What We and Our Clients Learned in 2009

Last year was an interesting year. We read about many salons struggling because of the "economy". We learned through our clients results that the belief that hairdressing is recession proof is true! At least for salons that were using sound and proven business practices before the recession began.

Over 90% of clients that actively worked with us saw their hair and retail sales increase last year! That means most of their stylists got raises! That’s amazing considering all the doom and gloom we heard last year and continue to hear. Sales at our company, Coastline, increased as a result of our clients success. It’s clear to us that if we do our job and help you grow, we too shall grow! Here are some other things we learned last year:

The brand of products and color you carry won’t make you successful.
From what we saw, heard and read, salons carrying “brands” across the board struggled. The “brand” you use won’t make you successful. "You" make you successful!

Positive salons grow, Negative salons don’t!
f you’re in a positive salon, you see challenges as opportunities. You’re looking for new ways of doing things and have an open mind. If you’re in a negative salon, there’s a lot of finger pointing, blaming and judging going on. The glass is always "half empty".

Diversion is still a big problem.
More products are showing up in more places. It makes your job harder, shrinks your paycheck and hurts your credibility!

A "bigger name" doesn’t mean better quality.
There continue to be high quality, lower cost products and color coming into the industry. Is it possible the bigger names cost more because the “free” education and back bar they offer is built into the price? Advertising costs a lot of money and the “big names” advertise a lot!

Hair salons are really recession proof.
The economy hurt salons that were already not doing well. Over 90% of clients that actively worked with us saw their hair and retail sales increase last year! Paying attention to business side of things made the difference!

Here’s What Salons Said They Learned Last Year

We asked salon owners & stylists that are clients or are signed up for our on-line newsletter for their thoughts on this topic. Because of the large number of responses we weren’t able to print everyone’s ideas. Thanks for everyone that participated!

You can’t do business by accident.
Get your head out from behind the chair and look at what’s going on in your business. Use that computer for more than a paper weight on the reception desk! Look at your numbers!

Last year made it clear that you have to offer value.
Many clients spoke with their feet last year. We got a lot of new clients that left other salons because they were kept waiting and felt like they weren’t being listened to or appreciated.

Busy doesn’t mean profitable.
Once we started really looking at our numbers it clearly showed us which services to raise prices on, work on decreasing or eliminate. We’ve actually decreased our visits, increased our client ticket and are making more money!

Take your stylist hat off when making business decisions.
The training I got made it clear that when I’m wearing my stylist hat I make my decisions from my feelings. And my feelings were causing me to go broke!

Nice isn’t enough when you’re hiring a stylist.
I’ve learned to look beyond "nice". There needs to be self-confidence, desire and drive. And don’t compromise. You’re better off with no stylist than just a warm body. Sticking to that has saved me a lot of time, money and heartache!

Decisions can’t be ego driven.
If you feed your ego, it’ll cost you lots of money! The more you feed it, the more it will control you.

It’s important to keep staff in the loop.
Now that I’m showing my staff how they’re doing, they’re hungry for more. They like looking at their results and are taking more interest in what’s happening to their book.

Skin care and massage isn’t for everyone.
I got sucked into thinking that I had to add skin care and massage to my salon because it “was the way to go”, at least according to the industry magazines and a few of my reps. Let me tell you, it’s not!

Look at your numbers.
I can’t believe I’m saying that. I’ve never been a numbers person but now that I know what numbers to look at and what to do if I don’t like what they’re telling me, I’ve seen my salon take off. The nice things about number is they don’t lie!