JUST A DIVA!

Hello everyone GG Blogger back again!

Where were we?...oh yes 'The Little House'.

We had a wonderful 10 year run with our Interior Design business, but unfortunately, another recession hit the country and property owners were on budgets. We had left the UK for our annual Xmas holiday with at least 6 projects on the table for the New Year but when we returned they all cancelled due to the economy.
We still had our 2 shops and at this point, so we decided to close one of them down and use the second shop for our next business.....

Yes ..Jackie was off again!

Once again my family in the US would update me with the latest trends, this time it was my sister who told me the biggest thing at the time was false nails. There was a company call 'Backscratchers' who were sweeping the US with their fibreglass nail system. So it didn't take much persuading for me to check this all out.
  
We didn't have the internet in those days so it took some time to find out all about this new craze.I did my homework and decided I would see if I could find another smaller company who were manufacturing the same product so we could tie up with them and become a distributor in the UK.

It wasn't long before I found DIVA NAILS who were based in Mississippi. This company was run by a former employee of 'Backscratchers', they had copied the product and were selling it cheaper.
I approached them and said we were interested in supplying the product in the UK and they invited us to visit them in Mississippi to see their factory and discuss a distribution deal. So off we flew to see them.

We were welcomed by a wonderful family and apart from doing business with them they entertained us and showed us around this wonderful part of America.
We also had a chance to visit New Orleans where they lent us a family apartment to stay in.
By the time we left to return to the UK, we had made firm friends, and we came back to the UK ready to start a new business and a new chapter.

Tony was reluctant to sell a female only product at the beginning and felt it would be better for me to promote and train in the products while he found another business. So he decided to become a driver and bought a big 7 seater American car and started 'Chariots of Hire' a luxury car hire service. (By the way, the name was my idea so I will take that accolade).

Tony would often drive American tourists around London, and one of his clients supplied garden plants to the biggest store in the US, he befriended them and before we knew it we had an invitation to visit them in Florida.
They were such lovely people that they forgave Tony when, as he was driving around the Mall in the West End of London with them all in the car, he broke down at Admiralty Arch.
He had to unload them all out of the car and put them into a taxi while he waited for the breakdown service to arrive, he was slightly embarrassed, to say the least!  

In the meantime, I was starting to build what was to be our next successful business. I had found a wonderful lady who became our nail trainer and she & I worked together to work with students training them in the fibreglass nail system. Sarah was to become my head nail trainer and top nail technician when we finally opened a salon. Her work was impeccable and she had wonderful teaching skills
To this day Sarah still boasts a regular clientele of loyal clients who have been using her service for over 20 years.
We had some wonderful times working together which I am sure she will attest to, because of Sarah I was able to build a fantastic nail & beauty business which started with supplying products and training nail technicians, and then expanding to retail shops.

We started training in my house in Mill Hill, and we exhibited at various professional beauty shows where we found young girls to register for our nail training courses.
Tony stopped his driving business to help me run the wholesale side of the business and once again we were partners. During this time Katie was studying for her degree at Manchester University and when she came home during the holidays she would watch Sarah training the girls. She was fascinated and because she had such a retentive memory
she was able to learn the method very quickly. She continued with her studies and we were very proud when she finally achieved a degree in economics, accounting and law. Katie had also developed a fantastic talent in singing & dancing throughout her years at a dance school. We proudly sat through many amateur shows listening to her sing and watching her dance, in fact to this day we still continue to do this.

Meanwhile, my gorgeous son was emerging to be a sports star, excelling at every sport especially football. Rob had also developed a wonderful sense of humour and entertained us regularly with his fabulous personality.
When we weren't watching Katie on the stage we were watching Rob on the football field. We were, and still are, very proud parents, our children make us proud every day even now.

The nail business was growing fast and while Sarah was running the training school I was getting involved in distributing nail polishes. I had made an agreement to be the UK distributor for Essie nail polishes, another USA company. I exhibited with the polishes at the same time as promoting my nail wholesale business and was beginning to get a reputation in the industry. I employed sales reps to sell the polishes and very soon we were pushed into opening a shop premises as we didn't have enough room in our home.

The birth of 'DIVA NAILS & BEAUTY'In 1993

We opened our first Nail & beauty salon in Edgware Middlesex. It was a small narrow shop but it had 2 floors so we set up the ground floor as a nail salon and the upstairs floor with tanning sun-beds. We employed more staff and Sarah continued with the nail training. We were the pioneers of false nails and it wasn't long before we built up a very busy salon. One day during our time in this premises one of our regular clients came in for her nail treatment looking great after losing a lot of weight. I asked how she had done this and she said she was taking herbal diet pills. I asked where she was getting them from and she gave me the name and phone number of the man who had supplied her.

Of course, I called him and.....

The birth of 'NEW LIFE DESIGN'


Without realising it Tony & I were to embark on the best business we would ever have, a business that was to span over 2 decades. I had arranged another distribution deal with this man ensuring that we were the sole distributors for this herbal diet product called 'New Life Design'. It took several weeks before clients were tempted to try this diet pill, it was only when they saw how much weight I was losing, along with Katie and other clients, that they decided to give the pills a try.  WOW! before we knew it we were supplying these pills worldwide and Tony became the 'pill man' because I was too busy working in the shop building up the nail business!
He would be at the other end of the phone for people to order their pills, he had to placate them when they phoned him to say how desperate they were to lose weight and he became the 'New Life' doctor! We used to make fun of him having to put up with all these desperate women telling him about their hormones etc. but they trusted him because he was genuine and not a strong salesman, they loved Tony Commissar because he could give them a pill to make them lose weight!

In hindsight perhaps had I realised that distribution was the easiest way to make money from a business without overheads I may have said at this point that we didn't need the costs of a salon and staff, but we were developing a great reputation and my ego took over. We formed our new company 'Diva Distribution' and we were flying!

It was the New Year in 1994 and we had established ourselves and were ready to hit the high street! I had arranged a trip to Miami to visit my parents and my sister, and I went on my own leaving Tony to look after the business.
I had a wonderful time with the family spending quality time with my dad who was my hero and my mentor. He was retired by now, but that was not a good idea for this man who was also an entrepreneur but didn't even realise it.
He was living in an over 55's community and loving the social life but missing the business life he had got so used to in the USA.
My dad & I used to plan together for ideas for products or services he could offer his community, we would sit for hours talking about this.I loved those times with my dear dad, and I cherish the memories because I didn't realise at that time it would be the last time I would sit and talk with my dear daddy.

My flight back to the UK was delayed and in those days airlines would offer passengers a free flight if they had a long delay resulting in a stopover. I didn't care, I was able to spend one more day with my family and had a free airline ticket to use at my leisure.
The business was doing so well in Edgware that we had decided to move premises to nearer our home in Mill Hill which was a more affluent area. We had started looking for a new shop and while I was away in Florida Tony had started negotiations with a shop owner. He continued with this in my absence and signed a lease for this premises.  

Shortly after my return in February 1994 I received a phone call from my sister to say my dad had suffered a heart attack, he was doing well but he was in the hospital and was being monitored. My poor mum who was a nervous woman and had relied on my dad for everything witnessed the attack and was brave enough to push the emergency button in their apt where they lived in the over 55's community. Thanks to her quick reactions they were able to save him in the ambulance as they took him to hospital.

I must at this point make it clear that after many many discussions with my dear dad I had made a promise to him that he would not live in any way that he felt was debilitating, he had witnessed his father, my grandfather, being unable to speak after several strokes and having to point to a keyboard of letters and words to make himself understood.
My father would constantly beg me to ensure he wouldn't be left like this, he was a proud man and didn't want to be pitied or taken care of, he was fiercely independent, a former war veteran who had been a sergeant major in the war, and this man did not want to end up an invalid. This was not a responsibility I wanted to promise I would take on,
but he trusted me to make the right decision if ever the time came. Little did I realise I would have to grant him my promise.

At 74 yrs old which was over the '3 score years and 10' that my dad used to say was about right for a life, my dad was hanging on for life in the intensive care unit in a hospital near his home in Florida. I immediately used my free flight to get there as soon as possible and was able to sit and talk with him in his hospital bed. He asked me for a glass of Scotch and a fag! ( a cigarette!) typical of my dad. He was never able to give up smoking even though the doctors had warned him it may kill him if he didn't, and he loved his daily glass of Scotch Whiskey in the afternoon with handfuls of peanuts. I told him unfortunately at this time I couldn't help him!

It was the second major heart attack that finally took my dad's life, we were asked by the doctors whether we wanted him to be revived but that he may live as an invalid and we all agreed this was not what he wanted and they should let him rest in peace. I had done as he asked and saved him from the life that he dreaded which would have meant him living dependent on others. I know we all made the right decision, he had a very weak heart and he would have probably lived in a wheelchair being cared for by others, this would have been his worse nightmare. So reluctantly we let him go the way he wanted. This has always been a consolation to me for losing him so young.

I cannot really describe the grieving period after I lost my darling dad because I was brought up to be strong and stoic and to just carry on and not bother others with my pain. Remember my sister & I were brought up by a former Sergeant Major, we were very rarely offered sympathy because my parents were not by nature sympathetic people. We were taught to deal with life's problems on our own and not rely on others to help us. We had listened to the stories my dad had told us about the war and how he survived it, often in awe of our brave and wonderful dad. He was a strong man who was brought up himself to be a survivor and this is how we too were brought up.

Our dad also was a storyteller, this is probably why I am writing this blog because we love to tell a story.
Being a London taxi driver he had a captive audience in his passengers and he loved to tell them endless stories, sometime embellishing the truth to make the stories more fun! He would come home to us all telling us about
'him & her and the 3 kids' in the back of his cab and all the wonderful stories he had shared.
I know I am a product of my dad and I am proud of it, but I try not to embellish the truth too much! My sister and I still laugh about the friends who came around to my mums apartment after his death to console us and ask us if he had taken his cyanide pill when he knew he was about to die! He had told them he had this pill and that he would rather take it than live like an invalid! He was certainly a character to say the least, and that was definitely one of his made up stories, there was no cyanide pill!

Syd Shaffir left a huge void in our lives but I was determined to make him proud of me whether he was still around to see it or not. I stayed in Florida with my mum and my sister after his funeral for a while and we consoled each other. My sister was working as a hairdresser and had to eventually go back to her job and her family.
I was in touch with Tony who was overseeing the refurbishment of our new shop premises in my absence and it opened before I returned. So unfortunately I was not there to celebrate the opening of Diva Nails & Beauty in Hale Lane Mill Hill NW7, but my husband and my wonderful staff including my daughter were there to celebrate the opening of our new shop.

I flew back to our new business with a heavy heart and kept the grieving process to myself, not only had I lost my dad but I had lost my business friend my mentor and my hero. I was determined that I would succeed in business the way he always wanted to. My husband also missed his surrogate father, he loved my dad and they had become very close throughout the years. Tony had huge respect for this man that had the most amazing positive attitude to life, and he used to tell Tony his signature song was 'Fame' I'm gonna live forever! Unfortunately he didn't.

From the day we opened the doors to the Diva Nails & Beauty salon in Mill Hill we were consistently busy. Saturdays the salon overflowed with clients who loved coming in for their nail treatments but also to socialise with other clients and friends. I was behind the reception desk welcoming clients and making appointments with 4 fabulous nail technicians and an amazing beauty therapist who worked upstairs in her beauty room.

Sarah, Tasha, Pippa and Hayley along with Katie (whenever she could) serviced the packed clientele who became regular clients of the salon.  We were all a crazy bunch laughing and chatting all day. I would arrange spa weekends away for all the staff at the end of the year to reward them for their loyalty and we would have the best time relaxing and having beauty treatments in a local hotel and spa. When it came to birthdays we would celebrate with crazy parties, and often get male strippers into the salon to surprise the girls. One by one the girls delivered their babies and came back to the salon to continue working with their clients. We couldn't have time off we were too busy!

We were also selling loads of our diet pills and servicing our amazing clientele with nail & beauty treatments.
Katie had started working for an IT company before we had opened the salon but was not happy doing this job, she came to us one day and told us that she wanted to be a nail technician full time. We were shocked that after all her studying and her achievements, especially obtaining a degree that she would want to work as a nail tech. We did not deter her, it was her life and this was what she was passionate about. To this day we are so grateful that she made this choice, this has allowed her the freedom that she needs at this stage of her life.
My dad was definitely looking down on her, I truly believe this, and Katie became our 5th full time nail technician.

During the years at the salon I was constantly offering new and exciting products for our clients to buy. I had a close friend living in Hong Kong who was able to obtain fabulous copy designer handbags which the clients absolutely loved.
I also brought back costume  jewellery from Florida to sell and clients loved the fact that they could shop while they were having their nails done!

Before long we needed to expand the beauty side of the business, one therapist was not enough so we employed 2 more but it was a tight squeeze fitting in extra beauty rooms. We were lucky enough to be offered the next door shop from our landlords and we took on the extra premises linking it with the staircase through to the main shop.

We also started offering state of the art new beauty treatments including laser and cosmetic anti wrinkle injections. We would invite a top leading specialist to come to the salon to carry out these injections and the clients loved the extra services. We also started to offer alternative nail treatments apart from just Fiberglass as during this time Gel and Acrylic false nails were being carried out in other salons. We did not do Acrylic treatments as we didn't want to use the strong chemical products that smelt strong in the salon so we offered Gel instead.  
Our nail techs were highly experienced and developed a fantastic reputation, they had regular clients who came week after to week to have their nails done.

We had the most amazing business for 10 yrs and enjoyed all working together as a family. To this day we all still keep in touch, and Katie Tasha & Sarah continue to make a good living from the experience they learnt at Diva. Katie & Hayley live close to each other and have become very close friends and Hayley continued with her beauty therapies and is now working from home. I am so very proud that because of me the team of girls from Diva have continued to make a good living even after the salon closed which comes in my next blog.

They say that most businesses reach their peak after 10 years, and often it is then time for a change.........


See you next blog!