Salon owners are smart, creative people who are often being challenged when running a business. This is usually due to lack of marketing, financing problems, poor planning and mismanagement. Here are some of the major problems salon owners face, and how you can solve them:
Keeping up with the trends
The trends of fashion and styling are constantly changing in today’s times, so to be a successful salon owner, you need to be able to keep up to date with what’s trending in your industry to be able to advise your clients and meet their expectations, especially younger ones. It can be hard to find the time to do your research, but try and give yourself one morning or afternoon each week to do your online research. Also try to attend hair and beauty shows several times a year. This will prove that you have skills and knowledge to offer to all ages.
Competing with the big brands
Most salon owners sell hair products in their salons, but it can be hard to sell these with such a wide range of choices of products in national stores like Boots, Superdrug and supermarkets where they sell similar products at lower rates.
But one thing that salon owners can benefit from that these shops can’t, is that they actually get to communicate with their customers on a better level – use this to your advantage! Talk to your clients to find out what they struggle with the most with their hair, and then provide products that solve their problems. For example, a lot of your clients might always have dry or frizzy hair, and are looking for a good hair serum.
Also get your clients’ email addresses and use email marketing to cross sell your products and services. If a person comes in for just a trim and styling, email them about hair colouring. Email your clients about products that could be relevant to them as well. Also if you ever provide promotions and discounts, use email marketing to advertise these.
High staff turnover
With this being a low-paid industry, there is a high turnover in staff as well as staff with low skillsets. This can make the hair industry an unattractive career option, resulting in younger staff being employed who are less motivated to strive high.
Business owners need to reverse this negative perception of the industry, firstly by improving working conditions to attract suitable staff and retain them, and secondly by investing in their development and taking an interest in their well-being. To address the low wage problem, develop a strong vision of the purpose of the company with a strong development path to attract and retain staff. The sense of progress and upskilling (resulting in higher value to the company), combined with incentives is a good way of keeping staff and growing their loyalty.
Getting new clients and KEEPING clients
Many salon owners are always working on trying to bring in new clients, which is good, but remember to put your efforts into keeping the clients that you already have. Loyal clients are important in this industry, as some people can get their hair done as often as once a month!
Provide incentives to your loyal customers – examples of these are loyalty cards, discount vouchers, or even giving free products to clients who come to your salon more than a certain amount of times. Or a simple gesture like providing your most loyal clients with a Thank You card and a box of chocolates for their loyalty to you can really go a long way.
To gain more clients, offer additional services out of the salon like wedding shoots and photo shoots. Not only will this build you client base but it will boost your bank balance greatly!
