Your Questions Answered

Q What is the strongest technique to use to up sell clients?

                                                  Nicholas Siddle,Ipswich,Suffolk,United Kingdom

A. Hi Nicholas,

Great Question...Find out what your clients problems are and offer them solutions its as easy as that. If your client has dry lifeless hair its easy to suggest a solution right! If their hair is dull and lacks colour then you know what to do.... easy RIGHT!

Always recommend the products you are using or the colours you use. Sounds obvious...but look at your team are they really doing that with every client? Bet you £100 that if you took all the products out of the Salon tomorrow morning and told them that you have decided that products were a waste of time and money and you don’t need them you would have a riot on your hands they would properly all walk! Am I RIGHT!

Well if that’s the case why is it so god dame difficult for them to sell if clients really need them!

Find out what they want and give it to them that’s it simple... a piece of cake...

Up selling is a great way of increasing your average bill and a fantastic measure of how well your team is doing because if clients are going out with colour on their hair and purchasing retail then they must LOOK AND FEEL FANTASTIC!

Good luck with Column Builder its help my business like you would not believe.. I am sure your gonna love it. Please keep me informed of your successes as it will be great to put your comments onto www.HairBizSecrets.com
 

 Q  My daughter in law has 2 stations and 2 girls cutting hair. People has told her that she keeps 30% and lets the girls keep 70%. This in my eyes is stupid. Example: $25.00 for a shampoo and cut and she makes $7.50. The rest goes to the girls plus tips. The only thing the girls pay for is their scissors, color and perm stuff. She pays for everything else!! Her rent is $650.00 month, with $350-$500.00 in utilities. Amanda is the "receptionist". I may be wrong but I feel that she should at least make 1/2 of the cost of service since she pays for everything. Amanda washes the towels daily etc. She is I feel like at the point where she may lose this dream of hers. What can she do about her profits. We live in a small north Georgia town and I know she can get a go at it, if she can get some truth from someone like you who knows what they are really talking about concerning what she should be profiting. Thank you so much. Amanda and my son have just had their 1st child and she is able to take the baby to work with her so like I said this shop is a great convenience if she can just the money flowing a little better.

A   Yes you are right minimum of 50/50% as this would only be fair.

How would she feel about increasing the shampoo and cut price to $30.00? Yes you will lose a few customers but this would sweeten the deal for the girls and Amanda. So they would do less for more and Amanda would have more profits. Add some extra value to the customer visit, and something new in the salon, even a lick of paint, new cups, sweets at reception etc it only has to be small....
If Amanda would rather not do this (I think she should) then if she has room get in another stylist to help spread the cost of the overheads. You see the overheads are fixed so the more cuts the smaller the overheads become as a percentage of the turnover! If the room is not their then Amanda could open her Salon for longer periods and make room that way. I have just done this in my Salon and created 8 hours over the week.

Ok next look at the average spend per client hair cut 25-30 dollars how can this increase with extra services like colour, treatments, redesigns. Does Amanda sell retail items. This can be another way of increasing profits you could pay 10% commission to the girls for retail sales. Look at ways other industries market products and see if you can adapt them to the Salon. Look how McDonalds re-invented the ice cream, sale's were down so they renamed it a McFurry (in the UK)and sales soared. We can take these ideas and use them in the Salon!!!!

So she is not vulnerable to her situation Amanda should have an ongoing recruitment plan in place so that she always has Stylist's who have applied for jobs, Amanda has interviewed and put on standby in case one of the girls.

My Salon Column Builder has loads of information like this on How To Increase Sales and profits I would recommend she invests for her future.

And as I said before HOW MUCH PROFIT does Amanda want to make because then and only then she will be focused on what to do.

Profit is sanity - turnover is vanity!

Hope that helps

Steve

My salon Column Builder System Will Help You Pack Out Your Salon And Increase Your Profits!

Q     My name is Eva Helida, my Question is: How to make my company become success??

A     Hi Eva,      Ask yourself …."well what is success to me?"
How will you know or measure that you are now a successful Company?
Once you have that goal then you can really and I mean really FOCUS on it. You see once you know where you want to go then its so much easier to get their…………………………...

Good question! I assume you mean a Financial Success?

The first most important thing is that your product has to be right!

How good is your hairdressing compared to your competitors. How does your customer service compare to your competitors? And how about your image how does that compare .Once you get those things right and they are the best you can make them, then use my Salon Column Builder to pack out your salon with new Clients. Its packed to the rim full of ideas and examples on marketing and how to build a really strong client base…..use it……... OK...

Make sure that your figures are right …….Focus on Profit not Turnover………..understand how much profit you have on every single service in the Salon.

Then work out how much profit you want to make.

Be sure you are at least $5 to $10 over your Cut and Finish price with your average ticket value. Selling on Color Services and Hair Treatments, Beauty or Nail services should easily get you their.

Success brings rewards and will free up your time to do the things you really want to do. That’s why being focused on the right things will get you their so must faster.

Hope that helps Eva

Get Salon Column Builder here

Column Builder System

Steve
 

Q      I just moved to a new city. The salon that I’m working in has just opened 2 weeks ago and i am the only stylist. Being new to the city i have no clientele. I need some tips on how to generate a strong clientele base quickly, or the names of some books that i can read about getting a clientele. I have looked on the internet for book titles on this subject and have come up empty.

From crazymaryharrison

A       Hi crazymaryharrison,

One really quick way of generating a strong client base is to invite local business people along for an evening on how to groom their hair and how to find a good hairdresser (i.e you) Although you are on your own you should be able to get some product manufactures to help you present an evening. Another way is to get the busy body in the town to get 10 of her friends together by invitation and again do some hair makeovers very hot at the moment. Get all the local shop keepers in for a free hair do and then offer them a half price deal if they promote you to their customers.

Loads of ideas like this in the Salon Column Builder that will really help you. Some good books are the Fantastic Hairdresser by Alan Austin Smith, and Secrets Service by John R. DiJulius 111

Hope that helps

Steve.....

Hairdressing Salon Management System

Q      I was offered a management position, What is the salary a manager of a new shop shoul be asking for and what my goal should be in years to come prior to my salary? I have 19 years experience in hairdressing, from Josephine




A       Hi Josephine

Salaries for managers really depend on several key things. What will be your duties, how many staff will you be looking after, will your salary be based on bonuses or on overall salon performance. Do a search on the internet for jobs in your area and see what’s being offered. I am not sure where you live so its hard for me to give an exact answer without further information. Also look in the trade magazines for information on Salaries and also go for a few interviews so you know what your worth. this should give you a good idea. Also ask what is expected of you over the next few years in your new position then its easer form you to set some goals
Salon Column Builder will help you really understand how to get a Salon busy so that will really help you. Their is also lots of ideas and marketing examples in their for you!

Good Luck!!!

Hope that helps

Steve

Q      I just became manager of a salon. I've been asst. manager and haven't had the full responsibility of managing myself and I’m really scared that i won't do a good job. I believe my fear stems from the types of people I’m gonna have to deal with staff and customers. I really want to be qualified in handling situations that won't seem over barren to me I really need advice.

A       You need to do a swot analysis on yourself...

Strengths
Weakness
Opportunities
Threats

list all the things you can think of with these and then decide on some action to take. Now if your weakness is confrontation find some books or a course you can go on to help you make this a strength. Make sure that you are clear on what’s expected from you so that you can feel confident that you are doing things right. Normally fear stems form the unknown so the more you know the less you fear.

Oh... yes and keep organised and always, always use a to-do list other wise you will find that you become stressed trying to remember to do everything. Keep a clear head for decision making.
 

Q      What do you do when you can't seem to get your team members to get along? They constantly bicker back and forth and nobody seems to want to do their part in the daily chores of the salons upkeep. It seems to be only one or two people doing all the work when there are 6 people on the team.

A       Ok... been their with this one. Look focus on everything they do well. Catch them doing things right then really make a fuss of it and give plenty of positive feed back. Not just cleaning but start with their hairdressing. Make sure that you have your standards for the business clearly defined to your team. If I was to come into your salon and ask the first person I meet could they tell me what the minimum critical standards were for the salon in any area of the business not just cleaning but at reception, backwash, customer care or answering the phone. Some salons give out little cards with “Caught You Doing it Right” on them and then keep a log of who they have given these to so they can make sure nobody gets left out. Recognise good performance and reward them for example I had a stylist who made a client feel so special that she told several of her friends and the local News paper got the story and did an article on us. What fantastic free publicity for the salon so as a reward I took him and his wife out for a fantastic meal and a cool local restaurant. You know what he still talks of that and was over two years ago! A definite win, win situation Right!

So have a meeting with your team get them to t decide the standards (with your influence of course) and get them to all commit on paper. This will really reinforce the standards and also they’re the ones they made RIGHT! Then its really easy to reprimand them when they do not meet them. You then have taken away the he/she is always moaning at me because you are just making sure they are keeping up to the standards the whole team have decided on.

Then if you still have a problem with a couple of them and they have really negative attitudes then get them out fast........they will ruin your business and every thing the rest of the team and you have built up.
 

Q       How do I compete and still stay in business when benefits are skyrocketing and stylists are expecting higher wages and competition picks off your best with promises of more and better?

Kathy Sherman

A       Kathy take each stylist and do an audit on them find out the ones that make you profit and the ones that don’t and then work on them. Get them to increase their average ticket price, selling on treatments and colour, redesigns make sure the clients are happy really happy and make sure they return regular.

Yep benefits are skyrocketing and stylists do expect higher wages but it’s the same for all of us…… we just have to make sure that we are planning for it. Find out what the competition is offering and then attack there weak areas don’t attack there strengths. If you paid about the same in wages then what would you have to charge your customers to compete? Can you save 5% of your costs to run the business that will give you extra money for wages.

Salons do promise lots of things to grab good stylists but normally don’t deliver right!.

Take a serious look at what you offer to your stylists. Why should they stay with you if there is a better deal? Market yourself to your team! Its is OK to tell them you’re a good boss because sometimes if they have been with you for a while they don’t always here that. Look its like your clients right….sometimes you have to tell them they have made the right choice coming to you other wise they will try another salon just because they are curious!

Do you offer them a carer path so they can grow and develop in your business. Ask them what they want and give it to them ( within reason of course) sometimes it can be real simple things like a photo shoot once a month that keeps stylists, or extra time off, goals so they know where they are going and they can see the results. And this does not mean you have to splash out with loads of cash… get a good digital camera off eBay and get one of the team to do the photography they will love it I promise! Talk to your team regular hold one minute meetings every day keep em focused.

Q       What is the industry trend on employee compensation and benefits?  how to have a system that treats employees fairly and compensates for hard workers and yet keeps all happy in a competitive environment ?

A       Focus on profit and you will have the money to reinvest in your team. Employee’s want more time off and more wages so its up to us to look at creative ways of giving it to them. Because without a good stylist, apprentices, receptionists and managers we won't have a good salon.

Audit your team look who really makes good profit for you and those that don’t then it makes decisions fair and easy because you have the      facts.............. Right!

More Soon

Steve...