Larissa Sulzberger
Blue Cactus Hairdressing, Wellington
Larissa Sulzberger was only 20 years old when she established Blue Cactus Hairdressing 17 years ago in Wellington. The business has grown significantly in that time, with the number of employees increasing from 2 to 24. All of Blue Cactus’ stylists are either trained or in training, with seven currently undertaking apprenticeships.
“Having apprentices allows you to grow your business. Apprenticeship is definitely a growth tool. I am on the floor one day a week. I learnt early on that the less time I’m on the floor, and the more time I put into my staff, the more the business grows,” she says.
“A major motivation for training is quality control and ensuring I have qualified stylists in the future.”
“Early on it was a struggle getting apprentices to complete, but our training is more structured now and we have a clear system of progression for our team to feel a sense of achievement. Now our apprentices are getting through and becoming qualified.”
“The training we provide helps motivate my staff. Because Blue Cactus is one of the bigger salons there’s a clear career path available, with lots of areas to specialise in. There are mini management roles available such as technical manager and floor manager, and a creative team that focus on competitions. Basically there is somewhere for them to go once they’re qualified,” Larissa explains.
“Our Apprentices become part of our family and we look after them as one of our own.”
“As well as the HITO Training Agreement, we have our own personal five year agreement with our apprentices. As part of this we pay all their training costs, including paid training time, so long as they stay on with us for two years once qualifying.”
“My preference is for ‘home grown’ stylists. By training them from scratch they know our systems and how we want to look after our clients. We can mould them to how we want them to be. They are less likely to have bad habits and preconceived ideas about how things should be.”
