Madison Businesses Pull Resources Together
Small changes and additions made a huge impact for increasing curb appeal for Cuttin' Loose Salon on Madison.
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With over 250 businesses stretching three miles long Madison Avenue Merchants Association (MAMA) has been steadily growing and gaining ground in its mission to improve connections between Madison businesses with its surrounding community. More and more Madison businesses are coming together to meet, share ideas, and identify how improvements can be made for Madison. With the wide range of diversity among these businesses brings opportunity to share expertise with one another to help manage all the many aspects of running a successful small business.
A new MAMA program demonstrating this sharing of resources and expertise is the “Madison Project.” Its goal is to assist proprietors with window design and makeovers emphasizing the importance of curb appeal. Made up mostly of storefronts with generous windows, we could easily identify that many Madison businesses under utilize this important asset to help attract customers. Some struggle considerably, while some could just use a few touches to make a bigger impact. Any Real Estate Stager can tell you that one of the first rules of thumb is to grab them at the door! Did you know that buyers make a decision about a home within the first 30 seconds of seeing a house? That rule applies equally to business storefronts. Curb appeal is “word-of-mouth” advertising.
How does the project work? One Madison Ave. business per month interested in improving the “look” of their storefront is chosen. There is no charge for these services, although the storeowner must be willing to make a nominal investment in décor change. The storeowner and myself discuss necessary changes and what the proprietor can afford to do. I make suggestions for color, design and subtle advertising.
I’m big on eliminating clutter. Many storeowners make the mistake of too much stuff in their window. For example, if you are a salon, you don’t need to state the obvious such as “Perms and Haircuts.” That goes without saying. However, if you do offer a unique service, it should certainly be out there.
Last month’s project was Cuttin’ Loose Style Salon located just west of Harding Middle school at 16621 Madison Ave. Salon owner and stylist, Christine Palmer was a willing participant interested in a new modern look. We started by choosing a color scheme. Blue and white were chosen to coordinate with her product line colors. This also gave the inside a “spa feel” by using stones in bowls to display product rather than country style baskets. We removed the shelving unit in the window that displayed her product line and replaced it with the seating arrangement for waiting clients. We replaced the outdated vertical blinds with multiple sheers tied at their center with decorative blue beads and wire. Between each sheer is a clear glass vessel filled with blue stones and a white candle, creating a straight line of clean symmetry in the window.
The salon name, Cuttin’Loose, at the top of the building in black block lettering was removed and replaced with a simple text in lower case white vinyl lettering along with phone number and website located right on the window. It is accompanied by a beautiful white graphic silhouette of a women’s hair blowing in the wind. The ocean blue door and white graphics were chosen to coordinate with the interior colors. There are still a few minor details to be added. Such as white vinyl “WELCOME” lettering and street numbers on the blue door.
Good work, Christine! Although you and your staffs’ skills as talented stylists haven’t changed, your new storefront shows off your ability to be up-to-date on style and fashion. And being in an image industry as most of us are on Madison, that’s important! A book may not be judged by its cover, but unfortunately, not as many will read it.
On a broader level, The Madison Project consists of a monthly newsletter with tips for improving storefronts, curb appeal and Madison Avenue’s overall appeal.
Robby Zettler is the owner of Metropolitan Home Design & Real Estate Staging located at 15226 Madison Ave. Included in her many design services is Storefront Makeovers.