While many businesses are doing everything they can just to survive COVID-19 Melissa Gorgievski is expanding hers by opening a second hair salon in the Illawarra.
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The new Charli & Kate located near the food court at Stockland Shellharbour is the realisation of a dream Mrs Gorgievski has had since opening her first salon at Wollongong Central in 2017.
"We have hired eight staff already and are still looking for one more stylist," she said.
"We had a lot of customers who came to our Wollongong salon and kept saying to us they would like to see us open a salon in Shellharbour.
"It is so nice to be here. I have lived in Shellharbour my whole life. And I was the retail manager at Stockland Shellharbour when they did the development here".
Mrs Gorgievski said it was interesting opening a second outlet in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic but decided to do it by keeping everything that has worked with the first salon.
That includes an extensive range of big name brands, education, consultations, hair diagnosis, hair extensions and facilities such as the latest in massage chairs customers can enjoy while having their hair done.
Mrs Gorgievski said staying open through the first phase of the coronavirus crisis in Wollongong was a good learning curve for her and her team who have kept fine tuning their systems and procedures to be COVID safe.
"We have restrictions on how many people we have in the salons, we are taking temperatures and everything we can do to make people feel safe and comfortable," she said.
The family owned business is named after Mrs Gorgievski's twin daughters Charli and Kate who came in and gave the second salon the seal of approval last Sunday.
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