Renae's Salon & Spa under new ownership | Sioux Center News | nwestiowa.com

Oct 25, 2024

Paige Vander Wilt, Renae Visscher and Paxton Holwerda are the mother-daughter trio behind Renae’s Salon & Spa. Vander Wilt and Holwerda own and operate the 40-year business together after each buying out half the salon.

SIOUX CENTER—Paxton Holwerda and Paige Vander Wilt’s interest in hairdressing started with their mother, Renae Visscher.

Her business, Renae’s Salon & Spa, had always been a part of their lives. As kids, Holwerda and Vander Wilt, along with their older brother Patrick, would play with push toys, cars and dolls in the Centre Mall. Meanwhile, Visscher would be completing inventory checklists and bookwork with her husband, Jaris.

Visscher opened Renae’s Salon & Spa at 19 years old. She juggled her career and motherhood while growing her business, expanding from a one-chair salon to a business with eight stylists and a long list of services for customers.

After pursuing cosmetology careers themselves, Holwerda, now 30, and Vander Wilt, 25, both work at Renae’s Salon & Spa full time. They each purchased half the salon and run the business their mom started 40 years ago.

Holwerda, Visscher’s oldest daughter, always wanted to pursue hairdressing. She graduated with a business degree from Dordt College in Sioux Center and attended cosmetology school at Xenon Academy in Omaha, NE, returning to work at Renae’s Salon in June of 2015. She waited four years before considering purchasing part of the salon.

“After I worked for four years, then Mom felt like, ‘You know what? I think if you would like to now, it would be a good time,’” Holwerda said. “We wanted to make sure that this is what we wanted before we actually did it.”

Vander Wilt did not always picture herself as a cosmetologist. At first, she wanted to be a nurse. She attended Dordt and changed her major several times before graduating with a business degree and attending Le Mars Beauty College, the same school her mom graduated from decades earlier.

“I fell in love with it while I was there,” Vander Wilt said.

Visscher said she sees some overlap between careers in child care, health care and cosmetology. All involve hands-on care and relationship building, which is one of Vander Wilt’s favorite parts of the job.

Paxton Visscher adds highlights and lowlights to Lindsey Pfingsten’s hair at Renae’s Salon & Spa. Holwerda purchased half the salon from her mother in 2020, and her sister Paige Vander Wilt bought the other half earlier this year.

“My job is more about the relationships than it is about anything, and that’s what I love about it,” she said.

When Vander Wilt began working at the salon in 2020. She waited four years to pursue buying in but felt ready to purchase her mom’s half the business in January. Holwerda and Vander Wilt now own and operate the entirety of the business while Visscher shifted her hours to part time.

In 2023, Renae’s Salon & Spa served 13,765 clients — a number they say could be higher as often spouses and parents book appointments under their name for other family members. On average, around 60 customers stop in each day. The salon has eight stylists and one massage therapist and looks to hire more full- and part-time staff to serve its clientele.

“I love it all,” Visscher said, reflecting on her years in the business. “The variety is what makes the job enjoyable.”

Renae’s Salon & Spa celebrated 40 years in business in August. Visscher opened her business right after graduating from beauty school. Like her daughters, she watched her mother, Marcie Kroese, work as a beautician. Her first salon was located at Northwest Bank’s current drive through in downtown Sioux Center. Seven years later, she moved into the new Centre Mall. In 2010, she moved to her current location, a building attached to the mall that used to be a Fareway Meats & Grocery.

Renae’s Salon & Spa has been operating its hair styling, waxing, spa, makeup, facials, ear piercing, eyelash and hair extension services out of the location for the past 14 years.

For Visscher, building the business from the ground up did not come at the expense of missing time with family. She juggled both commitments, sacrificing her personal time or often sleep before time with her family. Her kids said this did not go unnoticed.

“If I had a game that got rescheduled, let’s say it got rescheduled from Monday to Tuesday. Now that I’m in the industry, now I realize how many people she actually had to message, how much work that was,” Vander Wilt said. “Even if she had to switch every single one of her appointments, she would switch them to Monday night instead of Tuesday so she could be at my game.”

“I lost clients because I did that, but I didn’t care,” Visscher said. “To me, the most important thing was to be at my kids’ events.”

Holwerda and Vander Wilt said this mindset is evident in how Visscher chose to run her business — and impacts the kind of clients and employees that Renae’s Salon & Spa attracts.

“That’s why we also have such good staff, because she created that environment of your faith, your family, then your job,” Vander Wilt said.

Some of the hairdressers at Renae’s Salon & Spa have worked with Visscher and her family for decades, which has helped Holwerda and Vander Wilt transition into the new phase of ownership.

As sisters, Holwerda and Vander Wilt said they have always been close. As business partners, they have spent the past year learning more about each other’s strengths and weakness, and how to divide the work. They often are more honest and blunt with each other, something that comes with the territory of working with your sister.

“There are times, don’t get me wrong, that we get a little beefy with each other. But I think that’s part of being siblings and part of trying to figure this all out,” Holwerda said. “I feel like she’s given me a ton of grace, and I feel like I’ve given her a ton of grace.”

Vander Wilt said she has watched Renae’s Salon & Spa continue an upward trajectory her whole life. As business owners, she hopes she and Holwerda can continue the trend by adding new services and expanding retail.

“What my mom has done is huge shoes to fill, and what is going now is working well, but we also have to keep evolving and changing,” Vander Wilt said.

Visscher does not have concrete plans for retirement, although her seven grandchildren are often her biggest pull to scale back on her work.

“I do love to spend time with my grandkids,” she said. “I hate that, when I find out, ‘Oh crumb, they need a babysitter, and I can’t do it.’”

Visscher said watching her kids take over the business has been a humbling experience as a mother.

“I never dreamed that this would happen,” she said. “I always say, ‘It’s not me, it’s God, because I can’t do anything.’ So, I just see God through them.”

Business: Renae’s Salon & Spa

Owners: Paxton Holwerda and Paige Vander Wilt

Address: 251 N. Main Ave. Suite 307, Sioux Center

Hours: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Friday

Phone: 712-722-0008

Online: renaessalonspa.com

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