Bella Lei: Matters from the Heart

These characteristics have stuck with Babs as she infuses her zest for life into every part of her world, from her booming business to her husband and family. Babs’ husband, Eric Stelter, is far from lacking a unique and inspiring outlook on life, keeping up with his wife and adding his own spice to the mixture. A successful entrepreneur from the young age of 17, Eric could start up a successful business with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back! His background being in technology, he had no idea that his path would converge with the beauty industry. “While going through the 80’s, I had my own unique style,” says Eric about his fashion sense growing up. “It could only be explained as a mix between skater-punk meet’s Prince’s ‘Purple Rain!’ While it was nothing to be proud of (and hopefully few pictures exist), the experience did provide some insight into how we currently watch trends!”

As a tomboy, Babs was the girl on the bicycle leaving the boys in the dust, rather than accessorizing her Barbie dolls. As she grew older, try as she might, she couldn’t hide her obvious talent in fashion and style. After high school, Babs landed an apprenticeship to envy at a local upscale salon. Barbara excelled as an apprentice and quickly found her creative outlet. When her apprenticeship was completed, Barbara became a stylist at the same salon and quickly advanced as one of the top stylists with a strong following of loyal clients. After working in the industry for almost 8 years, Barbara decided that she had aspirations beyond working for someone else.

Babs and Eric opened Bella Lei in July 2001 with a staff of three and their share of bumps. Opening earlier than planned to accommodate a long line of anxious clients, Barbara and her good friend Katie opened the doors to a 3,000 sq. ft facility with only two stylists, a part-time manager/receptionist, and Shortcuts. “When we began our evaluation of software applications for the salon industry the one thing that was very important to us was ease of use because we knew that we would have a bunch of computer neophytes using the system! Shortcuts quickly became the lead contender based on its touch screen interface, ease of use and focus on marketing,” says Babs and Eric when asked about their decision to use Shortcuts. “Like many salons we experience a fair amount of turnover at our front desk since we employ younger staff-members (typically high school or college). Shortcut’s interface has enabled us to minimize the cost associated with the training of new employees. Actually, because of its ease-of-use we typically only need about 1-day of training relating to scheduling and point of sales features. Other functions (inventory, end-of-day processing, general reporting) add only about 1-more day, overall significantly reducing our training cycle and minimizing operational errors.”

If you are wondering what kind of service you will get from the team at Bella Lei, think ‘Top Notch.’ The awards and accolades that Bella Lei carries is a testament to this truth; winner of the Salon Today Top 200 two years consecutively and 2003 won Top Salon honors in Milwaukee Magazine are among the list of reasons that people flock to this salon and spa to retreat to a place where they can be pampered and cared for.

Now up to over 40 employees, complete with spa services in custom built treatment rooms and a second location, Bella Lei is anything but ordinary. Spreading their wings into other creative arenas, Babs and Eric shared their talents with the surrounding artistic community with their first art showing in October of 2001 and again in 2002 when they began a series of Fashion shows during large summer festivals. These shows have now expanded into full music and fashion events featuring live music and clothing from multiple local designers and retailers.

An inspiration to the community as well as their clients, staff, and each other, Eric and Babs are the prime example of how business is NOT separate from the heart. When asked how she keeps motivated and on the cutting edge of her craft, Babs says, “I sincerely love what I do so motivation just comes easy 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time I just think of what it would be like doing something else, then I realize that there is nothing else that would be this much fun.” You can’t get much better than that!