WSM member Juanelle Venter and family, of Rare Beauti in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Juanelle credits WSM - and her own determination to succeed - for the growth of her salon and her prospects for 2012.

A few years ago I was in an elevator on my way to deliver a speech at a hotel conference room in Sydney. The lift stopped and a disheveled-looking guy entered and kind of slumped into a corner, looking at his shoes. In the way of these things, I smiled and said “morning, how are you today?”

He looked at me, looked back at the floor. “I’ll survive.”

Mmmm. There just isn’t much even I can do to help people who get up in the morning with their best hope for the day is merely to get to the other end of it. 

But I can help people like salon owner Juanelle Venter.  Because she gets up every morning not with mere survival in mind, but prosperity.

Juanelle owns Rare Beauti salon in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I’ve never met her, possibly never will.

For years, Juanelle had been longing to join the Inner Circle Premium program and get her hands on the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit. But there was always one thing stopping her.

South Africa’s lousy exchange rate. The low value of the rand makes it tough to import just about anything.

But back in December, when we released the new, more affordable mid-level Salon Accelerator program, it was the break Juanelle had been looking for.

“Thank you to WSM for all I have received up until now it’s been MIND BLOWING!!! I sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed as my time is so limited, but any time I have when I don’t have a client begging for an appointment or Husband needing time or kids needing time, I try to research and plan my next step. This is great stuff, you guys are a life saver and I foresee a wonderful 2012. This program has helped me with staff hiring, implementing rules and regulations for the salon, becoming more professional and soon, I am hoping to get off the tools.

I have learn’t that without marketing, I would NEVER have been able to move my salon away from home, become more successful, and even thinking of opening a school and distribution. I have complete faith in the program and really think anyone that gets the program will NEVER LOOK BACK!!!

Keep up the great service. And thanks again, Juanelle.”

Just a handful of the many hundreds of salon advertising flyers, ads, letters and posters available on the members website for instant download

What Juanelle and all the new Salon Accelerator subscribers found when they joined was the ‘pot of salon marketing gold’:

• Instant, 24/7 access to the world’s biggest and best done-for-you marketing template library, just for salons & spas
• One on one coaching & guidance on how to use those templates to get more clients
• Email support – got a question or challenge, need an ad or flyer critiqued? Just send it to WSM.
• Access to the exclusive Members Only Facebook discussion forum

(On the Members website alone there are already hundreds of downloadable marketing templates, used by our Inner Circle Premium members all over the world, and we’re adding dozens more new templates every month.)

Find out more about Salon Accelerator here

And each and every year the website grows as more material is added and the archive gets bigger.  In fact there is over 6 years worth of archived material on the website now.  It’s easy for some of the older archives to be lost in depths of the website.

And it’s safe to say that if you were to employ a design firm or an ad agency to create the material on the members website and give you multiple options for designs, template sizes and concepts, you would be looking at spending into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  On the other side of the coin, if you were to try and design all this material yourself, well firstly you’d probably need a degree in copy writing, graphic design and a heck of a lot of time on your hands!!!

So, in this new feature I intend to delve deep into the archives, blow the dust and cob webs away and unearth some of the hidden gems that perhaps you have never come across before.

In this first feature I am going to look at a clever little flyer that was actually created by a Pizza Shop.

This was actually one of the very first promotions we use for our salon D’Aguiar: hair.skin.nails after joining the Inner Circle Program back in 2007 and it was a huge succuss. Our version was slightly different and at the top said ‘FREE $20 Voucher – No Strings Attached’  We then looped a piece of string through the flyer and hung it on peoples door knobs around our neighbourhood.  We consistently got 10 bookings from every 100 door flyers delivered and we had so many people saying they LOVED the out of the box marketing!

We still have dozens of clients that come to our salon today who originally came from this flyer. So when you think for the cost of a $20 service, we have made upwards of $4 – 5K from EACH of those clients since then, it’s a pretty good return on investment!

Here’s a link to find this template in the members only sealed section.

http://www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members/salon-marketing-ideas/ideas-to-steal/a-different-kind-of-mailbox-flyer-try-this/

If you are an Inner Circle Member and want to share a success story from another members only website ‘hidden gem’ then drop me an email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com and I’ll be sure to feature it in an up and coming article!

If you are NOT an Inner Circle Member and are sick and tired of sitting in front of a computer screen trying to come up with designs and copy for flyers and ads then you need to apply to join the Inner Circle Program and get access to the years of archives on the members only website and get your very own copy of the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit to help you market your hair or beauty salon/spa. Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive TODAY

Worldwide Salon Marketing is excited to announce that it is partnering with Salon Finder to launch the all-new Salon Finder app in Australia within a matter of weeks. It’ll be free to ‘claim’ your salon in it, add a bio, an image and contact details, and a tiny amount to subscribe and get your offers live on your salons very own App page…new ones every day if you like.

The All-New Salon Finder iPhone App

Salon Finder iPhone App (which is also available on iPad and iPod) was developed by Chris Sanders and his team in our Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ office and was released on the NZ App Store for download in December.  The App is not available in Australia yet but you can register your salon now at www.salonapps.co.nz so you are ready in time for the big launch in February!

As the world becomes increasingly mobile our industry has a fantastic opportunity to capitalize on this cutting edge technology while it is still VERY early days.

Think about when websites burst on to the scene 20 plus years ago. Done right, those early birds who got the worm set their businesses up for life! The only problem was the huge barrier to entry for Salon Owners – COST! Yes to have a website developed back then would set a salon back tens of thousands of dollars, which quite simply, most salon owners didn’t have!

And like the website craze from all those years ago, Smart Phone Apps are fast becoming the next big thing, so much so that many experts suggest that the internet is dying.

Similarly, with software developers charging tens of thousands of dollars (ouch!) to develop an iPhone App, cost will be a BIG factor preventing Salon owners from capitalizing on this technology now, while it’s running HOT!

So, Salon Finder and Worldwide Salon Marketing are making it very easy for Salon Owners to ride on this bandwagon now without the worry of crippling software developer costs.

Click this link here to see screen shots and information about how Salon Finder will help your Salon to capitalize on this ever-increasing market. 

And Salon Finder allows salon owners to take back some of the power from the ‘daily deal’ sites and do their own deals to tens of thousands of iPhone users who have high disposable incomes. And the best thing is that the customers contact them direct…there’s no middle man taking commissions of sometimes up to 50%. All a salon pays is a subscription fee, which begins from as little as $49 per month!

“The world has become more mobile, so our industry needs to move with it or risk being left behind,” says Chris Sanders. “Our industry is full of savvy, forward thinking business owners.  We are excited to bring this marketing tool to develop and enhance an industry we love. It also means salons can get away from their reliance on ‘daily deal’ websites that have been running loose and free offering cut price deals.  Salon Finder is all about empowering salon owners and building loyalty”

For more information on Salon Finder visit www.salonapps.co.nz or feel free to call Chris Sanders on +64 9 476 1592

Michael Hill Was Creating A Buzz!

Last week I walked past a local jewelry shop and noticed a long queue of customers eagerly waiting outside.  There was a rope fence separating them from the entrance and a red velvet curtain blocking customers from seeing inside the store.  The customers were standing on tippy toes trying to see what was going on inside…they were REALLY excited!

The blackboard outside the store said…

‘TODAY ONLY – Make Me An offer on All Jewelry in Store’

They had created a buzz, excitement and mystery with their customers and passers by, and put a time limit on it to add to that – TODAY ONLY!  People are naturally inquisitive and if they see people flocking like sheep then they don’t want to feel left out…they want to be in the know too!

As salon owners we need to be creating this type of hype with our clients, planning and executing our marketing with thought and not just being impulsive or reactionary.  That’s how so many salons waste money – as they say ‘you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’

And planning is exactly what Louise Gray of Louise Gray Skin Care in Ponsonby, Auckland did in order to sell over $6000 of Christmas 2 for 1 vouchers.

Louise Gray and her Team in Auckland, NZ

In a coaching call early in November last year I talked through with Louise the importance of building hype especially when doing a promotion such as this or similarly memberships.  I helped her to construct a 3-step email campaign and planned what dates to send out the emails.

The initial email called for her clients to register to get early bird notification when these vouchers went on sale – just 15 minutes more notice than non-registered clients.  The email also limited the number of 2 for 1 vouchers going on sale to create urgency and get people to register.

Email 2 reminded her clients to register and also let them know how many had registered so far.  This increased the urgency as it showed the demand for the 2 for 1 vouchers was HOT!

The 3^rd email was to pre registered clients announcing the vouchers where ON SALE NOW and created urgency for these clients to call and get their voucher before the email was sent out to all 2136 clients on her database 15 minutes later.

The sequence of emails created a buzz and subsequently sold $6000 worth of vouchers.  And of course that means there is going to be an influx of new clients in the salon over the next few months as the ‘free’ voucher had to be given to a new client and had an expiry of 3 months to get these people in the door fast!

And the best thing of all…email is FREE!

I have made the emails available to Inner Circle Members by clicking the link here…

So next time you are planning any marketing campaign, think about how you are going to deliver that campaign to your target audience to get the best results.

If you want to know the secrets to putting together a successful marketing campaign and creating hype and buzz with your clients then isn’t it finally time you joined the Worldwide Salon Marketing Inner Circle Program and got your very own copy of the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit.   Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit with done for you marketing and systems, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

The Trust is Gone! What are you doing to earn it back?

Consumer confidence is a fragile and delicate item.

It takes month and years to build up, through long sequences of events where the client and the salon share experiences. In an instant, it can be smashed into a million pieces, and for some clients, there is no going back to the salon.

Consumers are now realizing that the grass is not greener on the other side, and now feel that the daily deal websites and salons were “ripping them off”. The deals that they were signing up for, at what everyone could see were ridiculous prices for any services based business to try and honour, are proving to be bad experiences.. This was taken from an email that was sent across my screen earlier this week… It is about a value add offer that was sent to an existing client of a salon, as part of their marketing for the month.

“Thank you,

But please do not email me this type of thing.

This shows to me that consumers have had enough of the daily deals websites that have been extremely successful at taking their money ( and making sales happen when they would never have happened ), and delivered an experience NOT to remember. Consumers are angry that it has taken up 12 months for them to receive their $20 haircut, which they have had to drive 90 minutes to get to. They have over promised and under delivered on the whole experience. (AS a side note – it shows the emotional power that these sites have as clients will purchase something that they never would normally purchase, in a location that they never go. It is interesting to see how human respond to different emotional stimulus.)

They bought something for the “NOW” emotion that comes with bidding – you want it now and if you win it releases endorphins that make you feel good. Everyone is happy. The salon picks up some income, the clients gets a good deal and the daily deal website makes money as well.

Fast forward to the actual reality that transpired. The salon is probably at breaking point with an owner that is trying to figure out where it went wrong, while trying not to pull their hair out. The client will be wondering why they bought something that they will only use once ( buyers remorse ) and never go near again because the customer service was so poor. The company will be inundated with requests for refunds as clients will not wait for their allotted time for their treatment.

So this begs the question – “What are you doing to earn the consumers trust?”

What are you doing to make them see you as a knight in shining armor, who will slay the multi headed daily deal beast with your sword and wisk them away to a place that is safe and warm, where it is all about them?

Building trust is one of the key foundations of any relationship in today’s economy. You will not see it on the stock exchanges of the world, but it does carry that power. One way that you can build trust is through keeping your appointment times consistent. By this I mean that you do not change them around on the clients. They need to know that once they have booked in that they are going to get the appointment time and day they wanted.

Also you can make sure that you stay in contact with them through monthly newsletters that educate and entertain the clients. Fill it with content that the clients will want to read. An example is the process of what happens to the skin when the seasons are changing, and what the skin will need to look it’s best during this time.

A follow up phone call to see how the treatment was for the new client, an old client as well as it shows the existing clients that you still care about them, can go along way to establishing trust in the clients mind.

Another way to build trust is to give them all the information that they want, so that they can educate themselves, and see that you are the obvious choice for the service that you provide.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

The right tools for the job make it that much easier and more enjoyable, that it would be criminal NOT to use the tools that are starring you in the face. The idiom in the title says it best; If someone brings a knife to a gunfight, they are very badly prepared for something.

With the RIGHT tools, your salon will take you to places you had only dreamed of!

This email from brand new Inner Circle Premium member Susan Nguyen, of Classy Cuts unisex hair design, in Melbourne, says it all.

“Hi, I’m Susan Nguyen, you might remember me from the Melbourne hair and spa boot camp seminar last month ( the little Vietnamese girl that brought every packages that day)lol. The Reason for my email is to say a very BIG BIG THANK YOU for designing this amazing Marketing Toolkit ! I’m so so happy that I’ve finally found something that really works for our salon! I’m so impressed with the amazing, instant results! and also how much more motivated I’m now. Therefore I’ve decided to write to you at 3:44am to express my Thank-you.

You’ve taught me how to work with my head! work Smart! and now i can see light at the end of the tunnel.

thank you so much! and it was great to meet you last month Greg , keep up your great work, and have fun on your trip away .

ps : thank God i purchased every tool kit that day, best money ever spent .:)very ThankfulSusan Nguyen from Classy Cuts unisex hair design.”

As you read this you can hear that same thought in your own heads. Susan is a classic example of taking your salon from where you are now to where you want it to be. Although Susan is at the beginning of her journey, she has the right mindset and the right tools to get her there.

Here is “what is in it for you” inside the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit -

-A hardcopy Toolkit that contains “done for you” marketing that you can use straight awayto get new clients in your door tomorrow,

- Coaching calls that guide you through starting to use the “tools” and how to get the best results for your salon,

- Access to our “Members Only Inner Circle” webpage where you can access our library of tools that can be used in your salon,

- And last, but certainly not least, the world exclusive “Members Only Facebook Forum”. This is where the best of the best, or the TOP 5% of salon owners, go to discuss what is working in their salon.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to see, under the surface.

Susan invested in herself for the good of the salon, only 4 weeks ago, and is seeing real results straight away. Only really happy people send emails at 3 44 am in the morning!

How do you plan to make the transition from where you are now to where you want to be? Do you have the right tools to get you there?

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

With the 2011 Salon and Spa Superstar Bootcamp being only days away for Melbourne, and a matter of weeks for Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, it can be revealed who the mystery special guest is. The person in question has been a motivational speaker and author who has sold over 2 million books worldwide. His expertise is to SHIFT MINDSETS AND TO BUILD BIGGER PEOPLE to produce results.

This man has spoken for, and shared the platform globally with some of the world’s most influential people including, Sir Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Denis Waitley, Robert
Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jim Rohn, Charlie Tremendous Jones, Captain JerryCoffee, Allan Pease, Bob Proctor, Willie Jolley and Morris Goodman “The Miracle Man”.

So, the question remains… WHO is this mystery guest speaker?

Who managed to cause the phone to melt as salon owners scrambled to get the last remaining tickets? Ladies and Gents, I present to you …

Pat Mesiti.

His enthusiasm combined with his great sense of humor gives him the ability to move an audience into action as well as give them practical resources to help them achieve their goals. He is a gifted communicator and will add tremendous value to the lives he touches. Pat is Dynamic – Entertaining – Unforgettable!

And if you think that Salon marketing does not apply to you, then read how Dee Lawson, of Dee’s Classic Cuts in Armidale in NSW, gives another reason why salon owners want the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit from the 2011 Salon and Spa Superstar Bootcamp.

“Hi eveyone. Just letting you know we have had 167 new clients come in to our new salon since the 4th April 2011. WOW…. I checked the retention and only 18 people have not been back and some of these people were only in in May.”

Dee has implemented marketing out of the toolkit so that new clients beat a path into her NEW salon, and is now seeing massive returns in the number of new clients that are coming in, but also in the retention rate, which is just UNDER 90%.

This is no small achievement in any language, and has been created by Dee implementing systems into her salon that allow her to work on her business.

Book a ticket now, before it’s too late:
Online: www.salonprofitsecrets.com/buy-tickets/

If you have NOT yet secured your ticket(s) to one of these events, time is short.
The venues and dates are:
Melbourne:
Monday, July 4, Citadines on Bourke
Sydney:
Monday July 11, UTS Function Centre, Level 7, 235 Jones St (Building 10), Ultimo
Brisbane:
Monday, July 18, BTP Technology & Conference Centre, 1 Clunies Ross Court, Eight Mile Plains
Perth:
Monday July 25, Royal Perth Yacht Club, Australia II Drive, Crawley

How to book:
Online: go to   www.salonprofitsecrets.com/buy-tickets/
Phone: call the Bootcamp hotline, 08 9381 6621

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

NZ Salon Owner Coffee Group Session Kicks Off in Ponsonby, Auckland!

If you are interested in registering for future ‘Coffee Group Sessions’ then email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com to get notified first!

Both inner Circle and non inner circle members came together to share ideas and knowledge on how we can improve our businesses in general and how we can make these daily deals websites work for us.

There has been an explosion of these websites over the last 12 months with some 80 plus in New Zealand alone and I have been fielding calls from salon owners on a regular basis asking me my thoughts, so we felt it important to discuss the pros and cons of these daily deals sites so that salons can make an informed decision before committing to it.

The coffee group started with 2 stories about businesses that had embarked on a daily deal offer.  One story reflected on how these daily deals can work against you, another on how it can work for you.  Here’s a brief outline of these 2 stories.

How a Daily Deal Offer Worked Against a Business

The first story was about a restaurant who signed up for a deal and quickly sold 500 vouchers.  They simply were not ready for the onslaught that followed as they didn’t have the staff or infrastructure in place to cope.  Once the deal had expired the restaurant owner said they would never do a similar deal again because the coupon they did proved very costly after the discount they offered and the commission they gave away.  In addition the customers that bought the deal were either existing customers already or they came from out of town and would be unlikely to return again in the future. They felt like many of these customers were on the coupon track and would keep searching out the best coupon deals and not be loyal to any one business.

How a Daily Deal Offer Worked For a Business

The next story was about a massage therapist who had just started up a new business and as a way to kick start her business she felt what better way to launch herself than to do a daily deal offer and get her name out in front of a whole bunch of people who had never heard about her before.  She sold 219 deals and about 75 signed up for more services. As a new business the influx of clients was invaluable to her and brought in people from areas of town she never thought about targeting.  The massage therapist explained that it was important to do a deal  that encouraged people to buy more (services or product), but not to expect to make any money from doing the daily deal, instead use it as a marketing tool to get customers in the door.

After hearing these stories and sharing their own experiences, what did salon owners at the coffee group session see as the major pros and cons of these websites?

Here is some of the feedback we got from Salon Owners about the cons of daily deals

• Bargain Hunters: Many of the salon owners felt like the majority of people coming in with these vouchers were bargain hunters with another 5 vouchers for different salons up their sleeve.  Therefore it was hard to build any loyalty from these people and turn them into regular clients.
• Not the Salons Target Market: As the daily deals have such a large database many of the customers who bought the offer were not the salons ideal target market. Lots even found their regular customers had bought the deal too.
• Annoys Loyal Customers: As the salon was busy with daily deal clients it made it hard to find appointment times for the regular loyal customers.  This annoyed the regulars who pay a premium price and they would not come back and instead go to a nearby competing salon.
• No Profit:  There was no profit to be made doing these deals as by the time you take off staff costs, product costs, daily deals commission, tax, gst you would be actually losing money
• Discounting: Salon owners felt like doing a daily deal lowered the value of their business and makes them look desperate.  A new client buying a discounted daily deal offer will always see this as the original price making it hard to charge more in the future.  The discount also devalues your service and costs you cash in the till.
• Too Busy: Sounds like a good problem to have, but many salons who had done these deals felt that they just couldn’t cope with the onslaught of customers and did not have the infrastructure or systems in place to cope.  This annoyed the people who had bought the deals as they couldn’t fit in sometimes for weeks.  You know what they say…’first impressions count!’  The salon would also be left with weeks of coupon clients to service and no profit to be made.
• Cash flow is Difficult: Some salons found they would be waiting up to a month to be paid, but they would still have staff and bills to pay in the mean time putting them under considerable financial stress.
• No Restrictions or Limits: Many found they were unable to set limits and didn’t put any restrictions on the offer, so their late nights or peak times were filled with coupon clients
• No Rewards or Incentives:  Because the profit margin is minimal if nothing at all, then salons could not offer incentives or bonuses for staff, meaning staff were unmotivated to rebook these clients.

Here is some of the feedback we got from Salon Owners about the pros of daily deals

• Good marketing Tool: Some salons found that the daily deals were a great marketing tool in order to get their business in front of thousands of customers who had never heard about them before.  Provided you didn’t just rely on them for income then it was a great opportunity to get new business and fast.
• Bigger Reach/Database: It allowed a salon with a relatively small customer base and no email software system in place the chance to reach a wider audience with no upfront costs.  It also allowed them to build their own database quickly.
• Utilising Downtime: It was a great way to fill downtime in the salon provided you had put day or time restrictions in your offer
• New Clients: It was a fast way to get new clients through the door and once they had established a relationship with the client they could personalise their future marketing to that client.
• Up-selling Opportunity: A few salons had put in place an up-sell so that when these clients booked in they were given the opportunity to upgrade to a higher priced serviced allowing the salon to make more money
• Mini Referral System: Although the client who has bought the deal may not be your ideal client or may even live out of town, if they enjoy their experience they may even refer other clients to you or buy a voucher for a friend or relative who does live in your area.

The overall consensus from the first NZ Salon Owner Coffee Group Session was that daily deal websites should be treated as a loss leader.  A great marketing tool to get new customers in the door and build a database, but certainly not something that is going to make you rich!

After attending the Coffee Group, Michelle Govender has decided that Daily Deal websites are not for her Salon Rejuven8 Health & Beauty.  See her video below!

As with any marketing campaign that is a loss leader you need to know what a customer is worth to you so that you know how much you are willing to spend or give away in order to get a customer worth $xxxx per year to your salon.  If you don’t know what a customer is worth to you in a lifetime then it’s something you need to know!

So how can a salon beat the daily deal websites and keep all the money? Well, if you are determined to do a daily deal then you need to become familiar with the concept of value adding instead of discounting. This is a great way to offer your coupon hunters more perceived value but at the same time you will not be affecting your profit margin.

To answer my opening question, are daily deal websites destroying our industry? Well to a certain extent yes they are.  But I also believe that salons need to put more thought into their marketing long term instead of just going for the ‘quick fix’ which in many instances is leaving salons out of pocket!

Answer this question.  Do you make a sale to gain a customer, or get a customer to make a sale?

It seems like salons are continually trying to undercut each other on these websites and to be quite honest, it screams of desperation and resembles a pack of salivating hyena’s, all trying desperately to scrape the last bit of meat from the carcass.  In an effort to get a quick fix of cash, short sighted salons are inadvertently destroying the industry as a whole – these are the salons that see the purpose of a customer is to make a one-off sale. Harsh words I know, but it’s this thoughtless approach to marketing that really irks me.  I have spent years trying to get salon owners to see more value in what they do, and drive the price of our services up.  Why is it that many salon owners de-value what they do so much to the point of bankrupting themselves?

Hopefully this blog will help you make a more informed decision as to whether you should or shouldn’t do a daily deal, and if you do, how to manage it so that it works for you!

I would love to get more feedback on this topic so please leave your comments below!

If you want to know the secrets of gaining customers for life then you need to be a member of the Inner Circle Program and get your copy of the Essential Salon Owners Marketing Toolkit™ then Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

For a long time now it has been the “this is how we do it” mentality that has slowed down so many salons that I can not keep count of the numbers. All because we are “conditioned” to not think outside the square. It has killed off more salons than any GFC or “recession”.  A well intentioned new salon owner opens, or buys their first existing salon… (And this is where the plot thickens).  Now that we have the passion, ambission and skill – what do we do now? I know what we do-

THE SAME AS EVERY OTHER SALON!!!

Well let me tell you that this will not work. Cannot work, and even deserves to fail.

“But I am a good technician” I hear you say. I know that all salon owners are great at what they are technically taught to do. No doubts about this at all. However, when you are training for your trade, they do not teach you how it is that you HAVE to run a business. Nobody tells you that staff will steal from you, or not show up, or make it so that you have to fire them. They do not tell you how it is that you are to let the whole universe know that your business is out there. So the question has to be asked:

Why should you be the 5% of businesses that survive? What are you doing to make your salon stronger and more unique than all the others that exist. Are you making sure that you are taking lessons from those people that have used marketing formulas in their business? Do you listen to how it is that other salon owners seize opportunities to make their salons grow? How can you make sure that you are the “lion” in the salon jungle – the one who gets eaten last?

The answer is really simple – Don’t be a SPORK!

Sporks – for those who are not sure – are a tool that TRIES TO BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYBODY! ( They are a cross between a spoon and a fork.  It tries to cover 2 bases, and in the end it does a bad job 0f both. )

You have to learn how it is that you stand out from the sea of salons that exist. Only by having the right tools and the right mentors can you successfully change your salon from a “same as everyone else” salon, into a well defined, structured salon that is the expert in the field.

So how do you find out how to be different? Where do you go to discover how all these salon owners are going great, even when it is a little quiet? Where do I go to “meet the Experts????”

The Salon and Spa Superstar Bootcamp 2011 is coming to you form the 4th of July! We are going to be in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth throughout the month of July.

Come and see our guest speakers, Julie Piantadosi and Greg Milner, as they take the floor to talk to you about how your salon can be run from staff issues through to salon marketing, and a whole lot of territory in between. This is for the serious salon owners only. The program for the day has taken months to create, and has been refined to give salon owners the most information that they can take in one day. The program format has even taken a change, and you will be able to sit in groups at round tables so that you can actually talk to, and interact with other salon owners.

This Bootcamp is designed to help you take your salon from “drab to Fab.” All the tools will be there, all you have to do is get there! The benefits of this day have been long known. At first there is the “A-ha” moment, where you realise that all the marketing advice that you have been given is WRONG. Then you will have a moment where you see with clarity that salon marketing is simple, as long as you follow the rules.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

Facebook - What you can do to protect your marketing!

Every woman and her dog are using Facebook to keep in touch, and let their clients know of great offers that they are promoting for the salon. There is even more reason to be cautious about who you let into your facebook world.

With over 700 million uses worldwide, it is undeniable that there are people out there that will drool over the idea of getting your information for their benefits.

Facebook Safety Tips:

Tip # 1: If you do not know them, don’t accept their offer to be friends. You wouldn’t let someone who you have just met move into your home, kick off their shoes and lie down on your coach. Don’t let them do this with your life!

Tip # 2: Only post on the net what it is that you want to be made public!

The personal information that you put on the web will stay on the web. And it is owned by someone else – not you.  So if you think that it is a closed conversation, and will not be repeated, then you may be in for a rude shock. You will find that the original post will have gone further than you thought. Internet scammers are always happy to take our details if we let them.

Tip #3: Manage your privacy settings.

Sixty percent of the social network uses are not aware of the default settings that are applied when you register. Follow these steps to help secure your facebook page.

- Read the Facebook Policy – (a nice glass of red will help) It will only take 10 minutes and will have a better understanding of what happens when you put personal information on the web.

- Goto the Facebook privacy help page – Here they tell you how to control any leaks that can happen on facebook.

- Customize your Facebook settings – This will make sure that you only share information that you are happy to share.

Tip #4: Keep Search engines out of your Facebook.

Don’t let search engines, like Google, see your Facebook site. It will put all your personal stuff on the web, in an indexed and orderly form.

Tip #5: Don’t believe everything you read. If someone is in financial distress, then CALL them first before you offer to send them money.  Always make sure the source of the info is real.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.