Arame Salon on Growing Online with Flexible IT

My name is Ron Schlumpf. My wife and I own Arame Salon and Spa in Port Jefferson Village. We're an Aveda concept salon offering Aveda products and services — hair cutting, coloring, skin care with facials, and makeup as well.

[On clientele] Our current demographic, if I had to use an age range, is probably in the area of 30 to 50. Our target is to bring that bar a little lower — to attract the mid-20s to mid-30s and 40s range. We certainly don't exclude anybody, but we are looking to focus on attracting some of the younger marketplace if possible.

[On location] It's a beautiful harbor-front village. There's actually ferry service over to Connecticut right from the village; we're about a block from the ferry dock. It attracts a lot of folks, certainly in the warmer months, with a lot of the restaurants and establishments in the area. We're located between Main Street and East Main Street on Trader Cove. It's not a high-traffic area, but we like the location and it's served us well — we've been here a little bit north of 14 years, and we're looking forward to continuing our growth.

[On the biggest challenge for small businesses] That's a challenge for all businesses — to keep that door swinging open with new customers. In this era of the electronic or digital age, that's a medium we need to do a better job with to attract these younger folks who may not necessarily be reading the local newspapers and what used to be the customary way to advertise.

[On web presence before Flexible] We did not have a significant presence. Flexible did help us create our current web page, which came out nice. Prior to that we did a little email marketing, but a lot of that has gone to the next level.

[On Facebook] Yes, we do. That's another area where we've gotten the assistance of Flexible in creating our Facebook presence, and that's starting to grow as well. Again, I think that's going to move in the right direction to attract the demographics I just spoke of — some of the younger folks in the area.

[On the process] It was definitely not painful at all. Very good working environment, and it really worked out well. I'm glad things have progressed the way they have with Flexible — it was a good experience for sure.

[On whether the investment was worth it] I certainly do think it was a very good investment. If I wasn't present on the web and on Facebook, I just don't think I'd be where I am today. We've expanded our presence in the digital universe, and I'm glad we have.

[On ranking #1 on Google for "Port Jefferson Salon"] That's terrific — because just a couple of short months or a year ago, that definitely was not the case. That's a very good event to take place, and certainly an attribute to Flexible for helping us get to that point. We're happy to be there for sure.