There is an old tale of how, through the course of events, the lack of one nail, a shoe could not be put on the horse and then a solider could not fight on the horse, and ultimately the battle is lost because of the loss of this one soldier. I recently had a series of unfortunate events that had the opposite effect.

Last month, I arrived home from work to begin writing my blog for MODERN SALON. Lindsay, our Patrick McIvor Color Studio operations director, called to say a dryer was making bad noises and smelled. My wife, Leah, jumped in the car and got back to the studio immediately. She brought home every dirty towel, gown and cape so they could be laundered and folded at home to be ready for the team Thursday morning for our completely packed next day.

I woke early the next day to be at the studio and see if I could either fix the dryer or quickly order a new one. When I arrived at the studio, there were nine large service trucks outside and the entire building was black. After talking with the crew, I was informed that the power might be on at 9am, for a job that was started at 8pm last night and was supposed to take 2 hours.

So again, I called the secret to our success (Leah) and with a car adapter we set up a command center in the back of her Highlander Hybrid. Because of Salon Transcripts (STX) and our Macintosh computers, we pulled the server into the power adapter, linked the Studio's laptop through Mac’s computer-to-computer option. Leah texted our entire team and we were ready to go.

At 9am, the electrical line was still broken. So, Leah advised team members to come in early to grab their tools and head to our other location and we started contacting guests to offer them services at our other location or a reschedule. By 9:15 team members were arriving and the 10am guests had already been contacted. By 9:30, with a new estimate of noon, we were moving the entire fully booked day to our second Studio. We had four team members in the Highlander manning the computers and phones and transferring formulas, and by 10:30 we were able to transfer our server to the other salon with our team able to access their guest’s formulas through their STX iPhone App.

Two days later, About 6 hours later, at 5:30am, we were notified the second Studio had been robbed. My wife left to talk to the police and I hopped on the computer and changed all of our passwords online for banks, websites and any other business sensitive protected information, then contacted STX.

Leah arrived to find that the front door had been smashed, and the perpetrators broke into our cash drawer, tip box and safe—$800, tips, brushes, irons and tools were stolen, and files/papers from the safe were on the ground. But, they did not take the computers, flat screens, break mirrors, in fact, the vase that holds some of the brushes was placed carefully on the front desk chair.

Because of a DRYER we took more money out of the studio than the bad guys would have taken if the dryer was not broken.

With four days filled with half-full glasses, looking for silver linings and smiling through it all together, I am thankful for a great team and the perfect wife/partner.

Patrick McIvor is the artistic color director with Matrix – the leading professional haircare and haircolor company in the United States and part of the L’Oreal USA Professional Products Division. He owns patrick mcivor color studio (Bethlehem, PA) and studio two (Allentown, PA) – the two hottest hair studios in the Lehigh Valley. As one of the most respected colorists in the industry, McIvor mentors his team by involving them in runway work at New York Fashion Week; fashion/beauty editorial shoots and interviews with publications like Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Real Simple, Seventeen, Family Circle and Allure (editors named him best colorist in the USA); and television segments on “The 10! Show”/NBC Channel 10, WFMZ “Channel 69 News” and “Good Housekeeping Reports.” His studio provides stellar hair services inspired by international cosmopolitan influences such as fashion, cultural and global trends. In other words, guests leave with beautiful, sexy believable hair. McIvor is also featured in the book “50 Hairstylists.”