Q1 2024 Winner
Kimberly Martz, WoW Hair Wickham
We interviewed Kimberly Martz, the owner of WoW Hair Wickham in New South Wales, who is this quarter’s ‘refer a friend’ winner of the $5,000! Read what Kimberly had to say about Smartpay and the win below!
Congratulations on the win! Tell us a bit about your business, WoW Hair Wickham.
I opened The Whairhouse of Wickham in May 2015. I have been a hairdresser for almost 40 years and am still as passionate today as I was the day I began.
To start from the beginning, I first began hairdressing in Forster Tuncurry in the NSW Mid-North Coast. I then moved to a small rural community called Gloucester, where I had my first salon for 13 years.
After some life changes, I decided to head to Newcastle. After a few years working for somebody else, I then decided to open ‘The Whairhouse of Wickham’ in a once industrial area of town that was rapidly changing with the rezoning of the area to be both residential and mixed-use business. Wickham has now become a residential hub on the outskirts of the city centre. It’s a gentrifying suburb, of mixed living from 100 year old miners' cottages to new highrise residential units & offices and lots of continual new development.
After Covid, I had grown to a wonderful team of 4 staff and felt it was time to rebrand, so we changed the salon's name to WoW Hair Wickham (still an abbreviation of the former - Whairhouse Of Wickham). We all felt this name was more fitting, as it’s really how we want our clients to feel as they leave our salon - ‘wowed’. We truly do like to ‘wow’ our clients every day.
The salon has a lovely ‘community’ feel to it, as many of our clients travel 1.5 hours to come see us. Some from Forster Tuncurry and many from Gloucester. My staff recognise how important that ‘connection’ is with our clients. All my staff come from small communities, and we all love to spoil our clients and make them feel special, look great, and really feel heard. It’s such an important part of giving your clients what they want and helping them manage all their hair concerns.
We continually train and update our skills, as fashion continually changes, so with that, so do we. We also do regular photo shoots and enter competitions nationally, just because it’s a great way to push your boundaries and keep on growing. I truly believe the day you think you know it all is the day you should give it up. You never really know it all, and that’s what keeps us constantly hungry to improve and do better.
When and why did you decide to make the switch and join Smartpay?
I changed to Smartpay in 2022 after a weekend industry event (Hair Festival). I met a fellow from Smartpay, who assured me it would be a smooth transfer across. I’d been trying to compare fees between banks, as merchant fees were becoming so high. So when Smartpay assured me of no fees, it was a no-brainer.
What made you recommend Smartpay and make the referral to another business?
As mentioned above, I was very nervous about the change as I’m not great with technology. However, my representative for Smartpay (Charles) just made it so easy for me and was extremely patient, assuring me it was as simple as plugging my terminal in when it arrived. So I’ve referred many and assured them it was extremely simple and really the best business decision I’ve ever made.
How does it feel to be the lucky winner? Any ideas on how you might spend the $5,000?
My staff superannuation payment is due in a couple of weeks and I’m off on holiday to Japan at the end of the month. So I think the business will get half and I’ll get the other half to enjoy on my travels. I really can’t believe I could be so lucky! Thanks again Smartpay!
