Four Great Salon and Spa Successes…

by Greg Milner on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

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 Street this week is the sound of wrists being slashed and breasts being beaten, as yet more of America’s ‘institutions’ collapse in a very untidy heap, and the rest of the country shakes in fear of the economic ‘disaster’ ahead. Lehmann Brothers…dead and buried. Merrill Lynch sold for a pittance. Now the country’s biggest insurance company, AIG, bailed out by the taxpayer for $80-odd BILLION.

So you think YOU don’t know anything about business? The guys running these huge corporations are supposed to be Titans of Industry, the so-called Masters of the Universe. Yet it seems they’re not so smart after all.

How dumb was it to lend money to people who never had a hope of paying it back?

The emperors really don’t have any clothes.

If only these fools had half the smarts of some of our Inner Circle members, who clearly know more about how to make a profit than most of the Wall St wizards who’ve got America and much of the rest of the world into so much trouble.

Below are four reports just in this week, from salons and spas in America and Australia…from salon owners who ohave thumbed their noses at the ’recession’, are making more money than they’ve ever made in their lives, at a time when most salon & spa owners are shutting their eyes, slamming the door, hiding under the table and hoping that when they eventually do come out into the light again, things will have miraculously got better, all by themselves.

For here is the Great Recession Lesson: the more people do just that – bunker down, stop marketing…the greater is the opportunity for those few of us remaining to capture their market, make more money, not less, and come out the other side in better shape than we’ve ever been.

EXAMPLE #1: First to one of our more prominent Inner Circle members, Body Solutions Laser & Skin Care in Scottsdale, Arizona. From owners Dr Tim & Kanna Reilly, an email just in today, complete with the ad they used to achieve some spectacular results this past month:

Hi Greg,
I know you like to share some ideas with other Inner Circle Members so I thought I’d open up this one. The attached ad (sse below) ran in our local paper (black and white, quarter page ad) from August 11to September 13. The results:

87 New Clients @ $99 per facial = $8613
53 bought products totaling approx $4000
60 already rebooked for another next month. Total from one monthly promotion was over $12,000, money spent on ad was $1040 for the month ( the ad ran 3x per week for 4 weeks)

Thanks as always for all your help, ideas and encouragement! If we keep this up well be looking for even more space. Take care, Kanna Reilly, Body Solutions LASER & SKIN, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.

Inner Circle members: log into the Members only ‘sealed section’ www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members and navigate to the “Getting New Clients – Beauty” category to download the exact ad that Tim & Kanna used to get these results.

The In-Spa promotions that brought this Member retail sales of $25,000 a month.

EXAMPLE #2: From right here in my home town, Perth, Michael Curtis of Blush Day Spa has sent in a series of tiered-price in-salon retail promotions that have been going gangbusters.

Says Michael:

“Thort I’d share some great templates for inhouse product sales we use at Blush… We are consistently doing $25k a month in retail sales and these packages have really improved our performance… Enjoy!”

Inner Circle members: log into the Members only ‘sealed section’ www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members and navigate to the “Retail Product Promotions” category to download the exact ad that Tim & Kanna used to get these results.

EXAMPLE #3: Sydney salon owner Lesley Morgan-Wesson took two years to decide to join the Inner Circle program and get her marketing & sales Toolkit. By the sound of Lesley’s latest email to us, sounds like it’s been a worthwhile investment!

“We shall achieve our $1,000,000 goal by the end of this year…”

“Hi Greg, I read your newsletter – immediately I get it, no matter what else I’m doing – and it made me think you’d probably like to read some of my highlights…

I was working on reception in the salon yesterday… (because we’re 2 staff down at the moment: 1 on holiday and 1 I let go) and I was staggered at how busy we are!! I don’t work in the salon and rarely go in so I mean… it was really a surprise!

Let me explain…

Some of our staff are booked up til January of next year! We’re generally booked up until the end of September.

We’re doubling our turnover each month over the same period last year. We’re getting 15-20 enquiries from our website per day and most are converting… and they’re good quality clients as well.

Client feedback is very positive… one of our long term clients popped in yesterday because she saw me in the salon and we were generally updating each other. She praised the business, the staff, the marketing, the atmosphere, the decor, in fact the whole business… and me. This is a lady whose professional life revolves around the big end of town and has worked closely with all the big fashion houses in Paris. So you can imagine I was thrilled by her praise.

And perhaps the biggest coup for me was a few weeks ago I was approached by a local up-market shopping centre to open a spa there (on the basis of our website, our look and our reputation). I had a meeting last week with centre management and I’m working on a feasibility study and financial projection for them and for me… it’s looking very positive.

We shall achieve our $1,000,000 goal by the end of this year… no mean feat when you think a few months ago a Thai massage centre opened right next door to us and another massage centre opened across the road PLUS we already had 28 competitors in the area! Well, I’m happy to announce about 7 businesses have already closed and we rarely see anyone in the massage centre.

Why am I sharing this with you? Well, our salon has always done well… but this year it’s growing exponentially and really taking off!

I believe the reason is several-fold… I’m implementing all the Inner Circle theory (not just slavishly copying the templates) you speak and write about and yes, it requires tweaking at times… but when you get it right… BOOM!! I also have formulae, templates, notes, mentors and coaches to guide and support me and I feel so confident about the path I’m on… it’s great.

(Last year I was seriously considering giving up… too hard for the little return… I was so close to over it!)

So thank you very much… I enjoy being part of the Inner Circle because you and Jill have an impeccable work ethic and it is also evident in the staff you employ.

Kind regards (and raving fan),

Lesley Morgan-Wesson, Owner, LADY AT BAY, Sydney.

EXAMPLE #4: And here’s another one, this time from Lisa Conway of Marinelli’s Hair in Victoria:

Sales Increase by Over $2,000 a Week – in Just 9 weeks

Lisa Conway 1.JPG “Well you won’t believe what happened this week. Before (we joined the Inner Circle program) at the July ‘Road to Riches Salon Marketing Super Conference’ (only 9 weeks ago) the salon took between $5,000 and $6,000 a week.

Things have been on the up each week and we were very close to $8,000 last week when the senior did a ‘no show’ on the Saturday. So we finished the week with $7,333. Then on the Monday I lost the other senior – she resigned over the phone, said she could not work with my manager. (She was below the line in so many ways). So now I have 1 fantastic senior left and a very very competent second year and a first year who had this week off on annual leave so now I have 2 staff instead of 5. So I jump back in and the 2 still standing rise to the challenge, the first-year offers to come in when she hears the news, we said ‘no we can do it, have your break’ - it was her 18th birthday this week.

We took no less than $8,123 for the week! WOO HOO!

Things happen for a reason and this is proof.

Lisa Conway, Marinelli’s Hair Studio, Gisborne, Victoria.

Recession? Nuts to that!

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.