It is true that your work talks by itself, but sometimes your business needs a little push to thrive at a faster speed.
In this post we are going to talk about the things you should to do in order to increase the number of clients and additional things you can do to increase your income.
1.- Sell things.
The retail part of your business is considered secondary, but the reality is that beauty salons don’t realize the potential they have by selling products, which can considerably increase your monthly income.
Most of your clients have done something with their hair, nowadays it is not that common to have a client with natural hair, so clients with a chemical process must use professional hair products in order to recover and maintain the vitality of their hair.
Listen to the trends and your clients and consider the possibility to sell something else besides hair products, I’ve seen beauty salons that sell jewelry, clothes, candles, fragrance, skin products, etc. you could start with a few things just to see which ones work for you.
2.- Choose the right brand to sell
In order to choose a brand, you need to know the following:
Is it an exclusive brand? If my clients can get it at the supermarket or at a beauty supply it isn’t worth it, because it is easier for them to buy it there when they go grocery shopping than having to wait for their next appointment to buy it from you, if it is salon exclusive, they can only get it with you!
Is it a complete brand? If your clients like a product you sold them, they might ask for a complete hair treatment of the same brand, so you need to make sure it has a variety of products.
Prices? This aspect is a little bit tricky because it depends totally on your clients. There are
clients that say “If it is a cheap product, it can’t be good” so for them you need to have an expensive brand, there are others that don’t buy because they can’t afford it, so for them you need to have a more economic brand without leaving aside the quality of the product , there are others that only use organic products so you need that as well. Therefore, you should have a product you can offer to all of your clients.
Only 5% of your clients are buying from you, the other 95% is getting their products somewhere else, do not give them excuses to go somewhere else.
3.- Give an unforgettable service
Make your clients want to go back, clients are loyal, once he/she becomes a client it’s going to be a long-term client if not forever.
Just think about what you would like to receive when you go to a hair salon and provide it. There are some services that can last up to 8 hours, do you have snacks to offer? Coffee? Water? Can she/he have a place to put the computer and work or do homework?
Offer your client to book the next appointment at checkout and set up a reminder to remind them. Make bookings easy, you could have a web page where your clients can make their appointments, you could use Facebook instead or both.
You could have a data with each client’s birthday to offer a free service or an attractive discount on their birthday month.
4.- Optimize your time
Let me explain this with an easy example, if you are the expert in balayage you don’t have to do the whole process just the most important part, you can make the mix, apply it and let someone else wash, tint and comb. That way you can have more than one appointment at once.
5.- Image
The image of your salon is the most important part of your business, you need to make sure it smells good, it is clean, your service prices are clear, having a description of your services gives customers a better idea of what they’re getting and if you are going to apply a product that has an extra cost, ask them before doing it, if you do not ask and just charge it, they may never return.
You should also have your products where the client can see them, organized in a way that is attractive for the costumer. You can organize them by benefit or by type of hair, for example.
6.- Know your numbers
Keep track of everything and manage by the numbers, create written systems for it, because you will reap benefits from them later on. Know your numbers, check them daily and make all decisions based on what they tell you. One of the most important calculations is cash flow. Determine how much cash you need to do the business, and do not start without the required cash on hand.
If you want to know how organized you are, can you answer these questions?
How much money do you make with the retail part of your business?
Which one is the most sold product?
How many clients do you have?
Which is your better month or season?
How many clients do you have per week?
How much product do you sell per week?
Of those clients, how many do they buy product?
How many of your clients don’t buy their hair products there? Do you know the reason? If you know why, maybe you can do something about it
7.- Be present
Make sure it is easy to find you, nowadays social media is the first means a potential customer will use to find the best salon of the area. Salons are quite popular on business listing sites such as Yelp, so make sure you make it to that list as soon as you open your salon or if you haven’t set up or claimed your listings yet, it’s time to do it! Don’t forget to upload as many photos you can.
It’s also really important that your salon appears in google maps, add photos as well and ask your clients to leave a review in one of the platforms.
You can also have your Instagram and Facebook account to show your work, as we said it before, your work will talk by itself, so show it to the world to get more clients. And don’t freak out, you don’t have to be a social media manager to manage two accounts, you can upload everything in INSTAGRAM which is linked to FACEBOOK and it uploads the photos to FB automatically, just make sure you have both accounts linked.
8.- Take your services to the next level.
As we said it before, once a client finds the right hairstylist, he/she won’t ever change her/him, so for important events such as birthdays, weddings, photoshoots, etc. they need you there! The demand for event-based beauty services is increasing, so offer it so they have one more reason to be their favorite salon, besides tapping into this market can open up new revenue opportunities.
So, don’t forget to mention this service in your social media, at the listing of services offered and talk them up in-store while doing a service.
In conclusion, we can say that a hair salon can be a great business, the only thing we need is to make sure we have: products that you can easily sell, have a good marketing and administrative management, take care of the image of your stylists and salon, give an excellent service and optimize your time so you can have more appointments per day.