Trouble Shooting and Tips for Running a Successful Salon

Are you thinking of how to set up your own beauty salon? Learn how to make it successful now!

People generally start or buy a beauty salon for different reasons: sometimes it is because they are excellent at their chosen profession and feel they can make a better living working for themselves. Sometimes it is a lifestyle change, and sometimes it is simply a lifelong dream.

Do you want to find new clients or keep existing ones?

Both but, to put it bluntly, it costs a lot more to find new clients as keeping existing clients. So, have a good honest look at your business and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you offer excellent salon customer service and value for money?
• Do your clients keep coming back or do you see them once and never again?
• Do you stay in touch with your clients after they have made a purchase?
• Do you reward clients for being loyal to your salon/spa/treatment centre?

In other words, clients need to feel very special. When you focus on customer service and make it a priority, that extra revenue you are seeking may be closer than you think.

Unsure about marketing your business?

Just look outside the industry for marketing ideas. If you focus on what you do, and on what your competitors do, businesses within the sector start to look the same to the potential client. However, if you look outside the industry you may discover a world of marketing tools and ideas that would work wonderfully for your business. Develop the ability to look from the outside in at your business, instead of from the inside out. Start a ‘beauty salon marketing ideas box' today. Collect advertisements out of newspapers and magazines, collect junk mail, brochures, sample promotions... If you buy something based on an advertisement or direct mail you received keep it, because if it worked on you, perhaps it can also work for you. Whenever you are stuck for an idea, look in the box and you will find an advertisement that will suit perfectly. How to write that advertisement Newspaper/magazine advertisements can be very effective but expensive, so careful to stick to your budget.  Newspapers tend to bring instant results, prompting the client to take immediate action and call you today.  So, you must make the most of this opportunity by remembering to use the following guidelines:

• Have a strong heading to catch the reader’s attention.
• Design unusually sized advertisements
• Keep words to a minimum.
• Leave space in the advertisement.
• Use a border.
• Give the client a reason to call you immediately.
• Only use pictures if they have a lot of contrast
• Make sure to include all the facts – who, what, where, why, when?

Positioning your ad is also important. The more often you place an ad the more likely you are to get results.

Encourage your staff to build your business

Good beauty therapists are the backbone of any successful beauty salon. Staff are as good as the training and encouragement they receive. Very few salons have well trained sales therapists. However, if you want to spend thousands of euros setting up your salon, purchasing stock, advertising, marketing... only to have a client leave without rebooking or purchasing some products because the beauty therapist was unable to close the sale, then why bother? Want to know how to increase sales in beauty retail? Therapists should be able to recommend a product to any client based on their individual needs. They should also be able to link sell and to up-sell. It is up to each therapist to help the client make the purchase and leave your salon feeling happy and satisfied, looking forward to returning and happy to recommend your business to their friends. Invest in your staff, give them the skills and expertise to sell your services and products to the best of their ability. If your beauty therapists are not good sales people, don’t blame them until you have given them the necessary tools to be able to sell. Consider how much it would improve your bottom line if your therapists were trained to make that extra sale every time.

Think like a client

It is amazing how different you salon looks when you are seeing it through the client’s eye. This changes your perception and is a handy exercise to do on a regular basis, as it will help you to increase the appeal of your salon to potential clients. For example, think about:

• Using your reception/waiting room to sell your services and products
• Always having a top quality window display to attract interest
• Asking your clients how they heard about your business and what they like about it
• The power of free samples, gift with purchase, promotions etc...
• How professional your salon appears to your client

And most importantly, BE UNIQUE! Know why a client should avail of your services and buy your products.