Quote magazine August 2022
Laura Zeeuwen started as a hairdresser, now she earns tons with her business: 'I believe in quality'. I bought mirrors at Xenos, I found my sinks second-hand for €250.
The first few days hardly anything happened,' Laura Zeeuwen tells about her very first salon in Almere. Now she runs a thriving business.
Daring to take risks, having guts; entrepreneurs like to boast about it. Not Laura Zeeuwen (37). She is constantly talking about something else: quality. I have been saying it for years: the middle classes are going to disappear, the middle classes are getting smaller, so the world is going to divide itself more and more between quantity and quality.
No rumbling
Where do Zeeuwen want to belong? That last one. In her hairdressing salon (company one) and hair extensions, vitamin pills and hairbrush line (company two), she always asks the same question: is what she sells good, really good? In my salon I advise women with grey hair against getting a dye job nine times out of ten. It's not good for your hair. Then I say: honey, be grateful that you're getting old. And in the world of extensions there is a lot of messing around and mixing with fake hair. That doesn't happen with my extensions. It never does.
Sometimes I didn't have €13 for a train ticket'.
Yet Zeeuwen also needed a good portion of guts in her entrepreneurial adventure, all the more so because her start-up was accompanied by few financial resources. Due to a combination of circumstances, Zeeuwen left home when she was fifteen. I had dozens of jobs on the side. My mother said: "I'll pay for one course for you. I only wanted one thing: to become a hairdresser, because when your hair is in good shape, you feel great, whatever the day brings. I will never underestimate that effect.' So hup, off to hairdressing school. Terrible. I went as little as possible, also because a train ticket to school was €13 and I just didn't have that all the time.' Her internship? Great. Zeeuwen works very hard, her boss offers her a workplace.
Mirrors from Xenos
While Zeeuwen 'hustles', peers take intermediate years to find themselves. I envied that freedom, I wanted it too. If she can take over a small salon in Almere, she goes for it. I bought mirrors at Xenos, I found my sinks second-hand for €250. The first days hardly anything happened. My first customer came at 11 a.m., and maybe the second at 5 p.m. In the meantime, I mainly saw the bus driving back and forth through the window. But going back was not an option.
How Zeeuwen eventually builds a flourishing business can be read in Quote's August issue.
Written by: Malu de Bont
Picture by: Oof Verschuren
Click here to read the Dutch interview in Quote magazine.