by Greg Milner | Sep 7, 2010 | New Zealand, Salon Seminars
New Zealand salon owner Tania McGonacle, one of twelve new salons to join the WSM Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program and receive her own copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit, plus coaching, at this week’s Salon Profit Secrets seminar in Auckland
I’m going to keep my travel arrangements secret in the future. Back in April, Michelle and I arrived in the UK the day the Icelandic volcano erupted and shut down Europe’s airspace for weeks. On Saturday, we landed in New Zealand on the day the Shaky Isles experienced their worst earthquake in decades.
No doubt emergency services all over the world are now nervous about us visiting fire and pestilence on them too.
There was no nervousness among New Zealand’s salon owners however. Despite – or perhaps because of – the less than robust economy in the land of the Kiwi, we welcomed a dozen new members to the Inner Circle Premium marketing & mentoring program during yesterday’s Salon Profit Secrets seminar at the harbourside Hilton Hotel in Auckland.
New Zealanders are an almost universally optimistic people. Of more than 100 salon owners and staff in the room, there was none of the ‘woe-is-me’ attitude common among small business owners of say, the USA.
When I urged the Kiwis to ‘go out and sell something, your country needs the business’, it was met with nodding agreement and enthusiasm.
Our New Zealand distributors, Chris & Rachael D’Aguiar-Sanders did a great job of attracting salon owners to fly in to Auckland from all over the country for this event, including at least 15 of our existing members whom I’d never previously met.
Among them, IC member Paul Davis of Pureskin Clinic in Ponsonby could barely wipe the smile from his face as he told the audience his salon had just enjoyed its best July in five years.
Phil Newman and partner Nikki Smith only joined the program and got their Toolkit in July, just as they started their hair salon in distant Wanaka, in the southern alps near Queenstown.
“It’s amazing,” says Phil. “We just followed the program exactly, and our sales immediately tripled. I’m a numbers kind of guy, and I’ve worked out that for every $1 we spend on ‘Toolkit-style’ marketing, we get no less than $12 back.”
by Greg Milner | Aug 30, 2010 | Australia, The Smell of Success
IC member and salon owner Leah Bobridge of Fresh Hair & Body in South Australia – at just 21, a new house and a new Mercedes thanks to the Inner Circle program. Leah becomes one of our first Ambassadors, starting in 2011
Salon Client Information Sheet Template: Smell the Leather! Salon marketing the WSM way brings this 21-year-old salon owner a new house, a new Mercedes…
“I am writing to thank you for the opportunity to be part of Worldwide Salon Marketing.
I have learned a great deal since joining the WSM Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program and will continue to use your marketing material along with my own touches. However, I wanted to inform you on a little bit about me.
I bought my salon “Fresh” in August 2008 at 19 years old. I received a lot of negativity from many people, but strived to become one of the best/most successful hair salons in South Australia. I joined the Inner Circle program not because we weren’t doing well, but to learn new ways of marketing and to get to know business owners in my industry.
In the 1st 3-4months of joining the program I was listed as Member of the Month which was quite pleasing, I have to say. Since then we have only continued to get better. I started off with 1 staff member and I now have 5. Even though sometimes staff can be difficult, I thoroughly enjoy their company and without them my business would not have grown to the capacity it has today.
(Thanks to WSM) my fiance Daniel and I have been able to buy an 1880 cottage in one of Adelaide’s most prestigious areas, plus we have just ordered a brand new 2010 C250 Mercedes Benz! I would never in my wildest dreams think that at 21 I would be able to not only buy my dream house but my dream car, too.
Success in marketing her salon has allowed Leah and her fiance Daniel to order a brand new Mercedes C250 saloon
April this year, I decided to put my marketing to the test and open up a Day Spa in the Adelaide Hills. From scratch I opened the doors starting with 1 full time therapist and myself only being able to work 2 days. It’s been 4 Months and we now have 2 Therapists and a Massage therapist and reaching high sales and retail sales. On the way to success already.
Almost every day I get business owners calling me up asking me how I did it, did I win the lottery? Can I help them? Along with recommendation of joining WSM I help them along and encourage them as much as possible.
I have lots of people asking me if I would be their business coach. Which got me thinking one night; I love helping people, I always have. I love training my staff and I love that they look up to me. I want to be a business coach/Lifestyle leader.
I know that most business coaches have had years of experience. But have they really? Were they once young and lost? Do they know how tough it really is out there? Or did they just do a University Degree in Business, get offered a job and took it!
From my experience, in my short amount of years of business, coaches need to have worked in the industry and know what results salon owners want!
So my question to you, Greg, is can you help me? I do believe that I owe it to WSM after helping me. This is where I want to go and this is where I am headed.”
Kindest Regards,
Leah Bobridge,
Fresh Hair & Body,
Salisbury, South Australia
by Greg Milner | Mar 3, 2010 | Marketing Superstars, The Right Mindset, The Smell of Success
Inner Circle member Lisa Zwart of Honey Body in Manly, Sydney.
Salon Web Template: From Struggle Street to Stardom – Lisa’s Story
South African-born Lisa Zwart was like most salon owners; struggling to keep the business afloat while she was drowning in the pressure of work. Lisa bought her Honey Body Salon in the northern Sydney beachside suburb of Manly 15 months ago. But it wasn’t until she attended a Worldwide Salon Marketing seminar in September 2009 that the ‘lights went on’ – and her life took a dramatic turn for the better.
Two months later, she was standing in front of 700 guests to receive the local Manly Business Achievers award!
“This is my first business I’ve been running by myself and I bought it and obviously it was a growing concern. It wasn’t doing really well, which is why I had to go get clients, and I’ve just literally had to build it up. I felt like I was building it up from scratch and I think we’ve just done really well. I’ve put in a lot of time and a lot of effort and now I’m putting in a lot more smart time…So, yeah, this is my success story.
Lisa and her team, picking up their freshly-minted Business Award
I never used to give myself time to market the salon business, until I went to my Worldwide Salon Marketing seminar. On my first coaching call, my coach told me just to shut the door. You get told to shut the door and literally sit down and do your budgeting and marketing plans. Because I really wasn’t making any time before that. So, now I’m more conscious of the time, forced now to leave my business to have good marketing strategies in place.
I’ve taken a lot of the guidelines that have kind of been given to us, like the ad guidelines, how to set about doing an ad, and what not to do in an ad, and what to do in an ad, and how to make things eye-catching. Obviously, taking tips from other people. If something didn’t work for them, I can say, “Okay, well it didn’t work for them”. They’re about the same as me. I’m not going to try anything like that. I’ll try something which has worked for them, or I like to see what everyone else is kind of doing and pick up ideas. Not necessarily copying them, but definitely taking ideas off what they’ve done and trying to use the guidelines that have been shown to us.
Also, I’ve been reading a lot about the hiring staff and I’ve taken that onboard. Because that was one of my biggest issues before I just wasn’t getting quality staff. Now I’m at a really good point where I’ve got great staff and I think it’s thanks to looking at those guidelines. Also, retailing and all of the tips and guidelines. There’s just so much information in that kit. I can pick it up today and I will read something that I didn’t read two months ago.
Lisa’s hard work has obviously been working.
“I took my whole family on safari to South Africa in December!”
by Greg Milner | Jan 7, 2010 | The Right Mindset, US
Husband-and-wife team Tim & Kanna Reilly’s Body Solutions Laser & Skin in Scottsdale, Arizona, grew 63% in 2009 – after a massive 500% increase in 2008 – thanks to the marketing and ‘sales thinking’ tools in the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program…
Hair Salon WordPress Template: The Beauty Business that Grew 63% in 2009
Economically speaking, was 2009 the worst year since the great depression or was it a year of salon business growth and prosperity?
Well, it depends on who you ask. For us it was a great year, better than 2008 in fact. For many small business owners in our industry it was a year filled with financial stress and for a large number of salon owners – complete financial meltdown.
Thanks to the tools and strategies that we learned from the Worldwide Salon Marketing Inner Circle program we were able to turn our failing medspa into a highly successful and profitable business. For us, 2008 was a great year; we grew more than 500% over 2007.
At the end of 2008 we sat down to establish our goals for 2009. Could we possibly expect to have a better year in 2009 than 2008? Expect may not be the right word, but we certainly planned on having a better year.
Planning may certainly be the key. An old college professor of mine used to love saying, “Plan your work and work your plan, if you fail to plan you can plan to fail.” Those words have meant more to me now as a business owner than they did as a student.
It’s all about planning. Success doesn’t come knocking – looking for you. It won’t break down your door and insist on coming in. You have to go after it; hunt it down and claim it for yourself.
Plan your marketing for an entire year. Inner Circle members should have received a big full page calendar for 2010.
This allows you to look at the whole year in one glance. Commit to marketing consistently every week. You might not know exactly what your marketing offer will be on April 5th yet, but just know that on April 5th you WILL have something ready to go. That kind of marketing commitment done on a regular basis will create momentum, and momentum, like a wave, will pick you up and carry you towards your goal.
Thinking about marketing without taking any action steps to put those ideas in motion is a waste of time.
You must act on your ideas and then track your response. If the response was good, then do it again. If your response was bad, you need some new ideas. What, you don’t have a ton of fresh new ideas just waiting to burst forth from your brain??
Hmmm…reminds me of a high school English teacher I had. He used to say, “Smart people learn from a dumb person’s mistakes, but wise people learn from a smart person’s mistakes!” So be wise, don’t be smart. Use tools, strategies and ideas that have already been proven to work. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. You can grow your business in record time IF you have the right tools and IF you take action to implement those tools.
We did and that’s why our 2009 was 63% higher than 2008; it was our best year yet!! You’ll have to excuse me now, I have to go set our 2010 business goals!
by Greg Milner | Dec 7, 2009 | Marketing Superstars
Using the pre-done ads and flyers in the Toolkit, and guidance from her Worldwide Salon Marketing coach, Annastasia Bindevis quadrupled her salon sales from $800 a week to over $4000 a week in 6 months…
Salon Gift Certificate Template For Marketing Superstars – how IC Member of the Week Annastasia Bindevis quadrupled her sales…
Back in February 2009 Annastasia Bindevis was a one-woman waxing salon barely able to bring in $800 a week. But when she joined the Inner Circle program and received her copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit® she soon discovered the power of effective direct response marketing.
Six months later her Waxing Queen salon in Melbourne has two staff, she’s just hired a receptionist, and business is booming – her sales have more than quadrupled to $4,000 a week and she’s doing what so many salon owners never manage – to pay herself a salary!
