David Marshall established his business in 1974 having trained under iconic hairstylist Vidal Sassoon and managed Sassoon's Sloane Street London salon, aged just 21.
Marshall believes that a commitment to quality of both product and service as well as attention to the individual requirements of his customers have been the key to longevity in business.
The David Marshall business encompasses two separate but interconnecting elements – the professional hair salon and the David Marshall School of Hairdressing which was established in 1982. All of the stylists who work in the salon have come through Marshall's training school, a system he prefers to the apprenticeship model.
“We took on staff before from outside and it just didn’t work. We find it more effective to do it our way. We prefer to run the school where the student is working on models every day. I think the apprenticeship model can be abused whereby they can become dogsbodies.
“The most important person in the salon is the client. Every client is an individual and should be treated as such. We don’t cut hair by numbers,” he says.
He sees his as a very immediate and visual business.
“If you have a good meal in a restaurant, you have to bring it up in conversation but if you get a good haircut everyone can see that straight away, so one happy customer can result in many more but the opposite is also the case.”
For a long time Marshall operated from two locations – on Fade Street/ South Great George’s Street and on Dawson Street. The recession led him to close his Dawson Street salon in 2011 but he says that, in a roundabout way, this has led to a tighter operation.
“When we hit the recession around 2007 everybody took a hit,” he says. “The rents and rates on Dawson Street were horrific. I sought a 10 per cent reduction but they wouldn’t even talk to me, so the survival kit kicked in and we subsequently moved all of the business back to our current location.”
He believes that rates are a continual challenge for small businesses.
“The cost of running a business has been a challenge over the years,” he admits. “They recently doubled our rates to 24,000 a year. Before you even open the door, you’re paying out €500 a week in rates.”
Marshall says that 2008 was probably the worst time in the history of his business but he was lucky to have the Fade Street premises to fall back on.
“Having both the school and the salon in the same location allows the students to integrate much more in what is happening on the floor. The type of business we have is a very personalised one so it’s turned out to be better to have everything under one roof.”
The recent downturn was not the first Marshall has worked through. He recalls the Seventies as a “dour time” in Dublin. Fade Street is now one of the most vibrant in Dublin with Fade Street Social, the Market Bar and l’Gueuleton making it a popular destination while George’s Street too has seen a rebirth in recent years, but it wasn’t always so.
“ We started in 1974... and a year after we opened the majority of the big stores on George’s Street closed down – Cassidy’s, Dunnes, Dockrell’s – if you saw two or three people on George’s Street you’d be doing well,” says Marshall. “If you asked anyone where Fade Street was, they didn’t have a clue. Now it is one of the most trendy places in the city.”
Marshall employs 17 staff between the salon, the school and the office. His wife Beverley is heavily involved in the business. Despite his success over the years, he believes that there is little support from Government for service-based businesses.
For all the various challenges he has faced over the years, David Marshall says he is as excited about his business and the business of hairdressing as he was when he first opened the doors to his salon. But, whereas he used to work “eight days a week”, he says he has cut down to three or four. He is still hands-on and still cutting hair.
Throwing in the towel (as he jokes) won’t be an option until he has found the right person to take the helm and will involve an extended period while he ensures that they will maintain the same ethos he has had throughout his career.
“I think the David Marshall brand is an excellent one and offers huge opportunity to someone to take on,” he says. “My daughter Laura has just finished her Leaving Cert and is starting a degree in marketing. She’s only 18 but she’s a real ideas woman and is a very motivated and capable individual so I feel the business would be in safe hands if she was to take it on.”
As I leave the salon, Marshall walks me to the door. “There’s a client in today who’s been coming to me for more than 40 years,” he says.
“You must know a lot about each other at this stage,” I say. “You know how hairdressers love to chat.”
“Not really,” says Marshall. “I’ve always preferred to let the scissors do the talking.”
www.davidmarshall.ie
