The Quiet Salon Months of October & November

I thought I would share this email that I saw the other day from a salon owner. Personally, I loved it… especially the first few paragraphs.

It’s really quiet in the Beauty and everyone is making excuses…

Clients are waiting until Christmas.
The weather is changing and people don’t want to come out their houses
People aren’t as worried about what they look like at the moment
PLEASE, what a crock of shit! I don’t know about you but I haven’t got a free weekend to chill until January and I am constantly trying to look my best so don’t get pulled into the “industry excuses” and for heavens sake don’t put these ideas into your clients heads – always look and sound busy so they re-book.

While we are having the calm before the Christmas storm let’s concentrate on the business and not write off the next few weeks. So, what can you be doing?

1) Spring Clean your business

The premises is important and sometimes it’s really good to walk around with client eyes. We spend so much time making sure our stations are tidy, but open your eyes, look around, look up, look down, look through the hole in your couch.

Does it have foundation or mascara on? What does it smell like? What can you see when you scan your eyes around the floor? Trailing leads? Dirty bed base? Bed Roll Tubes? What do you see when you lay on the bed? A hanging bulb? A dirty Shade? A Cobweb?

So this is the time to go around your skirting boards, mirrors, beds, windows, top of sunbeds (ha you didn’t think of that did you, have a look).

Are the cupboards tidy? Is Salon stock in good rotation or are there things hiding? Pull it all out, rearrange, take stock for the managers when ordering.

(Can I just say that I know how much cleaning you do and it is great, better that a lot of salons but I’m giving you ideas to look at it a different way, what do we miss?)

2) Database – Clean up the database

We get records in everyday and sometimes if a name is spelt wrong or it doesn’t come up when searching we will add another record. So, go through and merge duplicate records together.

3) Research

Do a bit of research yourself and feedback to me and we can chat about what you find:

What’s new in Beauty?
What’s the trends?
What new salons are around you, who’s the competition?
What treatments do you want to see introduced in 2016 and why?
How can we be different?
How can we stay at the front? Be the best?

4) Revisit your Product Knowledge

Look in your manuals, Work in twos and test each other about the products – Price, Ingredients, What does it do? Talk about what you love about a product and what you don’t, focus on the positive. Think of new ways to describe a product to your clients.

Don’t take what you know for granted

I had feedback the other day from a modelling treatment, where the client heard the therapist explain the masks in training, “and if you look at them when you take them off they give away tell-tell signs as to what the skin type is” (ask if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

He just listened, but was desperate to jump off the bed and see what she was talking about. Sometimes, we forget how much knowledge we have and don’t always pass the info on.

Can you talk about all the services we do? Give the right feedback and ask any questions the client may ask (test each other, it’s fun)

Summary

So in your white space, get together with whoever is available and work on these steps, preferably in order,

I’m excited even writing this email, I wan’t to be there and get stuck in!

We are not followers in beauty, we are leaders and we shall lead – so get your heads together and wow me with your ideas.