Hidden Gems: Meet Jigar Patel of MINT Salon Suites

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jigar Patel.

Hi Jigar, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I moved to Buckhead in 2012 and began my entrepreneurial journey in prominent office building cafés. I purchased my first Cafe operation in the Pinnacle building in Buckhead at the age of 28 years old. I went on to expand that to five locations in the next three years; operating in Resurgens Plaza, 3630 Peachtree, Two Live Oak, and Ameris Centre. In 2020, at the height of my career, Covid put an abrupt stop to all office building activity and businesses. The “work from home” model obliterated the idea of an office building Cafe, as my businesses depended on people being in the office and supporting our operation. I realized, with the prolonged office absences, in December 2020 that this sector may be one of the hardest hit by Covid and not likely to recover quickly, if at all.

This left me searching for other business opportunities. During my search I came across a video of a salon suite concept that intrigued me. For the next several months I spent 10 hours a day researching the model. After hundreds of hours I decided this would be my next endeavor. I began searching for locations and interviewing architects and general contractors for the project.

One thing I knew was that I wanted our salon suite to be the best in the city. While interviewing architects, I came across one that I felt matched my goals and understood what I was trying to create. This was my first construction project and was shaping up to be the biggest decision of my life, as I was about to spend every single dollar I had to build this business. The time came to make a decision and I had a very serious discussion with my family, letting them know this was going to be the new direction and that I was going to be risking everything. They saw the countless hours I had poured into the venture and supported my decision immediately.

I got to work on all of the aspects that a new business requires, including branding, website, budgeting, marketing, etc. I chose the name “MINT Salon Suites“ as I felt it was a great neutral name (not overly feminine or masculine) that would be inclusive for all business types.

I signed the lease, completed construction, and opened the business in November 2022. Upon opening, we were met with great joy from many Top Stylist around the city who were looking for a higher-end salon suite to open their business. Since then we’ve grown to housing over 20 beauty professionals. MINT Salon Suites, houses aestheticians, Hair Stylist, barbers, lash specialists, and nail technicians.

We are aggressively seeking a space for our next location and in talks on both Alpharetta and Decatur locations! We plan to open our second location by the end of 2026!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always struggles associated with large construction projects, and the post effects of Covid definitely added to the common hurdles you would normally encounter. When I begin my research and started reaching out to general contractors for pricing estimate estimates for the project we were given estimates that we’re almost 50% below what the project actually ended up costing. In fact once we signed our lease, we initially agreed to move forward with a general contractor and even wire transferred him a large deposit to begin work, only to have him arrive on the scene and tell us that it was going to cost $400,000 more than originally quoted. I scrambled quickly to cancel that agreement and find a replacement contractor as I had already signed a lease and was on the hook for the space. After finding a reputable contractor, the cost did end up being 40% more than we had originally planned and got quotes for. All of the contractors stated rising materials cost from tariffs and higher labor cost due to shortages. Unfortunately, this was a pill. We had to swallow and push forward with the vision for MINT Salon Suites.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about MINT Salon Suites?
MINT Salon Suites was created to offer beauty professionals a luxury environment in which to open their business; a space they could be proud of that would represent their brand well. We took great care to study the pitfalls of other salon suite operators and eliminated those concerns from our design.

The result was a luxury space that is not only visually striking but also extremely functional. Our space offers high ceilings, motion activated LED lighting, and fully insulated suites to reduce sound travel and provide privacy. We also offer industry, exclusive storefront suites, which allow business owners to have their own retail storefront while still taking advantage of all the amenities that a salon suite offers.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I would say I’ve encountered more bad luck than good throughout all of my business journey. I lost my father to a sudden heart attack when I was 23. I have since taken care of my mother and sister and our businesses. I’ve learned many hard lessons and negotiating and dealing with landlords and real estate professionals who were much more experienced than I was when I began. I have entered into nefarious, one sided lease agreements because I was unaware of what to look out for.

As I mentioned before, I took steps to get three quotes from different contractors before signing the lease and moving forward with my project; however, in the end the project ended up costing almost double what I was quoted. Somehow no amount of preparation was enough to overcome this surprise price increase. Bad luck? Idk.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mintsuites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mintsalonsuites
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/mintsalonsuites/