nwasianweekly.com
Oct. 7, 2006

Kay Hirai, owner of Studio 904 salon and spa, offers her employees career-development plans, including English classes and social-skill building, in addition to cosmetology training.

Salon a win-win situation for everyone
Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner

By James Tabafunda
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

“Kaizen” is a Japanese word that roughly means “lifelong learning in small, incremental steps.” Kay Hirai has taken plenty of little steps to see the big results that her company, Studio 904, now enjoys.

Her salons on Mercer Island and in Pioneer Square have a client base of about 5,000. Through all of Studio 904’s ups and downs in the last 30 years, she remains mindful of its corporate responsibility.

Hirai says her passion is to develop the work skills of those who live in the community.

“There are too many citizens,” including immigrants, low-income people, disabled people and disadvantaged women, “who are shut out from gainful employment and wage progression once they enter work. Our economic development plan should always be focused on the skill development of the citizens who lack resources and the role models so they can progress in life … and (pursue) lifelong learning,” Hirai explains.

Studio 904 has 26 employees, each one “a person of high value with a good work ethic,” Hirai states. Among them are immigrants who speak little English and women raising children on their own. Hirai and her management team provide them with career-development plans, including English classes, self-image building and social-skill building, along with cosmetology training.

Oftentimes, she says, her employees “blossom from insecure individuals who lack confidence to confident and highly skilled stylists.”

Teamwork replaced the conventional practice of individualism found at most other salons.

In 1976, with a $45,000 guaranteed loan from the Small Business Administration and $20,000 of her own money, Hirai opened her first salon on Capitol Hill.

“The business stayed on its feet,” she recalls, even though she had little experience running a salon. Problems like poor customer service and high employee turnover began cropping up from the start.

In 1982, Studio 904 faced a setback at its second location, in downtown Seattle, which had been open for only a year and a half. Hirai was given three months’ notice to move out her salon. The construction of the underground bus tunnel forced other business owners to comply as well.

Hirai found a location in Pioneer Square, but it wasn’t move-in ready. By the time it was, the salon was nearly bankrupt. Hirai quickly learned how public projects can affect surrounding business owners, and she soon joined the Governor’s Small Business Improvement Council to voice her and other small-business owners’ concerns.
When Studio 904 opened its doors in Pioneer Square on July 6, 1986, she started new company policies. Employees who were immigrants or on welfare were given the opportunity to learn new skills. In addition, she instituted a living salary — not commission — for her employees. “We are a no-tipping salon,” Hirai proudly points out.
Sales increased 20 to 25 percent every year for the next five years. Last year, the salons made $1.2 million in profits.

In 2004, Hirai received the Minority Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Minority Retail Business of the Year Award from the Department of Commerce. This year, she is nominated for the 2006 Asian American Entrepreneur of the Year Award, a program of the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation.

Hirai is now working to get the Legislature to approve a direct-entry cosmetology apprenticeship program. She wants anyone in Washington state who is interested in studying cosmetology, regardless of their economic status, to receive paid on-the-job training and qualify for a state license.

Visit www.studio904.com for more information.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

Send correspondence to:
Northwest Asian Weekly • P.O. Box 3468 • Seattle • WA  98114
Tel: 206.223.5559 •  Fax: 206.223.0626 • Email: info@nwasianweekly.com
Please bookmark this site: www.nwasianweekly.com.