WEST JORDAN — The hair salon world can be vicious. Competition is everywhere. Customers face dozens of choices.
But when owner Nancy Rice and employee Mary Ridge moved from a distant site to establish and co-own Trimz a few years ago at 1751 W. 7800 South, the transition could not have gone more smoothly.
"We've been here 3 1/2 years, and we never lost one ounce of clientele when we moved," Ridge said, noting that Rice's shop was at 6200 South and Bangerter Highway. "It was quite a distance. We moved quite a ways.
"But we let the people in the community all around us know we were moving, and they moved with us. It is very rewarding. We were very concerned. We were taking a huge leap going into this place. We're really happy."
That loyalty, plus a few other customers discovering the place, has led to Trimz growing to a thriving business with 12 hairdressers and four nail technicians.
"We're a full-service family salon," Ridge said. "We take from infants to elderly. We do everything."
"Everything" includes weaves, perms and shampoo sets from a staff that features some people who are right out of beauty college and others who have more than a quarter-century of experience in the business, plus a wide array of hair-care products.
Ridge, with 20 years, and Rice, with 27, certainly have experience, but their paths intersected years before they became partners. They were neighbors growing up in Kearns, "and our parents were the very best of friends," Ridge said. Rice often hung out with Ridge's sister, Georgia.
Ridge found that having a nail business at home after graduation was "just not convenient" and later worked for Rice for a dozen years at that Bangerter Highway shop.
"We just decided we wanted something more up-to-date," Ridge said. "We were in an older place. We started looking and we found this complex, and it was perfect."
One employee made the move, too, but didn't stay long. However, that was only a minor setback. Ridge said, "we got some awesome people" with lots of experience, including Frank Winfrey, who was at Valley Fair Mall for several years.
Ridge said Trimz someday might get involved in massage therapy and permanent makeup, "but we're just taking it each day at a time right now."
"We'd love to expand. We'd love to have a Trimz II somewhere else in the valley, but we're not sure where. We think we've done well where we're at. It was tough at first, but it just takes lots of hard work and things will work out. They really do."
In the meantime, Ridge will continue as a nail technician and Rice will remain a beautician — a structure that Ridge said works just fine as the company capitalizes on their strengths.
"Having a great partner really helps, and we've really moved along. When we first started, we tried to focus on certain things, and they didn't work out for us. We were willing to try anything to get the salon going," Ridge said.
"We knew it would be hard, because you've got to go against a lot of other places, including large chains."
"It's a tough world out there, but as long as you cater to people of the community and they know you do, they'll come back."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com