Salon and Spa Business Performance
6 Steps to Create Your Perfect SpaTeam
Unless you’re a sole-trader and have no employees, chances are the biggest stressor you’ll have in your salon or spa comes from managing and motivating your own team members. After all, your team is responsible for providing and up-selling services, selling products, re-booking clients, and delivering outstanding customer service. All of which...
132 Lost Clients
What would you do if you found out you had lost the opportunity to gain 132 new salon clients? Personally, I'd be devastated. So, let me tell you a true story about something that happened to me recently. Late last year, I ordered 8 cushion inserts online. I ordered these particular inserts for 2 reasons:...
Are You Losing Valuable Spa Retail Sales To The Web?
More than ever, salon and spa owners have to compete with the internet for retail sales. What makes this even worse is that sometimes your competitors are the very businesses that you’re buying your professional products from. And when this happens, it means that your clients, whom you’ve spent valuable time...
When New Clients Matter Most to your Salon or Spa
Are you stuck in a permanent client attraction frenzy? If you are, then let me assure you that you're not alone. Most salon owners are continuously on the hunt for new clients, which begs the question, "What happened to all the previous clients that have patronised your business in the past?". But, I won't get too deeply into that because I've...
My Salon, My Premises, My Rules
I commented on a social media post a couple of days ago about requesting clients to turn off their mobile phones completely, as opposed to vibrate only. It was an interesting discussion! The salon owner who started the discussion had obviously had it up to her eyeballs with clients answering their phones during relaxation treatments. She was over...
22 Ways to Catapult Your Salon Profits Immediately
Another year is underway, resolutions were made, and hope for a more financially successful year is in the air. While it’s great to be optimistic about what lies ahead, we all know that what actually gets you from a resolution to a result are the actions you take to make things happen. So let’s take a look at...
Why Gaining New Salon Clients Isn’t Always the Solution to Your Problems
My coaching clients are encouraged to ask me as many questions as they want to find a solution to their problems. Probably the top question I get asked is “How can I get more new clients?”. I must admit I find this question a little frustrating. Not because the salon wouldn’t benefit from new clients, but...
Taking Your Spa from Average to Awesome
Is your salon a little average? I’m not talking about your decor, treatments or customer service, but about your ability to generate a constant, healthy profit. Your profit is the one thing that keeps you doing what you love and paying the bills. Salon owners are generally very hard workers; often the hardest workers in their own businesses. So...
The Importance of Knowing Your Break-Even Point
In any line of business, knowing your break-even point (BEP) is critical. Contrary to popular belief, it is not just essential knowledge for startups, but for all stages of business. As a salon owner, this information is essential, as it will assist you in your day-to-day operations, as well as assessing opportunities that may come your way very...
The Best Low-Cost Salon Marketing Strategies
From a business perspective, your best-kept secrets are often your salon and your services...and that's not a good thing! Today, it simply isn’t enough to be the best at what you do and thus expect to turn your business into a roaring success – no matter how many Facebook inspirational quotes tell you otherwise. If your business is the best-kept...
Double Your Salon Profits Through Better Client Retention
Given the choice, most salon and spa owners will jump at the opportunity to learn how to attract more clients into their business. After all, that's how their salons will grow, right? In fact, this isn't the case at all for most salons I've worked with. Each time I work with a new salon or spa owner, and I ask them what their business goals are,...
Focusing on Your Salon or Spa Profit
Why is it that making a profit from your salon or spa is so elusive? Is it because you don’t work long enough or hard enough? Is it because you don’t have a passion for making others look and feel fantastic? Or is it because you don’t deserve to be financially successful? The response to all these questions is, of course, a resounding ‘NO”. As a...
Super Simple Strategies to Keep Your Salon Clients Returning.
Clients disappear from your salon for all sorts of reasons. Some things you can't do anything about (like clients who move interstate or die), but other solutions, which can be incredibly simple, are often overlooked. Replacing lost clients is actually one of the biggest expenses in any salon. Did you know it costs at least 5 times more to get...
It’s the Little Things That Can Matter the Most
I've just experienced six fabulous weeks touring part of the globe, and I've had some interesting customer service experiences. Some places had fabulous surroundings and ordinary customer service, others had the reverse, and some managed to achieve top marks in both areas. The one thing that really stood out, however, wasn't the 'place' but the...
How to Avoid a Salon or Spa Recruitment Disaster
One of the biggest problems that many industries face, including the beauty industry, is employee turnover. When you consider the cost of advertising, recruiting, training, and development of a new employee, you can certainly see why minimising employee replacement is a great idea. To avoid this additional expense in your salon, you need to...
How your Communication Style is Affecting your Salon Team’s Performance
One of the top 3 issues salon owners tell me they have, is problems with the performance of their team members. I often hear the questions, “Why don’t they see what I can see?” or, “Why don’t they do it the way I’d do it?” It leaves them feeling frustrated and more than a little stressed. The reality is that unless you have an identical twin,...
Say Goodbye to Service Discounts Forever in Your Salon or Spa
When business is a little slow, the first strategy many salon owners turn to is discounting their services. While discounting may seem like a sure-fire way to get people into your salon, it could also be a sure-fire way of going broke. As a business coach and mentor, I believe discounting is simply a substitute for good marketing. Instead of...
Why Scrimping On Quality Could Be Costing You A Ton of Money
ledGood salon operators always try to maximise money in and minimise money out of their businesses. But can minimising investment on the wrong things actually be costing you potential revenue? I believe it can, and in this article, we’ll take a look at several different areas in your business where too much scrimping may be hurting your salon...
How To Stay Sane And In Control Around Thorny Clients
We’ve all had them. Those clients that drive you crazy, because they either show up late, don’t show at all or complain about every treatment they receive. Do you really want to keep them? Or more importantly, do you really need to keep them? Unfortunately, there’s so simple answer to that question. The fact is that some clients are worth a bit...
13 Low or No Cost Salon Marketing Tips to Ignite Your Salon
Every salon owner (including you) must market their business continuously. It not only drives new clients to your salon, but it keeps existing clients returning to purchase products and services which in turn increases turnover and profit. All this activity requires an investment of your time, lots of planning, and in some cases, quite a bit of...
11 Strategies on How To Make A Jolly Good Profit This Festive Season.
Christmas! Love it or hate it, it turns up on your doorstep every 12 months and turns your life into one big stress-fest. Every client you've seen over the past 12 months seems to want an appointment in the 2 weeks prior to the arrival of Saint Nick, and of course, you try to fit everyone in with a smile, multiple cans of Red Bull, and a few...
5 Essential Actions to Create Client Loyalty and Generate Return Business in Your Salon
--Salons that can achieve client loyalty will always be streets ahead of their competitors in terms of client retention, and given that it's 91% cheaper to retain a client than to find a new one, this is something worth striving for. Creating the perfect relationship with a client starts from the minute they first hear about you, and continues on...
Is Your Professional Image on Social Media Affecting Your Salon?
Salon owners are often heard to comment "My clients don't treat me like I'm a professional". This is an interesting comment because it's made with the assumption that the problem lies with the clients. Let me assure you - it doesn't. If your clients are disrespectful towards you, are not treating you like a professional and you want to know why...
Salon Newsletters – Your Friend or Foe?
Most salon and spa owners agree that they should do a salon newsletter and that they should do it more often. The thing is, sometimes they're not sure why, how or what to say, so they end up doing nothing. If you think about what it takes to write a great newsletter, you have to ask yourself, "Is it really worth the time and effort it's going to...
8 Solid Tips To Pump Up Your Website’s Performance
Your website should be your premium marketing tool for attracting new clients into your salon or spa, but often this isn't the case and you end up missing out on many opportunities to grow your business because of it. The fact is that websites can no longer be the basic brochure type structure that everyone started out with many years ago. Today,...
Identifying and Dealing with Sucky Clients
Every salon owner has them...sucky clients! They make everyone's life a misery with their poor attitude and lack of respect for your salon. They make you feel like you say and do everything wrong but still, they keep coming back. The dilemma lies in what to do with them. Do you live by the old adage, "The customer is always right", or do you...
How Discretionary Services Could Be Damaging Your Salon or Spa
Everybody loves to receive a little something extra and your clients are no exception. So how could providing your clients with the odd extra service for free, be causing damage to your business? Seems impossible doesn't it, but the fact is you could be setting yourself up for an unhappy client in the future. And here's why... When a client...
Why Your Employees Are Wrecking Your Business, And What You Can Do About It
Good employees are the backbone of every business. When they're working with you, your business will prosper, but if they are working against you, then expect turbulent times. You might be wondering, “Why would my employees want to work against me?” After all, you employ them, pay their wages and do your best for them. However, sometimes your...
Who’s The Most Important Person in Your Salon?
If you have hired well, chances are that your receptionist is likely to be the most important person in your salon. If they do their job well, your appointment columns will be fuller, your additional service sales will be greater, your clients will feel happier, and your retail sales will be better than they've ever been before. One of the...
Understanding Profit and Loss in Your Spa
The majority of hairdressers and beauty therapists love being creative and caring for their clients. They are passionate about their treatments and their customer service, but unfortunately, that same passion does not seem to extend to "doing the figures" in their business. It's simply something they don't enjoy doing, and they find it...