Build Your Salon with Phil Jackson: Recent Episodes
Phil Jackson from BuildYourSalon.com
You can't do it all - and neither should you try! Rounding off our discussion on delegation this week. Enjoy that feeling of liveration and share your success! phil@buildyoursalon.com
Delegation is a vital skill for salon owners and there's a limit to what you can achieve on your own. Having no team is not an excuse!!
In this episode we unpack some of the reasons why you might be resistant to delegation.
I've spent the last few weeks helping salon owners through one of the most disruptive events in our industry for decades.
There is opportunity there, for sure, but only if we learn from the experience. In a very different type of podcast from my usual, I share the questions I've been asking salon owners to help them with theor 'lessons from lockdown'. I hope it helps you too!
There's a lot of advice out there. Some of it great. Some of it . . . questionable. And even old adages sometimes fly in the face of common sense or best practice.
As salon owners we are old again and again to "Work ON your business, not just IN it".
But what does that actually mean for us? Do you HAVE to work on your business? What if you quite like working in it?? And what should the split between to two look like?
In a change of format, this week I talk to my friend Adam Turner about this and get his thoughts.
Have you had to deal with an employee who tries and sabotages all your efforts? And no matter what you say, this employee will always find a way to undermine you? Some people on your team might find your decisions as a manager or business owner inconvenient for them. But this is no excuse for anyone to show a lack of commitment and support for your goals. When you suspect team sabotage is happening, that needs addressing now.
What can you do? Imagine having a member of your team who just doesn’t want to perform as they are expected because they did not like one of your decision. Instead of coming to you and talk about their disdain, they will show you a bad working behaviour. Employees like this will make it impossible to run a growing business. A team sabotage, if not dealt with accordingly will surely ruin your chances of growing your business.
Team sabotage can also be costly when you’re starting out. It can destroy your business reputation, create team politics and make you less profitable.
There are people who don’t like to play by the rules and make a positive impact on your business. but there are also people who rave about your ideas and are loyal to the business. As they say – it only takes one bad apple! Take a closer look at your employee’s performance and behaviour. Employees who don’t make a positive impact on your team can slowly ruin other employees performance, spirit, and motivation.
In this video, I’ll talk to you about the different types of employees and how to spot them. In particular I’ll talk about people who may be sabotaging your business and what you can do about them.
You've heard this time and again and I'm saying it again now,
"If you want to build your business, you've got to pay yourself properly".
I estimate that around 70% of the salon owners I meet could not afford to pay themselves if they followed the same pay structure as the rest of their team.
Some of you might be thinking that paying yourself more is an odd way to be successful. But it isn't. Giving yourself compensation for the many things you do is what pushes you forward and motivates you in the longer term.
As business owners, it's only natural to think of ourselves last. We see some kind of prowess in sacrificing our own time and sometimes even our own pay. We are willing to do anything to ensure the success of our business. While this trait may seem admirable, you still need to pay your bills and buy food to eat
Initially, you may not be able to afford to pay yourself properly and that's perfectly fine. Just as long as you're compensating yourself for the work that you do, even if it's just enough to get by. However, as your business grows, make sure your pay grows with it too. Make sure to give yourself competitive and fair pay.
As the business decision maker, you have complete control over your finances. You decide how much money to allocate to operations, on marketing and, of course, how much to pay yourself. And with no one to tell you what to do, you may give yourself a hard time seeing the fine line. The line that separates between taking profits to reward yourself and re-investing in your own business.
You need to pay yourself properly to have the financial motivation to make great business decisions for continued growth. I have here a three-step process to give yourself the proper pay rise. Let's get you started on earning what you're worth!
Busy and overwhelmed is a default state for many of us and it actually hinders us from getting more of the important work done. Have you ever dreamt of doing less work but still winning in life? It is possible and it can happen if you focus only on the real priorities in your life.
When you're feeling overwhelmed you become unreasonable. Additionally, it makes you deal with stress in an unhealthy way. You yell at your kids, get in a fight with your partner and you get wound up easily. The best way to avoid feeling exhausted and overwhelmed is through self-care. Take time to practice self-care and understand your challenges.
I'm a small business coach, an entrepreneur, and a father. I don't always get the balance right. There times I feel stressed and pressured too. Feeling this way is perfectly okay and it's normal. But, what you do and how you deal with it is what's important.
Getting More Done
Learn to prioritise - Make sure you list things based on their priority. Make time for tasks that can create a bigger dent towards your goal.
Create small, attainable goals - Break up your goals into tiny ones. Doing so will help you go through them easier and faster than you think.
Learn to organise - When we're unorganised we become overwhelmed with getting more done. Create a system to help you find things better. It could be a simple system when answering emails or returning phone calls.
Unplug regularly - Take a mental break from everything. Profound things happen when you take a break. Make time for building relationships and spending time with the people you love.
There are more ways to help you get more things done. So if you really want to learn how you can avoid feeling overwhelmed, you need to check out the 3 ultimate tips I have in this video.
What happens when you realise that your charging for services that are just too cheap? A lot of salon businesses have salon pricing that isn't making them enough profit to grow their business.
Time and again, I've been getting coaching questions on what salon owners can do about their pricing. These salon owners are scared that their customers are price sensitive and will stop doing business with them.
Most new salon businesses will always have this kind of 'marketing tactic' - to price their services lower than everyone else. They think that customers will instantly flock towards their salon. But this is a very bad idea and you'll definitely have a hard time making ends meet in the long run.
I've been very clear about my feelings when competing on price. Pricing low against the increasing salon competition is a race to the bottom. Pricing your services properly is one of the trickiest parts of growing any kind of business. If your salon pricing is too high, customers may be hesitant to try your services. On the other hand, if you price is too cheap, they'll think that you're inexperienced or devalue what you do.
Getting to that sweet spot of salon pricing is challenging but not impossible. If you're not constantly reviewing your pricing strategy, you'll most certainly have problems covering your overheads.
There is no secret formula to salon pricing. You will find yourself tweaking your service prices every now and then. This goes along with experience and the growth of the market. In this video, I have some tips to help you price your services properly and get the profit you need without necessarily increasing your prices.
In previous broadcasts, I've talked to you about how to motivate your team and recruit the best people to help grow your business. But this video will be different. I'll talk more about how we can shift the focus and help you stay motivated.
Motivation is one of the key aspects of succeeding in any kind of business. However, there may be instances that you may find it hard staying motivated. As a business owner it's only normal for you to face different challenges on a daily basis. This makes it even harder to stay energised and motivated. We've all had that experience where we lose focus due to the obstacles we're facing.
Remember how it used to be? Do you remember all that energy you had when you were starting out? That feeling of restlessness and excitement all packed in one? And how you felt a surge of motivation going through you as if you're never going to get demotivated. In the beginning, it's only natural for you to be focused on growing your business. You were able to accomplish a lot of things at a very limited time. Results were fast. However, after being able to successfully stabilise the business, many encounter the problem of staying motivated.
To be blunt, as an entrepreneur, it's important that you seek out motivation on a daily basis. You need to constantly look for things and people that will inspire you. Staying motivated as a business owner will not only help you become successful, it'll also help you grow your team. In short, you have to keep at it against all odds.
In this video, I give you about 3 things you can do to stay motivated as a business owner. What's more, not only will these tips help you become motivated but will also help you power through tough situations.
I spend most of my time traveling and consulting with salon owners. Most of these clients ask for good, profitable financial strategies. In this video, I will talk about tiered pricing and how you should leverage this tool to get better profits, give more value to your customers and provide your employees with a better way to build clientele.
Most salon owners don't see the value in tiered pricing. To be blunt, this is why some of these businesses fail. You have to remember that a big part of running the business you deserve, is generating the profits you deserve. You have to consistently revisit your pricing structure. And see if you're leaving money on the table. While you create an environment where employees strive for something more.
Tiered pricing isn't just about gaining the profits your business deserves. It is also about being able to carefully provide recognition to your employees who are excelling. You are also able to provide loyal employees with incentives that will continue to motivate them into providing good services. Additionally, it also addresses the injustice that high performing employees may feel when they charge the same rate as less experienced employees.
Show your employees that you have a clear vision for them. That you want them to progress in this industry. It will work wonders for a growing business!
Here I want to give you the top 3 reasons why I think you should be introducing tiered pricing into your hair or beauty salon.
We get the same message again and again. Know your "one thing". Focus, and stay focused. Be determined. When everyone else makes 10 calls, make 20. Stay the course. Commit fully and never give up.
But surely, there has to come a time when you question whether your "one thing" is the right thing? Being persistent and taking strong consistent action is great - but what if you're pushing hard in the WRONG direction? Just HOW persistent do you have to be before you finally wash your hands and walk away? Here are my thoughts. As always, I'd love to hear yours too.
I do a LOT of non-fiction reading. I love reading the biographies of entrepreneurs and leaders. And naturally you start to see recurring themes in their message. One very subtle theme that crops up again and again is how the super-successful feel fulfilled.
It seems that at some stage in their career, it isn't enough to make more and more money or gain growing market share. Almost without exception there comes a time when the most fulfilling thing an entrepreneur can do is to start giving back. Buffett, Gates, Branson - they all plough millions or even billions back into good causes. It brings a renewed sense of purpose. It helps contribute to your "why".
You have invested everything in your business. Time, energy, money. What can possibly go wrong?
What I work on goal setting with my clients my aim is to improve their relationship with themselves. It's not about hitting the gym, meditation or yoga. I'm talking about scheduling some time to kick back and to do stuff that you actually like. Or how about scheduling some time with no agenda? What do you think it will look like having an hour or two in your calendar to waste? Contrary to what you think, it's not really a wasted time. It's your time to improve your relationship with yourself. And it's a beautiful investment! Believe me, this has transformed my business.
I can help you in overcoming procrastination and getting more things done. Are you: 1. An expert at putting off and delaying things? 2. Brilliant at doing the fun stuff first? But leaving no motivation and energy for the things you're supposed to do? 3. Running your life in a panic mode for a lot of the time?
A big part of the business is getting the right stuff done. You CAN get the right stuff done without working right up to a deadline in a very stressful way. And you know that feels so much better! Thing is, a lot of us are our own enemies. We're procrastinators!! We put things off and then end up with a huge rush of tasks when it comes to the deadline.
These tips that I have are based on my very own experiences as a big procrastinator. I have worked really hard to make sure that I'm performing at a level of high-productivity. Basically I have had to deal with my procrastination in a very effective way!
- Break things down
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there may be times that you feel overwhelmed. When you have so much to do in your mind that it becomes impossible to see a way forward. You need to get to grip with the projects and planning. In short, break things down into smaller chunks. But don't spend excess time on planning, it's mostly about implementation.
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Reward ourselves
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crossing tasks off a list can feel like a reward in itself. Or even something as basic as making a cup of tea. Whatever you use, make sure you deliver, or you'll have a hard time motivating yourself second time around.
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Forgive yourself
- show yourself some kindness. In short, don't be too hard on yourself! Procrastination can be a product of low self-esteem - don't feed that beast!
Finally, for more personalised help why not drop me an email: coaching@philjackson.me - I'd love to hear from you!
I speak to a LOT of salon owners and manager in the course of my work, and time and again I hear how much EASIER salon life would be if only those pesky employees would do their jobs! The owner or manager thinks they are dealing with an attitude problem, but more often I think they are dealing with a motivation problem. Keep listening - maybe I can help a little with that.
Social Media Marketing is a good source of high-quality clients, especially in our industry. Yet, Social Media can be a little overwhelming. We bought into the belief that we had to do everything! Started with a website, then along came social media. First was Facebook, then Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. We thought we needed to create bespoke content across platforms. Turns out that this is like a part-time job aside from running your Salon!
Don’t make any changes in your business just for the sake of it. I see this time and time again with the businesses that I’ve visited as a Salon Coach. By all means, look for ideas to improve your experience running your salon. Only make those changes that will make you further towards your medium to long-term goals.
Target setting is done infrequently, and certainly not well enough in most instances. When I start coaching a new salon, one of the first things that we go through is their performance management process.
I believe that sitting down with Team Members at least every month (and ideally every week) to report back to them on their performance, to set them a meaningful target and coaching them to achieve that target is the only way to longer-term success. People get overwhelmed unnecessarily by the entire performance management process.
It's a sad reality that if you have a Salon Team, at some stage you'll probably need to dismiss somebody or terminate their employment. I would love to say that after over 17 or 18 years of Salon ownership, it gets easier and it doesn't hurt anymore. But it would be a lie because it does!! I make sure that I'm involved if I'm terminating someone's employment. We're talking about decisions that affect one's career and it's absolutely right to take those decisions seriously and to lose a little bit of sleep over it.
I'm a firm believer that in salon marketing - in fact in almost every aspect of your salon business - the answers are already in your business somewhere. So why do we keep reinventing the wheel? Look back on your past promotions. Debrief properly and keep notes on what has worked. There's no shame in filling your calendar with tried and tested salon marketing that delivers great results!
Today, I want to help you decide:
When is the right time to grow your salon team? When is the right time to recruit?
This all boils down to your goal-setting. If you don't have clear goals on what you want your salon to achieve this year or in the next 5 years, that is the first place to start. Your goals ultimately dictate the size of the team that you need. Maybe you have a certain level of turnover that you want to achieve. Or maybe you want to step back from the salon floor. This will tell you how many team members you're going to need this year or next.
Start with the turnover target. Once you know the average bill and your frequency of visit you can start to break that turnover target down. It’ll show you the number of people you physically need on the premises earning money for you. That gives us the overall target of what we want your team to look like. Those goals are going be influenced by what it is you really want. Your bigger goals have to come first on this. Your 5 year plan and your life ambitions.
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Aside from being a Salon Mentor and Coach, I also own a hair salon in the South of England. And if I'm being honest, I have been neglectful on my Salon business. I moved away from the Salon business into the coaching space and I didn't replace myself as a Manager. I thought that being a magnificent coach and mentor meant I was some kind of superhero that I could run both businesses effectively. And I was wrong!
A Salon Training Agreement is a contract between you and a Team Member where they agree to pay back some or all the value of a training course should they leave in a period following the training.
Setting targets in your salon isn't easy - and there are a couple of pitfalls I see owners and managers fall into again and again. But for the long-term success of your business, they are vital. Taking the time to communicate to your team exactly what is expected of them is never time wasted.
Social Media has replaced a lot of things in our modern lives. The rules of English Grammar, warmth, and authenticity in our human relationships and the need to research something before we pass it on have all gone by the wayside. But one thing I've wrongly predicted would decline - BLOGGING. There are still millions of people around the world who share their thoughts by updating their blog. I see a lot of Salon owners trying to build that in their online marketing strategy. A few of them get some good traffic and a decent audience for their blogs. But some struggle to be consistent and create high-quality content. If the blog is not doing you any good, you need to step back and think if this needs to be a continuing part of your online marketing strategy.
As Entrepreneurs and Salontrepreneurs, our job is not always to use our platform to change the world. It is to turn the conditions that we're living into something that can grow, prosper and generate some profit. I don't tell you what cards to deal. Instead I help you with the cards that we've been dealt. Whatever your political belief is, we can all agree that we're in for a choppy time financially and economically. So how can we protect our businesses in difficult times?
Stocking a range of professional salon retail products is great - but what if you're team just won't sell? How is your salon retail? Is it a strong part of your salon strategy? Or are sales poor? Even ZERO? Take a look - I might just be able to help!
OK. We don’t cope well with the snow here in my part of the UK, problem is, it happens so infrequently that it’s hard to justify investment in snow precautions. So this week hit hard. Lots of customers and staff struggling to make their way in. And lots of calls for me from managers and owners wondering if it’s wise to call a salon snow day.
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Why hold salon team meetings at all?
In every salon, there is an agenda. A set of goals and objectives that every salon team is striving for. Problem is, if you're not communicating the agenda, not moving your team towards the salon goals, the team will set their own agenda.
I'm lucky. I get to see inside lots of salons. To see how they tick. What works, and what doesn't. Right now I'm seeing a lot of salons who could be getting much better results from their teams, if only they would coach and direct them.
Salons everywhere invest hundreds, if not thousands in the development of their teams every year. And a lot of salons waste their money. Follow the SIMPLEST way to be the salon manager your team deserves. Improve your team's performance and be clear about what you want them to achieve. Check out Team Performance Upgrade here: https://training.buildyoursalon.com/tpu
I've had a rough week. My salon website was hacked. So of course step 1 is to have a nose around - see what everyone else is doing. I've been shocked!
So many salon owners are neglecting their websites. I know we're all getting so much from social media, but I think this is shortsighted.
Take a look at your own website and bear in mind my 5 key points . . .
OK, I probably don't mean 'steal'. Borrow, take inspiration from, whatever you want to call it. Taking ideas from other businesses can be a shortcut to increasing your salon's success. In this episode, I give you a few ideas on what may be better places to look for that inspiration.
I've had a salon membership scheme in my own salon for nearly four years. I've been helping other salon owners with their own schemes too because I truly believe they make great business sense.
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Salon life is TOUGH - but I think a lot of salon owners and salon managers are making life a lot tougher for themselves by being pushed away from the strategy they have carefully crafted. I'm all for being flexible in business, but I think these salons are being swayed too easily - sometimes by just one or two clients.
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How can you expect to enjoy long-term salon success if you're not paying yourself properly?
Disclaimer: I do not make any guarantees about your ability to get results or earn any money with my ideas, information, tools or strategies. I do not offer any legal, medical, tax or other professional advice. Do not make any decisions based on any information presented in this broadcast without understanding that making any change in your business or personal life is accompanied by the risk of hardship or significant losses. Seek advice from trusted, qualified professionals before attempting any lifestyle change or business or financial endeavour. Check with your indemnified professional advisor before acting on this or any information. Continuing with this broadcast indicates your agreement that you will not to attempt to hold us liable for your decisions, actions or results, at any time, under any circumstance.
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Hello and welcome, today we’re going to tear apart your sales technique and put it back together hopefully in a way which is going to help you improve your results for yourself and your Salon. I am happy to point out some areas where I see Salon Managers and Owners going wrong. The first part of this video is brilliant content for you and your team as well. We’re going to talk about a better way to sell when we’re in the Salon. The second part of the video is how we apply that when we’re selling our business, services, product, anything online and ourselves and I don’t see us carrying through those sales techniques in a very effective way. There are fundamentally three ways that you can sell a product or service to a customer. The first way is to sell a product or service on its features. Let’s say I’m going to sell you this product, which is called Quick Blow-dry and Quick Blow-dry has extract of water mint in there, is paraben free and it’s only Thirteen Pounds Fifty a bottle. What I’ve done there is describe the features of a product to you. The next stage as I’m sure you’ve already been told is benefits. Explaining the benefits makes it more interesting because you seem to tailor the product to what I need and show me exactly what it’s going to be doing for me. The next level is getting your customer to engage emotionally with a product or service. What you’re looking to do is either change their status, their day to day for the better or the way they feel about themselves. So, talk about features, touch on benefits, but the bulk of your sales needs to be connecting with your customers on an emotional level. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe because I do a broadcast like this every single week, and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already hit subscribed I will see you next week. Take care.
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Hello and welcome, and it’s that time of the year again. I thought it was good timing for me to share what I think is the one most important measure for measuring the success of a member of your team. The one measure that I’m going to share with you today that I think is vital, is called utilisation. Essentially how busy one member of your team is. Some Salon coaches around the world, will say that the average bill is the most important measure, and I don’t think that’s correct. We’ve had turn our marketing into a machine for a successful Salon, and that involves running promotions, discounts or a loyalty programme. So, average bill will look a little bit more negative, utilisation will show us how busy somebody is. The other measure is the amount of money they’re putting in the till. Your service total or your service and retail total, isn’t necessarily a great measure of how brilliant a Stylist or Therapist is. The other problem with using service and retail totals, is that when someone goes on holiday, it hits they’re totals hard. Utilisation takes that into account, because what we’re measuring how many hours were utilised putting money in the till. Now what I would like you to do is figure out what the consequences of somebody not hitting a target is. In my Salon, we have a target of eighty percent utilisation. If your utilisation drops below seventy percent, we start having weekly marketing meetings. If your utilisation drops below sixty percent I will be reducing the hours that you are contracted for, two hours come off your contracted hours. If somebody is a brand-new starter, I build in a target for them to move up. I would give them three months to hit target utilisation, if they’re brand new you have six months to hit those targets. If they’re not hitting those targets, we reserve the right to terminate your employment in that instance. That’s the consequence that I have in my Salon, and it’s important that you have those consequences build in. I hope that’s been useful to you, it will be more useful if you build in the consequences in. If you’ve enjoyed the video, then please don’t forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single week and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you again next week. Take care.
That sense of entitlement - you know: the one we judge others on so harshly. When we call them lazy, unambitious, disloyal, irresponsible. Sometimes we just need a mirror. Falling into a sense of entitlement is easier than you think, spreads like a virus and is poisonous to your success.
Poor old Molly Malone. Dragging her wheelbarrow around Dublin and shouting herself hoarse, only to die with a fever. Is she remembered for her shellfish entrepreneurial skills? Nope. She's commemorated with a saucy statue and is known locally as The Tart with the Cart.
I was laid up in Dublin with tonsillitis this week. Possibly the most sober tourist the city has ever seen. Luckily the accompanying fever never carried me away, but I got to thinking: what do I need to so to get my own (hopefully less immodest) statue? What do I want to be remembered for?
Whatever it is, you have to go the whole distance to be cast in bronze, I reckon. Poor Molly could have given up at any time (the cobbles in Dublin are brutal) so I'll let her be my inspiration. Apologies for the sound quality in this week's podcast. My voice is not at full ranting speed!
I’m going to start today with a little bit of a marketing lesson for you, and it’s going to sound obvious, but bear with me, there is a message which is relevant to recruitment in the Salon Industry coming up very soon.
The message that I have for you around marketing is that the less work you need to do, the more likely your marketing is to be effective. So, there are industries which are hard work to market; the not obvious industries, and then the obvious industries. Let me explain the distinction, if your hair has grown to long most people will choose some form of Hair Salon or a home hairdresser to get that sorted. It’s an easy industry because the customer has already made the connection with the kind of service they want to receive.
If, however you are a business coach and somebody is struggling with their business, they don’t necessarily go to a coach. So, it’s a not obvious business, so it’s a lot harder to market because firstly you must persuade the customer that that’s the route they should go down, secondly you must persuade them that they should go down that route with you.
How does this relate to recruitment? Well it’s about not doing too much work when it’s time to recruit. Most of the time, Salons are doing nothing to recruit. That makes it hard work, because what you’re asking your recruitment advertising to do then is firstly to make somebody think perhaps I’m not happy in my current situation, secondly to think maybe I need to apply for another job and thirdly that they need to apply for a job with you. That’s a lot from one marketing campaign.
So, it’s no wonder you’re not getting the results that you deserve. So, what I’m suggesting is that you need to be recruiting continually so you need to be recruiting all year round, whether you need somebody in a position or not. Now that might sound counter intuitive because you might say what do I do if people start applying for jobs that I haven’t got. You keep their details, so that if somebody leaves you or go on maternity leave, you’ve got a list of numbers that you can call. It positions you as an expert in your industry because you’re taking recruitment seriously.
So how do we go about this continual recruitment. Well you need to look at the marketing that you’re doing and you need to allocate a percentage of that marketing to recruitment. Start building that awareness up, you can do this by either talking about Industry trends, but also positioning your Salon as the kind of place that’s desirable for Stylists and Therapists to build a career. Figure out what it is that you’re going to be marketing for the next month, take five or six of those posts and make them more team focussed or outward looking or industry facing.
I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to click subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you need more help with recruitment check out this link: http://bit.ly/2hbtUmA, I have a whole product called the Salon recruitment roadmap, designed to help you fill the spaces you have in your staff team. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you again next week. Take care.
- The ONLY opinion that matters is from your customer by Phil Jackson from BuildYourSalon.com
Hello and Welcome, and today I’m here to tell you that you need to concentrate on building your networks. Now networking can come across as slightly intimidating, particularly if you’re in the Hair and Beauty Industry, we seem to have a small confidence crisis. I’ve done lots of networking over the last few years, once you get past the very detail of what we do, we all have the same problems. I think there are three ways we should be building our networks for three very different reasons: We need to be building our Industry network. I’m always amazed whenever I go to an Industry event, of how few people actually put themselves out there and talk to other Salon Owners and Managers. It is reassuring to know that we’re all facing the same difficulties so get out there, find who you can rely on when times are hard. Our professional networks. It’s time to understand a little bit about what’s going on in the greater world of commerce. An important part of this can be networking events. Business networking is about starting to build a relationship that you can rely on in the future. We can get ideas from other industries to bring into our own Salons, the same as we can from other Salons. We need to invest in our personal network. We need to build personal connections so that we have support when times are tough. If you’ve got a sounding board which is valuable to your business absolutely capitalise on that relationship, but bear in mind if it’s a personal network that you’re building there has to be give and take as well. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe I do a broadcast like this, every single Monday I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you next week. Take care.
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Hello and Welcome, and today I’m going to start with an apology because this is a subject that I’m really passionate about and I get really, really frustrated about and I’m talking about change in our Industry, and I think as an Industry we are really bad at bringing about and steering change.
If you strip out all of the change that’s been imposed on us the way that we do business as Hair and Beauty Professionals has actually changed very little over the years. I think we’re missing out, we’re not steering the change so it happens to us. We can wait for changes to happen and react to them as best we can or we can steer the change. It’s time for us to take the reins.
This is something that I talk about, because I think it’s the very survival of our Industry that is at stake here. So how do we go about implementing change in our businesses? Well the first thing to do is to recognise the change that’s going on around you. You’re going to come across these changes once you open your eyes to it. You need to start looking at the companies that are around you, and start bringing some of that business models into your Salon, to implement change and stay ahead of the curve.
You’re not going to be able to do this in isolation; innovation is a team sport. You need to get your team behind it in bringing some ideas into your Salon as well, but also you need to build your network. What you need to do is get out of your Salon, firstly in your local area, join networking groups you’ll start to take the pulse of your local area. Also network with Professionals that are in your Industry but out of your area. You’re going to have to get out there, and start bringing some of that changes into your Salon. The joy of being a small business is that you can make changes continually.
If this broadcast has been useful to you, please also remember to subscribe. I put content like this out every single Monday, and I would hate you to miss out on the stuff that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you next week, take care.
Today I want us to learn the hard lessons from some people that have struggled to sell their Salon business. For lots of us it’s part of our long term goal to be able to put the Salon up for sale and retire on the proceeds or get the Salon to the stage where it’s running itself, and live of the profits for the rest of our dotage. What we need to understand is exactly what people are buying when they buy your business. Multiple of profit or a multiple of your turnover - that doesn’t really ring true, unless there’s lots of things in place to support that price. Our team - well unfortunately it’s illegal in most cases to tie your team to a business that they don’t want to work in. Your database - if you’ve got an up to date, current database, secure with excellent and complete details for your clientele, that can add some value to your business. So if you want to build a business what are you going to build? Systems - this is how you get to stay away from your Salon and still make money, and it’s also how you have something to sell when the time comes. You need policies and procedures in place - you need a system for everything. By system I mean a policy or a procedure a way that you do things in your Salon. Written policy and a flow chart. These are the things that tells you exactly at each stage of the game what’s expected from each person who is involved in the process. Then when it comes time to sell, what you’ve got is a Salon that virtually runs itself, or runs itself to the extent that you want it to, all the policies and procedures are in place for training your team and now you’ve got a business to sell. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this, every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you next week. Take care.
How do you feel when you think about your Salon and your Salon team, when you think about your week ahead? Are you excited and motivated, or is there a part of you which is a little bit fearful, or anxious about the week ahead?
I’ve had my own Salon for fifteen years now, and on three separate occasions I have been guilty of allowing my team to hold me hostage. There are some warning signs if you get into the stage of what I call the more, more, more decease then you are probably being held hostage by that member of the team. You need to be very careful about how much you give that member of the team. Also if you’re finding that there are members of your team that just aren’t carrying out your instructions then they’re chancing their arm. What they’re saying to you in a very unsubtle way is that they believe you won’t take measures if they’re not carrying out services how you’ve asked them to. Now I need you to be brave if this is happening to you, the situation has to be sorted straight away, and we’re going to evoke our old friend the disciplinary procedure for this. So the way I would handle it is as follows: You need to speak to the member of the team informally about the work that they’re not carrying out. Sometimes that would be enough but sometimes it isn’t enough and you’ll have to go down the disciplinary procedure, and get rid of that member of the team. You need a plan in place in case you need to get rid of that member of the team. Now if you do get to a stage where you have to get rid of somebody, you won’t have to get rid of many more. It sends a strong signal to the rest of your team; it shows that you’re to be taken seriously as an employer.
I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has please don’t forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I’ll see you next week. Take care.
Hello and Welcome. Do you ever get frustrated with the relationship that you have with your suppliers, manufacturers and their representatives when they come into your Salon. I think it’s an under-utilised relationship and they could be adding value to a lot of businesses in a lot of different ways. So let’s get stuck in, five ways your rep could be helping you more:
Free training – if a rep comes in and they have a new product that they would like you to stock, I always ask the rep to come into our team meeting and explain the product features, the benefits and the best way to sell that product through to your customers. Promotions – train your rep, what you want is a phone call, Facetime or a Skype conversation with that rep, the day or the day after they hear about that cycle of promotions. Stock control – get your reps to help with stock control. At the beginning of a supplier relationship, they will know the products that are easiest to sell; they will know the ones where you might need to stock an extra few items. Espionage – you will not get a rep to come in and tell you about what’s going on in the Salon down the street, but what they will be able to tell you in a very anonymous way how things are working in other Salons. Honestly it’s an absolute gold mine when you get that relationship right. Staff incentives – anytime you have a new product which is being added to your range, I would definitely ask them for some sort of staff incentive, get them to talk through the new product, talk about the feature, the benefits and by the way we’ve got this fantastic staff incentive as well. I hope that’s been useful to you, if you’ve got anything to add to the conversation head over to the Build Your Salon Facebook page. Don’t forget to hit subscribe, I do a broadcast like this every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. Until next week, take care.
Hello and welcome, actually this week it’s Hola y bienvenido because I’m speaking to you today, very early in the morning before it gets too hot, on my roof terrace in my new house in Spain. This week my message to you is that I’d like you to slow down, take a bit more time. I’ve seen a very distressing trend in Salons over the last few years and we’re getting addicted to express services, we’re getting addicted to these little nuggets of service that we’re passing onto clients at a very low cost, and banging them out at a very rapid rate. Now I’m not suggesting that we get rid of all express services, they are what I see as a profit maximizer, so they’re an add-on; they’re a filling for those little gaps that you get during your day in your column. They shouldn’t be something that we rely on day in and day out and this is what’s happening. So I want you to ask yourself when you’re doing an express service, is this the very best job that you could do for that client? If she’s having an express service, have you got all the time that you need to pass on the information and aftercare advice that you need to. In an express service have you got time to make her feel special, I don’t think you have. The danger I think over time is that we’re not paying attention to our craft anymore. What we’re not doing is actually the best job that we can to impress people, with the experience that they can get. I’d like you to pay attention to what’s going on in the barbering Industry, because barbering has had a massive resurgence over the last two to three years and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon either. Now this massive resurgence that’s happening in barbering isn’t happening off the back of very quick clipper cuts, it’s not even happening off the back of cheap services. It’s happening off the back of people paying into their craft, so they’re retraining in ancient barbering techniques, in excellent cutting skills, and they’re pushing out higher priced service in many instances to a much bigger audience and the audience is absolutely lapping it up. I think we could be transferring that into the hair and beauty industry as well. I think we need to pay attention to our craft, pay into the training, keep developing yourself and your team so that you’re skills are absolutely fantastic. The other thing that I think is missing particularly in Hairdressing is there’s no history, there’s no culture, with a lot of Stylist anymore. Go back, have a look at the people that formed our Industry and turned it into the trade that we’re applying today. So slow down and start moving away from the express services, push the experience, build your training, and build your craft. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe. I do a video like this actually maybe not quite like this every Monday, and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. Until then take care.
- Could YOU be the reason your salon isn't more successful? by Phil Jackson from BuildYourSalon.com
For more help and info, go to buildyoursalon.com
Hello and Welcome. Today we’re talking about Salon Memberships. If you’ve ever struggled with cash flow in your Salon, or to stand out from your competition locally, I think Memberships could be really helpful for you. So what I’ve got for you today is five pointers to set you on the right track: Pricing - What I can tell you is that from the customer’s point of view there needs to be a financial incentive. They’re going to need some kind of discount, but it doesn’t need to be as big a discount as you think. There is a certain amount of value that you can build in by making it feel like a club, like something slightly more exclusive that has value to it, so you don’t need to discount quite so much. A small element of your clientele will pay because it’s a predictable stream for them; it’s a lot easier for them to budget if they’re on a predictable monthly outcome. Tiered plans - Now if you’re only offering Membership in one form, I’m afraid you missed the point. What you’ve got is a really limited range which is appealing to a small amount of your clientele. It makes absolute sense for you to offer different Membership tiers. It’s still true that twenty percent of your customers will buy a premium version of your product or service if you make it available to them and it makes good sense value wise. So make sure that when you’re doing your Memberships you have more than one tier to offer them. Keep it simple, really simple - You have to keep it achingly simple, not only for your customers, but also to help your staff sell Memberships. The simplest way to do it I think is to make your Memberships unlimited. If you sign up to one of the Membership packages in my Salon, you are entitled to for example as many haircuts as you like in a year. Yes, it can feel a little bit scary but after a couple of months you start to find a pace and a rhythm with your spend and it’s a pace and a rhythm with your frequency of visit. Don’t be afraid, keep it simple. Leave room for upsells - In year one on our very premium version, you were allowed as many haircuts, hair colours, in Salon conditioning treatments and free retail products as you wanted. Now if you’ve got targets in your Salon one of those targets may well be on upsell. The problem was if you were coming in on my Premium range on my Memberships, there was nothing left to sell you. So we scaled back, took out a couple of those elements so that there’s still room to upsell and maximise profitability. Allow cancellations - It’s really tempting to sign people up in an iron clad contract and make sure that they’re paying you this retained income for the next twelve months. You need to check your regulations locally – here in the UK if you don’t allow people cancellations, the contract changes in nature and it becomes a contract of credit. There’s a lot more regulation around credit contracts, so make sure it’s an ability for your customer to get out of the contract if they really need to. I hope that’s been useful to you, throw your comments below if you’ve got any questions. If you haven’t subscribed already please hit subscribe now, I do a video like this every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on the fantastic content that I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you again next week. Take care.
Welcome, and today we’re talking about individual team member targets. What I’m going to share with you is three targets that I set my own team here, in my award winning Salon. Now it may well be that there are times when you need to add more targets, and that varies according with the performance of the employee and also the stage of the career they are at. It’s really important that your team know what’s expected of them. So these are the big three that I want to share with you: Average bill - Average bill or average ticket value is one of the most important key performance indicators or KPI’s in your Salon. An average bill covers an awful lot, so if you can see that someone’s average bill is very low, there are parts of her job that she’s just not doing. An average bill that’s on the increase indicates somebody who’s taking retail seriously or that’s also very good at selling additional products or services when somebody comes in to your Salon. So you want to see a nice high average bill, set a benchmark for the level that the person is at in their career and also monitor it over time. Retention - I think client count is slightly old fashioned and what I’m more interested in is retention for this reason; I can increase your client count by promotional activity and I will see a bump in the number of customers that come into the Salon. The retention rate shows me how pleased my customers are with the Stylists or Therapists performance, so that’s what I’m interested in. If you’re starting to see retention on the slide, you need to intervene really quickly because somebody with very low retention is not an asset to your business. Utilisation - This is how busy a person is, how much of the day that you’re paying them for are they actually occupied making you money. The reason we look at utilisation is because your marketing activity has a huge impact on utilisation of your team, but it may not be impacting on the average bill. Utilisation can be impacted purely by the marketing spend that you’re putting into your business. So we monitor the utilisation, if you’ve got somebody who has continually low utilisation despite your marketing efforts, again perhaps you need to address that in a slightly more aggressive way, it may even be that it’s time to move that person on. In my Salon we have two bench marks for utilisation; we have an eighty percent target utilisation. Below sixty percent we have what is called an intervention. If there’s still a problem with utilisation after six weeks of intervention, we would start looking at your contract and potentially reducing your hours in a hope to increase that utilisation number. I hope that’s been useful to you, if you’ve got something that you’d like to add either pop it in the comments below or head over to the Build Your Salon Facebook page where I would love to hear from you. I hope you’ve already subscribed, if you haven’t hit subscribe now. I have a video and a podcast out like this every single Monday, and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I share with you in the future. Until next week, take care.
Welcome, and today we’re talking about one to ones. So these are the individual meetings that you’re going to be having with every member of your team to help them hit the targets that you need to, so that you can achieve Salon success. Today I’ve got five tips for you on running one to ones: 1. These are called one to ones and not meetings so call them one to ones, keep the meetings for the capability and disciplinary process. 2. Frequency and format of the meeting - How often you meet with a member of the team would depend on where they’re at in their career and also their performance against their targets. 3. Feedback - The beginning of each meeting you should be feeding back the performance of the team member over the last period. Summarise what it is that you’re expecting from them, but make sure you end on a high. 4. Targets - I expect a member of the team to set themselves an easy target, those targets need to feed through and add up to what you need the Salon to achieve to hit your goals. 5. Keeping records - You need to make copious notes; firstly to refresh your memory and remind yourself what it is that you agreed; secondly you’re starting to cover your ass a little bit. I hope that’s been useful to you, if you’ve got something that you want to add, please head over to the Build Your Salon Facebook page or pop it in the comments below. If you haven’t subscribed already, hit subscribe now I put content like this out every single Monday and I would hate you to miss out on what I’m sharing. If you’ve already subscribed I will see you next week, take care.
Get the MP3 and transcript here: http://buildyoursalon.uk/living-working-partner
Welcome, and today we’re talking about working and living with the same person, how we’re going to run our businesses and our relationships successfully when your partner at home is also your partner in the business. If you get it wrong it can have dire consequences not only on the business front, but it can end a relationship as well. I’ve lived and worked with the same person for about twenty years now. Now there are some amazing benefits, but there are a lot of down sides as well; you’ve got to be really careful.
Firstly you’ve got to start with the end in mind. Are you going to be selling the business at some stage, is the idea that one partner leaves the business, what happens if you split up? You need to have these difficult conversations before you embark on working together. Sometimes they are hard conversations, but you have to get an agreement in the end.
Secondly you have to agree on the big stuff, you have to be pushing your business in the same direction. You will destroy your relationship and your business if you’re pulling in different directions. If you agree on the big stuff, the strategy for the business, the long term goals, when you have arguments all you’re arguing about is how you’re going to get there. You’ve agreed on the destination, you’re only arguing about the slightly different routes that you want to take.
Point number three is you need to be crystal clear on your roles in the business, not only for your own sanity, but also if you’re not clear on the roles there’s a real waste of resource because you end up with two people doing something that one person could do a lot more effectively. This is particularly important if you have staff; they need to know who it is that they go to otherwise they’re very confused and end up not communicating effectively with the Management team at all.
Point number four is you have to manage or be managed. In every element of your business someone needs to be in charge. If you’re not willing to be in charge, then you’re going to have to hand over control to the other person and not interfere. There are times when you have to toss a coin to figure out who’s going to be in charge of an area of your business and this happens with personal relationships in the Salon, because there will be times when you’d have to have difficult conversations. So you have to be that clear about your roles, you have to manage or be managed.
And finally say what’s on your mind, when it occurs to you. It is impossible to put artificial boundaries into your home and work relationship. If you put these artificial constraints, what you do is you put undue pressure on your relationship. So if you need to get something of your chest get it out there, and then you can put work behind you and start focussing on your personal relationship instead.
I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has please don’t forget to subscribe I put content out like this every single Monday, and I would hate you to miss out on what I’m sharing with you. If you’ve got a successful work and personal relationship with somebody, put it in the comments below or share it over on the Build Your Salon Facebook page. Until then I’ll see you next week.
Welcome, and today we’re talking all about work life balance. As far as work life balance is concerned though I think I’ve got three strategies that could really serve you well. I have a problem with the expression work life balance; I think it puts pressure on us as human beings that we should be spending fifty percent of our energy and effort on our businesses and the other fifty percent outside having some kind of other life. I think that where you set your percentage is entirely up to you, stop beating yourself up, stop trying to move to this fifty-fifty Utopian world. Firstly, you need to know what’s needed. This goes back to your goal setting. You will never achieve work life balance where ever you’ve decided to split unless you are crystal clear about what it is that you’re trying to achieve in the areas of your life. Once you know what’s needed it’s also much easier to figure out what’s not needed. Where are you willing to spend your time, your effort and your energy? Where you set those percentages is entirely up to you, but then what I want you to do is revisit your goals. Somebody much cleverer than me once said you can have it all, you can’t have it all right now. Secondly you’ve got to plan, and plan to death and be ruthless with your planning. Once I take on a new Salon for mentoring we go through a goal setting exercise similar to what we’ve discussed in item one. Next I give them two weeks after we’ve done the goal setting, I pick up their journal and I should be able to see what goals that person has for themselves. They have these ambitious goals, they really want to achieve at home and in their business, and when I open their journals I see a to do list of things that have just come along that day or the day before. You can’t plan that way, once you’re really clear about your goal setting, I want you to block out time on a weekly basis, get really disciplined with your planning so that you can start moving towards those goals. But also it means that you are going to get really good at saying no. I do all my planning on a Sunday evening, it takes me about an hour to revisit my goals, allocate my time and make sure that everything is as it should be for the week coming up. If anybody calls me with anything during the week unless it’s a dire emergency or a golden opportunity to move me much closer to a goal much quicker, I’m afraid it’s a no and you need to be that ruthless as well if you’re ever going to achieve that balance. Lastly you play the long game. Just because you’ve set those percentages for your time, effort and energy does not mean that you have to spend it like that every week. For example, when I get at the end of my three-year plan, I should have allocated the right percentages in the right direction. So as long as you’re playing the long game, as long as you’re achieving that balance over time, it’s okay for one area of your life to dominate in the short term. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe. I’m putting a video like this and a podcast like this out every single Monday, I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m sharing. Take care I’ll see you soon.
Welcome, and today we’re talking all about how we can use Facebook advertising as an effective tool to help us recruit into our Salons.
What I’ve put together today you can use as a checklist next time you’re doing Facebook advertising for recruitment or a trouble shooting list to see where you went wrong last time.
Market - this is your audience in Facebook terms, first thing though you do realise you’re going to pay for this right? I still think Facebook advertising is a cost effective way of reaching your audience.
How do we reach the audience with Facebook? You have to know who you’re talking to and also use your Facebook advertising tool called interests and behaviours, so that you identify your target market by the things that they’re interested in.
I do limit my adverts geographically, but don’t limit yourself too far and don’t narrow your search to far geographically. Don’t limit it by age, keep it broad as far as age limit is concerned, focus on the interests and behaviours instead.
Now the message: try to engage with your audience on an emotional level and start to push the features away from your advertising a little bit.
Media - we need to keep it very light, bubbly and social. You will increase your engagement of Facebook advertising if you keep people on platform.
Marketing is about building a relationship slowly and over time, do not go from your Facebook post to a full on face to face interview in one step. Keep it light and casual.
Do something eye catching on Facebook. People will connect to you in a much better way.
Lastly keep the conversation alive even if it’s bad timing, because when you may need staff you’ve immediately got a pool of people who you can call on to start to fill those positions.
I hope that’s been useful to you, if there’s something that you would like me to cover in one of my video’s, please get in touch. Send me an email at phil@buildyoursalon.uk or find me on Facebook or Twitter.
The recruitment video I reference in the podcast is at https://youtu.be/Gg-8c3Racrw
I hope you’ve already subscribed to this channel, if you have I will see you again next week, if not click subscribe now because I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m putting out every Monday. See you soon.
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Get the full transcript here: http://buildyoursalon.uk/compete-with-online-retailers
SUMMARY Welcome and today we’re talking about how Salons can compete with online retailers. So today what I’ve got for you is seven strategies that I think can give your Salon a fighting chance.
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We need to remove the ability to make a comparison. Online retailing only works if the customer is able to make a direct and immediate comparison. We can remove that ability to make a comparison then the online retailers don’t stand a chance.
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Take away the choice for the customer. Reduce her ability to say no to take a product by including them in a service you offer.
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Take away the choice as far as your staff is concerned. We have a Salon guarantee in place, so my team know they have to consistently talk about retail products.
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See retail products as an overall project. When you’re seeing the product as an overall project, it gives you a lot more flexibility as far as pricing is concerned.
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RRP is just a recommendation. Recommended Retail Price is not something the manufacturer can insist on you charging. That gives you the flexibility to charge whatever you want in your Salon, as long as your account is in good standing.
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Your ability to take pre-orders online. You have the ability to pre-sell online, it does rely on you having some standing as far as social media is concerned.
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Make offers work harder for you. You don’t have to offer products just because your manufacturer says so, you could use that extra profit margin to change your recommended retail price to something that suites your Salon a lot better.
I hope these strategies bring you some success, if they do please get in touch with me phil@buildyoursalon.uk, I love hearing about how well Salon owners are doing. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already, because I’m sharing fantastic content with you every single Monday, and I would hate you to miss out. I will see you next week.
Welcome and today we’re talking about recommend a friend and referral schemes. We all know that recommend a friend schemes and referral schemes make excellent business sense. So why do I hear from so many Salon Owners that they’re not getting excellent results. Well I think I’ve identified three fundamental flaws which I would like to share with you: 1. They don’t maintain customer interest. I’ve seen two things going wrong here; I don’t think many of your recommend a friend schemes are generous enough. The other thing is I’ve seen people rewarding their customers with something that just don’t interest them. 2. Some schemes fail to maintain the team’s interest. There will be some people that need recommend a friend, but there will be other Stylists or Technicians or Therapists that actually don’t need recommend a friend. So it’s very hard to get traction with your recommend a friend scheme. 3. We get time scales wrong. I think you should be taking your recommend a friend scheme out of the Salon; you need to be reaching people at home by either writing to them or emailing them. I hope that’s been useful to you, have a look at your recommend a friend schemes and see if you can identify in those three categories where you’ve been going wrong. I have put together a paid for training package which is available at http://buildyoursalon.com/referrals. Have a look at that, I expect there’s a cheeky discount over there for you as well! Otherwise I'll see you again next Monday. Take care.
Welcome, and today we’re talking about when an employee decides to leave or when you need to terminate their employment. So what are the circumstances when it’s time to say goodbye? 1. When a member of your team is not hitting the required Salon standards. You should also have in place a capability procedure and also a disciplinary procedure. 2. When they quit. To get to the stage where they’re actually resigning from a position, is a big mental process for an employee and when they’ve got to that stage, it’s too late. 3. It becomes all about the money. Pay your staff as much as you can possibly afford and then the conversation when they’re asking for extra pay rise is very short indeed. So there are four golden rules for when we’re dealing with employees resigning or us terminating their employment: 1. We are never surprised. I will not take a meeting unless I know what’s on the agenda. That gives me a chance to be prepared, to start planning ahead so you are fully prepared and fully armed. 2. You must have a plan; you should have an ideal termination date in place, before meeting with the employee, you should have a plan on what you’re going to be telling all of their clients, you should have a marketing plan and you should also have an overall team plan. 3. The meeting. When it’s time to say goodbye it’s much better if you get it over and done with. 4. The termination date. The second somebody resigns from your employment they are gone from the premises. There is one exception and that is if someone is literally leaving the country. I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe to this channel and I will see you again next Monday. Take care.
I want you to take back some of the control in your business. There’s been a real buzz word around business – which is outsourcing.
I’m not suggesting that you do absolutely everything in your business, there are times when you need to outsource, but there are elements of our business that we’re handing over too readily and we need to start taking back some things into the fold.
Websites: Have enough knowledge and understanding to be able to update your website yourself. Once you have that knowledge you can make an informed decision if it’s something you will carry on doing yourself, or if it’s something you can hand over to someone else.
Social media: Updates I see done by the professionals don't quite ring true; it feels a little bit phoney. Take your social media back, learn to master it, learn to schedule.
Design: You are spending a lot of money on design. In my Salon our prices increase in September and with that I need to send the new prices to my Graphic Designer for the next twelve months. He’ll also give me a template for a flyer that I can use and generate, to be more responsive in my marketing. So get the templates set up, find yourself design software and get the hang of your design so that you can be much more responsive, run promotions more frequently with shorter lead time.
I hope that’s been useful to you, if it has don’t forget to subscribe I would hate you to miss out on the content that I’m putting out every week, if you’re already subscribed I will see you again next Monday.
This week I want to look at those guilty feelings, that mis-spent energy that is affecting your current and future success, and we’re going to come up strategies for dealing with it so that we can move forward to a place of gratitude.
Guilt comes in three forms; guilt for the things that we’ve done in the past, guilt for our current position and guilt for our potential future circumstance.
When we’re looking at guilt in the past, remember we've all made mistakes. The things I got wrong in the past were the best I could do at the time, I wasn’t out to hurt people deliberately. So how do we move on from that guilt? You find someone that trusts and loves you unconditionally, and you talk it through. They will forgive you - then it’s time that you forgive yourself.
Guilt in our current situation is why we hide away our success, we shield others from how well we’re doing, and it’s a misspent guilt. You are completely limiting your potential if you have those feelings around your potential success.
It’s your duty and obligation to feel gratitude for the situation you’re in, for the freedom and options you have to alter your future, and to maximise your potential. If you’re in a position to change your life it is your duty to make sure you’re doing your absolute best to succeed.
I found a really simple technique, which is at the end of each day just write in the bottom of your diary three things that you’re grateful for. Scientifically you’re reinforcing a positive feeling rather than dwelling in that guilty place.
I hope that’s been really useful to you, if it has please click the like below and don’t forget to subscribe. If you’re not here you won’t hear about the wonderful things I have to share with you. See you next Monday!
This week I want to guarantee that this is going to be the best episode for your business ever! Actually I’m not, but I think you should be guaranteeing because this week we’re talking about Salon Service Guarantees.
Salon Service Guarantees are one of the most important marketing statements that you can possibly make, they are marketing gold. There are three golden rules for you, when you are coming up with your Salon Service Guarantee:
The first is that your guarantee must be achingly simple to understand.
Secondly it has to be relevant to your customer.
The third is that your guarantee must be absolutely genuine.
So what I want to do now is share with you the guarantee that I’m making to my customers, I want you to understand the thought process on how I put our guarantee together. So our guarantee is called the Bravo Five Point Promise, just five simple points:
Point number one is that we guarantee you’ll receive a full consultation before every service.
Point number two, if we don’t offer you a luxury conditioning treatment at the basins all of your services today are free.
Point number three is that if we don’t tell you about every product we’re using on you today, you get to take them all home for nothing.
Point number four is the promise I’m making my customers is that if you’re not a hundred percent happy with your hair today, you don’t pay.
And then point number five is that if you don’t leave the Salon on time you don’t pay.
What I want you to do today is come up with a list of things that you think would hold value for your clientele. Get that promise in place and then use it everywhere.
I hope that’s been useful to you, I will see you again next week.
FREE 30 minute webinar here: http://yourdigitalsalon.com/webinar-signup
I’m going to get straight in with the begging – PLEASE can you start having a really close look at email marketing in your Salon. I’ve come up with seven ways that will inspire and motivate you to get on with some email marketing.
First – Email marketing is really, really low cost even free.
Second - Nobody else is doing it, so it’s something that does set you apart from your competition.
Third – It keeps you in the mind of your customer.
Fourth - Email marketing lets you project your brand personality.
Next up - If I can find a marketing pillar that doesn’t need my team to do anything and it doesn’t take any Salon time that makes me really happy.
Sixth - Email marketing helps your existing marketing work a little bit harder.
Finally email marketing is easy to track, so you can measure your success relatively easily.
If you’re serious about getting into email marketing, there will be a link to a free webinar that I’ve put together for you, no commitment it’s just a quick sign up and book yourself on. I hope you get lots of value out of that, in the mean time I will see you next week, keep on building, take care.
FREE 30 minute webinar here: http://yourdigitalsalon.com/webinar-signup
Today I have two questions for you, the first is what is going wrong with your Salon marketing and secondly who do you think you’re talking to? I love our Industry, I think it’s a fantastic, vibrant industry being pumped full of youthful energy. But that disappears when it comes to our Salon marketing. I think the most common problem which brought me on to the “who do you think you’re talking to” question – is that we haven’t adequately identified who the marketing is supposed to be speaking too. How do we talk to people in a way that they understand and relate and how do you make sure that we’re hitting the buttons that our target markets are interested in - by using something called customer avatars. Customer avatars are imaginary people but they have a set of characteristics that you believe identify your target market. What I want you to do is start having a think about your customer avatars. Now the easiest way to get started on customer avatars is to have a look at the clientele that you already have. Now there is a slight caveat, if you’re trying to change your business, don’t use your current customer base for your customer avatar, have your customer avatar as your desired customer. Have some fun with your customer avatars, bring a little bit of that joy into your market. If you’ve had some good results with your marketing please get in touch – I love hearing from Salon owners. In the meantime take care and I’ll see you next week.
Hi everyone, Phil Jackson here from Build Your Salon, here to help you master the tools you need to generate the profits you deserve, so that you can lead a fuller life. Today we’re talking all about the haters, who just give us a hard time online, and I just wanted to explore with you how I deal with it. So why is it that people have this strong reaction to us, why do people hate online at all? Well I suppose the simplest explanation is that they are jealous. What we’re doing as entrepreneurs is not normal, normal for most people is to get the qualifications and stay on payroll until you either retire or die. So how do I deal with it? I deal with it by finding the one beautiful little nugget of truth or the one beautiful little positive that will be in every single negative response that you have. Find the treasure, focus on that and see it in proportion of what else you’ve done. You get one or two people hating, have a look at the reach of their Facebook post. Think about the good, think about it in context and if you need a shoulder to cry on, send me an email phil@buildyoursalon.uk, if not see you next week, take care.
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Understanding your marketplace is not only useful. If your business is going to survive and thrive it can be seen as vital! But I fear that salons are either neglecting competitor analysis altogether or keeping a very narrow view of what their competition is.
In this video, I take you through a simple method of analysing the competitive environment that surrounds you. Then we'll look at some of the less obvious competitors who are also vying for your profits margins.
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This week I'm BRACED FOR IMPACT! I always get LOADS of hate whenever I talk about DISCOUNTING, because lots of salon coaches, owners and managers think you shouldn't EVER discount. I think they're wrong - there ARE times you can discount successfully in the salon - in this week's video I tell you why.
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It's my job to spot business trends in our industry and advise salons where they could improve the way they do things for bigger profits, less stress, higher customer satisfaction, etc.
Recently I think I've spotted a trend towards salons being a little, well ... cheap. This week I explain why I think many salons could afford to spend more to get new customers, and turn a tidy profit while they're doing it.
I'M WORRIED: I see a of of salon owners using Facebook a LOT in their businesses (maybe neglecting other marketing pillars) and they are using the platform really BADLY too.
This week I explore the better ways of using Facebook in our salon businesses and talk through the types of Facebook Ad I think could be useful too.
In short - I geek out!
business #salon #hairsalon #beautysalon #businessadvice
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Do you feel in control of your salon finances?
If you are running your business from your bank statements, or worse still from your end-of-year accounts you really need to be asking your accountant for better information in the form of Management Accounts.
This week I tell you about the KPIs I monitor regularly with my accountant in an effort to generate better profits and be able to plan financially for the future.
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My question this week is: HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Buzzing? Motivated? Full of ideas and excitement for your business?
Nobody is like that ALL the time. We all have times when we feel less inspired - I know I do. So it's important that we have tools in our kit to combat those feelings quickly
This week I discuss the importance of training in motivating and inspire us as business owners. In fact I reckon you should be investing 25% of your training budget in developing the management skills you need to excel.
WE WORK TOO DAMN HARD. My mission is to help salon owners with the business skills they need to generate the profits they deserve. That's why I get so frustrated when I see opportunities to make extra cash left unexplored.
In this video (all the way from wet Chicago!) I share with you a simple way that businesses can be generating extra turnover and profit WITHOUT trying to find extra customers.