Sample Marketing Plan For Hair Salon: Jane and Niki’s $200,000 Salon Sales Boost

Sample Marketing Plan For Hair Salon: Jane and Niki’s $200,000 Salon Sales Boost

Nothing, but nothing, breeds success in the salon & spa business (or any other business) like ACTION.Thinking won’t do it. Planning by itself will achieve nothing at all.

American music legend Ted Nugent says it best: “What you need most to be successful is a dream, a dedicated work ethic, and an alarm clock.”

He means it literally – getting out of bed, early, and getting stuck into it. And, as Dan Kennedy writes in his latest newsletter, in the broader sense it means “recognition of urgency, a keen sense of the passing of time, a firm and even violent rejection of the ‘if not today, we’ll get it tomorrow’ mentality.”

Our most successful Inner Circle members embrace this philosophy.

Jane Dowling and Niki Koutrakis of Talking Beauty in Hawthorn, Victoria - proof that being shy is no barrier to success.

Jane Dowling and Niki Koutrakis of Talking Beauty in Hawthorn, Victoria – proof that being shy is no barrier to success.

At the Road to Riches salon & spa marketing seminar in Melbourne on Monday, jaws dropped when Inner Circle members Niki Koutrakis and Jane Dowling of Talking Beauty stood at the front of the room and proudly revealed how their business had taken off…regardless of the economy, swine flu and any of a million other obstacles, real and imagined.

 

“In the 11 months since getting the Worldwide Salon Marketing system in July 2008, we’ve put an extra $200,000 in the bank,” Jane told the audience.

This is NOT an isolated case. And neither is it dependent on being blessed with a certain peronsality type. Jane and Niki are both very quietly spoken, shy people. Other IC member salon owners are outgoing, confident and loud. It doesn’t matter. Action is something anybody can take, no matter whether you’re a wallflower or a showgirl.

 

Lidija Siskopoulos of Enigma Hair in North Perth, WA - $24,000 from a single Toolkit membership promotion.

Lidija Siskopoulos of Enigma Hair in North Perth, WA – $24,000 from a single Toolkit membership promotion.

Lidija Siskopoulos of Enigma for Hair is another case in point. Lidija collected her Toolkit from our office on May 21. Within 72 hours, she’d made an extra $9,000 in sales, just using a Membership letter she found in the kit. In the following three weeks, that figure shot up to $19,000. Take a look at Lidija’s photo – this is clearly not the picture of shy retiring type.

Among the many hundreds of Inner Circle members around the world, we have every personality type imaginable – drivers, emotives, analyticals, amiables and every shade in between.

None of that matters.

I read recently about one of America’s top salesmen. This guy was so shy, he could NEVER sell to anybody face-to-face.

His only means of communication with prospective clients was the telephone. Yet, for decades, he was the very top salesman in his field in the entire country.

You do NOT have to be a genius, a star, a show-stopper, a leading light to be successful in this business. You just have to educate yourself on what works, get the tools, and follow the system.


Hair Salon Marketing Strategies:The Mortal Danger for Franchised Salons & Spas

Mystery Inner Circle member reveals she's broken the chains of franchise marketing holding her back....

Mystery Inner Circle member reveals she’s broken the chains of franchise marketing holding her back….

Hair Salon Marketing Strategies:The Mortal Danger for Franchised Salons & Spas

 

A glowing testimonial from one of our freshly-minted New Zealand members this week made me laugh out loud, but under that laugh were some warning bells.

It came via our New Zealand franchisee Chris D’Aguiar-Sanders, from a salon owner who, for reasons which will become clear, doesn’t want to be identified – yet.

If you are you part of a franchise network, thinking about buying a franchised salon, or joining a franchise, then listen carefully, ‘cos you could be buying trouble. Now, that is not to say that franchising per se is a bad idea. There are many excellent benefits to being part of a franchise network, but in our experience – and that of many of our Inner Circle members – the ability of the franchisor to provide effective and efficient marketing copy is NOT one of them.

(And before you go all smarty-pants on me, Worldwide Salon Marketing is an exception to the rule!)

In general, the hair salon marketing strategies provided by the typical beauty industry franchise is, frankly, hopeless – the standard ‘branding’, imagey kind of marketing that looks pretty, doesn’t sell. Worse, in most franchise agreements, the franchisee salon is forced to not only use this ineffective marketing material, but pay dearly for it.

This salon owner – we’ll call her Jennifer – is part of a large franchise network, and suffered greatly because she has been forced to use the marketing provided by the franchisor. (And rest assured, I have seen this franchisor’s advertising. It is unutterably dreary. Little wonder it hasn’t worked for ‘Jennifer’.)

‘Jennifer’ joined the Inner Circle program in late March, and writes:

“After 3 years of struggling to get my revenue up in my medispa, and having a small client base, in desperation I madly grasped at the flyer from Worldwide Salon Marketing, offering a FREE DVD, that  other salon owners had used and had literally doubled their sales and profits by changing the way they marketed.
“This I thought was for me, what else have I got to lose except my business, so I needed to act now especially in these times of recession.
“After watching the DVD, I thought this is for me so became a member, and I have had fantastic results! I have never had this type of over whelming  response from any advert I have done previously (who said flyers don’t work!)
“Very simple but very powerful marketing tools, that have convinced me. So upward and onwards to grow my business, I feel I am now starting to take control of my business as I can see it already has started to grow. The support and encourgement , and feeling of working in a strong supportive  team,  leaves me with a  very motivated fantastic feeling.

Thank you Worldwide Salon Marketing.”

Jennifer’s story is not an isolated one. All over the world, salon owners who are part of franchise networks are using the tools, ad templates and sales strategies in the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit to double, triple their sales and profits in spite of the marketing ‘rules’ imposed on them by their franchisors. Many are doing it without the knowledge of the franchisor, and in several documented cases, our Members have ‘seen the light’ and fired their franchisor.

The are two points here: 1) franchisors would actually make more money if only they got out of their own way, swallowed their own egos, and allowed their franchisees to market themselves with the best tools at their disposal. And 2), the last thing the owner of any business should do is delegate their marketing to a third party, e.g., a franchisor.

Marketing IS the business. It’s the only thing that brings in the money. By accepting without question the marketing knowledge, experience and most importantly of all, the actual marketing material the franchisor insists you use, you effectively abdicate from responsibility for the results.

Speaking of results, check out the latest results being achieved by some of our Inner Circle members.

Salon Marketing Tips: “I took an extra $9,500 in the next 72 hours!”

 Salon Marketing Tips: “I took an extra $9,500 in the next 72 hours!”

Yes, the tortoise WILL get there...eventually. But you don't have to do it at a crawl.

Yes, the tortoise WILL get there…eventually. But you don’t have to do it at a crawl.

Being part of the Inner Circle program and using the tools and strategies in the Toolkit is NOT a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It does take work.

But there’s nothing inherently good about ‘getting rich slow’ either.

It’s always a mystery to me how it is that despite having exactly the same tools and support, the speed at which some Members implement those tools and strategies – and therefore the speed at which they reap the rewards – varies so greatly. Some leave the Toolkit sitting on their shelf, or tucked away under the reception desk, for months before actually bringing it out and using it. (One member recently told me that it was a full year before she actually got off her backside and put the ads, flyers and letters to work…lo and behond, in the next 12 months she increased her salon’s takings by a full $109,000 over the previous 12 months!)

But others do it at warp speed. Just last week, salon owner Lidija Siskopoulos of Enigma for Hair (right here in my home town) was so excited about getting into the Inner Circle program she refused to wait till the courier delivered her Toolkit, she jumped in her car and drove to our office to collect it herself.

This week she told me

“I took an extra $9,500 in the next 72 hours!”

Lidija is clearly one who understands that success is about Massive Action.

In other words, that massive action paid for Lidija’s entire first year Membership of the Inner Circle program in a single swoop.Now, to dismiss Lidija’s story as a flash-in-the-pan, as something out of the ordinary and quite unachievable for the average salon owner is akin to insisting that the earth is flat, and that she must somehow have gotten ‘lucky’. Success is all about taking action… not just in one area, doing ONE thing, sending out a single flyer or placing a single ad, but doing many things, all at once, rapidly. And luck has nothing to do with it. It’s simply planning meets opportunity.
As you’ll see and hear in this video, recorded at our recent Inner Circle Members Only Closed Door Mastermind session after our Road to Riches seminar in Sydney last week, those salon & spa owners who combine action with the right tools (eg the Toolkit) get a disproportionately-large result compared with merely putting the same amount of effort into just ‘doing the thing’ eg cutting more hair or applying more facials.

 

Tanning Salon Marketing: A Salon Owner’s Story – One Decision CAN Make All the Difference

 Tanning Salon Marketing: A Salon Owner’s Story – One Decision CAN Make All the Difference

Lisa Gray turned her entire business and life around with one decision...and lots of action.

Lisa Gray of Beauty Naturally in Sandgate, Qld, shares the strategies that saved her business from extinction – and put money in her purse for the first time in years.

(Play the interview recording below and listen in as Lisa describes how her business has taken off.)

By the beginning of 2008, Lisa Gray was at the end of her tether. Years of running herself ragged had left her with little energy, even less money, and the ‘ideas cupboard’ was bare.
Lisa says you ‘could have fired a cannon’ through her little beauty salon on the northern fringes of Brisbane. But as is so often the case, the teacher appears when the student is ready, and Lisa was ready.
She joined the Inner Circle program and got her Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit™ in March 2008. From that day, Lisa’s life changed for the better.  She took Massive Action, just using the tools and strategies in the Toolkit, and help from her coach at Worldwide Salon Marketing.
In the next 12 months, her sales rose from $170,000 to $230,000, including a 25% increase in product sales. Her return bookings rate rose from a meagre 40% to 68%. She took on between 9 and 15 new clients every month. But the biggest change is her new attitude to her business.

“I get excited about actually having a business,” says Lisa. “I’m not so stressed, and when you’re not so stressed you’re more creative, you’re more at ease with yourself, you enjoy what you do. I actually look forward to staff trainings and staff meetings!”
“It’s exciting, it’s not a drain, and I don’t feel negative, I feel very very positive.”

Here’s just a partial list of the ACTION Lisa took to turn her business around:
1)Distributes a flyer offering a Toolkit-inspired $99 special offer to 500 local homes every month. “This has been brilliant, we get a regular flow of new clients from this.”
2)Sends out the series of New Client Letters in the Toolkit to each new client every week. “They work very well…largely responsible for our higher re-booking rate.”
3)Has implemented the Queen of Referrals program in the kit. “Our clients are loving this…”
4)Sends out a monthly newsletter. Not every quarter or every couple of months, every month, using the Newsletter Templates in the kit. “I get a fantastic response from these newsletters…”
5)Started running a regular, small, lead-generating ad in the local newspaper. “A great response…”
6) Hired a full-time receptionist. “Amazing what a difference that’s made to sales…”

And that’s just the start. As Lisa says, “All this and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the whole Inner Circle program and the Toolkit!”

Salon Marketing Strategies: How to CUT Staff Absenteeism to ZERO!

Salon Marketing Strategies: How to CUT Staff Absenteeism to ZERO!

Had an interesting conversation with one of our Inner Circle members this week.

Like most salon & spa owners, Michael Curtis’ Blush Day Spa has suffered for years from the whims of some staff members who would habitually, without notice, report in ‘sick’ – and leave the rest of the staff to carry the load, upsetting clients, costing revenue and profits, and causing Michael to lose hair he can’t afford to lose.

But four months ago, Michael ‘cracked the code’.

 

Michael Curtis eliminated staff sick days with some rigorous filtering

Michael Curtis eliminated staff sick days with some rigorous filtering

Traditionally, Blush would lose between ten and 21 staff days every single month. Add it up, and it amounts to an awful lot of distruption and lost business. But for the past four months, Blush has

not lost a SINGLE DAY!

How could this be? Well, Michael first purchased a simple, but powerful system of staff recruitment developed by our own recruitment specialist, David Osborne. (It’s called the Salon Owner’s Recruitment System and you can buy it here for $AUD597)

Using the system, Michael put every single job applicant through a rigorous ‘filtering’ – and then, once he’d got it down to a short-list, sent it to David who put each applicant through a special personality/suitability test that had nothing to do with technical skill and everything to do with a person’s psychological ability to contribute to a positive and enthusiastic team.

According to Michael, ‘aside from joining the Inner Circle program, getting David’s system and putting our staff through this testing process is the single most profitable and biggest business-building thing we have ever done in the ten years we’ve been in the spa industry’. If ONLY we had known about this a decade ago we’d be that much further in front, it’s not funny’.

Listen in as Michael talks about this ‘company-making’ advance.

As I’ve said many times, any fool can get customers in the door, given the right marketing tools and enough action. Shake enough trees, and you can’t help have money fall out of ’em. But many good marketing campaigns have been ruined by sloppy systems, lousy staff and an active Sales Prevention Department at the back end.

If there’s enough interest among Members, I may run a special Group Coaching call (IC members only) with both David and Michael as my guests, so more of our Members can get the obvious business-building benefits of zero staff absenteeism that Blush is enjoying.