Danny Pritchard
June 7, 2024
"Gato Loco is more than a salon - it's a collective of cool cats celebrating the diversity of hair. The cool cats understand the intricacies of different textures and colus ensuring every client's unique beauty is accentuated. Every cut is a celebration of diversity, and every stylist is a cool cat skilled in crating styles for all hair types." - Decio Gelinski.
I was born into a traditional hairdressing family in Brazil. As a teenager, I was already working on the salon floor with my brother. Over twenty years ago, I started learning about New Zealand, and moving there became a dream of mine. After some time learning English and more about hairdressing London I decided that was time chase my biggest dream. In 2018, I arrived in Aotearoa and knew from the beginning that it would be my new home and that I would have my own hairdressing business. Over the past six years in the New Zealand hairdressing industry, I've been learning from the market and thinking about how I could create a positive impact and add value. The core of Gato Loco is making valuable changes that create a better future for hairdressers and more exciting environments that empower people.
Having enough capital to get started was definitely a big challenge. Starting from scratch without access to financial funds made it tricky to get money from banks, especially since I had only been in the country for a few years. However, I had this dream and decided not to let it stop me. So, we created a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money we needed. It was a beautiful process when our clients and some friends started helping and prepaying for their future services. We created an online campaign with a fun video, and within half an hour of posting, clients were asking for our bank details. They wanted not only to help but to be part of it.
Going from 0 to 1 in about eight months! It took only eight months to go from a chair rental situation to owning our first hair salon on the coolest street in Tauranga. It's surreal how we started from nothing and are now growing so fast.
I heard about BOM from a client. She explained how Danny was helping her new small business, saying, “He is not just another accountant. He is young, fun, and has great business experience himself. He is very creative and is helping my business succeed.” That was all I needed to know to get in touch with Danny. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of average companies that do average things. I like people who think deeper and have a passion for what they do. I found everything I was looking for when I first chatted with Danny over the phone.
Our main goal was to have a business plan and open our first shop. Danny helped create the foundation of our business, understand who we are, and how to get to where we want to be. We had many brainstorming sessions (the most fun ones) and also lots of planning, forecasting, and great insights about marketing. It was a super enjoyable process that gave us the right direction to open our first shop even before we expected to.
This year, our goals are focused on setting new systems in place to support the new members of our team, providing education that is essential to creating a culture of excellence in services, creating a sustainable cash flow, and learning how to market our company to attract more amazing clients.
The importance of knowing your business inside out, loving your numbers, and creating a business that allows you to have time to enjoy life.
It's been so much fun. Bring On Monday is definitely not a boring, outdated accounting company. They are very creative and reliable. Every time I needed to understand or solve a problem, they were eager to help me. I never felt like I was running a business alone.
Look after yourself. Everything you do in life will become a reflection of who you are. So, invest time in self-care, education, family, friends, and things that bring you joy. It is also very important to find the right people who have the skills you don’t. They will save your day!
"We've been open for 5 months and now we're working on completely different areas of the business, like KPIs and things I'd never heard of. Now we can see every week, every month, how we've been growing and now we understand and have clarity that only true learning with Bring On Monday could allow us to do." - Decio Gelinski.
It has been incredible for us here at BOM to work alongside Decio as he's grown his business from renting a chair in a salon to owning his very own salon 'Gato Loco' in Tauranga. Decio has such a vibrant energy and every time we meet he's eager to learn. His attitude combined with our tools and advice for success has been crucial in his businesses' growth. Decio has learnt so much since we began our journey together and it's so awesome to see him putting it into practice and reaping the rewards - he truly deserves it.
Take a look into the amazing work Gato Loco does and treat yourself to a fresh cut or style here, or keep tabs on what they're up to next on Instagram by following their journey.
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If you find a cheaper all inclusive accounting solution similar to the 'BOM Difference', we will beat it by 10%. In addition, if we haven't made your life as a business owner easier after 3 months, we will donate all subscriptions fees to your favorite NZ charity.
