HAIR LOSS NEWS AND HONORS

U.S. Small Business Administration Honors PK Walsh
with Massachusetts 2008 Jeffrey H. Butland Family-Owned Business of the Year award.  March 4, 2008. 

• Read Letter from SBA District Director
   

Family Owned Small Business SBA Award Winners
A Company Begun at the Kitchen Table

(Cape Business, June 7, 2008) -- KATHLEEN WALSH STARTED losing her hair at age 16. Later, raising her daughter and son as a single parent and working as a dispatcher for a trucking company, stress worsened the condition. She tried for years to find a solution.

Finally, she decided to address the problem herself. With her sister, a trained barber, Kathy started PK Walsh at her kitchen table. From that table, Kathy quickly moved to her living room, and in 1983 to a storefront in Brookline - two rooms and a reception area. In the 1990s, she expanded to Wellesley.

Nearly 24 years later, her company remains the only hair enhancement service in the Boston area catering exclusively to women. "We are focused only on women's needs, and we provide a safe, private environment.," she said.

Today, her daughter Nikki -- who also has androgenetic alopecia -- is the company's president, having worked with Kathleen for the past 14 years. Mother and daughter are among 30 million to 40 million women in the United States with some form of hair loss, which often carries a stigma.

"Our business provides a service nobody wants to talk about or admit they need -- and that no one ideally wants," said Nikki. That alone makes the business success of PK Walsh all the more impressive.

PK Walsh focuses on female pattern hair loss in genetically susceptible women who -- like Kathy and Nikki -- begin experiencing thinning as early as age 12. Today, they service more than 1,500 clients, some as far as England and Ireland, many located on the South Shore and Cape Cod.

WHAT MAKES PK WALSH SUCCESSFUL?

For one, it has established a unique niche. Also, Kathy and Nikki can understand their clients because they have lived with the condition most of their lives. But there are other key strategies they have applied to PK Walsh that would inform any small business, including:

• Developing a mission statement and relying on it every day to measure success.

• Nurturing staff to engender loyalty and avoid costly turnovers.

• Staying abreast of technology amid a fast-changing and competitive marketplace.

• Establishing a board of advisers and mentors to help keep the business strategic amid the daily pressures.

"We are in a client-driven business," said Nikki. "That puts extraordinary responsibility on our staff. They truly have to be an extension of family, and that means mentoring them. At the same time, we must encourage our clients to be honest with us. IF they did not like an appointment, they need to tell us. The best way to learn is from our mistakes."

Over the years, mother and daughter have developed modest but powerful ways to reward staff. One program is called the "cultural benefit," a reflection of Kathleen's lifelong interests. "Our employees get a stipend to reimburse the cost of tickets to plays and other cultural events," explains Nikki.

"You go the extra mile for staff, and they will go that mile for you," said Nikki. "It has paid off 20-fold for us over the years."

Another important building block for success is focus. Both mother and daughter can recite the company's mission statement as rapidly as the Pledge of Allegiance. "To promote every client's beauty, wellness and self-esteem through state-of-the-art hair enhancement options int he safest and most supportive environment possible."

No mission statement, however, can thrive without constant reevaluation, she emphasizes. "You must continually learn and grow to move forward." Among their most successful tactics has been creation of an advisory board that helps mother and daughter with issues ranging from accounting and finance to how to manage a family-owned business.

Another powerful support is PK Walsh's involvement in a consortium of hair restoration specialists, Transitions International Group. Members are independent and not competitive with a particular geography. As a result, they can help each other with education, purchasing, technology and marketing.

PK Walsh has grown its client base by about four percent per year over the last decade. This has come with only modest reliance on traditional marketing. Very few clients come from word-of-mouth, for example. "Women who suffer from hair loss traditionally do not want to recommend us because they are hiding the condition from all but their best friends and family," said Nikki.

Inevitably, all the best management techniques and effective marketing cannot substitute for what the Walshes consider the essence of their business model: "To really love what you do. If you have the passion and the drive it comes out in everything you do."
 

The Styling Comb has been passed…
PK Walsh is proud to announce that Nikki Walsh has succeeded her Mom, Kathy as company President, continuing the family tradition of empowering women by offering hair solutions for thinning hair.
Read More 

PK Walsh client, Rachel, shown with her Hair Addition solution.

PK Walsh Empowers Women WCVB-TV Boston’s Chronicle profiles PK Walsh and its founder, Kathy Walsh in “Hair.” See how PK Walsh has helped women battling thinning hair through a combination of innovative technology and compassionate service. Air date: 1/20/06. Hair Transplants We are now affiliated with a leading hair transplant surgeon, Dr. Michael Kaminer. Learn more at www.skincarephysicians.net. This is one more PK Walsh solution to help women with hair loss feel "whole again." Laser Light Hair Rejuvenation Therapy PK Walsh, leaders in hair replacement solutions for women are proud to bring you the latest, most effective technology with the addition of: Laser Light Hair Rejuvenation Therapy.