Monica Rivera & Heather Piselli: The Sisters of Style Behind The Success of Privè Salons

Monica Rivera & Heather Piselli: The Sisters of Style Behind the Success of Privè Salons

Can you imagine opening your first business at just 26? Monica Rivera did just that, and along with her sister Heather Piselli turned their stylish entrepreneurial dream into a thriving trio of respected hair care salons along the Philadelphia Main Line, known as Privè Salons.  In this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, Heather and Monica share that journey, inspired by their father's entrepreneurial spirit to create the "Best Salon" as recognized by Main Line Magazine and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Listen as host Bob Blaisse welcomes the sisters into the Good Neighbor Podcast studio to share how and why they embarked on their journey to launch their Privè Salons within a luxurious and indulgent atmosphere, by partnering with prestigious hair care brands known for their exceptional quality for their clients in Western Delaware County, PA. You'll hear Monica Rivera candidly share the bold steps taken to open the first Privè Salon in Newtown Square, PA. Later in this episode sister, Heather Piselli, reveals her pivot from college to hair school and the decision to exit an existing family venture to be a hairstylist and business owner.

This episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast is an inspirational tale of ambition, talent and unwavering commitment to excellence by two women of business who have also opened their second and third Privè Salon in nearby Malvern, PA and Wayne, PA, while these Good Neighbor Business ladies also support other beauty and wellness professionals by offering them flexible Society Suites to independently conduct their own business brands without build-out cost or burden of managing employees.

Privè Salon Co 
PriveSalonsCo.com

Newtown Square, PA  610-356-6565
Wayne, PA    484-654-0500
Malvern, PA   610-356-6565

--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Thank you, Michael Barkan, and welcome again to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We're coming to you today, as always, from the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, we lovingly refer to as DELCO. Delco and Beyond is the Good Neighbor podcast. We like to bring you good neighbor businesses, businesses operating in our local communities that are really good neighbors, not just because of the products that they supply or the services that they're able to provide us, but more so because of the way they do business and the way their customers think of them as being good neighbors. And today we have two good neighbors from the same business. Let me introduce to you and bring to the stage two sisters, Monica Rivera and also Heather Pacelli. These are the stylists and managers at Preve Salon, both in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania and Malvern, and also in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Hello ladies, Welcome to the program.

Speaker 3: 1:14

Hi, bob, thanks for having us.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Heather, welcome, and for our audience, I'll mention your name a few times. Ladies, monica, you're joining your sister today in both this episode, but the other day right in business. How's that? You're joining your sister today in both this episode, but the other day right in business? How's that working together with your sister in business?

Speaker 4: 1:30

It is. It's a wild ride, but we enjoy it. It's nice being able to reflect with one another and utilize each other and spend our days laughing and going through all the challenges that come with business, but for the most part it's really great.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Let's let the listeners realize that we're talking to two sisters who run a very successful trio of high-class salons in both Delaware County and really also Montgomery County area. But ladies so our listeners know we're not talking about women just out of beauty school or hair salon school. We're really talking about seasoned business entrepreneur women of not only class but also great skill as hair stylists in their day, but moms too. These ladies both have multiple children and running multiple businesses are here to talk to us today about their hair salons Preve, and it's really a well-known brand here in the Delaware County area. May I ask you, heather, if when you started this business, were you a young woman, kind of even maybe not even out of school yet trying to learn how to cut hair? Did that happen or did you kind of marry into the business?

Speaker 3: 2:42

No, I actually out of high school. I went to college and then from there I decided that I wanted to switch gears and I ended up going to hair school. So did my time in hair school and then I ended up back on the business side of it, working for our family business, which that was my career for a long time. Then Monica graduated high school, went to hair school, worked for another salon and then, when it came time for her, she wanted to branch out and open her own salon. That's when she came to me and asked me if I had any interest in partnering and opening a salon with her.

Speaker 2: 3:25

So. So, monica, you were kind of somewhat at the inspiration, and yet I have to think the inspiration came from your own family history of being kind of an entrepreneurial family. You knew about hair salons and having worked in them. But why work for somebody else when you can work for yourself? We'll start there. What's it like owning your own business?

Speaker 4: 3:44

start there. What's it like owning your own business? Oh, it's funny because I often think that if I would have known that, how crazy it would have been. You know, I can't say I definitely would have did it at the age I did. I was 26 when we opened and my dad, as you mentioned, you know he's an entrepreneur and was always behind me, like, when are you going to do this, when are you going to go out on your own? And 26, like my late 20s, felt right, I wasn't married, I didn't have kids. I felt like that was the time to go for it, which is what I did. And then, you know, having Heather a part of it, having the support of our dad, was definitely, I think, a major part of why we, you know, we launched and we were successful and then the company just continued to grow from there companies just continue to grow from there.

Speaker 2: 4:35

It's very obvious, monica. I mean, when I looked some review when your business was nominated to be on the Good Neighbor podcast, what jumped out me right away is that there were three not small locations but three very large servicing locations in very kind of busy, upscale areas. I mean Newtown Square, pennsylvania, Wayne, pennsylvania, along the main line of Philadelphia and also another location in Malvern, on the further outside of the main line. But these are pretty upscale communities and I have to think, heather, you can't just go into the haircutting business without having ladies leave that salon with some really great looking hair. There's a big bar there that you have to keep up with, right, with some really great looking hair. There's a big bar there that you have to keep up with, right.

Speaker 3: 5:15

We I mean we certainly strive to provide the best that we can do, and we do have an amazing team. I have to give all the credit to our stylists. They, you know, they just really have so much knowledge, skills, and the people that come in love them. Our guests that we see every day, you know they just want to come back and spend time with them.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Well, you know what I noticed when I looked at your website both of you. I have to give you a lot of credit, because it was clear to me that you wanted your stylist to be known. In other words, some salons would just talk about their services, but you weren't afraid to talk about your stylist, with their photo there and description, and I think that was really wonderful. Let me read to the listeners something from their website. This is the Preve website, which you can visit. At Preve. That's P-R-I-V-E but it's PreveSalonCocom, their mission.

Speaker 2: 6:10

At Preve, we believe, by empowering our team, that we can elevate the salon experience for our guests, creating a space where everyone feels welcomed, appreciated and inspired. You know, that's not just the guests, but it's also the stylists. These ladies who are business entrepreneurs been there, done that kind of women that started their own upscale salon are making available a place of work for other women stylists. And there's another story here. I understand that that there there are, when you recognize, say, stylists that have goals to be self-starting or maybe even entrepreneurial you're not afraid of that. You actually almost encourage it and you even provide a workspace for it. Monica, tell me about that, because I think you were one of the first businesses that I know of that saw ahead and created a kind of salon suites type arrangement, but you call it the Pervet Suites correct, that is called Society Suites by Pervet.

Speaker 2: 7:07

Society Suites by Pervet okay.

Speaker 4: 7:09

It's two doors down from our Newtown Square location. It's 24 independent suites. To be perfectly honest, we were definitely going out on a limb when we pulled the trigger on that concept and I think that people were definitely, you know, questioning like, oh my goodness, how are they going to pull this off?

Speaker 2: 7:31

They're opening this facility two doors down where essentially their whole entire team could go, which Monica, excuse me, but to be clear to the listeners, what we're talking about here, ladies and gentlemen, is entrepreneurs willing to say we'll open up down the hall there, right Two doors away, and we'll give you the ability to have your own private suite as a private hair salon business, woman or businessman. We'll let you bring in your own customers, you'll be running your own business, you'll pay rent for the suite and that's where it gets picked up because they're right near your purveyed salon. So it is.

Speaker 4: 8:04

It's it actually kind of countered, but also balanced and then also aided, I think your story Exactly, and that's where, from the gate, you know, we are here to support our team members, no matter if they stay with us forever, if they leave to pursue a different avenue, if they want to be an entrepreneur, just as we did, if they want to be an entrepreneur, just as we did. That's definitely something that we do, that I feel some businesses, you know, may be concerned to do, but we do it and we embrace that concept and we fully support them. So that's, you know, that's kind of the story behind that.

Speaker 2: 8:39

Well, you, know you're two lady entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs in business, and you're encouraging others and that kind of good spirit and the ability to kind of make money but also train future business women, that will come back in great blessing. Let's really talk specifically, for you know, here's a male that goes to these hair salons at times to get a male haircut, but I really am a little bit still not sure what all the many different services that a premium salon can offer. So I wonder, heather, if you could help me and maybe even other men listening. Now just kind of tick off, what are the typical? I mean, I need a haircut. That's what I would say if I came in. What's really going on at the salon that we men don't really know about and how often are people coming in women coming in regularly, and for what services are they getting every time or certain other times, coloring and stuff like that? Take me through a quick understanding of it.

Speaker 3: 9:33

Okay, so typically we service the majority is women, I would say and most of our women come in for color highlights, foils, balayage, haircuts. The men that do come in, they typically get haircuts. Some of them do a little bit of color touch-ups. We also offer Brazilian blowouts. Hair extensions is huge for us. We have a lot of clientele to come in.

Speaker 2: 10:14

What else, Mon Well, tell me, do people come in? I mean, my trip to the hair cutting place is usually when it's long, but probably a big part of your kind of upscale business is there's events coming in, say a woman's life or a prom night or a wedding and stuff. They must be really big deals when they come along.

Speaker 3: 10:25

Of course we service a ton of prom girls, bridal we do a lot of that as well.

Speaker 2: 10:31

You ever find your stylist having to go off site to take care of a whole wedding party.

Speaker 3: 10:36

We do On occasion. Typically they come in though, but we do have another company that we work with that does a lot of our on-site bridal.

Speaker 2: 10:46

And you do it at all three locations. Monica, take me through which location came first, which location was the hardest to get started and where the third location or where you know. Give us all three locations so our listeners can understand how they can reach out to you closest to them. In the southeastern corner, west side of Philadelphia.

Speaker 4: 11:04

Yeah, sure thing. So we opened our Newtown Square location first. That was in 2014. That was our, it's our flagship location and it is where you know I feel like we've we built from the ground up, but also we learned so many lessons there, so many lessons there, so it'll forever have a place in my heart. In 2018, we opened our Wayne location. At that time, we did bring one of our top stylists in as a partner and so she kind of leads the ship over at that location now. And then just recently, we just opened in February 2024 at Malvern, and the same exact concept there. We brought in another top stylist who is going to be leading the ship over there as well.

Speaker 2: 11:50

I think I might've mentioned earlier that the other locations were in Montgomery County. They're not Chester County, I my mistake but Newtown square, right on the fringe of Delaware County where it meets Chester County on West Chester Pike, in Newtown Square, wayne, which is right there in the heart of the Philadelphia main line, on West Lancaster Avenue and that newest location for those who are in the Philadelphia area, out in Malvern, malvern, pennsylvania, at the Grove, in the little shopping center called the Grove, you'll find a separate location of the Preve Salon brand and certainly talent. And if you want to look at the website for Preve Salon, it is P-R-I-V-E for Preve, but it's Preve Salon Co, c-o. Prevesaloncocom. We'll take you to the website and you'll get a chance to see all the photos of all of the stylists and all the services and I would book your appointment online. Is that possible?

Speaker 2: 12:51

Yes absolutely, and do you find people needing to book out like a week or two, or appointments show up like in days? You know, is it pretty well easy enough to get an appointment at one shop or the other.

Speaker 4: 13:04

You know it is. It's just dependent upon the service, and if you're seeing a specific service provider, some of our team members book out you know well in advance and some do not. But listen, there's always cancellations and you know we have guest experience representatives that are able to help you get there if you're worried about what service to book or who to see, so you could always give a call as well.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Great, and the phone number for each respective location of Preve Salon is on the website Call ahead and maybe even get a chance to talk to our guests today on this episode. Heather Pacelli and Monica Rivera two sisters, women of business and talented stylists in their own right, who lead a group of stylists Very impressive, I have to say, ladies, very impressive and recognizing that you both listen I hope I'm not tipping the hand here but Monica four kids, fourth on the way- Fourth on the way, any day.

Speaker 2: 14:02

And Heather, who sounded extra young but is I guess the big sister. Is she the older sister?

Speaker 3: 14:06

I'm the older sister and I have five children.

Speaker 2: 14:08

yes, Five children. Congratulations, Heather. Thank you, and that age spread is pretty impressive for both of you while you're running a business, Ladies. It's been very impressive. I think the ladies out there who are either stylists and hope to be salon owners someday are very impressed, and certainly the listeners. It's always great to see and hear successful business stories, even more so when it's a good neighbor business like we like to bring to our listeners. Congratulations on being a good neighbor business. Thank you for being a guest today on the Good Neighbor Podcast. We wish you the very best of success in all three of your locations in Newtown Square, Wayne and Malvern, the Preve salon. Thank you, ladies, for being a guest on our Good Neighbor Podcast today.

Speaker 3: 14:51

Thank you for having us. Thanks, Bob.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.