From 1 Salon to 9: Filipe Santos on Growth, Leadership, and Execution | Filipe Santos | CEO, Chop Enterprises | 9 Salons NYC/NJ/MIA

In this episode, Filipe Santos (@chop_safil), CEO of Chop Enterprises, shares how he went from tattoo artist and union carpenter to building a multi-location salon company with nine salons across New York, New Jersey, and Miami.

Filipe breaks down the growth, leadership, and execution behind scaling from one salon to nine, including how he built leaders, created systems, recruited talent, used marketing, acquired salons, negotiated owner financing, and developed a shared services platform to support growth.

This conversation is for salon owners, beauty pros, and hairpreneurs who know that talent is only one part of building a real business.

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Key Takeaways:

🔅Your first salon teaches you the hardest lessons - Filipe explains that the first business is usually the most difficult because you are breaking barriers you have never faced before. Once you learn how to build the first one, you can start duplicating the process with stronger systems.

🔅What gets you to $1 million will not get you to $5 million - The systems, leadership, and decision-making that get you started are not always enough for the next stage. Growth requires new structure.

🔅Every salon needs leadership, not just ownership - Each Chop location has its own leader, and the leadership team meets weekly to review metrics, game plan, and get resources. Scaling requires leaders who can carry the standards into each location.

🔅Recruiting is a business skill - Filipe challenges the emotional idea of “poaching” and reframes recruiting as giving talented people an opportunity. If you want to grow, you need to learn how to attract talent.

🔅A new hire needs a reason to move - Filipe said when someone joins, they need to make more money or experience a clear benefit. If they leave their current situation to make the same or less, that creates problems later.

🔅Train for more than technical skill - Filipe’s assistant program includes phones, hospitality, booking, cancellations, POS systems, client communication, language, business, and numbers before someone fully moves behind the chair. Filipe says skill can be taught, but energy, work ethic, and alignment determine whether someone fits the business.

🔅Owners need business education outside the beauty industry - Filipe makes the case that business principles are not only “hair business” principles. Salon owners need to study business, marke