Every year, International Women’s Day offers a moment to recognise the women shaping industries, building businesses, and creating opportunities for others. In the beauty industry, many of those women are salon and spa owners balancing far more than client appointments.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Splice hosted an intimate roundtable conversation with women who are actively building beauty businesses. They shared honest insights about the challenges, lessons, and strategies that have shaped their journeys.
The women and business owners:
Goodness Fowosere, Founder & CEO, Bougienco Lagos (aka The Bougie Lagos).
Joy Adesanya, Managing Director, AJ Skylar, Braiding Vault.
Olabisi Adesona, Founder and CEO, Sugar Rushhh, Shuga Bodyyy.
Lisa, Founder and CEO, Knot Haus.
Key lessons from the conversation
The real challenges they face
Challenge #1: Finding skilled staff
Olabisi Adesona, Founder and CEO of Sugar Rushhh Aesthetics and Wellness, explained that truly skilled professionals are not always easy to find. As a result, many business owners invest time in training employees themselves, both in technical skills and in the culture of their business. But once employees become confident in their abilities, some choose to move on, restarting the cycle.
Joy Adesanya, Managing Director for AJ Skylar’s Braiding Vault, acknowledged the challenge, but counselled that the fear of employees leaving should not stop owners from investing in training.
Rephrasing Richard Branson, she added, “Train people well enough that they can leave, treat them well enough that they don’t want to.”
Challenge #2: Prioritising profit over revenue
One of the important financial lessons discussed during the conversation was the difference between revenue and profit.
Joy Adesanya, Managing Director for AJ Skylar’s Braiding Vault, emphasised that while many business owners celebrate high revenue numbers, it’s just as important to understand what portion of that revenue is actually profit.
“Revenue is not profit,” she explained. A business might generate impressive income in a month or year, but if expenses take up most of it, very little remains.
For salon and spa owners, this means paying closer attention to costs, budgeting carefully, and ensuring the business is not just busy, but truly profitable.
Winning strategies they swear by
Strategy #1: Build a strong structure
The founder of KnotHaus, Lisa, shared that building structure into the business has played a major role in its progress. From how clients are welcomed to how services are delivered, having defined processes helps ensure that every customer receives a consistent experience.
This consistency is what keeps clients coming back. When customers know what to expect each time they visit, trust begins to grow. Over time, that trust turns into loyalty.
As she noted during the conversation, the feedback from returning clients has often been the same: once they experience that consistency, they come back again and again.
Strategy #2: Be intentional about customer service
For Goodness Fowosere, customer service has been one of the strongest foundations of her business.
The Founder and CEO of Bougienco Lagos explained that her clients are always confident about the level of service they will receive. No matter how the business evolves, maintaining that standard has remained a priority.
When customers feel valued and consistently treated well, they are more likely to return and recommend the business to others. Over time, this builds a loyal community around the brand.
Strategy #3: Build a culture of saving
Another strategy Joy Adesanya shared was the importance of building a savings culture within the business.
Across her businesses, she introduced a daily savings system. Every day, a standing order automatically transfers a portion of the business income into a mutual bonds account.
By the end of each month, the business has saved a significant amount, strengthening its cash flow and financial stability.
According to Joy, the goal is consistency rather than size. Whether the amount is big or small, saving regularly allows the business to grow reserves, earn interest, and eventually explore other investments that generate income over time.
Conclusion
Running a successful beauty business in Nigeria requires far more than technical skill. As the women in this conversation shared, it also demands resilience, strong systems, financial discipline, and the ability to build and manage teams.
From maintaining standards in an industry without formal training systems to hiring the right people, their experiences highlight the realities many salon and spa owners face every day. But they also show that with the right mindset and strategies, those challenges can become opportunities to build stronger, more sustainable businesses.
These are just a few of the insights from the conversation.
To hear the full stories and practical advice shared during the discussion, watch the complete roundtable here:
