Beauty Tips, Trends & Treatments

I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time talking to salon business owners about the challenges they face and also the successes they are seeing.

I was chatting to a beauty salon owner recently about how she was doing and some of the challenges she was facing.

Her salon is located in a predominantly Asian community and she is virtually flanked on either side by competing salons.

She employs 15 salon staff and runs a good quality salon providing good service to her clients.

Her single biggest challenge is competing with the salons almost next door that are able to charge much lower prices than her.

How?

Well, by having poorly trained staff, cash only businesses, a suspected lack of adherence to tax rules, little if any adherence to health and safety and little if any focus on providing quality client care…

She spends a lot of money training her staff, paying good wages to get good staff, paying her taxes, providing employee benefits such as holiday and bonuses. All stuff that she should be doing and is right to do in a quality salon.

Her perspective is that it’s just not ‘fair’ that another salon should be able to run a dodgy ’ship’ and be able to take business away from her.

Of course whether or not it is fair is unfortunately completely irrelevant and the argument that ‘they’ll get what’s coming to them’ may impart a little satisfaction,  and is likely a valid one but in the meantime she’s got to struggle, scrape and barely pay herself to survive. Not quite what she had in mind when she opened her salon.

And it is seemingly an impossible task to compete with

a business next door which charges lower prices for

the same products/services as you.

Stories of clients popping their heads in the door saying ‘why would I come to you when I can get the same treatment next door for less?’ were of course rife.

This is a very common and very real challenge.

How do you as a quality business, help your clients understand why they should pay more to come to you?

Clients, consumers, me, you, are more aware, more informed than ever and we are rarely interested in doing anyone a favour by paying more for something we can get cheaper somewhere else.

If I’ve got two items lined up side by side that are exactly the same and one shop is selling the item for £50 and the other £65, you can be damn sure I’ll be keeping the additional £15 for something else.

Why wouldn’t I?

However, if I’m looking for somewhere to take Tracey (my fiancée – and by the time you read this, who knows, we may be married) for a romantic meal and I line two restaurants side by side, one selling a 3 course set meal for £15 a head and one offering a gourmet a la carte menu with a professional lounge piano player, romantically decorated restaurant, a top quality wine selection and a beautiful countryside setting for £75 a head, I wouldn’t hesitate for an instant to opt for the chap tinkering the ivories…

You see, this challenge of competing with low price competition is fortunately something which can be easily solved and by solving it you can actually lay the foundations to become the most profitable and stable business in your market.

If it were true that people ONLY bought based on price then no one would buy a Mercedes, no one would go to expensive hotels, no one would buy holidays with Kuoni, no one would stay at the Savoy, no one would buy Chanel bags, no one would choose to buy Tesco’s finest food over ’smart price’, no one would send their dog to a ‘dog spa’ (and they do exist) and I wouldn’t pick the higher priced restaurant…

Only about 10% of our population choose the lowest

price option for anything.

That means a whole 90% of the population are happy to pay above the lowest price and a whole chunk of those want to pay premium prices!

On top of that, lower price buyers are much more likely to complain, much more likely to switch to competitors at the ‘drop of a hat’ and much less likely to spend a lot of money with you…

High price luxury buyers tend by their very nature to be the complete opposite.

They complain less, they are more grateful, they spend more, are less likely to switch to competitors and are not only more likely to refer people but are more likely to refer people like them (bonus).

And even better, they are the least likely to be affected by the credit crunch, rising fuel prices, falling houses and economic uncertainty…

So…

For a second, ask yourself this question…

WHO you would rather serve?

Affluent salon clients with money to spare who are least affected by recession or low price buyers who can barely afford their rent when the price of petrol rises by 2p a litre?

The answer of course is obvious.

Dedciated to your success,

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magnetic Salons Ltd 2009

With the current dire state of our economy, it’s easy to get dragged down and start to succumb to the endless negativity, stop trying, resign, or worse.

When bad things happen to people we don’t know (such as losing their house), it doesn’t really affect us.

When things happens to us like losing a salon client because they can no longer afford us, we are understandably affected. We may feel discouraged and dispondent.

But when both these situations happen at the same time (and often repeatedly) it is easy to slip into hopelessness and even depression.

Are you experiencing these signs?

Your salon or spa does not feel so fun anymore; it feels like a burden

You find yourself in a scarcity mindset and worrying about money You get sucked into conversations about how bad things are You become addicted to the news – which is mostly bad You don’t feel creative or have the initiative to start new projects You often feel like quitting and giving up on your dreams

The first step in pulling yourself back up is realising that you are there in the first place.

Not always easy because it seems that the external circumstances (which are real) are the cause of your challenges. You feel that if things change (in the economy and in your business) that things will get better.

Step two is to question the beliefs underlying your resignation. What would you have to believe to feel the way you do? Are any of these familiar to you?

I can’t succeed in this economy Nobody can afford my salon services now Nothing I do to promote my salon works

Are these true?

Do you really know (or does it just feel like that?)?

Or are they just beliefs that you bought into?

One thing is true – they will become self- fulfilling prophecies if you continue to believe them.

When you are attached to beliefs like this, notice how you react, how you talk, how you behave. What is that costing you? How are these beliefs impacting your life, your business and your future?

What if you couldn’t think those thoughts?

What if it was impossible to entertain them for even a moment?

How would things be like then?

How would you talk and behave?

It’s time to generate some new beliefs and then take actions that support them:

I can succeed in this economy: I can get out there and network more; I can study successful salon marketing strategies; I can mix with people who are positive instead of negative; I can remember the contribution I make and take the steps to share this with everyone. People can afford my salon services now: I just have to meet with more people and get the world out more clearly about what I do; I can take the time to write better marketing materials that make a more persuasive case; I can offer better value and go the extra mile in providing service. Everything I do to promote myself works: Because I am excited about my salon business, when I connect with people, I make an impact and people remember me; I’m not afraid to follow-up because I have value to offer; I’m enthusiastic about the future of my business; when the economy improves, things will only get better.

Aren’t all of these statements just as true or truer than the previous ones? Then why not choose them to believe instead?

The Bottom Line:

You can buy into the story of doom and gloom or you can create a new story of hope and opportunity, no matter what the external circumstances. This will help you take the initiative to market your salon even more proactively and do your part in helping the economy get back on track.

Start today!

Do it NOW!

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magnetic Salons Ltd 2009

Creating a PLAN for marketing your beauty salon or spa is of course essential.

Particularly now we’re deep in recession and attracting new clients, keeping salon clients spending is for many harder than it was a few years ago.

My soon to be released new book is entitled “The Ultimate Marketing Plan for Salons and Spas” and will show you how to create a plan that can make you as successful as you want to be…

In essence there are a few things to consider.

Firstly there are FOUR areas to think about.

1. How to attract NEW clients.

2. How to get clients returning more often.

3. How to get clients spending MORE.

4. How to get clients referring MORE people.

They are the 4 things you need to focus on.

And for each you need a SPECIFIC, measurable SYSTEM that brings you CONISTENT results and RETURN.

And for each SYSTEM, you will use different types of media.

You may use newspaper ads, direct mail, email, websites, flyers, joint ventures, the telephone etc, etc…

But BEFORE you can even think about your system you need to know EXACTLY who you want to attract…

Otherwise it’s tantamount to playing ‘Blind Archery’…

On top of that for MEGA GROWTH you need to get very, very clear about yor ‘numbers’.

The truth is that your ultimate beauty salon business success is all about NUMBERS.

How much does it cost to attract a new salon client, how much does it cost to get a referral, how much is an AVERAGE client worth to you in profit.

Once you KNOW your numbers you can annihilate your competition and know with certainty what media you can use and how many clients you’ll attract each month…

Have a look through my other posts for more details about these topics.

And here’s a BIG TIP.

Most salon and spa owners and entrepreneurs in general do things one at a time…

One thing this month, one thing next month etc, etc.

The skeleton key to DRAMATIC growth is to do EVERYTHING simultaneously.

Don’t wait, don’t procrastinate.

DO IT NOW — TODAY — A LOT!!!

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magnetic Salons Ltd 2009

Do you want to know the secrets to millionaire salon thinking?Here’s a start…

One of the most important attitudes for financial success is long-term thinking.

Successful people think a long way into the future, and they adjust their daily behaviour to ensure that they achieve their long term goals.

In a study done at Harvard University in the 1950s and 1960s, researchers studied the reasons for the success of some people over others in America and throughout the world. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family would be wealthier in the future than in the present.

They looked at factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every opportunity in life but who did poorly.

They also found individuals who had been born or had arrived in their country with no advantages at all, but had been extremely successful. The key question was…

What was the distinguishing factor?

They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered.

They called it “time perspective.”

Time perspective refers to the amount of time you take into consideration when planning your day-to-day salon activities and when making important decisions in your life.

People with a long time perspective invariably achieve way in excess of most in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months, and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have a long time perspective. The average successful person has a time perspective of 10, 15, and even 20 years.

Begin to see that everything that you are doing in your salon or spa today is part of a long time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be either financially independent or financially unfortunate.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO YOUR SALON SUCCESS…

The key to realizing your long-term goals is to set specific shorter term goals that take you on the path to your long-term objective…

One-by-one, step-by-step, meet and exceed each short-term goal and you’ll achieve more in the space of a year than most achieve in a lifetime…

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magnetic Salons Ltd 2009

Does the day to day running of your salon leave you little time to keep up to date records of all your clients, how much they’ve spent, their preferences, their treatment history?

Having a salon software application to help manage your salon or spa can be a really big help.

There are a lot of very good vendors around.

Selecting the ideal application for you of course depends on many factors.

- The size of your salon.

- Your budget.

- WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE.

Here’s what’s important.

Whatever application you choose, it is ONLY a TOOL.

A TOOL to help you SAVE TIME, MAKE MORE MONEY and MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER.

There should be no other reason.

And your selection should be primarily based on certainty that the use of the application will GIVE YOU A RETURN.

Not how many widgets it has, not who pretty it looks, not how many bells and whistles it has.

And here’s another important point.

Do NOT fall into the trap that a ANY piece of beauty salon software is going to suddenly increase your new flow of salon clients, get them spending more and returning more often.

The only way that will happen is IF you couple what the salon software does for you with better marketing.

So, for example.

If the software lets you track people’s birthdays (and you couldn’t do that before without a piece of paper) and creates a list of clients with a birthday in a particular month and tells you.

You CAN the send those clients a birthday card, thanking them for their custom, wishing them a Happy Birthday and offering them a Birthday gift of some kind – a value added treatment perhaps…

That WILL get a section of those clients back in to spend more money, it will increase their satisfaction and you can bet ya bottom dollar few if any other salons/spas are doing that!

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magentic Salons Ltd 2009

If I had a pound for every time I’m asked ‘What Salon Logo Should I Have?”, there’d be a whole new collection of sports cars in my garage.For some godly unknown reason, virtually every salon and spa owner that comes to me has the perception that their LOGO is of paramount importance – and in many cases they think it is the solution to all the advertisings woes.

Now, I mentioned this in my last post.

But I have some bad news for you.

Nobody…

And I mean NOBODY!

Gives a flying HOOT what your logo likes like.

It’s hardly as if people come wandering in to see you and say – “Aha, yes, Henry, saw ya LOGO in the paper… I’d like some of that please!”

Yourbeauty salon logo has nothing, nada, zilcho to do with the amount of new clients you attract, how often they return and how much they spend.

And you’d think BIG companies (or big dumb companies as I like to refer to them) would know better.

Pepsi have just spent endless millions on a new logo (and it looks pretty much the same as the onld one) and I will catagorically state now it will take them a LONG, LONG time to get their money back.

Sure, a good, quality logo that provide the right image for your salon or spa will help do that.

BUT!

Here’s my big point.

TOO many salon and spa owners RELY on their LOGO to do their advertising work for them WITHOUT enough hard thought about what REALLY makes people respond to their ads, flyers, salon websitessalon websites, mail etc.

Do this for me.

IF you currently use a BIG logo in your advertising – remove it for now. Completely. nd if you can’t bring yourself to do that, make it really small and out of the way.

And instead, create a HEADLINE that grabs people attention like the vice like grip of Superman, hauls them up out of their monolithic lazy state (and I mean that metaphorically) and gets them to PICK UP THE PHONE NOW and call you.

Do that NOW.

For your next piece of salon advertising.

And see what happens…

I bet ya you’ll be pleased…

Have a great day!

Henry.

Have you ever struggled to come up with a good idea for a beauty salon promotion?

Does it sometimes seem like the days, weeks and months pass by in a flash and before you know it another years has gone, you look back and haven’t achieved all you wanted to?

Fortunately, it’s a simple challenge to solve.

It can be as simple as an A4 piece of paper arranged in 12 columns with a few notes or post-its…

What am I talking about?

You should NEVER, ever be in need of a good reason for a promotion.

One of the key ingredients to a successful beauty salon advertising campaign is this:

"Entering the Conversation In Your Prospects/Clients Mind"

What do I mean?

Well, everyday, we all have things which are at the top of our consciousness.

That might be what’s happening in the news (an interest rate cut, Jade Goody, Ashley Cole, Red Nose Day), something like the School Holidays, Christmas, Easter or whatever.

IF you enter into the conversation in people’s minds they will be infinitely more receptive to your messages.

The easiest way to get things lined up and ready is to create yourself a Beauty Salon Marketing Calender!

Yep, a calender which you draw up at the start of each year which shows important dates and what promotions you will run for those dates.

There are some ‘tricks’ to making it actually work.

But in essence just taking the time to write what salon promotions you will run and when will magically make more happen than you’ve ever seen before…

So…

Here are 19 Great Reasons for a Salon/Spa Promotion

New Years Day… Shrove Tuesday Valentines Day St Patrick’s Day Mother Day British Summer Time Easter April Fools Day St Georges Day May Day Fathers Day Longest Day of the Year End of Summer Time Halloween Bonfire Night Remembrance Day Christmas Day Boxing Day New Years Eve

And there are TONS MORE.

Each and every one of those has an EASY link to your salon or spa.

You should NEVER be at a loss for a reason for a promotion.

And if you even did HALF of those…You’d be WAY ahead of your competition.

Get a calender, get planning.

Take ACTION!

TODAY!

NOW!

Henry Baker.

Copyright Magnetic Salons Ltd 2009

The first rule is to accept that a beautiful woman is no different from any other woman. What one man classes as beautiful is not necessarily based on the opinion of the other men around him, as the saying goes ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and it goes more than skin deep. Time and time again men make the mistake of assuming that the girl they are attracted to won’t be interested in them, they don’t have the looks, they lack charm and anyway she must be already spoken for with loads of men waiting in the wings.

What you need to remember is that relationships aren’t built on looks or size for that matter. How many couples do you see walking around where one partner is far better looking than the other or one is significantly over weight and the other is as thin as a rake. It doesn’t really matter about the looks it’s the whole package that counts.

The most desirable beautiful women are usually those that are not even aware of their looks, when the beauty forms part of their whole natural, charming and loveable character. The most desirable women are far more than a picture so, if you’re after more than a one night stand, don’t go for the looks alone.

If you want to attract beautiful women you need to learn that you shouldn’t treat them any differently, be yourself, don’t pretend to be something or someone you are not, back off, don’t jump all over her like a rash, treat her with respect, impress her with your dress sense and display your natural charm.

One tip – most women like a good listener, they don’t want to spend the whole night listening to how clever you are they want a meaningful conversation with equal input from both sides. One sure way of loosing any woman’s interest is to convey the feeling that you are only interested in yourself and no one else. If you want to kill a relationship dead in its tracks, with little possibility of progressing beyond the first date just bore the pants off your partner by being a non-stop brag!

There is a huge amount of very, very bad beauty salon advertising.

There are a lot of very, very good beauty salons not attracting as many clients as they should because they are not aware of the mistakes they are making.

The truth is that the old saying ‘build a better mousetrap and they’ll beat a path to your door’ isn’t actually true.

You can have the best salon, the best treatments, the best location and still go broke.

Similarly, there are a lot of salons and spas in ‘poor’ locations with few experienced staff absolutely rammed to the seems and overflowing with clients.

The difference between the two is the use of effective beauty salon advertising.

That’s not to say having a great beauty salon isn’t an advantage because of course it is. But for those salon owners wanting dramatic increases in profits, marketing is the key.

This article isn’t the place for us to discuss how to create a world class client generating system but I am going to reveal three of the biggest salon advertising mistakes.

Stop these and your results will dramatically improve.

Mistake #1 – Not Knowing WHO You Want to Attract

This is the biggest mistake I see with salon advertising and the main reason so many people get poor results from their advertising.

I’ll give you an example.

Say I decide to do a 1,000 flyer drop in my local area looking for new clients.

Out of the following 2 options, which would likely give me the best response:

1,000 flyers delivered to 1,000 random homes in my area.

1,000 flyers delivered to homes with two female occupants, in affluent areas.

You got it… The second option.

Now, what if we were to get even more specific and drop the 1,000 flyers to neighbours of our existing clients with two female occupants in affluent areas and we mention that their neighbours rely on you for their beauty treatments.

Our response would of course be much higher.

It really is quite simple.

Your advertising messages should target people who are pre-disposed to being interested in what you offer.

Blanket, ‘one-size fits all’ advertising is a great way to lose money.

And it doesn’t just apply to flyers….

Mistake #2 – No Offer!

This quite frankly infuriates me.

I mean what the heck do people expect to happen.

If I see another salon ad ad that just list their treatments and show their name I may well have to pick up the phone (if they’ve even left their phone number), give them a call and ask them to flush their days takings down the loo because that what their ad is doing!

If there is no reason for someone reading your ad, flyer, letter, postcard, web site or whatever to pick up the phone and call you or come into your salon/spa to see you then guess what… They won’t!

However, if you give them a compelling, irresistible OFFER inviting them to come see you or call you then guess what. They will! Or at huge amount MORE people will.

So, from now on NEVER, EVER, ever advertise without a direct, compelling offer.

Mistake #3 – No Deadline.

Whenever I write an ad, sales letter, postcard, website etc I sit down in quiet place and imagine the prospect or client I want to attract as a giant, couch bound sloth.

Yep, a giant, couch bound, lazy sloth.

They aren’t of course but I do that for a reason.

By imaging this giant, couch bound, lazy sloth it reminds me I need to create something so compelling that even this couch bound sloth will jump up off the sofa, leap to the phone and make an immediate call to me.

And to make that happen you need that compelling offer we spoke about in the last mistake and you MUST have an URGENCY creator. You must have a reason for them to do what you’re asking them to do NOW, not later…

What can you use?

Well, a time deadline (3 days, 7 days, a specific date) or a quantity limit are two of the best ones…

So there you have it.

3 fatal beauty salon advertising mistakes and how to solve them.

Do those 3 things and you CANNOT fail to increase your return from all your advertising.

Dedicated to your success,

Henry Baker.