you can find streets with nothing but, tire "Rims", used toilets, sinks, & bathtubs, and every intersection has 4 Colmados..
In Villa Mella there are about 15 stalls in a row selling "Chicharones"!
Go figure???
CCCCCCCCCCCCC

 

[ROLLOUT]

HeyIndia,

Will you be cutting men's hair? I have nothing against men being gay with each other, but when I sit in a barber chair for a hair cut and the man rubs me here and there I am not comfortable. That has happened to me 3 times here in the DR, but I haven't found any women who cut men's hair here. I stop in to a salon and am told there is a barbero just down the block. The one woman I found who cut my hair didn't have electric clippers and spent 45 minutes with scissors and it didn't come out as I like it. SO if you will be cutting men's hair I hope to know when and where you open.
Thanks
Der Fish

And just where is "here and there"?

 

[Tamborista]

And just where is "here and there"?

Perhaps you should stick with chicken.

 

[ROLLOUT]

lighten up Tambo. The life of a Maytag repairman can be very boring.

 

[william webster]

car dealers are the best example.... the golden mile syndrome

if you want a car... you go there....
somebody gets the business...

if you are 10 miles away..... less customers

 

[frank12]

car dealers are the best example.... the golden mile syndrome

if you want a car... you go there....
somebody gets the business...

if you are 10 miles away..... less customers

Red Light districts (Amsterdam, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Frankfurt, etc.) and brothels do the same...they call it the Beaver Mile where i come from.

Frank

 

[the gorgon]

there is a difference between those places and the DR, insofar as copycat behavior is concerned. take a place like 47th Street in Manhattan. restaurants the whole length of the street. it works. you might be on your way to an Indian restaurant for dinner, and you see a Brazilian one, and you just might visit that place next week. same like car dealers. you might see a Camry on a lot while you are on the way to buy the Buick and say "hmmmm.i could like that".

the DR is a case of everyone doing the same thing in the same place. all the roast pork guys huddled into the same block, with not one on the other side of town. the other thing is that if you set up a cart selling deep-fried yak balls today, by next week there will be ten guys next to you selling the same thing.

 

[william webster]

Red Light districts (Amsterdam, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Frankfurt, etc.) and brothels do the same...they call it the Beaver Mile where i come from.

Frank

I can almost hear the tails slapping the water ........... warning of your arrival.......