Harnessing Social Media To Grow Your Salon Business

In today's digital age, having a strong social media presence can make all the difference for hair and beauty salon business owners. From showcasing your skills to building a loyal community of clients, social media offers endless opportunities for beauty professionals to shine. If you're ready to take your salon's social media game to the next level, here are some actionable tips to help you succeed:

Define Your Brand Identity:

Before you start posting content, take some time to define your salon's brand identity. What sets you apart from other salons and beauty businesses? What are your values and aesthetic preferences? Your social media profiles should reflect the essence of your brand, from the colours and fonts you use to the types of content you share.  Check out our previous blog on your salon’s visual identity.

Showcase Your Skills:

Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are visual mediums, making them perfect for showcasing your skills as a beauty professional. Share before-and-after photos of your clients, behind-the-scenes videos of your salon, and tutorials demonstrating your expertise. Don't be afraid to get creative and experiment with different types of content to see what resonates best with your audience.

Engage with Your Audience:

Building a loyal online community is key to success in social media. Take the time to engage with your followers by responding to comments, answering questions, and initiating conversations. Show your personality and let your passion for beauty shine through in your interactions. The more you engage with your audience, the more likely they are to become loyal followers and clients.

Collaborate with Influencers:

Partnering with influencers in the beauty industry can help you reach a wider audience and gain credibility. Look for influencers whose values align with your brand and reach out to them to propose collaboration ideas. This could involve sponsored content, joint events, or even guest appearances at your salon. Collaborating with influencers can help you tap into their loyal following and attract new clients to your salon.

Stay Consistent:

Consistency is key when it comes to social media success. Set a posting schedule and stick to it, whether that means posting once a day or once a week. Consistency not only helps keep your audience engaged, but it also tells the algorithms to promote your content. Experiment with different posting times and frequencies to see what works best for your audience.

Analyze Your Results:

Most social media platforms offer analytics tools that allow you to monitor metrics like engagement, reach, and follower growth so don’t forget to use these and monitor the results of your social media posts and activity. This is free information you can gather on your business, clients and the general market, and use to make adjustments in your social media plan as needed. Pay attention to which types of posts perform best and tailor your future content accordingly.

Mastering social media is essential for small business owners looking to grow their salon business. By defining your brand identity, showcasing your skills, engaging with your audience, collaborating with influencers, staying consistent, and analyzing your results, you can leverage social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to attract new clients and build a loyal community of beauty consumers.

Tackling your salon's finances

As a salon owner, juggling various financial responsibilities can be a challenging task, especially if the financial side of things isn’t your strength. But it goes without saying that managing the finances of your business is just as critical to your salon’s success as exceeding your clients’ expectations.

While it can feel like a gruelling, and often unlikeable part of being a salon owner, you’re not alone if that’s how you feel.  Many business owners across many industries feel the same.

One of the first things most successful business owners will advise is to find a good advisor or manager of your business’ finances, however there’s still responsibilities and tasks that require your attention.

If you find it challenging to focus on these and often leave it until the final hour to be done, here are some important reasons to set regular time in your calendar to tackle these tasks. Be sure to allow enough time so you avoid errors and make the process more efficient and pleasant - your business will benefit and once you’ve got into routine, so will you.

Employee Satisfaction and Retention

Happy employees are vital to the success of any salon. Consistency with payroll matters helps your employees understand their pay slips and timely payment of superannuation, leave, etc, shows your commitment to their financial security. This commitment fosters a sense of loyalty and job satisfaction and boosts morale among employees, which can contribute to increased retention rates.

Avoiding Penalties

The financial side of your business requires compliance with a myriad of legislation which is why many salon owners find it daunting.  By setting aside time each week for financial tasks breaks it down into manageable, understandable pieces and ensures your compliance with government regulations, avoiding penalties and legal issues that may arise from non-compliance. This proactive approach will give you peace of mind to focus on other areas of salon ownership.

Tax Benefits

Paying superannuation regularly can offer tax benefits. Timely contributions for your team or yourself (just because you’re the salon owner doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be benefitting from super) are generally tax-deductible, reducing your taxable income - creating savings for your salon business and aligning with legal requirements and savvy financial planning.

These are just a few ways to take a positive look at your salon’s financial responsibilities.

As always, when it comes to money matters for you and your business consult your accountant, tax advisor or financial consultant - if you don’t have one of those yet, maybe put that on the top of your list.

Recruiting Strategies

Last month we discussed the value of investing in building harmonious teams and a positive work culture in the current industry-wide worker shortage.

However, it is inevitable that you will need to recruit a new team member at some point due either due to staff leaving or with businesses re-opening from Covid-19 restrictions, your salon is  experiencing a growth phase.

On the day of writing this blog, a quick search of the two main online job boards, revealed over 150 ads posted for hair stylists in my home city.

Some were sponsored ads (where you pay more to have your ad displayed at the top of the page), others highlighted the salary on offer, and there were those that relied on the recognition of the name of their salon to attract potential employees.

So if you are working to a budget - and, let’s face it even using some of the other tactics above, there’s still no guarantee your ad will be high enough on the search returns of over 150 job ads to attract the right person - what can you do to make your job ad stand out.

To start, let’s break down the process.  You are posting an ad, so the tactics you’ll use would be similar to those you’d use in an ad to attract new clients.

The current employment climate favours the job seeker.  Job ads describing your ideal employee will not make your ad stand out.  Your time is valuable and you do not want to spend it sifting through resumes from candidates that are far from what you are looking for.

Create the ad with the employee in mind.  Knowing what type of person is going to best fit within your team, write the ad so it clearly resonates with the person you are looking for and highlight what a role in your team will offer them.

It might not always be about the money.

With the change in careers and lifestyles brought on by Covid-19, there are some job seekers out there looking for a change that might be motivated by things other than the highest salary on offer.  

Not to say, people don’t want to be employed for less than they feel they are worth, but flexibility in work hours, training for skill building and management roles, rotating schedules that include a Saturday off once a month, a well-structured and easy to understand commission and incentive plan, even paid parking, are all things that can make working at your salon more attractive over another.

Be clear and honest in your ad and specify the skills you are looking for in the job candidate along with the hours and work environment they can expect from you.  The result will be a lot less resumes submitted, but they will be highly qualified.  You will save time in your interview process and avoid the wasted time of interview no-shows.

Happy Hiring!

Fund your salon's growth with a $5,000 grant.

The Queensland Government’s next round of their Business Basics Grant will open on Thursday, 4 May.

These grants fund small businesses for business coaching and marketing initiatives to support their growth.

This couldn’t come at a better time, with our industry moving out of covid restrictions only to be faced with staffing shortages.  

If you are finding your salon is a very different business to what it was 12 months ago, coaching can provide you with the strategies you need for your salon and staff including:

• Coaching for owners and learning to build under-performing areas

• Training your Manager and reduce staff churn

• Review salon policies and procedures to ensure your salon's optimal performance

• Training your team in service and retail strategies

The Business Basics Grants are for $5000 of services delivered within four months from the grant approval.  Applications will close when a sufficient number of applications have been received for a competitive review, which means it’s best to apply as soon as possible after opening.

Being prepared to apply upon opening is advised, as applications will close as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received to meet a competitive review.  This will include reviewing all the guidelines and eligibility requirements and preparing statutory declaration and sourcing service quotes that will support your application.

Eligibility and application requirements and information on how to apply can be found here.

Wishing you a success with your application!

Managing the staffing shortage

We are currently experiencing staffing shortages across a variety of industries, the hair and beauty industry among this group.

There are enough pressures on salon owners and managers to keep a happy work environment and retain staff under the current Covid-19 environment, and now, to find new staff when it is an “employees market”.  

Why is this happening?  

There has been an ongoing industry trend of only approximately 20% of apprentices actually complete their training, with 2020 resulting in the lowest number of new accredited stylists within the previous 5 years. Add to this the impact of Covid-19 on the industry.

The Australian Industry and Skills Committee is predicting the industry will not return to its pre-Covid levels until 2024, leaving many salons vying for the same few available stylists.  This is driving salaries and employment packages upward, and your current staff can be enticed away from your salon.

The cost of recruitment is far greater than the cost of retaining your team, so now is the time to invest in your culture and staff retention.

If you have any team members that are, or could potentially become slightly disengaged, your salon environment will be viewed through a scruitinous lens.  

Things about your salon’s culture that may have been accepted by the team or individual team members in the past, now have the potential to be a reason for that team member to look for greener pastures.

Invest in ongoing training and the development of a positive work culture in your salon.  Each member of the team must trust each other and clearly understand their roles and contribution to the success of the salon.  These elements are the secret ingredients to high performing team and harmonious workplace.

Planning for a more resilient business

As we enter our third year of a Covid-19 world, health authorities have acknowledged that we are not at the end of things.

Progressing through the pandemic has been challenging, if not devastating for some business owners in our industry, but borders are open, travel is unrestricted and the public has been told there won’t be any more lockdowns.

We are still required to socially distance and have Covid-19 hygiene procedures in place, but can start to plan a future for our salons and restoration of our business to pre-2020.

Revisiting your business plan is something we’ve talked about in a previous blog, and entering into 2022 is a perfect time to review your business plan with the lessons and insights learned from the last two years.

Look at your salon’s performance and map any trends (upwards and downwards) and see if they relate to lockdowns, consumer confidence or typical seasonal trends for the industry.

This will help inform your planning - client reactivations, staffing, promotions and pricing and how these will impact your business goals.

Be sure to incorporate you Plan B to ensure business continuity through another Covid-19 spike.

As an industry and individual business owners, we’ve been through a lot the last two years - let’s learn from it to create smarter business planning and better outcomes for our salons.

Pros and Cons of Promotional Packages

Are bundling services the best way to boost your business?

Packaging or bundling services together does offer your business lots of benefits and supports client perceptions about value.  However, without a clear strategy and objective, this practice can become a problem for your business growth and client retention.

Basic menu-style pricing creates transparency of your business which is received positively by clients, while a “value-based” price of bundled services gives your salon a good hook for new clients, new services or provide a seasonal boost.  

Services bundled into a packaged price always favour the seller (you, the salon owner), as even if there is a slight discount or one service included for free, from the efficiency of the salon, knowing the set of services booked and paid for, there will be no reduction in services once the client is in the salon.  This makes resourcing staff, product and time more efficient. Further, there should be a select set of up-sell services to each bundle that again, can streamline how you resource the salon that day, and fit easily into the team KPIs.

Plus there is a simplicity to the services that is very easy for the clients to understand. 

How long do you run the promotion or bundle services for?

Are they an introductory offer to be used to attract new clients that are then up-sold in salon when rebooking their next appointment?  If not, can your salon’s operating budget support the discount long term, and what’s the client’s level of indifference when you do want to make a change to the package or pricing?

Furthermore, does your staff understand the purpose of the package - are they supporting your business objective when one-on-one with the client?  Are they fully utilising it at the back end of the sale, up-selling services or working the client back to the al la carte menu pricing for all other services.

There’s no right or wrong in including services packages in your offering, but they need to be designed with a clear objective such as increasing sales and client retention, be on offer for a limited period of time, and your staff need to understand how to move the client away from the package when the time is right.

Mentorship to Success

Mentoring is more than just advice

Last month our blog tackled the issue of salon ownership of the highs and lows of your business and the importance of being honest with yourself as the business owner.

This is a challenging aspect of being salon owner and boss, especially if you don’t have the right supports around you either from your personal or professional network.

There are some great resources out there where you can find this support through a business mentor.

Mentors are often viewed as someone older that takes on a young protege and support their professional growth through a structured program.  But that’s not really the case anymore - professionals at all stages of their career are now seeking mentorship, and often have multiple mentors, providing support in areas of their expertise.

Providing advice is only one aspect of mentorship.  Mentors can be the person that you make yourself accountable too.  

Building an honest and transparent relationship with your mentor gives you the structure of having a boss, someone you can go to when things aren’t going great and someone that is there to coach you and celebrate your business achievements with.

Going back to the concept from last month’s blog, when you are challenged as a salon owner, a mentor can provide a clear, 360 degree view, helping you see all of the situation and all of the potential solutions.

A mentor will help you not feel alone when sometimes business ownership makes you feel just that.  They will help you find pathways forward, connect you to other experts when needed and provide you education and coaching.

The Responsibility of Owning a Business

Do you own a salon or are you owning the business?

There are confronting statistics on the longevity of new small businesses.  A recent survey by CB Insights reveals:

• 23% fail because they don’t have the right team running the business

• 18% fail due to pricing and cost issues

• 17% fail from a lack of a business model or poor product offering, and

• 14% fail because of poor marketing and ignoring their clients.

The University of Technology, Sydney, provide time frames around the survival rate of new Australian businesses with 30% folding within the first year, 50% close at year 2 and 75% close within their first 5 years of business.

Of course, we all enter into business ownership with the intention of being the top 25% that survive well past their first 5 years, and to have this business, it’s important to understand your role in this.

The question you need to ask yourself is, did you buy a salon, or are you owning a business?

These are two very different concepts that will inevitably have two very different outcomes.

Owning a business, you become responsible for its function, efficiency, team building, growth and culture, and be the person responsible and accountable for both any success and any failure.

Ask any successful business owner and they will tell you that while celebrating business success is incredibly rewarding, owning business failure can be confronting and challenging, but assessing the situation points you to positive learnings that will help your business not only survive, but continue to grow.

Being frank, honest and calm in these times is important to help you understand what has happened and how to navigate your business forward in a sustainable way. There are no quick fixes, it is a journey and will take time.

How to get your salon performing in the top 3%

One of the more challenging aspects of business ownership and management is motivating your team through goal setting.

Goal setting lets you focus on what needs to be achieved, what needs to be measured and what needs to be mastered to achieve your salon’s business objectives.

If your goals are not documented - that is, they exist in your head - you are only focussed on what is to be achieved.  You can’t measure the outcomes and achievements if they aren’t written down.

Consider the impact of writing down you goals from the following study:

A Harvard study found that only 3% of students set goals and wrote them down.  Another 13% set goals, but didn’t write them down.  

The study followed up with the group of students ten years later, finding that the 13% that had set goals but didn’t write them down, were earning twice the income of those students that set no goals.  However, the 3% that had documented their goals, were earning ten times the income of the non-goal group.

Your salon’s goals should be the second most important business management document you have, next to your business plan.  The goals will fall out from the business plan, identifying the path of who and how the business objectives will be achieved.

While as a salon owner, your goals will be documented within the form of your business plan, but I also urge my coaching clients to have their team goals documented.  In doing so, you will help your team understand what your expectations are for them.  

By having long term goals broken into short term goals, it also helps salon staff track their own performance.

Through having your salon’s goals written down for your team, they will have a clear understanding of:

• What is to be achieved

• Any challenge they may face in working to achieve it

• The commitment required to achieve it

Most importantly, they will have the opportunity to provide and receive feedback, giving them autonomy in their role which in turn will help motivate your team.