Why a PROFESSIONAL approach makes a difference.
Take a walk through most salons, and chances are you will see a lot of empty chairs. But if you visit most dental offices, you will probably see a full waiting room. So what is the difference?
It is all in the marketing.
Marketing is made up of two key components:
1. the way you communicate with your clients about your business, and
2. the quality of the relationship you develop with them.
Dentists are perceived as professionals who provide an essential service; people know they need to see their dentist every six months for a check-up. This is the result of careful marketing on the part of the dental profession and individual offices. Plus, they call or send reminders when it is time to book an appointment, making it easy for patients to go regularly.
Salons can learn valuable lessons from dental office operations. I find that most salons function like retail stores when what they should be doing is operating (and marketing themselves) as professionals in the same way as dentists, lawyers, doctors etc.
In my experience, there are three categories of successful salons:
o professional practice
o franchise
o corporate
However, salon owners do not always have a clear vision of who their target market is, how their business is positioned, and where they want it to go in the future. This uncertainty sends out a mixed message, so they do not end up reaching their ideal market, and do not maximize the potential of their talent and approach.
Here is one common mistake: growing too fast. I have seen this before. A salon gets really busy and successful, so the owner decides to expand or open another salon. My suggestion is to stop and think first. Instead of moving blindly forward - and risking your business and your reputation - take the time to really evaluate the situation.
According to the book "The E-Myth," to be successful, a business must run with sophisticated systems in place, and employ the lowest possible number of skilled employees to run those systems. It is challenging - if not impossible - to open another location and immediately get the same results as you did in the first salon.
If you want to open a new location, think it through, and put the proper systems in place first. Get started by dividing your current operation into departments. Distill your business into categories like leadership, marketing, accounting, management, HR and sales (this works even if yours is a small operation and you take care of most of the duties of each department). Splitting things up into departments and setting up clear, structured systems is fundamental to successful expansion because it gives you a formula to follow - a consistent way of doing things that will give you the same results each time.
A few things to figure out as you put your systems in place:
o How will you ensure your employees offer consistently good cuts and colour?
o How will you retain staff and reduce turnover?
o How will you get new clients through door?
o How will you retain existing clients and get them to purchase more of your products and services?
o What type of salon do you want to run?
o If you do want to expand, how do you want to do it?
When you have solid answers to these questions, you will be ready to take the next step. Like any professional practice, being prepared and aware is the key to success.
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