Talk of the Town celebrates 25 years

There was one priority for five co-workers who decided to start their own beauty shop. They all knew they would be missing out on special moments with their children if they continued to work at other shops.

“We all started at different times in our lives, then we worked together at a previous salon, and then we decided to come to work on our own, to raise our kids and have a little more flexibility in our schedules,” Lisa Dale said.

That decision to center their own schedules around the families and lives has led to much success. The Talk of the Town salon in New Philadelphia recently celebrated 25 years and all five of the women are still their working there.

In addition to Dale, who does hair and nails, the other women are Renee Sprague, Kelly Moner, and Tiffiny Tharp, doing hair, and Becky Knecht, who does nails. Dale and Sprague see that the bills are paid each month for the space they have rented for the past 25 years, but each woman is an individual owner and contributes the same amount of money for the bills.

The women work their own schedules although they may work long hours from morning through the evening, and some days could be shorter depending on the week.

The group has become a family over the years.

“We've watched our kids grow up and go to school,” Dale said.

“When we started, our kids were babies, and now our kids are having kids and getting married,” Sprague said.

The group has gathered at graduations and weddings for their business partners’ families.

“That was the goal when we came here,” Sprague said. “It was a place to raise our children. If we needed a day off to take our kids somewhere or do something, no-one could tell us no, because we all are individual business owners.”

The arrangement has worked well for their clients too.

“We have weekly customers that have walked through our doors for 25 years every week,” Sprague said. “One lady comes twice a week.”

 Some clients have been with them since before they opened their own shop.

“My next client has been with me for 29 years,” Dale said.

Sprague has another client that has been with her for 30 years.

“Our clients have seen us grow up, and they’ve seen us raise our children,” Sprague said. “My one client was at my wedding.”

“You go to their parties or their anniversaries, or their grandkid’s graduation,” Dale said. “We still get invited to all that stuff, just like they've been invited to ours.”

The shop is so busy that the women rarely take on new clients.

“We feel blessed and grateful to our clients,” Dale said.

Training is important for their line of work although it is now mostly online.

“Originally, we'd go to the hair shows. We've been to Cleveland, Columbus and Chicago, but now times have changed,” Dale said. “After COVID, that kind of slowed up a lot of the shows.”

They need to keep up their licenses and state inspections on a regular basis.

The business has been at the same rented location for so long that they have been through three different building owners. Previously, Joyce’s Salon was in the space they occupy.

There are certain life events that take priority too.

“Now some have grandkids, so that changes everything,” Sprague said. “They want to be with grandkids, understandably.”

The flexibility in scheduling has allowed them to attend children’s sporting events. Sprague has a special needs daughter and spends some free time involved in Special Olympics and she and her daughter started a T-shirt shop.

The women at Talk of the Town are thankful to their clients and the way their decision has benefited their families.

“We're very grateful,” Sprague said.