Archive for 'Beating the Competition'
New WSM Academy Salon Business Excellence Group
I’m an avid watcher of The Apprentice – with morbid fascination at the ruthless backstabbing by the contestants, and as a student looking through the window the show gives into the thinking of great business brains like Trump (in the US), Sir Alan Sugar (in the UK) and now Mark Bouris of Wizard Home Loans [...]
Read morePay Attention To What You’re Doing, Don’t Worry About What Your Competitors Are Doing!
My beliefs in universal laws have been confirmed this week. I’ve always been taught to do the right thing, be nice to people, treat people like you want to be treated… you know the whole Golden Rule Principle. I’m a believer in karma, the sense that what goes around, comes around. Sometimes it looks like [...]
Read moreWhy the salon next door isn’t your real competition
A phone conversation with a salon owner this week started like this: “I’ve got a new salon opening up just three doors down, three others nearby are cutting prices, I don’t know what to do!!” This salon owner was beginning to panic, but she was missing the point, so I told her, ‘settle down, and [...]
Read moreWhen your competition copies you…
Do you find it annoying when a competing salon sees how successful you are, and simply copies your advertising for themselves? Yep, there it is, virtually a direct copy of the ad you ran only last week. Well, get over it. Pay it no more attention. In fact, you should be celebrating it. Because what [...]
Read moreMajor Salon Marketing Crime – being too TIMID
There’s a couple of Big Mistakes almost all businesses make; being too timid, and its closely related cousin, being boring. Most beauty industry marketing falls into one or both of these categories. And that’s because most owners of salons like to be seen as ‘nice’ people, who by their very nature don’t want to do [...]
Read moreLittle Hinges Swing Big Salon Doors
Often, the tiniest of changes can make the biggest difference in any business. After this week’s Road to Riches seminar for salon owners in Sydney, Jill and I hosted a special two-hour, closed-door ‘Masterminds’ networking and brainstorming session for Inner Circle members only. It’s at these sessions that some of the biggest breakthroughs often happen, [...]
Read moreOn Monday, over 200 salon & spa owners will find out stuff that their competitors haven’t a clue about…
We’re still getting last-minute bookings for Monday’s Road to Riches salon marketing & sales seminar in Melbourne. So far over 200 salon & spa owners have booked tickets for the event, at the Park Hyatt Hotel, the first of several such events in Australia, New Zealand and the USA (dates TBA) this year. (see details [...]
Read moreWhat to do when your competition COPIES you…
We’ve often had Members ask what to do when a nearby salon sees the marketing churned out by one of ‘our’ salons – and attempts to copy it. For most Members, this is rarely a big problem, mainly because the salon ‘swiping’ the ideas in our Member’s advertising hardly ever ‘gets it’, and invariably makes a [...]
Read moreDumb and Dumber: Why the Big Beauty Businesses are Struggling, and How Small Independent Salons can Laugh All the Way to the Bank.
Despite what you read in the newspapers, it’s not ALL bad news. From the Big End of town to the tiny end, there are plenty of reports indicating that the “recession” is patchy, uneven at best, certainly NOT a uniform slide into economic oblivion. McDonald’s is reporting a massive 80% increase in net profit in [...]
Read more"Wow…it's AMAZING how my business has changed!" says small salon owner
90 new clients every month, and $109,509 in extra sales for ’08 (IC Members: Log into the Members Only section, navigate to Getting New Clients – Hair, and you’ll be able to download the exact ads and text messages Rechelle describes here) “I have been in business for 11 years and never had the success [...]
Read moreAre you an entrepreneur, or just a business owner?
Even those salon and spa owners whose business is recording bigger and bigger sales in spite of the recession (and there are plenty of our Inner Circle members reporting extraordinary results, see the photo and caption at left, and elsewhere on this site) it would be foolish to point at such results and say the [...]
Read more"How I increased my sales by 42%."
Read on if you want to get the same kind of results, recession or not! From time to time I get an email complaining that “all you do is talk about the salon success stories, but there are far more failures out there than successes, how come you never talk about them?” Well, call me [...]
Read moreHere’s what Salon Success FEELS like….
Ever feel like you’re not really cut out for the tough business world? That as a salon or spa owner, you’re really groping in the dark, trying to re-invent the wheel every day?Well, guess what? Don’t feel so bad about your lack of business expertise, ‘cos it’s plain to me that 99% of salon owners [...]
Read moreFour Great Salon and Spa Successes…
Inner Circle members: see below for the exact ad that brought one Member 87 new clients and $12,000 extra sales in a month. You might be wondering ‘how can a little salon like mine ever be a successful business….when I know nothing about business!?’ Well, take heart. About the only thing you can hear on Wall [...]
Read moreMarketing to Get AFFLUENT Salon and Spa Clients
Following is the text of an article I’ve just completed for Professional Beauty magazine. But you get to see it first. How to Attract Affluent Clients For Whom Price is the Last Consideration F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The very rich are different from you and me.” Ernest Hemingway: “Yes, they have more money.” Rich people are [...]
Read moreHere's how to stop staff taking clients!
Every salon & spa owner fears the day when a long-serving staff member suddenly announces she’s leaving. Whether she makes it obvious or not, the instant fear is that she’ll take valuable clients with her. If this has ever happened to you – or you fear it might – then you need to study this [...]
Read moreHow Would YOU Handle This?
Inner Circle members are constantly emailing us asking for advice – and of course, we give it, freely. Here’s one from a Sydney member, with a challenge that’ll strike a chord with thousands of salon owners all over the world. Read this and think, ‘what would I do?’ Hi Greg,I have a pressing problem and [...]
Read moreDo You Have the Gordon Ramsay Factor?
Whenever I watch Gordon Ramsay tearing the throat out of a hapless head chef or muddle-headed restarant owner, I wish I was in the food business. Every restaurateur with even half a brain must surely be spending at least part of every working day down on bended knee, giving heartfelt thanks for the f***ing marketing [...]
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