Meet Amanda and Richard Newcomb of Carbon Salon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda and Richard Newcomb.

Amanda and Richard, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
This has always been a difficult question for us. Where did Carbon Salon get its start? Did it begin when we talked about a “maybe one-day” dream, or did it not really take root until the business plan was finished? Hard as it is to nail down, in our minds Carbon Salon became very real the moment we signed for our current, beautiful space.

We are a husband and wife team who are fortunate to have found investors in family and amazing friends. The mere fact that they believed in us and this crazy idea is humbling. Amanda had a vision for the salon and my (Richard’s) father was able to bring that to life. From the steel-pipe stylist stations to the giant front desk, our entire salon is hand-built by family.

Now, the journey from painting walls and dreaming, to seeing this fantasy become reality, has been quite an adventure. Measuring coffee consumption in swimming pools and sweat in gallons, we were able to open our doors exactly three months from the day we finished our business plan. Please remind us to not do that again the next time we open a salon.

Looking back, one of the choices we are most proud of making, in the beginning, is deciding to grow organically. We have ten stations at Carbon Salon, though when we opened we only had five stylists. If we had hired ten stylists right away, it would not have been fair to the amazing people who believed in us. We decided to grow our team one-stylist-at-a-time to ensure we have a good ratio of clients: stylists.

We hired our tenth stylist only last month, which is a huge victory for us as we near our two-year anniversary on July 18th. It took many things to open the salon, not one of which we could have done without the support and encouragement of those around us. All of it has been a group effort and we will always strive to lead a motivated team.

Has it been a smooth road?
Is there such a thing as a smooth road? We’ve had plenty of bumps in ours, but we work very hard to capture something, anything, that will help us avoid similar ones in the future. We’ve been on a learning odyssey the whole time.

A hurdle we take a personal interest in overcoming is the communication barriers that often occur in the salon industry between client and stylist. What sets good service providers and great service providers apart is their ability to ensure everyone is speaking the same language, and it’s not always an easy thing to do.

We, however, like to see it as a great challenge, and an opportunity to stand out in our industry. We hope to continue making positive efforts in this area starting with our recurrent training programs. All of which have a heavy emphasis on effective communication.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I have to brag on Amanda and our employees here. Amanda has led this team by example since the very beginning and shown them not only how to be successful through hard work, but also how to find passion and give inspiration to those around you. All of our team members do an incredible job of motivating each other.

We do hair, great hair. We’re definitely known for our balayage and blonde work, but we truly love anything color. We’re fortunate to have a great spread of wonderful clients, each with their own unique style. We’re in the business of helping you express yourself.

Oh, and weddings! We are elated to have been a part of so many wonderful people’s big days.

What sets us apart from others is our efforts to foster growth of our employees. We hope to help everyone see the value in themselves.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Longmont has been great to us. It is an amazing community that is very up and coming. As a fourth generation Longmont Native (Amanda) I can’t imagine opening our first business anywhere else.

Contact Info:

• Address: 600 Longs Peak Ave
  Unit C-D
  Longmont, CO 80501
• Website: www.carbon.salon
• Phone: 303-848-4188
• Email: info@carbon.salon
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carbonsalonlongmont/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarbonSalonLongmont/
• Other: https://bit.ly/3256rak

Image Credit:
Kendra Blattner Photography, Melissa Sue Photos

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