Carl Hinder, business coach at Salon Help shares his secrets of how you can boost your salon sales and the importance of employing the right staff. Carl spoke at our recent ISA Connect event, a series of events to help salon owners in Wales.
Award winning coaching
I’ve been running Salon Help for over 10 years. Working both within and outside the hair and beauty industry, I’ve managed several salons and coached businesses for around 10 years. Previously I was a senior manager for several national companies. These experiences led me to my career today. I work with salons, spas and barber shops throughout the UK and abroad. Winning awards for my coaching work, I’ve mentored around 120 salons in the last two years alone.
There is always a way to move your business forward
The best advice I can give is, never ever feel beaten, there is always a way to move forward with your business. The two ways I will talk about are how do you get more staff and how do you get more clients.
Get more clients for your salon
All salons want more clients – would you want 25% more clients if I asked?
It would normally cost you a lot of time and money on advertising to get more clients. But there is something you can do which is free. A way you can increase the number of visits to your business, is through a process called rebooking.
Care when your clients return
Salons work on a negotiation basis. We ask clients ‘shall we book you in again?’ Clients will say they’re busy, but you need to work on this area. Stop the negotiation. The way most salons think is they don’t care when a client comes back, as long as they come back. As long as clients are loyal.
But you should care when they come back and not just that they come back. It is highly damaging to your business. The problem is asking a client ‘do you want to rebook’? We need to say, ‘I need to see you again in 4 weeks.’ Tell them when they need to come back. Don’t let clients make financial decisions for your business.
Rebook clients in before they leave the salon
80% of clients need to be booked back in before they leave the salon. Book them in earlier rather than leaving it an extra week or two. If you negotiate a booking for every five or six weeks, instead of every four weeks you lose business. You lose 25% of your business booking in every five weeks instead of four. There are 25% less times a client will come into your business over a year. Every six weeks instead of four is 50% less times a client will visit your business.
Word-of-mouth marketing
Another important point to consider by leaving too long in between appointments - having clients not groomed is not a good marketing technique for your business. If they are asked where they get their hair or beauty done, through word-of-mouth marketing, and the answer is your salon, that won't look great.
Staff should be performing to their maximum
The next area to consider is staffing. Your staff members should be bringing in three and a half to four times their wages. Instead of recruiting more staff, maximize each of your staff members. If your staff are already turning around the correct ratio of clients, and you do need to recruit. Ensure you’re giving people a reason to choose you – attract the top staff. Give them a reason to choose you – do you offer training, better wages, are you award winning? The problem is that all salons say the same thing.
Staff won't choose you if you offer the exact same benefits as all the other salons. Be different, find out what makes you different. Money and salary won’t always be the top reason. Instead of saying the same as everyone else, frame what you are doing in a better way. Take wages as an example. Don’t say competitive salary say, ‘guaranteed 20 percent more than your current salary’.
Find out more about Salon Help and recruiting the right staff through apprenticeships.
