Salon Marketing – How to Avoid a Train Wreck.
by Greg Milner on 16/03/10 at 8:10 am
How to make sure you go off the rails, right from the start....
Ever seen a train wreck about to happen, and felt powerless to stop it?
Or imagined everything happening in slow-motion as a child reaches for the breakfast cereal and knocks the milk over?
It happened to me last week. Channel-hopping on a pay network, I stumbled on a documentary about a young couple in the UK, determined to open their dream salon business.
As the film detailed their ever-deepening financial commitment, I felt like I was a voyeur, watching through a peephole at impending disaster, holding my hand to my mouth and wanting to shout
‘NO….don’t do it!”
By the time they opened their doors, they had spent… wait for it…. FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS. Much of that was provided by investors who clearly had more money than sense.
That’s close enough to a cool one MILLION dollars. The salon looked fabulous. They’d gutted the premises and started from scratch. They’d travelled to trade shows in Europe, spending fortunes on expensive Italian fixtures and fittings. They’d even hired a ‘celebrity’ hair stylist.
Finally, the thrill of opening day. A brief rush of customers in the first two weeks – almost all of them family and friends. And then reality struck, hard.
I could see it happening right from the beginning. These people actually believed that old nonsense about “Build it and they will come.”
Er, no, they won’t. Like a deer in the headlights, they’d had been blinded by the ‘bright shiny objects’ of starting and running a business, oblivious to the harsh reality; that without customers, you don’t have a business. All you have is an expensive liability.
In all that half million pound spend, not a penny had been set aside for marketing – the only thing that gets customers in ANY business.
Within two weeks, they were facing bankruptcy. The investors had finally woken up. You could have fired a cannon through the salon, without a chance of hitting anybody.
I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. In the end though, they deserved to fail. A few years ago, you’d have had to attend seminars, got in your car and driven to the library, hired appropriate consultants.
Now, all the knowledge you need to avoid making such dumb mistakes is staring right back at you from your computer screen.
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A post by Greg Milner The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients. |
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