Nicki
Ranatawake
Salon Founder | Speaker | Leading a movement of Salons with Heart™
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Nicki Ranatawake is a salon founder, speaker and industry voice leading a movement of Salons with Heart™.
She built Salon Purpose — Australia’s most recognised purpose-led salon — from her backyard during Covid lockdowns into an award-winning brand with:
🧡 19 team members
🧡 5,000+ clients
🧡 And over $100,000 donated to charitable causes
Creator of The Heart-Led Salon™, Nicki’s proven framework is helping salon owners grow values-driven, high-impact businesses with kindness, generosity and purpose at the centre.
With more than 23 years in the industry, Nicki is known for blending business strategy with a heart-led approach, showing what’s possible when you lead with both.
She built Salon Purpose — Australia’s most recognised purpose-led salon — from her backyard during Covid lockdowns into an award-winning brand with:
🧡 19 team members
🧡 5,000+ clients
🧡 And over $100,000 donated to charitable causes
Creator of The Heart-Led Salon™, Nicki’s proven framework is helping salon owners grow values-driven, high-impact businesses with kindness, generosity and purpose at the centre.
With more than 23 years in the industry, Nicki is known for blending business strategy with a heart-led approach, showing what’s possible when you lead with both.
the woman behind the movement
Meet Nicki
Lead with heart.
Grow with Purpose.
The Heart-Led Salon™ is Nicki's signature workshop series for salon owners ready to grow businesses that are not only profitable, but purposeful.
Grounded in over two decades of industry experience, this values-led framework blends heart and strategy through four essential levers for salon success:
Grounded in over two decades of industry experience, this values-led framework blends heart and strategy through four essential levers for salon success:
People | Presence | Purpose | Profit
Building high-impact, heart-led salons through People, Presence, Purpose and Profit.
Nicki Ranatawake
The Heart-led Salon™
The 4Ps for a salon with heart™
THE HEART-LED SALON™ WORKSHOP SERIES
Delivered as a standalone workshop or a full-year package across four quarterly themes for your team. Now booking for Q4 2025.
More than staff. This workshop is about every human your business touches—your team, your clients, your community. Discover how to create a people-first culture that uplifts everyone it reaches.
people
presence
purpose
profit
Learn how to embed generosity into every aspect of your salon model. In this workshop Nicki will show you how to align your work with deeper meaning and charitable impact in a way that’s built in, not bolted on.
Profit equals possibility. This workshop covers practical ways to build a financially strong salon—so you can pay well, lead well, and give generously, without burning out or selling out.
Your presence is more than how your salon looks, it’s how it lives in people’s minds and hearts. In this workshop, Nicki shares how to build a brand that’s magnetic on the outside and meaningful on the inside.
WANT NICKI TO SPEAK AT YOUR EVENT?
Speaking topics include...
Purpose-led business
How we built a profitable salon and gave over $100K away
Scaling with soul
Creating a workplace your staff never want to leave
Culture-rich teams
From local impact to global change
Hairdressing as a career of purpose
Changing the game
Why generosity is good business
Building Salons with Heart™
Local Business Awards, industry wide and national recognition PLUS acknowledged by NSW Parliament with a Community Service Recognition
Built for impact
Over $100,000 donated to charitable causes in just 5 years of operations
Award-winning & recognised
Featured on Channel 9, Helping Hands TV, podcasts and Hair Festival & Pro Purpose Conference panels
Sought-after voice
From 12 clients to 5,000+ in just five years
Real results
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Why Book Nicki?
Channel 9 | HelpingHandsTV | O&M Salon Series | StyleIcons | TimeOut
Manly Observer | Hair Festival | Pro Purpose
Nicki Ranatawake
as seen on
Nicki from Salon Purpose is a living example of what it means to lead with heart and intention.
Her journey from a tiny backyard salon to raising over $100,000 and leading a thriving team, proves that purpose driven leadership creates lasting impact. As a speaker, Nicki brings a grounded wisdom, deep integrity, and the kind of practical inspiration that moves both hearts and businesses forward. Her episode was one of the most beautiful and impactful we had the pleasure of recording.
- Salon Rising
Nicki is the kind of speaker who inspires action.
When she shared her journey with fellow Pro Purpose partners at our Annual Conference, the room was captivated. She spoke with authenticity, passion, and a clear vision of how generosity can transform not just a business, but an entire team and community. Her story of growing Salon Purpose from a single chair in her home to a multi-award-winning salon—powered by intentional generosity—left a room of already generous business leaders motivated to amplify their own impact
- Alana Nicholls | CEO Pro Purpose
Nicki spoke with both passion and kindness
about the values that shape Salon Purpose, educating and inspiring Hair Festival attendees to not only better their businesses, but themselves and the wider salon community in the process. She spoke anecdotally about the unique decisions that helped build her brand, giving attendees actionable and valuable takeaways to apply to their own business approaches.
Shannon Guss Editor | Instyle
