You may be asking yourself “what’s the difference?”, but the fact is that being in the beauty business and being in the business of beauty are two vastly different things!
Here’s a quick overview of both…you decide which category you belong to:
Those who are in the beauty business:
- Generally always arrive first in the morning and leave last at night
- Have the biggest workload and the most clients
- Work full-time on the floor delivering services to clients
- Work well over thirty-eight hours per week (and more than any of their staff members)
- Have no idea what their services are costing them to provide and therefore don’t know how to market their salon for better profitability
- Continually search for staff who operate just like they do
- Believe that without them the business will fall apart
- Are the last one to take home a pay packet
- Will never have a saleable business because they ARE the business
Whereas those in the business of beauty:
- Work realistic hours and are not heading for early burnout
- Don’t believe they are the only people in the world who can provide a great service to their clients
- Spend their time doing productive work such as marketing, staff training and developing profitable strategies to take their salons from strength to strength
- Regularly monitor their business figures and key performance indicators
- Understand which services provide a worthwhile income to their salons and which don’t
- Hire staff based on a sound knowledge of skills needed within their salon
- Are building a saleable business that does not rely on them being the main service provider
- Make enough money to make it all worthwhile
There are many more differences between the two categories, but I think you may be starting to get the drift.
Which category do you currently belong to and more importantly, which category do you want to belong to in the future?
Many salon owners believe that being great at their craft is all they need to be a successful business owner.
This just isn’t true. It takes a great deal more.
There is a world full of great service providers out there (just look at all those other salon owners in the beauty business), many of which will fail in their quest to be financially successful.
Being great at the services you provide just isn’t enough to make you successful in the business of beauty.
Running a business requires at least a basic knowledge of good business practices along with the willingness to invest the time and work needed to develop and implement them into your business.
Spending all of your time providing client services will most definitely make your clients very happy but unfortunately, it will most probably cost you the victory you set out to achieve when you started up your salon.
Some business consultants say you need to spend at least twenty percent of your time working on your business, leaving you eighty percent of your time to provide services.
I don’t agree!
Every financially successful salon owner that I have ever met is in the business of beauty first and foremost and spends the majority of their time nurturing the needs of their business and motivating their team.
Whether you have twenty staff or two staff, the same rules apply.
Start to make the time you need to work on your business.
It won’t happen in just a few days or even a few months, but the sooner you make working on your business a priority, the sooner you will begin to move towards having the kind of business you set out to achieve.
A business that will give you not only a great sense of achievement but also the financial freedom you deserve.
You might even find out that your staff can actually make your clients happy too!
Hello ,
as a new salon at Docklands who holds alot of office workers how do l get them to come and have beauty services at my salon ?
http://www.splendorskinandlaser.com
Hi Elena, You are fortunate to have this opportunity at your fingertips.
You need to sit down and approach this from a logical standpoint.
First, ask your self what age group do the majority of the office workers fit into. Then decide what services are most attractive to this target market.
For instance, older women might be more interested in facials and massage, whereas younger women might be more into spray tanning, nails and waxing.
You might even have two distinct markets in which case you can develop offers that will be attractive to both groups.
Don’t go into discount mode – that is very important. You will damage the integrity of your services if you do this and will have a great deal of difficulty getting full price in future.
Instead consider how you can package your services using value adding. Perhaps you can sell 5 spray tans (prepaid) and that will entitle them to an additional spray tan for free. Or, consider putting a facial and massage promotion together and then value adding with additional services such as brow shaping, lash tinting, back scrub. You charge fully for the facial and massage and value add with the other secondary services.
Run some fun information evenings with giveaways and demonstrations.
Have some flyers printed up to be delivered to surrounding offices, Offer a loyalty card to local office workers that rewards them with a gift voucher valued at a percentage of their overall spend after 5 visits. e.g. 5 visits might add up to $180 dollars – give a voucher valued at $18 (equal to 10%).
Hope this helps get you started.
Have you downloaded your free e-book from the site as yet? Lots of great ideas in this 60 page book for you to use.
Pam