by Greg Milner | Apr 20, 2011 | New Zealand, The Smell of Success
Every salon owner loves the thought of getting more new clients through their business. It means an increase in turnover, profit, more product sales and so on. But what it also means for a lot of salon owners is more time ‘on the tools’. And that’s scary when you are already working 50 hours a week trying to run a business, make appointments, do the GST, pay the wages, do the marketing and everything else on top of that!
Hana Snowden, Owner of Ataahua Day Spa in Lower Hutt, NZ
But for WSM member Hana Snowden of Ataahua Day Spa in Lower Hutt near Wellington, getting 10 new clients a week means FREEDOM.
Hana has been in our marketing and mentoring program now for 8 months and in that time she has seen her business grow and grow. Hana was a Beauty Therapist at the time of joining and has worked incredibly hard and taken lots of action to build her business. She soon realised the value of working ‘on’ her business instead of ‘in it’ servicing just one client at a time.
For those of you who have read ‘the E-myth’ you will be familiar with the concept of working more on your business as opposed to in it. For those who haven’t read it, it’s a MUST read so go out and get your hands on a copy asap!
Hana could spend an hour or 2 putting together her marketing campaigns that would bring her in lots of customers as well as thousands of dollars, instead of being in a treatment room making 50 bucks for a waxing appointment.
And this growth in turnover and customers allowed her the freedom to make the decision to pull herself ‘off the tools’ once and for all. She set a date (15th March) and told all her customers that as of that date she was a business owner, not a beauty therapist and would be handing her clients over to an employee.
Now I am not saying that being a beauty therapist or stylist is a bad thing. Rather being the owner of your business is a better thing, instead of being an employee/slave to it!
And Hana knows that should a staff member be sick, or someone leaves and has to be replaced then she can step back in, albeit temporarily, and cover for them – she has that option available to her.
And if Hana has been getting 10 new clients a week up to now, imagine what it will be like now that she can focus even more on the marketing.
10 new clients on average a week is 520 new clients per year. If each of those clients has a value to Hana of $1,000 each then she is looking at an increase in turnover of half a million this year alone. Heck, even if she kept just 50% of them that’s still a quarter of a million!
Too many business owners (not just salon owners) make the mistake of creating a job for themselves and becoming chained to their businesses. For many, the only way they feel they can make more money is to work more in the business so they can cover the bills. But the business will just continue to suffer if no time is being spent on the important stuff, the marketing and getting systems in place. And so the vicious cycle continues.
And I am talking from personal experience. Just over 4 years ago my wife Rachael was working as a Beauty Therapist in our salon D’Aguiar: hair.skin.nails in Auckland. She’d spend about 70 hours a week in there doing treatments, I would hardly ever see her, her hair was falling out due to stress and she was suffering severe RSI.
Just like Hana, we made the call (with the help at that time of Greg Milner) to pull Rachael off the tools, as nervous as we were that the clients would leave and the business would fail. Well, of course the clients didn’t leave, the salon flourished and today we own 4 massively successful businesses (including the salon which is run by a manager and we pop in maybe once a week).
If someone had told me 4 years ago that I’d be running 4 businesses then I would have thought they were mad and laughed in their face. But today, I understand the concept of working on the business, not in it. So I still have plenty of time to spend with Rachael and our new 2 week old baby. It’s all because of the world-famous Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®
by Greg Milner | Oct 5, 2010 | New Zealand, The Smell of Success
I’m a firm believer in attitude playing a big part in the success or downfall of your business, whatever industry you are in. Winston Churchill once said “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” and when it comes to Inner Circle member Heidi Morton of Bodyscape in Wellington, NZ, her positive, massive action taking attitude has made a world of difference to her business.
Heidi joined the Inner Circle program in the midst of a global recession (July 2009), but this didn’t stop her from growing her salon by over 40% and being so busy that she had to move to a new premises that was double the size of her previous spa!
Here’s an email I got from Heidi just yesterday….
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“After a full year of being involved in Worldwide Salon Marketing the results for our business speak for themselves. Whilst I had a good grasp of business and marketing options prior to becoming involved, Chris, Rachael and the team certainly made sure that I didn’t forget how important it is to ensure MASSIVE ACTION means MASSIVE RESULTS. I am now a firm believer in all wheels of the spoke.
Just over a year ago I had a profitable business that was making ends meet but certainly not a retirement plan. Being a busy Mum and a non beautician partner in the business I often neglected the marketing aspect of our business, focusing too much on the numbers at the other end. We had no trouble attracting and keeping clients but I knew we could do better, a lot better.
12 months later we have a brand new spa on Lambton Quay in Wellington, double the size of our previous spa, all paid for out of the increased turnover in our business. I would not have the courage to do this if I didn’t know of all the tools we could use that could generate us money.
We try everything and anything that WSM throws our way or we think can think of. Our Queen of Referrals competition run during 2010 (a version of the Queen of Referral program, but our Queens are competing for $1,000 of prizes by referring the most new clients and the most spend) has so far bought in over 200 new clients in 8 months whose first visits have spent over $10,000 let alone what they have spent after that. This doesn’t count referrals outside the Queens competition we run.
We have a monthly package deal that normally sells over 30 packages a month with add ons not discounts! We regularly do the Wellington Women’s package (our version of Hollywood women’s ? yes I like to put my own touch on everything!) and bring in 20 or so new clients when we do it. We sold over 100 of the packages on a voucher site when we ran it. 100 new clients in a day, $10,000 in a day – fantastic.
We put our karma cards on car window wipers outside the shop a free 30 minute service. The recipients of this love it and rave about how we have made their day. They refer their friends and we get more new clients. We use the yellow pages to advertise a package, not how pretty we look. Over the last 12 months we have had over 500 phone calls from our yellow pages ad (last year about 100). We display our packages everywhere , have a montly newsletter, weekly e-specials (always with add ons now not discounts). The only time I discount now is with our txt-a-deal days, whereby we may have a quiet day once in a while and then it is a discount to get them in the door today. Of course we don’t forget the basics, new client letters, raise the dead postcards, birthday vouchers, referral thank yous. These basics keep your current clients happy. Funny enough we recently moved from a $10 to a $20 birthday voucher and doubled the number we are getting back in the month, and a larger percentage of these back were clients we have not seen for a long time. At Christmas we wanted to up our retail sales so packaged together the retail products with free gift vouchers for treatments, this went down a treat. From December to February we always offer a deal for rebooking a free ad on service or product. We find if we can get the client 3 times monthly in a row then they won’t shop around elsewhere for a while.
Numbers wise, our turnover is up over 40% year on year, month on month. I have employed more staff and we are still growing. We have not gone backwards in over 15 months. I want to double over two years and we are on track for this to happen. Our staff love that they are more busy and have more $’s in their pay packets.
WSM is not an easy fix, it takes time and effort. I love the way it prompts me to think outside the square, I have some great ideas to implement in 2011 (2010’s move took up too much of my time!) and can’t wait to see what happens with my business.
By the way, this year I have had two overseas holidays, won another trip overseas (karma coming back to get me!), spent more quality time with my kids and have felt a lot happier about where I and the business is heading. However I never lose sight of the customer, our most important asset and whilst I know I can get new clients easily I still look after our current clients with quality, friendly service with value added services for them as well. They love it and complain to us if they are not getting enough deals or promotions like last month, which was our best ever and contained no promotions other than our monthly special as we were too busy all our rooms busy all the time. Now if only I could find some quality staff to expand!!”
Cheers, Heidi
by Greg Milner | Sep 28, 2010 | Australia, The Right Mindset, The Smell of Success
Inner Circle member Amy Mitchell with baby Macy – a sudden rush of new clients thanks to ‘niche’ marketing
Old marketing saying: “There are riches in niches.”
Too many business owners try to be all things to all people, and end up in the to-be-avoided ‘middle ground’, effectively becoming nothing to nobody. What you really want to do is focus on a small target market that’s an inch wide and a mile deep, like Inner Circle member Amy Mitchell (1 year member).
Amy owns a business focusing on massage. Read on to see how business took off when she took my advice and focused on a small, well-defined niche market; mothers-to-be.
Inner Circle member Amy Mitchell ‘gets’ it – and is reaping the benefits.
“I’m just really excited and wanted to share some positive feedback with you in regards to the system. When I signed up I definitely was umming and ahhhhing about the system because I was only doing just straight massage. I have been a member for about 8 or 9 months now and have tried to do what I can to use the system to value add where I can and it has brought some success- nothing sensational- UNTIL NOW!
When I FIRST spoke to you, you suggested going hard in the pregnancy market. So I did.
I’ve opened my doors two weeks ago with Australia’s first pregnancy day spa. I’m nearly falling over because I popped a crappy A-Frame sign out the front with a cheap laminated sign I can use a white board marker on to change daily which cost me a total of $80- popped on a teaser variation of the Hollywood Woman Package and I have just sold $1000 of vouchers in last few hours alone. That’s 10 new clients within a matter of hours….. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!
I also tried the Buy 1 Get 1 Free Gift Voucher Offer which produced a minimum of 55 new clients and just over $12,000 income that I otherwise would not have received upfront. Definitely helpful in beginning stages of business.
I am so happy now because I can fully utilise the system now and value add the hell out of everything.
I’ve got another coaching call with Annette which is great because honestly my marketing effort prior to open day was piss poor (due to seriously tight time restraints) but I’m hoping I can with Annette’s help create a huge buzz for an Open Day or something similar.
Anyway- thank you for what I’ve had in the last 9 months which has been good… but now THANK YOU for what I can use now which is nothing short of GREAT!!!!
Amy Mitchell, Panache Massage
PS: Just thought I’d let you know- another 24 hour period in which I spent two hours doing a couple of marketing activities and another $6500 to the bank account. I haven’t even scratched the surface yet, and it’s paying big time… so excited I can’t sleep.
Check out Amy’s website here: http://www.pregnancydayspa.com.au/
by Greg Milner | Jan 28, 2010 | The Right Mindset, The Smell of Success
Salon Price List Template Free – Turning A Disadvantage Into A Raging Advantage
I’ll often hear salon & spa business owners saying “my salon has no passing traffic so it’s harder for me”, or “we’re in a poor area, I can’t raise my prices”, or “…there are roadworks outside my salon, and my business is dying…”.
If you spend enough time thinking about it, you can write a long list of reasons why others are successful and you’re not, why others seem to have an ‘easier’ time in business than you do, why the competition appears to be doing better than you are.
In fact, it’s deceptively easy to find reasons for failure, but they are, in the main, mere excuses. Barring cataclysmic events – like an earthquake in Haiti – there are almost no circumstances where not even a sliver of silver lining can be found in the cloud.
(Even in Haiti, I’ll bet there are some enterprising souls capitalizing on the devastation, and I don’t mean pure looting. In the West Australian goldrush of the 1890s around Kalgoorlie, the people who made the big money weren’t the prospectors, they were the people selling water and beer TO the prospectors.)
All of which is a round-a-bout way of introducing Cheryl Bown, one of our Inner Circle Premium members from a salon called Imagine in Tea Tree Gully, South Australia.
Inner Circle member Cheryl Bown of Imagine in South Australia – ‘outside the box’ thinking produced a brilliant result
During a recent heatwave, where the temperature topped 40C (about 105F in the old money) for days on end, Cheryl was faced with a real business challenge.
Her salon’s air conditioning died.
Many would simply use it as excuse to give up, close the doors, go home and wait for the repair man. Not Cheryl. Typically, she found a brilliant, innovative and simple way to turn disadvantage into advantage.
Here’s what Cheryl wrote to me this week.
“I now only work 3 days a week, amazingly the turnover has not dropped, we have had 317 new clients join us since beginning of July’09, and a consistent TO of $6,110 a week for the past 20 weeks.
“In the last 6 months of the business growing, I also sold my house and moved. I was presented at the North East Business Awards with an AWARD for ” BEST NEW ENTERPRISE” – I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited, on the way back it was a stop at the liquor store and back to the salon where the girls were still working, to celebrate with the team and clients.
“I have just introduced Birthday Letters, and the very next day we had 3 clients in delighted with their Birthday Gift. I have only touched the surface with a lot of the opportunities that are available to me, I started to delegate work, eg. I have now hired an ironing lady and house cleaner, I’m so proud of myself:-) I’m on the road to my 6 series convertible BMW. I used to aim small, not any more.”
So, what would YOU do if faced with a heatwave of epic proportions, no air-conditioning, an unbearably hot salon, terrified clients would take one step inside and bolt?
by Greg Milner | Jan 25, 2010 | New Zealand
Hair Salon Website Template Free For NZ Salon Superstar of the Week – Lynda Moodley of Lynnel’s Hair Studio, Manukau
This week I got a very excited phone call from one of our Inner Circle members, Lynda Moodley of Lynnel’s Hair Studio in Manukau. Lynda placed an advertorial in her local Manukau Courier and the phone has been ringing red hot ever since!
Prior to being an Inner Circle member Lynda was your typical salon owner, chasing a dream to have a salon bustling with customers and money flooding out of the till, whereas in reality her dream was dragging her down and the only thing flooding in, were bills, bills and more bills.
And as I say to new inner circle members, joining the program doesn’t instantly qualify you for a salon full of customers and bags and bags of cash. No, you still actually have to put the work in to make that happen, which is exactly what Lynda has been doing day after day, week after week, month after month. And it is this MASSIVE ACTION that has seen her salon grow consistently each month, employ her first staff members and become the leading retailer in South Auckland for her product range.
Lynda Moodley Owner of Lynnel’s Hair Studio, Manukau
Since joining the Inner Circle program in 2009 she has seen her rate of new clients increase each month. In October she had 35 new clients, in November she had 46 new clients and in December she had 47 new clients. And I think it is fair to say that with her advertorial in January she will be breaking some more records this month….
Editorials and adverts (advertorials) are a fantastic way to promote your salon and more often than not will result in a much higher response rate than just an advert alone. It is a way to tell people a bit more about your salon and make them feel like they already know and trust you before they walk through your doors or call you.
If you are thinking about advertising in your local paper it pays to ask them (especially if you are a new advertiser) if you can have some editorial with your advert. Sometimes they will give you this for free in the hope of you advertising more with them in the future. Alternatively some papers will want you to lock in to a contract for x amount of adverts before they give you editorial space.
Lynda ran a 10 week advertising campaign with the paper. The first 9 adverts did not include editorial and the response rate was 2 – 3 bookings per ad. The advertorial in week 10 generated 27 phone enquiries, 15 bookings (12 of which were new clients) and an immediate income of $896.
Each new client would be worth on average $1000 per annum to Lynda, so the advertorial has potentially increased her annual turnover by $12,000.
Needless to say Lynda has found out what works best for her salon and will continue to run an advertorial column each month.
Members, click here to see Lynda’s editorial
And here’s what Lynda has to say about being an Inner Circle member…
“On many occasions I would sit in my quiet salon and think what on earth am I doing chasing a dream but there’s so much stress. I needed to be able to talk to others that are in my industry and understand exactly where I’m coming from and yes the inner circle program provides just that and definitely much much more.
Being a member of the inner circle program has decreased the stress level in my life in terms of marketing, gone are those days of sitting hours and hours in front of the computer screen and trying to figure out where to start with an advert. By being a member of the program we as a salon on average are doing 20-25 new clients in a month. October this year we did a record of 35 new clients and we have just broken that record again with 46 new clients in November.
My coaching calls are definitely my favourite. I am always excited to talk to Chris because I know even if I have had a low month he’s always there to encourage me and get me motivated. The other aspect of the program that I enjoy is the fact that everything is done for me all I have to do is just change my details and off goes the marketing.
Our most successful campaign that seems to work for us is the Hollywood Woman’s Hair Package. Every month we put out at least 2000 flyers and on average we get a return of 15-20 new clients taking up this offer and definitely topping that with retail sales.
According to my supplier Lynnels retails more products that any other salon that they supply in South Auckland
I spend at least 5-7 hours if not more on marketing each week. Just about every chance I get I’m in front of my computer going through the kit and getting an advert sorted.”
And all of Lynda’s hard work hasn’t gone un-noticed by her husband too….
“Well, my precious husband sees all hard work I have been putting into my business as well as still being a mummy and a wife so he decided to honour me and buy me my dream car. I drive it very proudly with my salon magnets on both sides of my car which includes a $99 offer and frequently I notice people at the lights or round abouts reading my magnet.
Check out Lynda’s new BMW!!!
My goal is to be DEBT FREE, to be full time off the floor and definitely expansion in terms of employing staff. We have just employed another hairdresser because I cannot carry the work load on my own.
And my advice to people who are thinking about joining the Inner Circle program is ‘DON’T HESITATE. You have nothing to lose. If you are looking at closing the doors to your business don’t do it the inner circle program has the answers you are looking for and the mentors are amazing. If you shut the doors to your business you probably will lose the very thing that can catapult you right into your financial freedom. Give the program a try, you have everything to gain.”
Well done Lynda, you really deserve these fantastic results from all the hard work you are putting in….keep it up!!
