Even at times like those, however, it’s important to be professional and do your best to meet their needs, especially in the era of social media and online business review sites. But it can be hard to walk the line of giving people what they want when they want the moon and still providing customer service that satisfies them and leaves you with your self-respect.

A little preparation for those sorts of situations can really help, however, so check out our list of five tips for handling unreasonable clients below. Once you’re prepared for the worst, you can keep your cool when the worst shows up. Once you’ve handled it, you’ll have a great story you can tell over drinks with your friends who also work in salons in Lawton!

Keep Calm

It may seem obvious, but it can be hard to remember to keep your cool when you’re in the moment. When a customer is being truly irrational, remind yourself to remain calm and professional at all times. Breathe in, breathe out and keep the conversation going. Use whatever techniques you need to keep yourself from wigging out at your client.

Appeal to their reason with your expertise if they’re demanding a style or treatment that won’t work for their hair. Don’t forget that you can appeal to their higher sense of decency, too, if they’re just being rude or arbitrary. Staying in control of yourself and refusing to show your anger means you’ll be coming from a position of strength when dealing with customers.

They say “the customer is always right” but we all know that’s not true. And remember, while that saying might have been the policy at the place you used to work, you now own your own mini salon suite in Lawton. You make the rules, and you can decide exactly how much you care to put up with in a client! 

Understand Your Client’s Point of View

Let’s say you’re dealing with an unreasonable request. A client with really curly hair wants a shaggy short cut that won’t look anything like she’s imagining or a man with thin hair wants a style he can’t sustain. We’re all familiar with tons of examples like these. It can be hard to dash their dreams in the cold water of reality, but as a salon professional, part of your job is helping your clients make good choices. The best possible way to handle this situation is to understand your client’s point of view. Go on a “customer needs discovery” with them. Ask questions. Get to the bottom of what they’re trying to achieve, stylistically speaking. This will help you give them a haircut they love, even if it’s not the haircut they demanded when they first walked in the door.

Help Them Understand the Consequences

When a client comes in with some gonzo request, take a few minutes to talk them through the reality of their decision, as we discussed above. Most times you’ll be able to get them to see reason, but when nothing else will do, you can try one final thing: telling them in no uncertain terms what the results of their choice will be. Maybe your customer doesn’t realize the gravity of the situation, but with your help, she may be able to understand better what will happen if she demands you carry out her requests. Just remember, if you find the right way to say things, people will be more inclined to listen. “I hate to disappoint you, but in my professional opinion,” when said in a calm but firm tone, can really turn the tide of a conversation with a difficult client. 

Try Exploring the Alternatives

As we mentioned above, offering alternatives can be a good solution to serving a client who wants an impossible cut, color, or style. We live in a golden age of fashion and of technology. Apps can help you show a client what a different hairstyle might look on him or her. A temporary product can offer a preview of a bold color change without the commitment. Find a way to help them visualize what they want before committing fully to a radical style departure!

… or Refuse Politely

Sometimes you just know that the style, cut, or color your customer is demanding going to be a complete and total disaster. Whether it’s something that’s beyond the skill or scope of your talents or if you just know it’ll be hideous or unsafe and they’ll be disappointed or angry, the only thing you can do is be honest and then refuse if the client won’t change her mind. Doing something terrible to your client won’t help them any, and frankly, it won’t work out well for you, either. Don’t invite the conflict. It’s better to send away a customer who’s angry with you personally for denying them a service than to perform a service on a customer who’s angry with you for destroying her hair.

Cut Them Loose?

No one wants to send away a client, but in some very rare cases it may be worth your sanity to do so. Regular readers of this blog will know that every single one of your clients can be estimated to bring in about $1,500 in annual revenue, so it’s good in some cases to just grin and bear it. But in other cases, you’ll be happier if you make room in your schedule for new clients who appreciate you and listen to your expertise.

Salons de Beauté is a great place for salon workers who want to determine who they want to work with and what they do. Contact us today and enjoy the freedom that comes with determining your hours, clients, and services!

The post FIVE Tips on How to Handle Unreasonable Salon Client Requests appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Whether you’re at one extreme or the other or somewhere in the middle, there’s no time like the present to work on your marketing plan. Whether you’re starting from scratch or fine-tuning a plan you’ve had for a while, implementing and using a marketing plan is essential. Without a marketing plan, you’re not growing your clientele or your business.

Every salon professional knows that clients come and go. Very few clients stay year after year, decade after decade. Therefore, if you’re not doing things to attract new clients, new business, new opportunities, you may see your business shrinking instead of growing. No one wants that!

When you’re first starting out, a marketing plan may seem like something that will require spreadsheets and graphs and money. Maybe you think about movies where a bunch of men and women in suits angrily shout at one another in a board meeting. But that’s not the case. We’re talking about a list of ideas, a calendar, and, most important, a marketing budget. Other than that, even marketing pros can’t agree on what’s really best. For example, some experienced marketing professionals will suggest dedicating a portion of your gross revenue every month or quarter to marketing; others think it’s okay to just do what feels right (up to a point). First things first: Figure out what your annual marketing efforts will cost and budget for them in the same way you budget for other expenses associated with running your mini salon suite in Lawton.

Tools You’ll Need to Create a Salon Marketing Plan

Put away the hammers and screwdriver (unless you’re one of those super-crafty HGTV types). Creating a marketing plan and a marketing budget doesn’t take much. If you’re comfortable with Excel or other spreadsheet technologies, go for it—otherwise, a notebook and a pen will do just fine. Whatever medium you choose, make a list of all your marketing ideas. Then, price them out, and sum up the costs. Look at the whole year first—most salons have busy seasons and slumps, so make sure to take that into account. Then you can break those activities and related costs into months, quarters, or whatever fits your needs best!

Auditing Your Salon Marketing Work

What are you already doing to market yourself? Don’t sell yourself short. If you’re a regular reader of the Salons de Beauté blog, you probably already have a social media following, based on our advice to promote your salon in Lawton via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere. Those sites are free, sure, but promoted posts can really help your marketing—and those cost money. You have to factor in the economic impact of offering coupons or incentives, as well. List everything out, and estimate the costs. Did you get business cards? Put that down! Flyers? Mark down that receipt! And if you order several times a year, make sure that’s the number you put down at the bottom of your “annual costs” column. Software, subscriptions, consulting fees… heck, did you get t-shirts printed? What about the art on the T-shirt that you commissioned from your artist friend?

Maybe you don’t think you have a plan, but you’ve definitely done things to promote your business. Don’t sell yourself short—just document it all and make it into a plan. You’ll never know what your efforts are costing you in money (or time) until you’ve written it all down!

Identify Your Salon Marketing Goals

So often we only think about what customers want from a salon—but what does your salon want in terms of customers? Is your clientele what you wish it was, in terms of demographic? Keep that in mind as you target your audience via marketing. Do you want to serve hip, trendy women or older men, with a focus on veterans? Do you like doing cuts and colors? Do you like selling salon products? If you’re a different sort of pro, what sorts of mani/pedis do you like giving? What sorts of massages? Attracting your ideal clientele should be the point of your marketing. And trust your gut: If you know your future salon prospects will be online, on Facebook or Twitter, well, focus your efforts there! If you think it’d be better to put an ad in the newspaper, then maybe that should be your focus.

Define Your Salon Marketing Reach… And Then Reach Further

So you’re reaching out to the channels you think will be most effective for attracting your most desired clientele using what you have available to you. Great! But if you want to extend that reach, look at what you’re not doing. Can you do a little more? If you’re on Facebook, should you be using Twitter, too? If you’re on Pinterest, have you considered Instagram? What about other online resources, such as pay-per-click ads or a blog that uses targeted keywords to attract local clients? And look beyond the internet: What about local newspapers, industry periodicals, or media mail? A newsletter could also bring in new customers—you never know until you try!

Going Forward

Great job! You’ve come up with a list and a budget. Now you can move on to creating a calendar of marketing efforts for yourself! If that sounds too easy, that’s because it is easy. Look at everything you want to do and spread it out across the year. Prioritize based on cost and your estimated effectiveness of the campaign. (For example, shirts are swell and may sell great, but that’s a lot of money to put into a marketing item that may not provide a return on your investment. But this calendar can help you in other ways, too. You can use it to track costs as well as successes and failures! That way, you’ll be prepared when it comes time to make next year’s budget!

Salons de Beauté is here for people like you, who want to open their own salon in Lawton. Contact us today for information about our mini salon suites and reasonable rates!

The post How to Begin Creating a Salon Business Marketing Plan appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Whatever your reason for moving, moves happen, and you’re not the first health or beauty professional to do so! When you choose to move, you’ll want to do everything you can to make sure the move doesn’t negatively affect your business. There’s no way to eliminate the stress of actually picking up and moving, but with a little foresight and planning you can move without the stress of worrying you’ll see a downturn in your income.

Maintaining Your Business During a Move

We’ve all lost things during a move (and we’ve also “lost” things, like those ugly curtain rods you got three Christmases ago from your aunt). While (sometimes) it’s regrettable when an item goes missing, things are easily replaced.

But when you work in the health and beauty industry, your business is about people, not things. You can’t pack your clients into a box like you can your hair dryers, shears, razors, massage lotions, or samples of great beauty products. Customers are hard to replace, but the thing is… you’re a rock star. You give great cuts, massages, or facials. You’re on time, personally motivated, and you’re fun and engaging and talented. Along with great service you give great advice for all the weird life problems your clients tell you about. People love you and your treasure trove of hair color and styling products. Your clients will stick with you—well, most of them will. But you’ll have to work for it.

It’s said by salon industry experts that you can expect to lose twenty to thirty percent of your clients when you shift locations. Some loss is inevitable, but you’re more likely to keep that number on the low side if you manage your move well. 

Give Verbal Notice. Like, a LOT of Notice.

While it’s understandable to want to keep a move quiet while you’re still in the planning stages, you will have to give your clients quite a bit of notice if you want to retain them as you move. Did you know that salespeople say you have to tell a person something three times to get it to sink in? Whether or not you can see your clients three times before you move, telling them as early and as often as possible that you’re relocating will help as many of your customers make the jump with you. Drop them a line on social media as well as telling them in person. And when it’s really happening, try to get them to pre-book at your new location. That way, they’ll be in the door almost as quickly as you’ll be! People need the services you provide, so the sooner you’re up and running and getting them in the chair, the better.

Flood Them with Notifications…

Telling your clients in person is great, but you also have other options—especially if you’re in a difficult situation leaving your old location and starting at a new one, and you don’t want to advertise your move until it’s time to make it. Try some of the following…

• The US Mail: Send cards or letters to their home addresses, if you have them.
• Social Media Updates: If your clients follow you on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you can lock down your profiles so that only certain people can see them. Then you’re free to post alerts to your clients.
• Emails: A targeted email blast can do wonders for your client retention rate when you move.
• Text/Phone Call/Voice Mail: You have their phone numbers. Use them! 

Maybe this seems like a lot of work, but it’s more work to build a new clientele from nothing. Every client you have is probably worth $1,500 or thereabouts in annual revenue (a number we based on a client getting a cut and color ten times a year). Add to that the occasional $25 bottle of shampoo, conditioner, or other styling products and the value goes up. And this number might be even higher once you start running your own mini salon suite in Lawton and can retain more of your money and keep more of the markup on product sales. When you add in 20% in tips, your hard work will pay off in the end.

It might help to offer a discount to clients who follow you to your new place, and it’s often worth it to ask your existing clients to tell their friends. But don’t overdo it! Not all of your clients will follow you, and you’ll have to let them go or risk seeming obnoxious or spammy.

Host a New Salon Launch Event

Launch parties are fun—and hosting one can generate some additional buzz for your new location. You can hand out gift certificates for discounts and show off your killer décor. Most of all, it’ll show them all where you are. Get a few snacks and a few drinks and people will come.

And Maybe Don’t Talk About the Old Salon

Your clients will ask what happened. While it’s acceptable to cite differences of opinion or a rent increase, it’s important not to badmouth your old location and more importantly, the people there. The salon industry is a tightly-knit group; word gets around. Stay positive, talk about how much you’re loving your new space or business, and leave out any bad feelings you might have.

You Know You’re Going to Make the Move…

The only constant in the universe is change. You have to be prepared! You’ll move, for better or for worse. Why not be proactive about your dreams? Make lemonade out of the lemons of life! As painful as it might be to cut ties or as inconvenient as moving might be, you’ll love working for yourself in your own mini salon suite in Lawton!

Salons de Beauté in Lawton is leasing mini salon suites to stylists looking to move into a great, upscale location where they can be their own bosses. Contact us today and find out about our reasonable rates and great location!

The post How to Successfully Relocate Your Salon Clients and Business appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Those first moments as a recent grad and a new beauty industry professional can feel intimidating, but just like anything else, forewarned is forearmed. The truth is, you should be excited—you made it through school and you’re going to apply everything you’ve learned to the real world now! So, by reading up on the challenges faced by professionals who are just starting out in the industry, you can come at any new situation with confidence that you can rise to the challenge. Here are nine things all beauty industry hopefuls should know before making the leap from student to professional!

1. You’ll Never Stop Learning

For better or for worse, the learning doesn’t stop once you graduate! Everything changes in this industry, and the best professionals keep up with the times. Makeup trends change with the seasons, hairstyles come and go, massage therapy techniques alter as new studies are done, and new tools come out to aid cosmetologists. Sure, you’ll always have those things you do best, and you’ll settle into certain timeless styles and popular techniques that suit you and your clientele, but there are always going to be opportunities for you to improve and grow and change. Get used to the idea that you’ll always be a student!

2. You’ll Tap into Creativity You Didn’t Know You Had

The stereotype of students being lazy party animals doesn’t ring true to dedicated learners who are there to fulfill the requirements necessary to get out in the world and achieve their dreams. For those sorts of future professionals, school can be hard, exhausting work! Once you leave the classroom and you’re out in the real world of professional life, you’ll finally have the chance to explore your personal style and develop your creative impulses in ways you couldn’t have imagined when you were in school. You can take what you learned in cosmetology school and do truly amazing things with those skills, take what you learned about the human body in massage therapy school and make people feel better. Pros who have “been there” predict that once you’re working full-time, you’ll come up with all sorts of ideas, and they’ll keep on coming every time you open a magazine, talk to a new client, or watch a new TV show. So, why not buy yourself a notebook as a congratulatory gift for graduating and jot those new ideas down in style?

3. Instagram and Pinterest Can Be Deceiving

Above, we talked about finding inspiration everywhere. That can be an amazing thing, but it can also lead to negative feelings, especially when it comes to seeing what your peers are doing on social media. Studies have shown that social media is a double-edged sword. Yes, it can perk us up, make us laugh, keep us connected… but it can also foster feelings of inadequacy when we see what our friends in the industry are up to. When you see the amazing haircuts or great nail jobs or excellent reviews of your colleagues, if you don’t feel your work is at the same level, it can really make you feel a bit envious. So, just remember… we tend to put the “greatest hits” of our life on social media. You only post selfies when you look good, right? So why would your contemporaries post their bad cuts or the terrible reviews they receive at their salons in Lawton? When you see their work, don’t be discouraged. You’ll get where they are… and remember that they’re probably feeling similarly about seeing only your best work, too!

4. You Can Make Lifelong Clients and Friends

The health and beauty industry is a people-focused industry. You’ll be dealing with people every single day, whether they’re your clients or other pros! This means you’ll have plenty of opportunities to forge the sorts of relationships that will last you a lifetime, whether with other professionals or your clients. The people you went to school with, the people you see in the chair month after month: they’ll be with you for years to come!

5. It’s More Than Beauty Therapy

The beauty industry is a service industry, it’s true… you’re providing haircuts and color, nail jobs or facials, but you’re also providing something intangible. You’re providing attention, sympathy, and a listening ear. You’ll learn a lot about your regular clients, trust us, and it’s good to be careful with what you’ve learned and how to give advice, because your clients won’t just ask you about what looks best on them, or how to stretch after Zumba to avoid another pulled hamstring. They’ll ask you about their boyfriends and girlfriends, about how to deal with their mothers, and more. It’s a big responsibility, so use your power wisely!

6. You’ll Benefit from an Industry Expert

Mentorship helps new beauty pros thrive. Articles like this are full of good advice (at least, we think so!) but a personal relationship with someone who’s been in the trenches and whose style you like… that’s invaluable. It can be intimidating to approach a seasoned professional for advice or with an appeal for mentorship, but it can definitely be a high risk/high reward situation. Or, think about a mentorship program!

7. You’ll Need Some Space

There’s an old saying in business that no one ever gets wealthy working for someone else. That can definitely be true in the health and beauty industry. While opening your own salon used to be a dream for established professionals, even newly minted health and beauty industry workers can afford their own salon in Lawton with a mini salon suite at Salons de Beauté. Leasing a mini salon means you can keep more of the money you earn—including turning a bigger profit on retail products—and most of all, build a business you can call your own!

8. Success Comes from Dedication and Commitment

The dedication and commitment that kept you going through school are crucial tools you’ll need in the “real world.” While school might have seemed challenging, you’ll be facing new difficulties now that you’re a real professional. Those who succeed never lose that spirit of adventure and sense of “I can do this!”

9. In the End, You’ll Never Want Any Other Job

While it can seem hard at times, once you’re in a groove as a health and beauty industry pro, you’ll never wish you were doing anything else. It’s said that the secret to happiness is finding something you’re good at, you enjoy doing, and can get paid for. Well, congrats! You’ve done it! So, while the road ahead might have speed bumps and pit falls, you’re on the right track to loving every minute of your working life.

Ready to Get Started? Salons de Beauté is leasing mini salon suites to dedicated health and beauty professionals, new and experienced. Contact us today and find out what leasing a mini salon means for your future!

The post 9 Things New Health and Beauty Professionals Should Know appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Recently, a study done by a salon industry research group asked hundreds of salon and beauty industry pros about the biggest challenges they face every day when running their salons. They discovered that 52% of salon owners and workers think that of all the challenges out there, the two most difficult aspects were:

1. Getting new clients
2. Retaining existing clients

So, for our blog this month, we here at Salons de Beauté thought we’d address both of these top concerns. We lease mini salon suites in Lawton, and for anyone interested in finally striking out on their own and being their own boss, it’s a good idea to know what the challenges associated with making such a change might be. Any first-time business owner will know that the best way to handle challenges is to find opportunities for learning via cost-effective means. The best way to build a salon business that is viable and comfortable is to learn from somebody who’s done it all before—and done it successfully! Learning from salon and beauty industry professionals will reduce your challenges, but not everyone can learn from a salon industry mentor—though read on to learn how that might be easier than you think! But first…

Leverage All Your Social Media Channels

Social media is a great way to grab new clients for your salon and retain your existing clients. It’s basically free, except for the time you put into it (though you can use promoted posts on both Twitter and Facebook if you want to spend some money). Social channels encourage business for a few reasons… including the face that everyone is on their phones and tablets all the time these days. Even when we’re watching TV we’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Yelp… Putting up pages or accounts for your mini salon suite in Lawton and posting regular updates, even if it’s just pictures of improvements to your space or great haircuts or nail jobs, will keep you on your clients’ minds. And posting coupons can be great, too! That way, they’re inspired to stop by and mention your ad.

Retain, Retain, Retain…

As a salon worker, client retention is important. But as a salon owner, it becomes even more crucial to hang on to your hard-won clients.

Retaining clients is easier than you might think, though. Listening to your clients is a great way to make a connection, so always ask for feedback—or encourage it by incentivizing it. (See our bullet point above about social media—you could always offer a 20% off discount for anyone who sends you a message with feedback!) Stay connected with your clients, and definitely encourage pre-booking. Why not try to book a six-week return for your hair clients, or a monthly pedicure appointment? Those strategies can really help, because being in the salon industry means competing with everyone else in the salon industry. Also make sure to pay attention to little details, like greeting your clients, smiling, and offering a bottle of water or cup of tea. Those perks can really make people long to come back to your relaxing, tranquil salon where they’re pampered away from their everyday life.

Find a Salon Industry Mentor

A mentor can make all the difference to someone starting their own salon business. They say that the most successful salons are ones that have someone to pay attention to day-to-day operations and another person who is the creative mind behind the salon, but that isn’t an option for everyone. If you’re looking at a mini salon suite in Lawton, at the end of the day, it’ll be you who’s doing both. That’s why a mentor can be so helpful. Books and articles are great, but personalized help is better. A mentor can also introduce you to other salon industry professionals for networking possibilities!

Location, Location, Location…

Success and failure can seem arbitrary sometimes, but there are a few ways you can ensure success. One of these is location. A solid location for your new salon can make all the difference when it comes to staying in the black rather than bleeding into the red.

What makes a good location? Well, you want a location with high visibility, lots of traffic, and in an area where your demographic lives or shops. Of course, the best locations may be more expensive, which is why a mini salon suite at Salons de Beauté is ideal. You’ll want to outfit your space professionally and beautifully, but it’s important to not go too crazy with décor. You’ll want to make your space inviting to the sorts of clients you want to attract, but at the same time, every dollar spent needs to be earned back. If you’re leasing a mini salon suite, however, you can probably afford to do more with decoration. Ours come outfitted with everything a beauty pro could need, and at a reasonable price.

Running a Successful Salon Business Doesn’t Have to be so Difficult

Running a mini salon suites in Lawton is always going to be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. All it takes is a little planning and forethought. Good advice and mentoring can also be hugely helpful. Contact us today and open up a world of possibilities for making your dream business a success!

The post What Makes Running a Successful Salon Business SO DIFFICULT? appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

For a certain kind of person, nothing is more fulfilling than working for yourself—so if that’s what you see in your future, why not give Salons de Beauté a call? Our mini salon suites in Lawton are great for stylists and other beauty professionals who are ready to make the jump to small business ownership. And, after all, having a business location is an essential early step for small business owners, so why not set up shop in Salons de Beauté, which offers mini salon suites to all sorts of beauty professionals just like you? It’s like having a bunch of potential referrals just around the corner!

Once you figure out where you want to be, you’ll need a license. The Oklahoma State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering offers many licenses. You can look them over and see what you need for your new business!

You also need to learn to think like a businessperson. You don’t necessarily need to go to business school to run your own successful small business, but learning some common sense small business sense will only help you. For example, consider things like:

• Your Operating Budget. This could include not only things like how much cash you’ll need for your business, in terms of rent, supplies, advertising, an emergency fund, insurance, and so on and so forth, but also how much you need for your own monthly expenses. And of course, don’t forget taxes! Hiring a CPA to handle that side of things would definitely be a part of your budget.
• What You’ll Charge. Once you know how much money you need to make each month you can calculate what you’ll charge your customers, and how many customers you’d need at that rate to break even, and also turn a profit.
• If You Need a Loan. A loan officer at your local bank can help you figure out the process of getting a small business loan. It’s good to go in with a write-up of your vision for your business, so definitely do that!

Thinking like a businessperson doesn’t just mean the above sorts of “nuts and bolts” mentality, however. It also means thinking practically about things like… maintaining a client base when you move from your old salon location. It means thinking about promotion. It means taking into account things like cleanliness, and representing yourself with a professional attitude toward everyone from your clients to your suppliers.

Owning your own salon can also mean working on developing a thick skin and a cool head. It’s not an easy life, owning your own business, but we think you’ll find it rewarding! After all, you’ll be free—and your business will be your own.

Give Salons de Beauté a call to learn more about being your own boss by starting your own salon suites in Lawton. Contact us today and we’ll get you started!

The post What it Takes to Run Your Own Salon Suite Business in Oklahoma appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

For example, let’s look at candles. Candles are a great way to perk up the interior of any salon suite in Lawton. Flickering candlelight makes your clients feel relaxed; it’s an easy, instant signal that they’ve stepped into a spa and are about to be pampered. But the thing is, candles aren’t reusable. Burning candles means you need to buy more candles, and that’s basically money down the drain.

What’s the solution? Well, how about those new electric candles? These days, you can find electric candles that flicker and glow just like the real thing—and they run on batteries, which you can get for cheap in bulk. Even better, they’re usually unscented, so the aroma won’t bother your clients who are sensitive to scents, making them the superior option for your wallet and your customers.

Another good example is business cards, flyers, or other printed promotional materials. There are plenty of boutique printers out there that make lovely cards with foil, embossing, and all that fancy stuff… but that can get really expensive. When you’re just starting out and establishing your brand, it may not be wise to invest so much in something like that. You can get cute business cards at around $30 for a count of 500 from some of the online shops, and while you’re still figuring out the image you want to present that can be a great, lower-cost option.

It’s also good to reconsider your notions of traditional marketing. An ad in the yellow pages can cost a bundle… but when was the last time you looked in the yellow pages for anything? People tend to Google information these days, so a simple website (that looks decent on a mobile device) and social media presence can be worth a lot more in terms of cost-to-benefit ratio.

You have to spend money to make money, but you also have to save money to have money. It’s a good idea to have as much cushion as you can manage when you’re just starting out, so saving where you can is just as important as giving yourself permission to spend money. Remember, free advertising such as word-of-mouth can really help alongside things you have to pay for, like websites and business cards, so strike a balance! And Salons de Beauté’s mini salon suites in Lawton, OK are also a great balance for those trying to start their own salon suite business!

Salons de Beauté is a great idea for stylists and all sorts of beauty pros who are interested in running their own mini salon. Contact us today and find out how we can make your little salon a big deal!

The post Money Saving Secrets that will Help Your Salon Business Succeed appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Social networks are great, don’t get us wrong, but your face-to-face network is even more valuable, if studies are any indication. It’s been claimed that 80% of salon owners say most of their business comes through referrals. And that makes a lot of sense! Think about it this way: sure, you may see a preview for a cool-looking new movie, but even the best preview doesn’t necessarily make people take the leap from saying “That looks great…” to “I’m going right now!” But, when a friend tells you enthusiastically about how great that same movie is, after seeing it first… well, that has been shown to motivate people to get in the car and get to the theatre more than any other form of marketing.

The same principle applies to salon services. It’s said in business that the easiest sale to make is a referral sale. That’s right—existing clients who love you will do your work for you, and better than you could ever do yourself. And best of all, it costs you nothing—not time, not money, and no extra effort.

But, how do you make referral sales? Well, perhaps the easiest way is to draw on your existing friends in the health and beauty industry. If you’re a colorist looking for new clients, and your friend is a nail tech or massage therapist, it’s very possible they know people who are looking for the service you offer. So let them know—if they think you’re booked up, they may not refer people to you! And of course, you can set up a sort of exchange where you refer your clients with tight necks or shabby nails to their place of business!

This sort of community support is even easier at a mini salon suites setup like Salons de Beauté. When you own your own mini salon suite, in the midst of many other mini salon suite owners, you’re all in the same boat. You’re all looking to grow your new business by making new contacts. Setting up a system of referral exchange with your new community-members is just the thing to get the door opening again and again. And best of all, you’re all right there—so if a client mentions they have a spare hour, you can just send them down the hall to your friend for a facial, cut, nail appointment, or whatever they need.

The Salons de Beauté blog is your one-stop source for articles with helpful tips for growing your new mini salon suite business.

The post Leveraging the Power of Your Network to Grow Your Salon Business appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

Just like financial advisors suggest paying yourself first, as a new business owner you should also take care of yourself first. After all, you already know that being a salon worker is tough on the body! You work with your hands all day long, whether you’re giving massages, styling hair, or helping people take care of their skin. You’re on your feet from the moment you get up to the moment you sit down at night. Health and beauty care is a rewarding industry, but it’s a physically challenging one—and now that you’ve decided to be your own boss, more than ever you need to keep yourself in excellent working condition so that the demands don’t take so much of a toll that you miss work because of them.

There’s plenty of simple things you can do to keep yourself feeling good on a daily basis. By investing a little money into and spending a little bit of time every day on your most important tools—your own feet, legs, back, shoulders, and hands—you can stave off injuries and keep yourself feeling great.

For example, every hair stylist should invest in a good pair of scissors that feels good in their hands. Try out a lot, to make sure you love the pair you’ll be working with every day. Likewise, get combs and brushes with large handles, they’re easier on your grip—and try to keep your wrists in a neutral or straight position while working to keep carpal tunnel syndrome at bay. Also, take the time to raise and lower your client so that you’re not cutting hair with your hands raised, with your shoulders too high.

You should also invest in an excellent pair of shoes to keep plantar fasciitis out of your life. There are plenty of cute styles out there these days that have arch support and shock absorbing soles—choose them over high heels or sandals that won’t pamper the feet that support you all day. You should also consider getting a shock absorbing mat for your new salon suite, which will reduce strain on your heels and soles.

Finally, take breaks. Whether it’s staggering clients so that you don’t have two huge jobs back to back, allowing yourself a full hour for lunch every day, or taking your days off mid-week, you must give yourself enough time to rest. Time is money, as they say, but a few ten-minute breaks here and there to stretch between clients and loosen your wrists, fingers, and shoulders may save you hours off to go to the doctor or a full day off when you strain something.

You’re in the business of pampering, so make sure to pamper yourself! Trust us—you’ll thank us in the long run.

Keep reading the Salons de Beauté blog for articles like this one with great tips for managing your new mini salon suite business. Salons de Beauté exists to help artists like you achieve your dreams—and self-care is absolutely a part of that!

The post The Job of a Salon Worker can be Physically Challenging appeared first on Salons De Beaute.

One of the best pieces of advice we can give our new salon suites owners is: be professional. You own your own business now, and while you don’t have to put on a suit or nylons every day (unless you want to, of course!) it does help to take a professional attitude when you’re in charge. You should look the part, whatever “the part” is, based on your vision—but swagger and style is only part of the deal. You also have to be on time, keep your interactions with your clients professional in nature, treat everyone with respect (even when they’re in the wrong), and make sure to create excellent client experiences. Trust us… you can leverage that sort of professionalism to expand your business and use word of mouth—one of the most powerful marketing tools, and one that money can’t buy—to your advantage.

Social media is another thing you should be relying on, when you’re coming up with low-cost salon marketing ideas. Make sure you at least have a Pinterest or Instagram account with fabulous pictures of your work and your salon environment, and a Facebook page (for your business, not a personal Facebook) with all your contact information. Don’t hesitate to promote it, too—you should encourage people to follow in order to get coupons or learn about specials. Keep it updated, because regular and current content lets clients know you’re in business. And also: be patient! Self-promotion takes time. You may not see results immediately, but you will see them over time.

Speaking of deals and coupons, you could also consider a referral program. Everyone’s doing it these days, from online styling services like Stitch Fix to local businesses like your new mini salon suite in Lawton, Oklahoma. Offering your current clients discounts and rewards if they bring you new business is a great way to grow your clientele while building loyalty with your existing customers. You can also offer “thank you” rewards for those who leave positive reviews on Yelp, Foursquare, Google Local, and other review sites!

You should also keep up with our Salons de Beauté blog for more articles like this on how to manage your new mini salon suite business. We want Salons de Beauté to help artists like you achieve your dreams—and self-promotion is absolutely part of the process!

The post How Salon Suite Owners Can Better Maintain Contact with Clients appeared first on Salons De Beaute.