''If it didn't feel right, I haven't done it ... or if I did do it and it wasn't really as successful as I hoped, I changed it,'' she said, simply.
Last August, the Dunedin doyenne of the hairdressing industry celebrated 40 years in business.
That business has grown from humble beginnings - one salon in South Dunedin - to a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
It has not always been easy, particularly for a woman running a business, but Mrs Morshuis, in her ''early 60s'', had ''absolutely no regrets''. It had made her an independent woman and she enjoyed being in control of her destiny, she said.
Headquarters Hairdressing Ltd is now made up of several brands: Headquarters Hairdressing, Haircare Market, Express Cut and Colour, HQ Hair Express, Southern Salon Supplies, and with some individual licensees.
Mrs Morshuis recalled taking her mother's big scissors to school and cutting her school-mates' fringes. She also worked in a hairdressing salon, as a shampoo assistant, from age 13, which gave her a taste for the industry.
Describing her parents as gypsies, she grew up ''all over the place'' and left Waitaki Girls High School when she was 15, to start work at a salon in Dunedin.
''If I'm really honest, I was never driven by the passion that I wanted to be a hairdresser ... but it was interesting and it was a means to an end,'' she said.
That passion developed after she bought her first salon, Salon Caprice, in South Dunedin, when she was 21. The acquisition of the salon for the young hairdresser was a ''huge step'', she acknowledged.
She had saved $1000 by working in rest-homes on Saturdays and doing the hair of residents, perming and colouring, while her parents put their house up as security.
While overnight she had become a businesswoman, she had a previous taste of business when she was 18 and did a stint of mobile hairdressing with a friend.
''She had the car, I had the hair-drier and away we went.''
In 1979, Mrs Morshuis headed overseas to do a two-year OE, having packed up her house and left a colleague running the salon. While away, she lost her house in the Abbotsford land slip.
When she returned to Dunedin, she opened a second salon in Caversham, which was the beginning of a chain of stores.
''Everything I've done has happened - I wouldn't say by accident - but it's never been a planned thing to do.''
It was when she owned three salons that the opportunity arose to buy Headquarters Hair Design's three salons. Headquarters Hairdressing became the brand.
The Headquarters group has gone through many changes over the years, including the formation of the first ''cash and carry'' in New Zealand.
Southern Salon Supplies, now with branches in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington, and with representatives on the road covering all of New Zealand, started ''out of the cupboard'', during a period when salons around the city used to borrow products and notes were left on her cupboard doors.
The Haircare Market was the first solely retail outlet in New Zealand was a success, she said.
And the South Dunedin salon, where Mrs Morshuis started her business career, had been rebranded as Express Cut and Colour but it was ''still there 40 years down the track''.
With the various changes in the business, consolidation and the addition of licensees, staff numbers had gone from 120 to 45.
Mrs Morshuis' role these days was ''really the big picture''. She liked travelling - she recently returned from Berlin and Schwarzkopf's Essential Looks launch - having a look at what was happening, coming back with ideas and being around to mentor the licensees.
In her four decades of business, Mrs Morshuis said she had learned trust in people, delegation, to be disciplined, consistency, fairness and forward thinking.
She advised people to not be afraid of failing, but being afraid not to try. She also urged them to believe in their brand - ''I've created a brand I believe in'' - and to ''always do what you promise to do''.
She described herself as a very strong systems person which made life easier for both her and for staff. She had always sought out good mentors and still did.
Mrs Morshuis believed she was fair and that staff respected the decisions she made.
''I think they trust me to make the right decisions.''
She also had an ability to delegate and that was her ''survival tool''.
''I don't try to do everything myself,'' she said.
The hairdressing industry had changed so much from when she started, when perming was ''huge'' and colouring was a very small part of work, now it had ''totally reversed''. She was also watching the eco-friendly type market ''very closely.
The cost of doing business was increasing, and it was getting ''harder and harder'' to run businesses in main street areas. There was also competition from the home hairdressing market.
Mrs Morshuis was a foundation member of the hairdressing training organisation and was involved with writing its unit standards.
She was also a recipient of the New Zealand Association of Registered Hairdressers' ''award of merit''. Dunedin, she said, had given her a ''fantastic lifestyle''.
''Because my parents were almost like gypsies, I think I came and put my roots down here and I was happy to be somewhere and stay.''
People in the city were easy to do business with and she could ''fly a bit under the radar, which is me''.
''I actually quite like to be able to sit a little bit under the radar. In the past, I've always pushed key managers out front to do PR stuff.''
She and her husband, Jac, also have a property at Clyde, with an olive grove, and the couple spend a substantial amount of time there. She could work remotely from Central Otago.
Cooking was a passion - ''that's my relaxation'' - and she joked that her husband got the best meals when she had a bad day.
Their home was used to host staff conferences and she believed that helped generate a ''loyalty and family sort of feel about the business''.
