Home>Profile>
Behold the beauty of independence
Some say looking good is feeling good. When her clients look good, Karen Pudetti feels great.
The owner of Luxe Salon, Spa and Laser Center on Jefferson Road in Henrietta says it is what she enjoys most about her work.
“I love knowing when a client leaves they are happy and smiling,” Pudetti says. “We make them look and feel beautiful.”
Luxe is marking its ninth year in operation. It began at 2541 Monroe Ave. in Brighton. Business was so good, Pudetti says, that the company soon outgrew the location. Luxe now employs 45 full-time staffers.
“When I first started the business it was a small spa. Then I took on additional space and added a salon,” she says. “Three years later we remodeled again to accommodate a laser for laser hair removal.”
As the business grew, Pudetti, 47, knew she needed more space and a place of her own.
“Jim and I spent three years looking. I never wanted it to be an emotional decision,” Pudetti explains. “When we saw this place I thought, ‘Wow, that would be my dream building,’ because of the size and the location, but we didn’t look at it. I didn’t think we could afford it. My husband encouraged me to just look at it. We negotiated with the owners for a year and a half.”
The couple owned the building for more than a year before Pudetti moved her business into it.
“We ripped out every wall. We gutted it,” she says. “This was a complete remodel.”
Then on a Friday in August 2012, she closed the doors of her Brighton shop and with the help of her staff, made the move to the new Henrietta location, opening there three days later.
Numbers background
It was her background in accounting and finance, Pudetti says, that made her want to give up renting and own her own building. She began her career in accounting working for a CPA firm in Boston before moving on to corporate accounting.
She next took positions at Eastman Kodak Co. and then with Frontier Communications of Rochester Inc. Though she was earning an excellent salary, she wanted something more.
“At 30, as a senior financial analyst at Frontier I decided I was done. I wanted to work for myself and went for electrolysis. My mother thought I lost my mind,” Pudetti recalls.
Pudetti obtained an electrolysis license in 1997, an esthetic license in 1998, and laser certification in 2008.
Her father, Wayne Jones, then president at Eastman Gelatine Corp. in the Boston area, had a different reaction.
“My dad told me to try it. He said, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? If it doesn’t work out, you can always go back to accounting,’” she says.
It was a life-changing decision that paid off. Pudetti still gives much of the credit to her father.
“I got a lot of my business sense from my dad. He moved up the ranks at Kodak before retiring,” Pudetti says. “Now at 71, he coaches CEOs through his own company, Perfect World Coaching.”
Pudetti is proud of the work her father does; he has coached CEOs at companies such as PepsiCo. Inc. and SONY Corp. and traveled as far away as Germany to do it.
Growing up in Greece, Pudetti knew at a young age that one day she wanted to run her own business.
“At 19, I told my mom and dad that I wanted to own my own business. I was not good at being told what to do,” she says.
Knowing to follow her own instincts has served her well. She invested in a laser machine, which costs upwards of $100,000, before it reached the level of popularity it has today.
“It has taken over waxing,” Pudetti says. “When it came out people were skeptical. Now it’s the way to go.”
But now she is looking for the next big thing.
“Now the laser machines are more widely available because you can get financing or find used ones. And Groupon or LivingSocial deals have the laser market oversaturated, so the price has been driven down. We’re looking at what we should do next,” Pudetti says.
New site
Luxe’s new location presents many options with a significant business growth potential if it continues on par with its first year.
“We didn’t do any advertising the first year we were here and business increased 30 percent in every area—the salon, spa and laser center,” Pudetti says.
She declined to disclose the company’s financial details.
The reason she chose not to advertise was to see how well visibility alone at the new location might add to the business.
“We expected growth due to visibility because the town told us this is one of the two busiest intersections in all of Monroe County; 250,000 cars go by on any given day,” Pudetti says of the intersection of Winton and Jefferson roads.
Once inside the facility, clients saw how Pudetti designed the layout to give each area of the business its own entity.
“Karen pays great attention to detail,” says longtime client Jacque Trama, an educational consultant who owns Sarphatie Education Inc. She has tried just about every service Luxe offers, Trama says.
“You go to a spa to take care of yourself, to be pampered. Right from when you walk in, it’s like a retreat. She has put a lot of thought into the experience. The wall with the waterfalls is so relaxing,” Trama says.
As a busy professional, Trama appreciates the convenience of the hours at Luxe, which is open seven days a week.
“I absolutely love being able to get in on Sunday,” Trama says. “You won’t find many salons that have those hours.”
The exclusive product line is another attraction, she says. “I really like their products. My favorite line is Guinot Skin Care. Their lines are not sold elsewhere.”
What impresses Trama the most, though, is the gentle nature of the entire staff.
“They are able to keep the proper professional distance yet engage you. It’s a fine line. She intuitively mastered the way she taught them that,” Trama says.
Training is key at Luxe as part of an overall dedication to education, General Manager Jessica Sevio says.
“Education is important to us,” Sevio explains. “We give new hires an employee handbook and a manual for their specific job so they know our expectations. We expect them to focus on the client like they are the only person in the building.”
The education extends to the clients as well.
“We like to see our clients leave feeling great, but we also educate them on how to do it themselves, how to use the products properly,” she adds.
Training is ongoing for the entire staff with new product and service demonstrations provided by top vendors, Sevio says.
There is a camaraderie between the staff and Pudetti that makes the workplace enjoyable, Sevio says.
Pudetti agrees and points out how Sevio is especially good at picking up where her own weakness leaves off.
“My strengths are business, accounting, finance,” Pudetti says. “Jessica is good with people … if discipline has to come, it’s better from her.”
That used to apply to what Pudetti names as her number one weakness—firing an employee.
“I hate having to fire people. I have learned not to take it personal and not to drag my feet because I don’t want to do it,” she says.
To avoid having to terminate an employee, Pudetti instituted a detailed process for hiring to ensure a person is the right fit.
“Each potential new hire has five different managers hire them. We have an interview packet with 50 questions, and we all take questions to ask from it. We also have them get to know us by shadowing here for a day. We’ve learned that it’s a process that works,” she says.
Growth ahead
As for growing the business, Pudetti says her plan is to keep the segments evenly proportioned—one-third salon, one-third spa and one-third laser—to keep the company economy-proof.
“Some of our biggest years were when we had the recession, 2008 and 2009. We saw a 30 percent increase. We understood we had clients who recently lost their jobs,” she says. “We knew they couldn’t come in every four weeks to have their hair colored so we gave a little tube for touch ups to stretch to eight weeks.
“We also did mini facials. People always want to look good, even when they are going through bad times,” Pudetti explains.
By finding creative ways to take care of clients going through unfortunate times, Pudetti says, she showed her loyalty to them and they have shown it back. Some clients, like Trama, have stayed with Pudetti for 15 years. She had her first facial from Pudetti when she was still working out of her home.
Luxe offers a range of salon, spa and laser services along with a retail boutique that carries Stefan Otter custom-made jewelry and novelty gift items.
There is 9,000 square feet with separate waiting areas for the salon, spa and laser center.
A large conference room has floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. The site plays host to business meetings, corporate events and bridal parties.
“Sage Rutty brought their top 12 people here for a Thanksgiving celebration, which included a huge turkey dinner. I brought my china from home for the occasion,” Pudetti says. “They gave a presentation and then they enjoyed a few spa services.”
This segment of the business is doing so well that Pudetti has added an event coordinator to help plan events.
“We’ve closed down for several events because we’ve had as many as 150 people,” Pudetti says. “We brought in flowers, valet parking and caterers. Miller Funeral Homes across the street has allowed us to use their parking lot.”
She has the space to serve up to two large bridal parties on a Saturday. She rents the conference room for other events such as executive meetings and chocolate-making classes.
“Luxe was an awesome venue,” says Lauren Dixon, CEO of Dixon Schwabl Inc. and a member of Circle of Red. “From a marketing perspective, we’re always trying to look for interesting venues so women will come.”
The American Heart Association recently held an event at Luxe to draw more female support from the community for the Go Red for Women Luncheon at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Luxe was selected by the Circle of Red Committee, Dixon says, because members thought its services would appeal to women and attract them to the event—and its important message.
“These events engage women in conversations about the importance of cardiovascular health,” Dixon says. “They become ambassadors and provide wellness education opportunities for others. It’s good to find different ways to engage women because different things appeal to different women.”
More than 100 women attended the event at Luxe.
As her business continues to grow, it may also continue to evolve. Pudetti points out she still has 6,000 square feet available below the first floor of her facility and she is considering uses for it.
“I would love to have a dermatologist on staff,” she says. “We’re looking into the potential of a new laser machine for tattoo removal, too.”
As for Pudetti, she still takes appointments with clients, but she has cut back to Tuesdays and Thursdays on her doctor’s orders due to overuse of the small muscles in her arm from laser and electrolysis.
“I do an acupuncture session here once a week, which has helped my arm heal as well as tremendously helped my migraines. It is the best stress reliever,” she says.
Off the job
In addition to running the business, Pudetti is raising a teenager, daughter Taylor, 13, and a 3-year-old, daughter Payton. The family lives in Pittsford.
She and her husband, James, who works as finance director at the Catholic Diocese of Rochester, enjoy traveling, and recently returned from a short trip to Aruba.
She recalls the words of her father as she passes the same values to her own daughter, who comes to Luxe to help out folding towels.
“My dad used to tell me, when I was as young as 13, ‘You can have anything you want in your lifetime. All you have to do is work for it,’ I thought, OK, I can do that,” she says.
And by achieving her dream of owning her own business, Pudetti has.
Lori Gable is a Rochester-area freelance writer.
Karen Pudetti
Position: Owner, Luxe Salon, Spa and Laser Center
Age: 47
Education: B.S. in accounting, Nazareth College of Rochester, 1990; electrolysis license, Sheer Ego, 1997; esthetic license, 1998; laser certification, 2008
Family: Husband, James; daughters, Taylor, 13, and Payton, 3
Residence: Pittsford
Hobbies: Watching her older daughter play several sports while chasing her younger daughter off the fields and courts; running; working out
Quote: “I love knowing when a client leaves they are happy and smiling. … We make them look and feel beautiful.”
9/26/14 (c) 2014 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email rbj@rbj.net.
