Strategies to get through the tough times and still be profitable.

By Daniela Boerma

What I am hearing a lot with some of my coaching clients is the concern in the drop of revenue and constant cancellations. It’s no secret we are finding the increase in the cost of living, the rise in interest rates, jump in wages and superannuation crippling to some small businesses, particularly in the hair and beauty industry.

What about the salons that are still thriving during these difficult times, what are they doing to be reaching targets and smashing goals amongst their teams and finishing last financial year with up to 40% growth?

Let me share with you some strategies that have worked in my salon and others that I have coached over the last 12 months.

Younger salon owners seem to be suffering a little more than others and in my opinion, this is why. Often, we are focused on clientele close to our own age bracket, we attract like-minded people as we can easily relate to common interests and often similar skin concerns and growing trends through social media.

This is human nature and makes building rapport with clients so much easier. Think about who is likely to be most affected during this unstable financial climate. Younger clientele with considerable debt have had no choice but to pull back on spending and sadly personal services seem to be the first they cut back on.

What if you changed the way you promote your services, try advertising to an older demographic, those that have little to no mortgages and that don’t use social media or online shopping, these are often the clients that younger salon owners may have not reached. There are simple ways to attract them. Run a special giveaway designed for existing younger clients, gift a facial voucher specifically written to their mum or grandmother, Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day are perfect for this type of promotion. In my experience over the years gifting during quiet times often generates revenue with product sales and re-booking.

Look at your service menu every 6-12 months, are your services offering Skin Rejuvenation packages? Are you experienced in skin consultation, or could you do more training? Frequently doing short courses can perfect your consultation process. This is a must if you want to attract long-term mature clients that are committed to maintaining more beautiful youthful skin. Introduce one new service every 12 months, this could be a new device or new product treatment, example professional skin peels combined with LED. If you have multiple devices in your salon create new services with double modality treatments, clients love anything new so take advantage and get excited about a new service, share it on social media and with each client, use your email list to spread the word. Have your staff do social media videos talking about favourite products and services, alternate your staff to make each post fresh with a different face and topic.

Many years ago, when I opened my first salon in 1983, way back when I was 16, clients always assumed I was the junior in the salon, and this made it difficult for me to gain trust with my new potential customers. I became successful when I employed women older than myself, some much older. Instantly my salon was attracting a variety of ages simply through giving age-appropriate options. It’s a strange thing that clients just assume a mature woman is more qualified than a younger Therapist, even though the younger therapist may have completed more training. Always be proud of your qualifications and ongoing education and share it with your clients, show them how dedicated you are to your career, this will encourage client trust and mutual respect.

Think about when you are employing staff, don’t rule out more mature candidates, have a mix of ages that complement each other. Often there are amazing therapists that have been out of the industry busy raising families. Often these lovely ladies are nervous as hell, unsure of their purpose due to being unemployed and out of the industry for so long, I’m telling you, these ladies are the superstars of our industry, eager to learn and willing to do what it takes to enter back into the work force.

Let’s talk about what you can do with the clients cutting back on your services. Always stay connected, offer discounted rates if models are required for training staff. A quick phone call, text or email checking in to see if they would like products or advice on skincare, offer free home delivery and add something special to the package, a $10 gift card for their next in-salon service. Get in quick before they purchase in Mecca or strawberry net.com. Clients appreciate you checking in and will remember your efforts once this period passes. Very similar to what salons did to survive through Covid lockdowns, those that stayed connected re-opened with clients flooding through their doors.

If I can be of assistance to any salon owners needing a little more help with strategies to build a more profitable business through coaching I can be contacted at: dani@totalcoachingacademy.com