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Cathartic Sunday

Posted on 30/3/2008 at 6:04 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Well I have hired a business coach, one that specifically deals in hair salons. This thursday past I spent 2 hours with him doing an analysis on the business. It was frightening. There are so many aspects of the business that I have let slip and this was an eye opener.

If I where to have done this analysis 12 months ago it would have been a different story. I would have rated fairly highly in most areas. Instead at the moment I rate poorly in almost all areas.

Things need to change. I have set up a space at home dedicated to working on things for the salon. Trying to eliminate excuses why stuff can't be or isn't being done. Another thing I worked on today was starting to clean up my life...... No that doesn't mean I am going to stop drinking well aged single malt scotch, I need something incase I end up a bum on the streets.

I started with the kitchen going through the food cupboard and just eliminating so much crap. I love to cook but just don't have the time or the inclination really anymore. Not to the extent I did anyway. I swear I through out enough spices to have supplied the local Indian takeaway for 12 months.  I hate t say it but a bottle of curry paste is so much easier than mixing roasting and pulverising  my own....... When I am either rich or retired, I will have time to play the gormand but for now simplicity is the key word.

Over the next few weeks I plan to go through the house room by room and purge what ever isn't necessary. Like I have a wall 3 meters long and 1.8 meters high jammed with cookbooks.... They have to go.... In the garage I have ferilisers and power tools that I might have used once or twice, again when I had the inclination to get out there and have the hanging gardens of babylon, well the drought has fixed that, it's more like the Sahara .......

I think if any aspect of your life is out of control then it starts to affect the other parts. Sometimes you have to clean it all up and look forward.

Now I will share as much about my business coaching experience as I can. Most of the stuff I can share, some I signed intellectual property agreements on and cannot pass on. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I need to cook something for dinner, over the next couple of days I will talk about the 11 areas of the business we looked at last week. I have my next coaching session on the 11th of April so I will post an update after every session.

Cheers All.

Anthony

Back Again

Posted on 23/3/2008 at 9:04 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Well it has been a long time coming but I finally got around to getting back to my blog.

I think it has been about 12 months since I was here last. The salon has gone through a fantastic period of growth to all of a sudden come to a screaming halt in August last year.

I can put some of the blame on things like the federal election, 12 interest rate rises, an early easter and the list could just go on and on. But at the end of the day, some, infact a lot of the responsibility falls back on me.

I simply lost my enthusiasm, and drive to push the business further. It happens, a lot, I think that could be the second reason why so many businesses fail. The first being lack of planning.

So I am pulling my act together and making some changes in the salon and my personal life to get things back on track.

First thing was to change the signage on the salon, I feel the previous signs, looked cheap and didn't catch the attention that we needed in passers by. I will post some pictures of the new signs in the next couple of blog enteries.

The next thing was to to set up a home office. I had been previously sharing one with my wife, to say it is was a disaster area would be being nice.......

Two people in a very small room with 2 completely different things going on is not going to work. So I cleared out one of the guest bedrooms and started setting up my own office. Having things like printers and laminators etc easily accessible is a must. I didn't want there to be an excuse why I am not producing the point of sale, menus, pricelists etc. Which is what I haven't been doing. It has just been all too hard to pull out the stuff and print off what is needed so it just doesn't get done. Now I will beable to come home from work and do the days tasks immediately.

It will also make a difference to the salon bookwork. I have kept it in such a disarry that I haven't even given it to the bookkeeper to do I have had to do it myself, and always at the last minute. I bought files etc to store invoices and receipts when they come in so that all I have to do is hand it over every three months.

Well I hope to post here at least once a week, most likely on a friday night with a round up of the week. Please check back regularly for updates.

Time for improvements

Posted on 12/6/2007 at 9:33 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

It has been a little while since I posted to this blog, my life has been in a little turmoil but as always the salon plugs away.

When I first built the salon about nine months ago now, I orignally only purchased 2 styling chairs since there was only me and I had a high chair for kids and another older chair I had recovered to seat the bigger butt clients. In the last month things have just gotten so busy with the two of us working and now having an assistant we really need more seating. Juggling people has just become to difficult. The old chair isn't hydrolic so it has been a pain in the back, litlerally!

In the next week or so the new chairs should arrive. It's going to be great.

The next project for the salon is a decent reception desk that will eventually house the computer, I currently drag my laptop to and from work everday and it is getting very tiresome. I may also consider an internet connection, but I am not sure, I should be working not surfing!

The change over from DNA to ISO products is slowly happening. We are happier with the more consistant results of the colours and having the larger range of products is also great. I still love DNA and it will be sad to see it go.The worst thing about the change over is that ISO won't swap out the DNA because they don't have another salon to off load it to. Carrying the full range of ISO and the high levels of stock in DNA it is tying up large amounts of cash, making things tight. The amazing thing is I really did underestimate the purchase price that people in the area are willing to pay. If only I had known I would have stocked ISO from day one.

The next few weeks will give me more of a guide to my up coming price rises. The current state of things will mean that the cost of water will probably rise significantly as will the cost of electricity. Power is expected to rise by up to 75%. This will mean a general price increase on all services plus I will start to implement a tiered price structure for hair cuts, Most likely three levels, Mine, Senior Stylists and junior stylists.

It has amazed me again, the level of skeptisim on the prices of hair cuts. I am currently charging $20 across the board. People have walked in looked around and questioned why the prices are so cheap, as they consider the salon looks like we would be charging more. People will acutally become suspicious if the price doesn't fit the surrounds. This is something I would have considered in reverse, I couldn't imagine charging $60 in some of the dumpy salons around the area.

Marketing has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. Coupons have been tremendously successful, if it includes foils. Weather it is only 3 foils or 15 foils that seems to be the bait that makes the clients bite. As you could imagine our coupon advertising now always contains a "foil" special. This has come from weeks of testing various combinations of adverts, without a foil special, we would pull maybe one client most times none. Put foils in the advert and it would jump to 15-20 plus clients coming in.

Like all special adverts, the retension rate is low, we keep about 10% the rest just look for the next special. But for cost of client aqusition it is relatively cheap advertising.

I am hoping to have a staff of 3 plus an assistant full time by December, if growth keeps going the way it has it could be a definate possability.

Try this

Posted on 10/5/2007 at 11:13 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

It seems that the link didn't work??? Here is the acutal link you can cut and paste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxhqhnS6Lc

Also today my websites first draft went live you can find it here.......


www.anthonypresotto.com

Scissors

Posted on 9/5/2007 at 9:11 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

What a busy day!

Got some new scissors today.

http://www.sharplinescissors.com/images/fs_A70.jpg


and theses beauties!


http://www.hairmaven.com/forums/attachment.php?id=716

Finished advert

Posted on 3/5/2007 at 7:04 PM - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Finally!

video

Some days you just want to give up!

Posted on 23/4/2007 at 6:05 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

There are days things just seem to mount up and today was one of them.

I went to the launch of a new colour collection this morning, which was great fun. I came back to the
salon in the afternoon. The staff member that was on today told me a story of a lady who came in.

Ms. T (to hide her identity) rang last week and  asked how much to have a few foils I told her $40. She
was cool with that. She rang the salon this morning and asked how much a full head of foils was, and she was told $125. She then rang back to make an appointment for a colour.

While she was having her colour put on she said that she only had $40. The stylist said that it was going to cost at least $60 (the woman's hair is half way down her back).  Finished the colour and she goes to pay and says, "couldn't you do it for $40?" She was told no, it was $60 and that was only because the stylist had to stretch the mixture to infinity. Then she says she only has $40. The stylist took it and asked her to bring in the rest.

Then my last client for the day, had her hair coloured from blonde to chocolate about six weeks ago. It cost her $114 with her haircut. Today she had it coloured again. Now the blonde had washed to a level 7 and she was having a level 4 colour, and a cut. As I cut her hair she told me that she would of came in last week except that it was a choice of food of her hair. Then I heard about how her husband went back to TAFE this year and how money was so short and how the kids are sick BLAH BLAH BLAH. Time comes to pay and it came to $90, she had a look of horror on her face and said she didn't expect it to be that much! She paid $114 last time she should have had an idea of a ball park figure. And ultimately if money was so fucking tight, buy a box of colour from the chemist and do it yourself. OH! Before I forget the husband is going on a trip to New Zealand in a couple of weeks with his mates? WTF!

I get so very tired of people comming in and asking for their work to be a little cheaper, Or that what we do is so expensive. I come back to the same two things, 1. They expect to have their full wage at the end of the week, so do I. 2. This is a LUXURY service, if you need to spend the money feeding your children , feed your children, grow your hair and don't colour it.

Basicly I have my problems just like you. I could do with a massage this week, but the money needed to go else where. I didn't go and get the massage knowing it was going to cost $55 and after he was finished say "Gee, that was expsnsive, I wasn't wanting to spend that much, how about knocking a couple of bucks off."

If you want to start making money STOP doing haircuts!

Posted on 9/4/2007 at 8:05 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

I have to agree with Russell Mayes in his site HAIRMAVEN.COM , he put forward his theory about how a haircut should be the minimum pricing guide. This made me stop and think because our minimum wage here in Australia is $13 per hour, now a hairstylist will only earn $19 per hour hardly seems fair after the effort we put into learning and continuing education. Anyway I am a little off topic.


It is a sad reality that for as long as you play on the "Hair cut" playing field you will always be butting up against people who are willing to cut hair for $4.75.

Do you want to know in my opinion what a hair cut is worth? (I'm going to tell you anyway;)) Nothing, zip, zilch, zero.  As long as someone can go to K-Mart and buy a set of clippers and scissors and do their families hair at home for free (ok its not free they payed 20 bucks for the clippers and scissors) there is never going to be any value placed on what we do. Let me make that  a little clearer, people looking for haircut where price and not result is important are never going to value what we do.

Like I said in my heading, if you want to start making money stop doing haircuts. Robert Cromeans talks about this as building the box bigger. In earlier posts I talked about going from an $18 haircut to a $40 hair cut and Russell asked me how long that took my answer was 16 months from memory. Well that wasn't entirely true.

When I first took over the salon I went from $18 to $26 in three months and plodded along at that rate for about nine months. That's when I discovered that if I was going to make real money I had to stop doing haircuts. My jump was from $26 to $40, overnight!

I started to do a re-design service. Now it takes more than just waking up and saying I am now worth 40 bucks for my cut. Telephone script had to change, the salon service had to change, basicly everything had to change even me! I couldn't rock up in a pair of shorts and thongs and expect to get $40 I had to look like I was worth it. The effort I put into the consultation was greater, the shampoo was better, the head massage had to be orgasmic. They got great cappuchino and homemade cake, I layed it on.

Three amazing things happend:

1. Almost all the pain in the ass clients left me, price was too high for them, people who took their place never seemed to complain as much or give me the headaches that the old clients did, the new people appreciated what they were getting for $40.

2. I was spending more time with the client, now only 5 - 10 minutes more in the consultation, but it allowed me to up sell so many more services, foils colour, texture etc. my average ticket price rose.

3. I was doing something NO ONE ELSE in the area was doing, people loved it my referals doubled in no time at all. Who is not going to tell their friends about this fabulous redesign they had and the orgasm in the shampoo bowl and the best coffee in the world, all for only $40 beats the crappy whack job they used to get for $20.

If you want some great ideas for how to build your box bigger I have posted a link below to a 1 hour audio file that goes into great detail.

 Build a bigger hair cut!

Blasted!

Posted on 30/3/2007 at 7:41 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Wow what a manic couple of weeks! My last post was about a trial run of a new promotion for the salon, I haven't been able to even get them into the envelopes.

We have been run off our feet the past couple of weeks at the salon. If I ever needed convincing that a massive multi faceted approach to marketing would work this has been it. Between charity editorials in the newspaper, my extremely hot yellow pages ad, and the coupons and just word of mouth referals I haven't stopped. Irresistable value added offers are the way to go it seems, for this salon at least. My free haircut with a colour in the yellowpages is bringing in lots of clients, same with the coupons. Both leave plenty of ground to upsell, extra foils, treatments, blowdrys, take home etc.

My current average is $76 a ticket, still on a $20 haircut. My blog entry about 3 months ago I was averaging $70 a ticket so this is almost a 10% increase which I am pleased about.

Now some sad news. I am dropping the DNA line from the salon. I love the product, colours are comming along fine, the price is great, but it is boring me..... no training here in Queensland, Colours are tending to throw a little matte (that's a nice way of saying your level six tint back is f^#king GREEN).

Now my rep from salon support ( www.salonsupport.com.au ) Geoff Milson is fantastic, he comes out every 3-4 weeks weather I buy or not, most reps that call in only do it once or twice and if you don't order you never see them again. Salon support offer great training fortnightly to monthly, in salon or at there offices. The owners is just the nicest guys, I love the whole feel of the company. I intend to sell out my DNA retail and eventually use up all my DNA colours, and change back to ISO ( www.isohair.com ). I love the retail, the colours are 100% dependable i.e. no matte! The only reason I changed was that I thought I would have to have a cheaper line for the area that I am in, I was wrong.

At the end of the day, it is how you create the atmosphere in the salon, the level of service you offer, and the sincere belief that you are worth every dollar you charge and more that comes through. I have days where people almost die that I charge $20 for a cut, they would never pay that much they say. Then I have days that people are asking me to charge them more because the level of service they experienced was so far greater than the $20 I charged, just a note here, tipping is very rare in this country. I am glad that $20 is too much for some, they wouldn't see the value in or appreciate the service they receive.

Anyway enough of a rant for now, see you all soon.

Anthony.

P.S. I have also succombed to myspace, you can find out more about your favorite hair stylist here....... 

http://www.myspace.com/hair_star

I just can't help myself!

Posted on 7/3/2007 at 12:29 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

I am so so bad! Vista print had a free offer on postcards so I put one together tonight to do a test market, I will deliver about 350 of these, in plain white envelopes. Total cost of about $50.

Why plain white envelopes? The person collecting the mail will sort it into two piles.

Pile A, which is letters from people they know and household bills.

Pile B, which is all advertising material, and depending on the house that may get read or just dumped in the bin on the way back to the house.

The plain white envelope guarantees that my postcard will get into the A pile. So I am 100% certain that they will read the offer. Can't say for sure they will take it up, but 90% of the battle is getting your message to the people.


And so it begins......

Posted on 6/3/2007 at 5:15 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Well this week is off to a flying start!

Everything is starting to come together, I appeared in the paper with Dean from the local realestate, we ended up with a 1/4 page which is worth $1000 plus if I were to pay for it as an ad. They mentioned my name and the salon name and it had my photo! You guessed it, I have old clients whom I couldn't inform that I had sold my salon finding me.



The Keyrings went out and starting to get people in from that, and tomorrow has the first of the coupons comming in, plus there have been a few people take up the summer make-over package. Later this month the yellowpages will be out.

Today I solved the problem of my reception area. I haven't liked the way my front desk looks, it is really a mess. It is also awkward when someone is taking an appointment and someone else is trying to collect money. I was spying at another salon (Yes I spy at salons every chance I get) I loved their reception with a table and a large floral arrangement and appointment book.  Unfortunately if I put my desk in the center of the room I am just transfering the mess. Yesterday while looking at the whole area in the salon, I thought of a cupboard against the wall, with a draw to put the money in, storage underneath for takehome bags and rolls for the credit card machine etc. Still not ideal but better. Then while I was waiting to pick up my wife from work, I was listening to RC "Seriously" and looking at pictures of his stores, I think it is his pacific beach store, has a "Check In" and "Check Out" counter. Problem solved! I will have my beautiful center table for taking appointments and greeting people, then I will have another beautifully decorated sideboard, where I can take the money and package up the clients take home. Once I have all this finished I will post some pictures.

Massive Action 3

Posted on 16/2/2007 at 11:14 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

It has been a while since I posted anything to this blog so I thought that I would update things. As to be expected January and Febuary have been slower months. I don't understand why? People still have to get their regular services but whatever expenses they incur over Christmas and with kids starting back to school for the new year they seem to put their haircare last or at least drag out the time between appointments.

I am having a sign made for the front of the salon. We have encountered some very strange people (I would like to say dumb but that wouldn't be PC now would it!) Some of the questions we have had are

I love my haircut, it is a pity you don't do perms here!
My response was that we do! I thought the perm rollers in my trolley might have given that away.

The salon name is SnipCut are you part of the Just Cuts franchise??
No there are a lot of salons with the word "cut" in their name they aren't part of the franchise either.

The salon name is SnipCut do you only cut hair?
Two answers for this one: I was going to call it "SNIP CUT COLOUR PERM STREAK FOIL AND STRAIGHTEN" but my window wasn't that big.

Answer 2: Looking at the massive colour bar we have in the salon....... No we do other things too.

Your windows are tinted, I didn't know you were open.
The 12 X 10 inch sign that says "OPEN" at eye level on the door didn't give you a clue?

Oh is there only you? (Meaning: Is there any women that work here?) Do you cut ladies hair?
No there is a woman working here, I do cut ladies hair, we have a very loose policy in the salon, men can cut the women and we let the women cut the men too.

So to help clarify some of these questions I am having a sign made that says:

Cuts, Colours, Foils, Streaks and Perms.

Hopefully this will easy some of these questions and encourage those that are too timid to come in and ask a stupid question as to what goes on inside...... Maybe!

I am also going to redo the front door sign later in the year, you can see a picture of it earlier in the posts. It is not going to be a cheap exercise but I think the the logo and the colour of the sign is making people feel it is a barber shop, cause I used red and white, and there is a picture of scissors..... cause ladies hairdressers don't uses red and white or scissors?????

Some of the other things that are happening soon, well in March are:

Yellow Pages directory comes out with this ad:



Also starting in March we will have an ad in a coupon paper that goes around to 60,000 homes every three weeks. The cost of this ad is $168 per issue. I also have exclusive area so no other salon can advertise in the paper. I tried to get in on this about 18 months ago at my other salon, but the area had a salon advertising. They had been doing so for 2 years and weren't about to stop because they were having too much success with it. I have put some fantastic prices in the coupons, just to drag people in. I hope to put together a series of 4-5 ads to cycle through over the next 12 months. That way people cannot keep getting a discounted service every 6 weeks. I have made all the coupons easy to upgrade on, for example, a cut and 10 foils for $30, it's not hard to upsell a treatment and a blowdry for another $30. I then won't repeat that offer for 12 - 15 weeks, hopefully if they like the service they will need to come in before that. Another one I have done is senior cuts for $13, we normally charge $18. These have been limited to tuesday, when Beryl works. She can 5 cuts an hour if she needs to, but it is seldom that a cut client leaves her chair without a blowdry, and a retail item, she is a queen when it comes to the upsell. Tuesdays are also the slowest day of the week, when I look back over the salon records for SnipCut and every other salon I have owned Tuesdays on average only take 47%  of the average takings for every other day of the week. So instead of sitting on their butts, get people in, get the register running! The staff are paid a wage so weather they work or not work it costs me the same, and they have said that they would be happier to do the work a little cheaper on that day than sit looking at each other. I also hope that it will encourage seniors to come on one particular day of the week, so I have more booking time on Thursday to Saturday when I need it for full price clients. The third coupon I have is 20% off all services on Mondays. This is when I work alone, and like a tuesday it is slow, not as slow as tuesday but close. Again I would rather be full and discount 20% for a couple of weeks, hoping to get new clients into the salon, again this won't be run for another 12 - 15 weeks so their not going to get the offer everytime they want their hair done.

March will also see the Keyrings being given out to local businesses in the area. I have also got flyers being droped in the mail boxes, two different types, one that I have posted on here already and another that is selling a summer makeover package.

The local Dragon Boat club has a cent raffle to raise money for Breast Cancer survivors who race these boats nationally and internationally. I donated $1200 worth of services to them to sell off and raise some money. Once again, it was 5 certificates for 5 cut and blowdrys value of $200 each. The publicity that I will get in the community will be priceless, I may get 5 new clients for life for the salon, I have 5 oppertunities per person to upgrade the free service to a colour service and sell some take home. At worst, I  have given a little of my time to a charity for a disease that has affected my family, and that  makes me feel good.

I have also been asked to participate in SHAVE FOR A CURE to raise funds for luekemia. I did this last year as well and got some free publicity in the paper, hopefully again it will get a mention in the newspaper.

SO! March is it. I am taking massive action to make my presence felt in the community. My name and the salon name will be everywhere!

I guess now I need to start planning what I am going to do for April

Business to Business

Posted on 6/2/2007 at 7:43 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Today my keyrings arrived.

Let me explain.

One very powerful marketing stratagy is business to business marketing. What I plan to do is produce these keyrings and go out to all the local businesses, pitch the salon as just opening up in the area and would love their support, to aid in keeping business local, I will offer them a 20% discount on all services Monday - Friday.

I know this is a huge discount, but if I get a number of satisfied local businesses in, every customer they have will see my work, imagine going to the bakery, the chemist, the realestate, gas station, and everyone you talk to has been to my salon, wouldn't that just make you a little bit inquisitive to check out the salon?

Well I hope so.

At the end of the day, the cost for 50 of these keyrings is $50. A very minimal investment with hopefully huge returns.

Wouldn't it be great if the local baker gave the keyring to his wife to come in, she loaned it to her sister and a couple of friends. The dollar investment and what ever the discount is, would be a very cheap way to obtain new clients.


Lonely days

Posted on 5/2/2007 at 5:44 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

It's just been one of those days today. I ran late getting to work, my assistant called in sick my second client didn't show.......

On the positive side even though it was a slow day I managed to review some cutting DVD's. For that very reason I don't mind the odd slow day here and there. I don't think you can ever spend too much time learning or even re-learning. Tomorrow, Tuesday is my day off, I do have to go into the salon, I have a rep comming from Salon Support. These guys are our ISO distributors here in Australia. Absoultely fantastic guys, they provide more FREE education than any company I have been involved with. And it is quality education, not just a revision of the retail and back bar lines, but trend releases, cutting, colouring and perming. They do it all.

One philosophy that I have adopted in this salon came from Micheal Cole. To reduce the number of people you buy from. It works, I don't have messy accounts all over the place anymore, Salon Support supply everything I need, capes, combs, perms, cottonwool, gloves etc. I also stock a little ISO retail too. My main line is DNA, they are my major retail and colour line. DNA do not at this time sell a perm, plus the fact I just LOVE ISO Option perms. DNA also don't carry all the sundry items that Salon Support do. Another good thing about sticking to one or two companies is a lot of your discount and free education comes because of the dollar value you purchase over the year. Yes I could save a couple of cents here and there, maybe by using a few different suppliers, but over the year I would save maybe $100, the amount of education I received last year would equal $500 or so if I was still a "paying" salon.

Back onto the subject of DNA, I do love the product and the philosophy behind the company, but I am finding that not having some products is a little limiting. All I can hope is that the range does expand a little more, mainly in the styling area.

Today I learned a lesson

Posted on 24/1/2007 at 6:04 PM - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

A few blog enteries ago I talked about a letterbox flyer I had professionally printed and delivered, response was very poor, I thought maybe I just didn't write a good flyer (it can happen everynow and again).

Today, almost 4 months later the person I had deliver the flyers came into the salon, to tell me that she was moving to the North Coast, and she wanted to drop in the flyers she didn't get to deliver. She came in with one little box, I thought ok I can get some use out of them, THEN she said I will just get the other box out of the car.........

Yes my flyers didn't work because 90% were never delivered!!!!! My lesson, as good as my intentions were to help out this client, I should have paid a delivery company to drop these, I have operated under the assumption that for the past 4 months that people knew I was open and where the salon was.

On the upside, I now have a stack of flyers to give out, and business has been good, so I can expect another growth spurt ( I hope ) once the word has got out. Considering you can get a 20% response with a well written flyer, I can expect upto 1600 new clients???


Simple things - Amazing results

Posted on 9/1/2007 at 6:34 AM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Sometime it is the simplest of things that yeild the most amazing results. Yesterday I printed and laminated signs for around the salon. I put one at each workstation, one in the take home area, and one on the door as you enter the salon. It was just a simple sign with some cartoon drawings explaning the benifits of "Protect" a 4 in one product from DNA, It detangles, protects against UV rays, protects the hair while swimming and is full of essential oils that repel head lice. I have had this product since opening the salon and sales ain't been good,I thought it would end up being one of those good ideas that no one would buy.

Before Christmas I decided that this year I was going to run a 6 weekly product "special" this would mean I would knock off a couple of dollars on a selected product and promote it through the salon, well being January I thought I would do "Protect" since kids going back to school could use all it's features.

Well the results are amazing, in just one day of having the signs up I sold out of the product  except for a couple of bottles, 75% of the people who came in purchased the product! Now the discount wasn't much it normally retails for $18 I was selling it for $16. I do think that the colourful signs helped and the fact that everyone was clued in on the product of the month idea ment everyone was talking about this product. It is almost like it generates a mini crazy in the salon, everyone is buying what everyone else is buying. I hope that in the next six weeks the next product sells as well. Bad news is if I sell the last couple of bottles today, the manufacture doesn't  go back to work until next monday so I will have to wait until then to get more stock.

Other news is it is BAS time, which is not really a bother since my accountant does all the work they just give me the bad news of what I have to pay. The good thing is it  encourages me to review the salon figures every three months, and I must say I am impressed! The salon is at 36% of my goal turnover per week which is great I wasn't expecting to be at this level for months yet and it is growing daily.

Now my goal turnover it to cover all salon expenses, lease, wages, stock etc, and have 30% leftover PROFIT. I am so saddend when talking to some salon owners who really have no goals or their goals are not clear. The hairdressing industry is a high cash business, although this is getting less and less all the time, but because of this most stylist have money coming in, usually pay most of their bills on time or are only a month or so behind and take a bit of money for themselves, even if it isn't their entire wage. Sadly this means they are going broke they just don't know it. They usually have their spouses income to help pay personal bills and sometimes help them catch up on the salon expenses. I have know salon owners who have been 5 months behind on their lease, no product in the salon because the suppliers have cut them off so the change companies every few months until the have exhausted every supplier, but they wear the latest clothes are out everynight at the clubs and spend their money like there is no tomorrow. Most of these owners I have known haven't stayed owners that long most are gone within 6 months to 3 years.

One thing we seem to have an epidemic of here is salons, small ones with just the owner or one or two staff, usually junior staff because they are cheaper! They plod along in this same pattern and every 6 months to 18 months you see new owner signs hung above the door, they usually don't charge as much as everyone else because they are just getting started, unfortunately they just don't ever start. Now I know I have started at a lower price in this new salon than my last but I am an unknown in the area, and my price is on par with most salons and maybe a little dearer than some. As the salon grows I have no fear about rasing my prices either.

But I am a little off what I was saying, if more of these salon owners decided to work for a bigger salon they would be far better off, unfortunately that cash flow looks so enticing. The fact that most salon owners won't pay more than the award wage also doesn't help, people are of the mentality that they shouldn't work too hard because they are all getting the same wage weather they do 10 client or 50 clients per week, if more salon owners where to pay above what the basic wage is based on stylist performance there would be few small, going broke salons, and happier stylist earning a much better income. One side effect of this I think would also be that the average cost of services would be higher and a less cut throat approach to highly discounted services which would be better for the industry as a whole. The alternative is for hairdressers to wrap their head around discounted services, for example, if you go to a doctor,you will pay between $40 - $60 for a consult, if you go to a chiropractor (which I do frequently, hairdressers back!) you will pay between $35 -$50 for a consult, If you call a plumber you will pay between $40 - $60 per hour  labour charge, but if you look for a hair cut, you will pay between $8 - $200, now I know that there are people who can cut hair and then their are absolute wack jobs that look like you fell under a lawn mower, but it is the same in every industry or profession, just that most others all charge the same price, good or bad, high service or bad service, STYLIST TAKE NOTE!!

Anyway that's my rant for this time.

Back at it again

Posted on 4/1/2007 at 10:07 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Well I am back!

Holidays just seem so short! I must say that even for january I am starting to fill the book again, apart from my rebooking of appointments from before Christmas I have new people walking in again and again. Since I market myself as a redesign expert I find most of my new clients are comming in looking for a change, cut, colour foils the lot, which is fantastic because it makes for an average ticket price of $100 or so.

Pre written ads

The above is a link to a website that sells a great ebook and audio files, they are prewritten ads and marketing ideas that can do wonders for building your salon up. I have used some of these with extremely high success. Allan who runs the above website also co hosted the Australian superconference with greg milner who also produces some fantastic marketing stuff for hair salons and beauty salons.

Zero to Hero

Posted on 22/12/2006 at 8:49 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

What an exciting few weeks it has been.

As the year draws to a close I am celebrating another fantstic week in the salon. I was doing some analysis of numbers today and uncovered some things I found interesting. 

My average ticket price is $70, I feel this is good considering my hair cut price is $20. It shows I am doing a lot of multiple services. I estimated that I have in this salon about a 60% colour business and a total of about 80-90% chemical, that is including colour, perm, and straightening.
I have only dedicaed about 30% of the salon to the chemical service so I feel I have to expand this in the new year. I intend to utilise a vacant are to have a table and chairs set up as a processing area. This will free up the styling chairs for more customers  and I can fit 4 people into the area 2 stations would occupy. They would also spend their processing time not having to look in a mirror, there would be a table for their capuchino's  and magazines instead of trying to balance them all on their laps.

Another improvement I am looking at for the new year is installing LCD TV's at each station, the price has droped so dramatically it has now become quite affordable. I have been experimenting with various software to create DVD's that I would play on these TV's what I want to do is have a mix of music and fashion video's and internal advertisements for take home and salon services.  Basicly taking the Lather Lounge and Colour Bar menus to a new level.

The exciting news with the menus I posted a couple of posts back, I am up selling Lather Lounge services far more than usual. If you haven't implemented anything like this you should really try.

The most interesting thing I have noticed in feedback from customers is they are really impressed by the level of care I take with my hair cuts. I must say the whole basis of SNIPCUT has been to create a system  I can use to either open more salons or create a franchise with. I have had two major mentors in this, one I have mentioned often being Robert Cromeans, who's Seriously CD's form the basis of salon operations, and Russell Mayes whos'  cutting DVD's form the basis of the cutting style I use in the salon to create excellent repeatable hairstyles. I would urge all stylists who are serious about taking their operations to the next level to get their hands on these great resources.

On a more personal note, I joined a fitness centre in the past couple of weeks, I feel that the time is comming I need to improve my level of fitness and health. Today I attended a session with my personal trainer. I now feel like I was slammed by a truck. The most amazing thing is that once people know that you're a hairdresser, they come out of the woodwork wanting to know where you are and advice and tips on their hair. If nothing else it will be a great business building move.

Well that's it for my blog for this year, unless something exciting happens I will be off for the next couple of days, I shall return in the new year. I wish all my readers a happy and prosperous new year.

Anthony

What makes YOU different?

Posted on 18/12/2006 at 5:55 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Hello everyone!

I had a bit of spare time at work today so I thought I would finish off my in salon menu.
PLEASE NOTE!!!!!
Yes I have stolen the images I have used from various websites, mainly Paul Mitchell.
My philosphy is why re-invent the wheel. The images are there for use, given they are not the greatest quality for professional printing, but most of us don't have the gear to produce  our own photos.

My Slogan "If her hair looks good, we probably did it!" was taken from www.statiksalon.com it just appeals to me ego.

These menu's were printed on my colour laser printer and laminated with a cheap laminator
from K-Mart. If you are using a computer in your salon the best investment you  can make is
in a colour laser printer and a laminator and some basic image editing software and desktop
publishing software. I personally use MSPublisher and Adobe Photoshop, mainly because I have
used them forever and I am too lazy to learn new software.

These couple of items allow you to produce fantastic looking point of purchase items, shelf talkers
menus etc and a cost of a couple of cent's per item. Another great resource is vistaprint.com subscribe to their email newsletter and you will get some great specials on almost a fortnightly to monthly basis. I use their services to do small test run postcards and flyers etc. The only catch is you have to prepare your own artwork. Now don't worry that you can't produce the greatest looking
stuff, remeber its things like your headline and offer that you are testing not your graphic artist capabilities.

Some of the most successful flyers I have used were straight text produced by word!

What I want to call your attention to is the "11 reasons to choose my salon" I have at the back of the
menu. Most of this stuff is just basic guys but if you don't tell people or make a big deal of what you
do different from everyone else you really are selling yourself short and possibly not getting all the clients you deserve.

1. 100% satisfaction garuantee
Well if the client isn't happy do say that's it babe? Or do you try to fix it to their liking, at my salon I want to do my best to fix it. No big deal to me but I make a big deal of it to make the client feel more comfortable to about choosing my salon.

2.CLEAN!
As I have said before after listening to Robert Cromeans "seriously" cd's I chose to tile my salon
in white tile and stainless steel benches, so to keep everything looking good we constantly clean the salon, I also ordered a heap of capes from my supplier so no client has to have a cape that has been used on other people, now in my salon the capes probably only ever got used on 4-6 people before we changed them, but while working in another salon the capes were used on 20 - 40 people per day without being changed. Now I admit I am not fussy when it comes to having a cape put on me but when it is damp and has 6 different colours of hair on it you have to start to wonder.

3.Fixed prices.
Not a biggie but I have worked in salons where the price can change from what the stylist thinks the client can afford. I am not talking about different charges for individual stylists, but when you cut and colour someones hair for $50 and the next time they come in and it's been a quiet week you charge them $65 you have to be stupid to think people don't notice.

4.Convienence.
We open later than most salons, if you don't tell people they don't know.

5.Guarneteed appointment times.
This is a guarentee that may not seem very relevant but to a client it is, if we expect a client to
rebook every six weeks, why shouldn't they be compensated if WE can keep the appointment.
Also along with this you may consider charging clients who don't turn up for appointment. Time is
the thing here and we charge for our blocks of time, by compensating a client for not keeping our
time slot, we show that we take it seriously and that's why we charge for un kept appointments.

6. Advise.
We make a big deal in my salon about not just selling a product for the sake of a sale.
But we also make a big deal with the client that if we used tamer foam and shine serum on their hair
and if they don't use these same liquid tools at home they can't expect to achive the same look.

7.Professional Training.
In my salon we all attend training at least once per month. Weather is it attending a class or having
a trainer come into the salon and hold a half day training class. I am also starting to employ 2 year apprentices, I will start them on the floor at a lower price, that way clients know that they are paying
for a level of experience, something not really done in salons in this state, usually if a cut is $20 everyone charges $20 weather it is their first week on the floor or they have been at it 20 years.

8. Professional grade products.
Our salon uses what I consider to be the best products available on the market. This means that I
will pay $12 for a 100 millilters of perm when I can by a bulk solutions that would cost me $3. In the
past I have carried both to allow me to do cheaper perms, colours, whatever. But that is not what I am about. If my price is higher than others it's because your getting the best I can offer, and if that
means that you choose to go to another salon that's ok, I am no longer willing to comprimise quality
for price just because you are.

9. level of service.
This is the reason that I have decided to hire an assistant. I want the last client to feel as special as
the first, that can only happen if I am not totally stuffed by the end of the day. Ever had a day when you just couldn't get a client out of the salon fast enough because you need to get home and get a
whisky into you? Maybe it's just me ;-)

10.Friendlyness.
This is something I want to enforce through my employies, No prima donna's in the salon (except for me) You really want a client to feel like a friend. Remeber here the word "FEEL" you really don't want to make friends with them, but you want them to feel like comming into the salon is like putting on your favorite shoes, totally comfortable.

11.Your time.
Want to lose sales, then rush around, to don't do a proper consultation get the client in and out. Another great reason to have an assistant. They only way to triple the cost of your hair cut is to upgrade the client to highlights, and some takehome, if your too busy to talk to your client you can't
properly inform them of the service possibilities of your salon. In six weeks I have noticed, I have gone from selling shampoo and conditioner for not only the client and their husbands and styling products for their kids to being pushed to talk them through the right shampoo choice. That can be a difference of $100 on a takehome sale.

Apart from educating your clients, the other reason to put together a list like this and get it out there
is that as good as your intentions to do all these things, unless you commit them to paper you really are not commiting yourself to them.

SALON MENU

From 0 to 3000 in 7 Weeks

Posted on 18/12/2006 at 5:40 AM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

What a week! We have taken the salon from 0 zero clients to $3000 in 7 weeks. I am amazed.
My next goal it to get the salon to $4000. This is the point where I am starting to make a profit.
My ultimate goal is to have all chairs operating  and an average turn over of $14500 per week.
The plan is to continue with my massive action low cost marketing plan, plus hiring an assistant to help me out and eventually take on a chair in the salon.

I interviewed a couple of assistants this week, so far I  have found one that I like. She is not too shy, eager and willing to work, her skills are average for her level of experience so I will have to put a bit of effort into training to get her where I want her, but I still have a couple more to see before I make up my mind.
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