It may feel as though the holidays are long behind us, but really, most of us are still finding bits of tinsel around the house and seeing that there’s still a bottle of sparkling wine in the fridge. Any new resolutions still seem fresh and exciting, and the whole year is stretching out before us, full of potential.
If you own and operate your own mini salon suite in Lawton or work anywhere in the health and beauty industry, you probably have a separate set of resolutions for growing your business. The beginning of the new year is a great time to envision how you want to make the coming year busier and more profitable than the last. None of us wants less money than we made the previous year! And of course, the new year means we’re all looking at our tax stuff and thinking about paying “the man” and how we’d like to have more in our pocket when we’re back to planning for the holidays this year.
If you’re too exhausted by the new year and your personal resolution-making, let Salons de Beauté help. Below, you’ll find six ways to inexpensively and effectively grow your business, beat the competition, and make your salon in Lawton stand out in the new year.
Provide an Awesome Salon Customer Experience. This may seem like 101 advice, but you’ll find it in every book on small business ever. The best, most important thing any small-business owner can do to stand out from the crowd is to provide impeccable customer experiences. In this world of online commerce and faceless transactions, customers who come in for services such as haircuts and hair coloring, massages, facials, and aromatherapy like to feel seen, valued, and appreciated. And because we live in the online age, it’s not just the in-person pampering that matters. Customers’ online experience—ease of scheduling, responsiveness on social media, and so on and so forth—is all part of it. Resolve to make sure your customers are treated as magnanimously as you’d like to be treated, with as much attention to detail. We know you’ll see a difference.
Create a Compelling Offer. Everybody loves a deal. For whatever reason, the allure of a sale, a buy-one-get-one, a “special,” or what have you really appeals to human nature. These days, everything seems to be on special. You can get Groupons and online codes with just a quick Google search. To truly create a compelling offer, you need to really understand your customers. A blanket offer, such as a free this-or-that, can usually bring in a little business. But if you know your clientele, you can really make them sit up and take notice. If your customers love the products you sell or need an incentive to try them out, run a sale. If you service a particular community, such as the Hispanic/Latino or Asian-American community, run specials around holidays unique to their needs. And pay attention to yourself, too. Take note of what makes you perk up. Those are the sorts of deals you need to be replicating in your business life!
Get Good at Something Difficult. “We don’t do that here.” Is there anything more frustrating to hear when you’re a customer? Go out and become the person who DOES do that. Take classes to carve out a niche for yourself, whatever you love. Maybe it’s a specialized service that’s too much of a hassle for a normal salon. Maybe it’s learning ASL to serve the deaf community better. Having a specialty of some sort and effectively marketing yourself as having it will immediately make you stand out from the herd.
Creating a Unique Salon Space. Marketing seems like something big corporations do to attract as many people as possible to their products. They have advertising campaigns and billboards and online ads across platforms and such. Well, marketing for people who run their own salons in Lawton is a lot different, in part because a lot of your marketing is going to be your actual physical space, unlike an online retailer or big box store. Decorating is fun, and you can make it work for you! After all, have you ever walked into a salon and known immediately that you wouldn’t get the haircut you wanted? Maybe the salon looked too old-fashioned or too hip, too harsh or too country. A little paint, some décor items, and framed pictures on your wall will help you define yourself and help the right clients find you. Your customers come to you for your sense of style, so show it off!
Ask for Reviews. This is our cheapest suggestion. Ask for reviews! Good ones can bring people in the door. Ask your customers to throw you a review on Google, Yelp, your Facebook, or even their own Facebook! If you treat your clients well, they will be pleased with your service and willing to help you grow your business. A request for reviews lets them know they can help you thrive, so thank them for it if they follow up on it. Remember that a light touch is best, however. You don’t want to beg, and you definitely don’t want to scold. Even if a customer isn’t writing a review for you on Yelp, they may be telling all their friends about you.
Explore ALL Online Options. Above, we talked about how big corporations have a lot of marketing capabilities. You do too! Online advertising is inexpensive. You can buy ads on Google or Facebook or Instagram that suit almost any marketing budget, whether that’s $5 dollars a day, $10 a day, $20 a week. Take some time to do a little research, and you will see how cheaply you can reach prospective new clients in your area for specific services.
Here at Salons de Beauté, we hope this list has inspired you to resolve to expand your business and the way you see yourself as a business owner here in 2020!
Ring in the new year at Salons de Beauté! Contact us today and see if we can help you make good on your resolution to be your own boss in 2020!