Photo: Pixabay
‘We grew like a family’: Salon owner sells business to ‘worthy’ hairdresser for R14
Pio Imperati said it was a dream of his to be able to turn over his salon to someone worthy. The 79-year-old found that special someone in an employee who worked for him for 15 years.
Photo: Pixabay
A salon owner from New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States, sold his esteemed hair salon to an employee for $1 (R14.52). Pio Imperati, 79, gave hairdresser Kathy Moura, 32, a chance and hired her straight out of technical high school 15 years ago and since then they “grew like a family.”
SALON OWNER SELLS BUSINESS TO ‘WORTHY’ EMPLOYEE
Imperati told local media outlet The New Haven Register that it was a dream of his to give the hair salon to “someone worthy.”
“She’s a good hairdresser, a good barber, she’s very nice. I sold it to her for $1 so we would remain friends,” said Imperati.
Moura, however, will have to pay rent to the septuagenarian but she foregoes the costs of purchasing the business at market value and paying for equipment – and most importantly she’ll have a client base that was earned over many years.
Imperati started out in the hair business 56 years ago and has worked in many locations and forms, according to the Associated Press. His first venture was a barbershop in 1965. Now, the roles will be reversed – Imperati will work for Moura as an independent contractor at Pio of Italy Hair Studio for four days a week to take care of his regular customers.
“No one would hire me because I didn’t have any experience,” said Moura, explaining how she ended up in the employ of Imperati. She called a teacher and asked for help, which is how she was given the hair stylists’ number. Imperati and his wife gave her a trial and eventually offered her a permanent job.
“We grew like a family… That’s how he treats everyone who walks into the salon,” said Moura. “Any person who works here, he wants you to flourish and become something of yourself.”
