TIPS FOR BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL COLOUR COLUMN By Kristie Kesic

Colour. The money maker! Yes, some would argue, apart from wages most businesses probably spend more on their colour orders than their rent, BUT whether you’re a business owner, employee, free-lancer or rent a chair, there’s no secret in knowing that having a successful colour column and colour business brings in big bucks.

I mean these tips and tricks can be used just in general to build a successful fully booked column regardless of colour or cut, but as this is a colour blog, I’m going to keep it specific to colour.

Now I write these tips as specialist colourists with 14 years’ experience, building up my own column within the business and now also as a successful business owner.

CHARGE YOUR WORTH.

This one is very important to all hairdressers and something I am so passionate about. BUT to me there’s also a line between charging what your worth and ripping people off. The secret to finding this balance and knowing what you should be charging is in the word YOUR! What’s YOUR skill level, what’s YOUR experience, what’s YOUR speciality, what do YOU invest into YOUR career to then justify YOUR prices.

It’s because people don’t know how to price themselves that we’ve ended up with two situations.

Firstly, under skilled and overpriced colourists. These colourists aren’t giving clients value for money, they are giving unrealistic expectations. The number of times I have had people come in for colours to be fixed up and they’ve finished with the words, and they charged me this amount, I expected them to be good if they charge that much.

Truth is I would absolutely expect the same. These overpriced negative experiences are then resulting in consumers having the perception colourists charge too much.

NO! Unskilled colourists charging $400 for a colour is too much. $400 plus for a highly trained specialist colourist is what should be expected and be the normality.

Secondly, we’ve got highly skilled colourists, under charging because they think consumers won’t pay the price they deserve to be charging.

I will say it again. Charge YOUR worth. Not what the salon down the road is charging or what that person on Instagram is charging. If you’ve got the skills, the experience, the speciality, charge for it! If you don’t have the skills to justify the pricings, then wait, be patient, gain more experience, participate in more education, grow your skill set to support what you want to be charging.

KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS.

I think it’s very respectful and shows you have humility when you can just as easily recognise your weaknesses as well as your stregnths. You might recognise as a blonde specialist but struggle with choosing copper tones. Ask for second opinions from someone else in your team.

You might be able to do a killer balayage but what your client wants is a massive colour correction and your skills aren’t quite as good as a more experienced person in salon. Recommend the more experienced person. Trust me your client will have more respect for you recommending someone else, than you not giving them the result they expected because your skills.

There is nothing more damaging to a business than an overconfident, under skilled colourist.

PERSONALISE YOUR SERVICES

Clients come to us by choice, and they are spoilt by choice. There is a lot of great hairdressers out there, but what makes a client come to you over someone else.

Develop your own signature looks and techniques to give you the results you want. Give your clients something no one else can do to make them only want to come back to you. You may have 1 or 10 other colourists in your salon team, or a salon 2 doors down from you, so why should your clients choose you.

RELATIONSHIP.

This continues from the above. What makes a client come back to you. Simple, it’s how you make them feel. This is done through the service they receive from you. This includes the result you get and the relationship you have built with them. You could be the best colourist in the world but if just rely on that and don’t build up your relationship with them, you won’t have a loyal client.

Your business relies on clients rebooking, build that relationship that makes them want to rebook time and time again, because you make them feel incredible. Now this doesn’t mean you have to talk to them the whole time, some clients like having a chat because that’s the relationship they have with you, you know about all their family or ex boyfriends and dogs. Some clients will love that you make them comfortable by allowing them to sit In silence in your space.

You will only know this by building a relationship with them.

CONSULTATION AND REBOOKING

First part of the service where you also plant the seed for the following service. During your consultation in those first few minutes of interaction and how confident or inexperienced you come across will determine how much faith your client has in you. Especially firsttime clients. Make them feel confident in your abilities and the fact you are the expert. They are coming to you for a reason, show them that reason.

Talk to your clients about their next colour. Plant the seed to let them know you have a plan, and they will want to keep following that plan. Rebook them. When they ask how long they should wait to come back in, give them an answer. If it’s a 6-week colour tell them 6 weeks or if it’s 12 weeks, tell them 12 weeks but in about 6 weeks why don’t you come in for a blow-dry and toner to refresh the colour. Because remember low maintenance doesn’t mean no maintenancce. You’re the expert, they are asking you to tell them what to do.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Ahh social media. Our biggest advertising tool and our most time-consuming activity. I know salons who have built their very success businesses purely through social media and then know salons that social media isn’t a focus who has just as successful businesses. Hands up whose had that feeling of regret after you’ve done the most amazing colour but then forgotten to take the photo, because dam now you can’t put it on social media. It’s almost as though we have that mentality of it didn’t happen if I haven’t posted about it. But reality is, that client loved their colour, they are now going to go and tell their friends and family and colleagues they love that colour, if people compliment them and you’ve given them a great experience, they are then going to tell that person about who you are, regardless off the fact you forgot to take an after photo or its on social media. So next time you forget to take that perfect after photo don’t beat yourself up over it and remember that colour on that client looked just as good even though you didn’t post it.

Use social media in a real way. There’s no space for this Instagram vs reality in our business because the proof is in your work. You can edit the shit out of photos and colours to make them whatever you want, but if you can’t produce that work in actual reality, you’re not fooling anyone, and your clients just simply won’t come back. Put out your real work and the work you want to attract into your salon. Social media is an insight into your work. What you put out there is what you will attract. Make it real, make it authentic and make it you.

Don’t judge your success by how many followers you have or how many likes you get per photo. I’ve had to fix some of the worst colours I’ve ever seen from salons that have the greatest number of followers. Sometimes is all smoke and mirrors.

Also, sometimes clients just don’t want to have a photo taken, whether that be they don’t want to feel like you’re taking their photos and then using it for your own benefit to advertise or they just don’t want to. And then some clients can’t wait to take the perfect Instagram worthy selfie in your space.

PRODUCTS.

Use products you believe in and give you the best results. I know when you’re not a business owner you don’t get to choose the products you use and I’m a big believer in clients come to you for your work you produce not the products you use, but I also believe to produce great work, you need to have a superior product you trust and will give you the results you need.

At the end of the day to build a successful clientele you need to be authentically you, charge your worth, and find your reason as to why clients come back to you and only you.