CUTTING TIES.

Jenny watched as her sister lovingly snipped and combed the client’s hair, and the little wisps of hair floated to the floor all around her.

“Would you like a fringe? I can leave it a little longer so it won’t go too far back up, when it dries.” Donna asked her client.

“Oh, yes please, I do like to have a little bit of a fringe!”

“Would you like a blow dry, or just leave it to dry naturally?”

“It’s very thin and it dries very fast, so it should be okay without a blow dry, thanks.”

Jenny finished brushing down her client, then showed her the back in a mirror.

“That’s perfect, thank you so much! I will be back the same time next month!”

Jenny took the payment from the client and when she had gone out, started to pull the blinds down and lock the door.

Donna noticed Jenny looked a little glum. “Anything wrong sis?

Your smile seems to have slipped a little!”

“Oh sorry, guess I have my mind on other things. By the way how is the hairdressing business going these days? Are we making any money or just enough to pay the overheads?”

Donna gave her a quizzical look. “Yes we are making money, we have been very busy coming into the festive season. Why do you ask? You never usually worry about the business. This is a well respected business which has been passed down to us from Mum and Grandma, we have a lot of clients who have been coming here for 10 years!”

Jenny looked at Donna. “I own the business don’t I? It was left to me because I am the oldest. What if I have decided I don’t want to own a hairdressing business anymore?”

Donna looked horrified. “You can’t mean that Jenny! This business is keeping food on the table for 5 people!”

“I’m sorry Donna, but it just doesn’t interest me anymore, I’m getting on and I would like to see a bit of the world before I’m too old to go anywhere”

Donna picked up the broom and proceeded to clean up, but Jenny could see the tears running down her face.

“I’m sorry Donna, but that’s the way it is, I have got to think of myself now. If you want to keep the family business, you will have to buy me out!” With that Jenny walked out the back door and was gone.

When Jenny arrived home her husband could see she had been crying, although he knew she would deny it.

“So how did it go? I’m guessing Donna didn’t take it too well?”

“Of course she didn’t, but I’ve made up my mind, it goes on the market on Monday!”

When Donna arrived at her home she dropped her things and collapsed in a teary heap on the settee. Her Husband had no idea what was wrong and tried to comfort her.

“My smarmy sister has decided she wants to sell the family Hairdressing business and if I want to continue it I have to buy her out!”

Donna’s husband collapsed on the settee beside her.

“That’s a lot of money, that’s probably all we have put away for retirement!”

That statement sent Donna into tears again.

“Couldn’t we get a loan from somewhere?” she asked.

“At our age, not likely! But even if we could we would be still paying it back in retirement!”

“I’m afraid it looks like the end of the family business, sorry Donna!”

On Monday morning Donna’s husband was sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper and as usual he scanned through the jobs which were available in the area.

A large ad made him sit up and take notice.

“Longstanding, highly-rated hairdressing business for sale, in the main shopping area, enquiries wanted at ---“

He decided not to show Donna as she needed to go to work and it would just upset her even more.

He hadn’t said anything when she was so upset, but he agreed with Jenny.

“We are all close to retiring and now is the time to think about ourselves, not about running a business!” He told himself.

There were three other members of the hairdressing team, so Jenny’s husband got in touch with them to find out if any of them were interested in buying the business, before a stranger got it.

Two of the three were devastated as they had seen the ad, but weren’t interested in buying the business.

The third member Maria, was still in her thirties and said she was very interested, but could only get about half the amount wanted.

“My suggestion is to go halves in the business with Jenny, and that would give you both that little extra to travel, and you would still be making money while you were away.” Maria said.

Jenny and her husband talked long into the night about the proposition.

“I could still have a say in how the business was run, but Maria would be in charge of the salon, the workers and the everyday happenings. I wouldn’t even need to be there! It’s perfect!”

After a lot of negotiating Maria bought sixty per cent of the business, with Jenny holding forty per cent, which meant a nice little trickle of

Money would still be coming in for their retirement, and jenny still had a say in what was happening.

With all that was happening they had completely forgotten about Donna.

One morning when Donna arrived early at the salon Jenny kept the door locked.

“Sit down for a minute Donna, I have something to tell you.”

Donna assumed this was it, she was out of a job and had lost the family business.

Ten minutes later after Jenny had explained what had been going on, she stared at Donna, expecting her to burst into tears again.

“Thank you, thank you!” Donna jumped up and a smile split her face.

“That’s wonderful, we all still have our jobs, the business is still in the family and you can retire and do your travels!”

“Just remember, while I am not here Maria is your Boss. If there is anything you are worried about you can always get in touch and ask me.” Jenny reminded her.

When Donna told her husband he was over the moon.

“Thank goodness, we don’t have to worry about using up all our savings for our retirement in a few years!”

The family hairdressing business continued for many more years, workers came and went, or retired, Maria sold her sixty percent of the business back to Jenny’s oldest son, and Jenny’s oldest daughter took over her Mother’s forty per cent.

The business stayed in the family and became one of the oldest family owned businesses in the area.