| Hair Cuttery CEO shares secrets at WCL lecture
BY ADRIENNE FRANK “You need to have passion, focus, enthusiasm, persistence, a positive attitude, and commitment,” entrepreneur Dennis Ratner, told his Washington College of Law audience on Oct. 10. “I’ve always been as committed to my business as I have been to my kids. Commitment is everything to me,” said Ratner, president and CEO of Hair Cuttery, at the annual Dean’s Business Law Lecture. Ratner, founder of the largest privately held salon chain in the country, is the first non-attorney to give the annual lecture, sponsored by the WCL Office of Development and Alumni Relations. He shared his leadership secrets with the audience, which included several business law professors. What began 40 years ago as a trade has evolved into a multimillion dollar business for Ratner. “I really ended up in this industry by default,” he said. “I didn’t feel that I had what it took to go to college, and my dad said, ‘If you want to live at home, you need to learn a trade.’” It was off to beauty school for Ratner, who was soon working behind a chair in his father’s Louis Beauty Salon in Washington, D.C. A year later, at age 19, the young stylist opened his family’s second store in suburban Virginia. “I asked my parents, years later, why they encouraged me to make that leap,” Ratner said. “They said they knew I would stick to it. At the time, they must’ve known something I didn’t.” In 1974, Ratner decided to leave the family business and open his own salon. With $5,000 in his pocket, Ratner opened the first Hair Cuttery in Springfield, Va. He said he could sense the industry shifting toward unisex salons, so he “caught the wave.” Today, Hair Cuttery boasts nearly 1,000 locations in the United States and Britain. In addition to the Cuttery chain, Ratner Companies also owns Bubbles, ColorWorks, Salon Cielo, and Salon Plaza. “Since I opened that first business, I’ve never been bored, and I think that’s something to brag about,” said Ratner, who’s retained his cosmetology license. “I’ve always loved what I do. I’m proud of my ability to change the way people look and feel.” |
