For thirty years now, Bodylines have been providing hair, beauty and nail services to customers throughout Swale. From their base in Sittingbourne, the team of eleven have been championing their mission statement, which is “Your Choice, Our Knowledge”, which in short is the concept that Bodylines’ clients have a wide range of services to choose from and it is the knowledge of the business’ expert staff that customises every treatment to suit the customer’s individual needs.
Unlike other businesses in the hair and beauty sector, Bodylines decided to employ their team directly (instead of them being self employed). Joint owner Liza Smith explained why they made this decision: “A self employed team only allows the business to stand still, a bit like a landlord/tenant situation. We started with a new team of young apprentices and some of the existing staff that were happy to be employed. We have now got a sturdy home grown team that is a highly productive cohesive unit.”
Running a team of employees presents its own challenges, and Liza has had to ensure that there were business systems in place such as HR and Health and Safety. She has also faced the challenge of maintaining the business’ growth to retain the employees who have finished apprenticeship schemes.
Liza spoke about the quality of the staff she had working for them: “As a business, we pride ourselves on the progression of our entire team, past and present over the last 30 years. Our ability to pick passionate, driven team members has meant that every person that has come through our business progresses with their career to a very high standard. A number of salons in Swale are owned and run by some of our previous employees.”
Finally Liza discussed why she felt Bodylines deserved to win a Swale Business Award: “Bodylines has previously won four national awards as British Nail Salon of the Year. We have made some large changes to our business model in the last four years, with the view to building a strong business model that can be replicated in numerous locations in Kent. Entering the Swale Business Awards is something that is truly exciting. It is an echo of all that we are trying to achieve within our business. To be recognised as a strong business overall, not just the best business in our industry, means that we are moving in the right direction. Our longevity and strong local presence makes us a worthy winner of this award. We have remodelled our business with brave bold changes and we feel our best is yet to come.”
Bodylines
7 Roman Square
Sittingbourne
Kent
ME10 4BJ
01795 420 707
lizasmithnails@gmail.com