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• 1. Salon Pricing Course

  One of the most daunting decisions for salons and independent stylists alike is what to charge for services. Before setting your prices or reviewing your pricing strategy, there are some basic principles you can use as a basis for your decision making. By making your strategy principle-based, your future decisions on pricing will be that much easier.

  As we learn in the video:

  Your Clients Aren’t Coming to You Because of Your Price

  Your clients have many reasons to come to your salon but price is not the only reason. Unless you have the lowest price in your city or town, price is not the driving factor for your client’s choice. This is an important principle to always have in mind when thinking about pricing.

  If You are Booked Too Far in Advance, Your Price is Too Low

  Many salons and stylists mistake “being booked” for being successful. In fact, if your time is booked too far in advance, your price is too low and, in turn, your financial success is stalled. One great indicator that you need to increase prices is that you are consistently booked for a few weeks in advance.

  All Pricing is Based on Supply and Demand

  No matter what the product or service, those things that are in short supply but high demand are more expensive than the opposite. Many salons increase prices using employee length-of-service or cost-of-living rationale. These principles are flawed as the only real measure of value is supply and demand. The stylist with the highest demand should always be the most expensive in the salon. This principle, in conjunction with the second, will assist you in knowing which prices to raise and when.

  Homework:

  Compare these rules and principles with your current pricing strategy. Can you see room for opportunity to raise prices or gain clarity on when you would?

  Tags: management pricing salon strategy

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• 2. Retailing in the Salon Course

  It’s an age-old concern in the salon for both salon owners and stylists: how to effectively sell professional products to our clients and educate them on their use. This week, get the Salon Fixer take on how to make the process easier, more fun and more effective.

  As we learn in the video:

  Think of the Retailing Process as a Dance

  One reason people don’t recommend take-home to their clients is that it’s just not presented in a fun way. Consider thinking of the process as a “dance” with the clients, making it more fun and making sure there is a beginning, middle and end to the process.

  First Impressions Count

  The dance starts when the client walks in the door. What is the salon saying to the client by the way it looks? Please read the written course for tips on merchandising effectively.

  Recommend Products at the Beginning of the Service

  Every consultation should include asking about what products the client is currently using. This is the perfect opportunity to recommend new products and educate the client on the importance of getting their products from the salon.

  Speak About Products Briefly Throughout the Appointment

  This does not mean only to talk about products! My simple rule: never put something on someone’s head without telling them what it is and how it helps their hair health or style.

  Use Prescriptions

  Clients appreciate having the recommendation in writing. This makes it easier at check out, no matter the size or procedures of your salon. If you sell tools in your salon make sure to include tools in the prescription as well.

  EXTRA BONUS POINTS

  Want to put your retailing on steroids? Ask each client (especially new ones) to bring the tools and products they are currently using to their next appointment. Then the stylist can give a more complete consultation on how to use or replace what the client currently has at home.

  Tags: management retailing salon takehome video

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• 3. Your Salon's Website Course

  As we enter a new decade, it’s pretty clear to most salons that they need to have an online presence—and that the hub of this presence is the salon’s website. While many salons do have a website, most don’t have a clear, concise strategy for leveraging the site to be as effective as possible.

  As we learn in this week’s video:

  The goal of any salon website is the same. That goal is to introduce your salon to potential clients, invite them to come in, and then service them with information once they are clients. Your website acts as your front window to the world.

  There are two things that are vital to include in your website:

  Photos of the Inside of Your Salon

  The most intimidating moment for any client is when they first step through the door of your salon. And, we’ve learned, most people that leave the salon do so because they feel uncomfortable, not because of the actual service.

  By including pictures of your salon’s interior, you are allowing potential clients to step into the salon. This serves the purpose of letting people see the salon and decide if it’s a right fit for them, as well as give them their bearings for when they do visit in person. This reduces the intimidation factor of the first appointment.

  Extra credit: A well-produced video tour of your salon, by the owner, on your site.

  Photos and Biographies of Each Team Member

  Pictures and bios of your team make potential clients understand that you are in the people business and that you value your team. By having this introduction on your site, potential clients will feel more comfortable choosing and meeting their stylist—and current clients will have an easier time giving your stylists referrals by sending the link to their friends or placing it on their Facebook or other social media page.

  One thing to be careful of on your website:

  Photos of Your Salon’s Work

  Salons are understandably proud of their work and many times will include many pictures of hair on the salon’s site. This can be dangerous, especially if no one in your salon is a professional editorial stylist working with a professional editorial photographer. Clients are very sophisticated and well-read. They have access to the best photography and models via high-end fashion magazines and websites. They will expect your work to be on par with the media they regularly consume.

  Please remember that 100% of clients will not love each hair shot they see but 100% will appreciate if you communicate that each client gets a full consultation and a cut and color of their dreams.

  Bonus Example:

  Here is a great example of a website that includes salon shots and full bios for the team. By exploring the site you know, as a potential client, exactly what to expect when you walk in the salon door. By meeting the team you build trust right away.

  You may be concerned about managing your site as staff, product or services change. Luckily, technology exists to make this extremely easy to manage. Websites are a living, changing part of the salon and the days of a static “electronic brochure” are really over for modern business.

  In future courses we will explore how to use your website as a hub for your “online footprint” and maximize social media, review sites and electronic communication.

  Tags: clients management salon team website

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• 4. Building Salon Culture Course

  Salon culture and business culture are terms we hear a lot about when we discuss what makes a salon successful. However, not many people understand exactly what a culture is or how it can be defined. In this course we cover the six traits that all successful cultures share.

  As we learn in the video:

  Your salon culture is the soul of your business—that intangible thing that makes the feeling of your salon unique. It cannot be managed but it can be guided.

  Every culture is:

  • Learned
  • Shared
  • Patterned
  • Symbolic
  • Internalized
  • Constantly Changing

  When you think of your culture and decide that you want to guide it, consider the above six characteristics of culture. How are you addressing each and pointing it into the direction you want to go?

  Tags: culture management salon

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• 5. Men's Pricing in the Salon Post

  Salon Fixer, on Flickr">

  What’s your view on men’s pricing at your hair salon?

  We’re working on an upcoming course on pricing, including men’s pricing, and we want to know what’s happening in your part of the world on this subject. What has salon management decided to do in your salon?

  E-mail us at info at salonfixer and let us know your view so we can add it to the mix.

  Same price? Lower price? Staggered price? We want to hear it all. Keep watching for answers and, of course, our advice.

  If this is your first time at Salon Fixer, hit “TOUR” above to see what all the buzz is about. Then hit our home page and check out all the previews.

  Tags: advice management mens pricing salon

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• 6. A Rolling Salon in the UK Post

  

  No one can ever say that Salon Fixer friend Sarah-Jayne Harffey-Davis shies away from a challenge. As the owner of SJ Hair Design in Heathfield, United Kingdom, she always has one of her “projects” going on.

  After recently remodeling her salon, Sarah-Jayne decided to take on a new challenge: to turn an old fire safety education truck into a complete rolling salon. When finished, the truck will be an exact replica of how her salon first looked, with: 3 stations, waiting area, kitchen area, toilet, shower and sleeping for three.

  The vision for this mobile salon is to take it to local events and shows for promoting the salon, taking hairdressers on-site to weddings and proms, and to use it to raise “shed loads” of money for charity.

  Sarah-Jayne is going to keep us up-to-date on the progress of the project so we can all follow along in this journey with her. This will be a salon “before and after” makeover like no other!

  Tags: heathfield rolling salon truck uk

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• 7. A Visit to A Robert Cromeans Salon Post

  Salon Fixer, on Flickr">

  While it’s always great to introduce Salon Fixer subscribers to my friends around the world, it’s exciting for me when I get to meet someone new and astounding.

  This week I met and interviewed Robert Cromeans, one of the top platform artists and salon owners in the USA as well as Nina Kovner, his new “Vice President of the Future.” If it sounds like they work with a language all their own you are right… and it’s one reason for their success.

  When we show up with our microphones and cameras to a salon (and ask them to meet us at 7:30 a.m.!) we never know what to expect. This salon is a tight ship and not only was there someone there to meet us but an entire team of both management and stylists — not only to make sure the salon looked great (which it always does) but to make sure we had everything we need.

  We were treated like family from beginning to end and saw that clients were as well. We can’t wait to get these interviews edited and up for you. There is so much to learn from these incredible people.

  Tags: cromeans interview management salon sandiego

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• 8. The Global Salon Community Post

  Salon Fixer, on Flickr">

  As we have welcomed new subscribers from China and Malaysia over the past week I’ve been thinking about the global salon community. It is so rare that we really get the chance to come together to learn about, and from, salons from around the world.

  Since the start of the first salon, salons have been a central meeting point, socializing point and information point for communities in all parts of the world. So much is shared in our creative spaces of community. This has been taking place for so long that many of us take it for granted.

  One of our goals is to help salons to help each other with their great ideas and great stories and it’s wonderful that the technology exists now to allow salons in China and Malaysia to see and hear the wonderful video stories and courses we have posted from around the world they would otherwise not have access to learn from.

  As well, we can learn from them as we aim to bring stories from all countries to illuminate just how special and far reaching our industry is in the world. We literally touch almost everyone on the planet in one way or another via the world of hair.

  This week look for Part 2 of our blog posting from Sri Lanka as we learn how hair is a part of the culture and is seen very differently than in other parts of the world.

  Like we always say at Salon Fixer, it’s a journey and we are happy to all be taking it together.

  Tags: global hair industry management salon

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• 9. Coming Attractions on Salon Fixer Post

  Salon Fixer, on Flickr">

  In addition to all the interviews already posted from around the world, we’ll be bringing you The Doves, Robert Cromeans and a day in the life of Winn Claybaugh in the coming weeks.

  We’ve been honored to have the best in the business agree to sit down with us and share their time, stories and ideas with hairdressers around the world. We ask them questions they’ve never been asked before and we promise you that you’ll learn something new from every person you meet.

  Your circle of salon friends gets bigger every day with Salon Fixer!

  Tags: claybaugh coming cromeans doves interviews management salon soon

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• 10. Salon Management Basics Course

  Everyone likes to use the term “get back to the basics” and there is good reason for that. The people that do the basics best are the ones that always seem to weather storms the best.

  Here are the six basics I have identified in the video that every salon must focus on to grow their business:

  • Client Attraction
  • Client Retention
  • Higher Ticket Sale per Client
  • Client Frequency
  • Excellent Service
  • Motivated & Inspired Staff

  In the day-to-day running of the salon sometimes we forget that everything we do, every day, must address the above items. In the coming months we are going to be addressing these items frequently so it’s vital that now, this week, you take note of what your current strategy is for each area.

  Homework:

  Your homework for this course is to have a good look at what you are doing now and how you are currently working to advance all six points. Keep your list handy and ready for future courses as almost every course will be an extension of “The Basics.”

  Tags: advice basics management salon

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