One Small Town’s Salon Success

Small town hair salon or a city salon franchises, hair salons are at the heart of the communities, or rather communities are often nurtured by the salons. Even though I grew up in the capital, beauty salons always created a micro-communities within large, busy cities. Beauty salons are true community hubs for catching up on the latest gossips and switching off from the daily realities for an hour or so, remember the movie with Eddi Murphy Coming to America?.

Furthermore, wherever there are engagements, weddings, joys, and sorrows, salons are often in the middle of those life events.

So it is therefore in everyone’s interest to have a vibrant, successful and healthy beauty salon in the community. It is also salons, and salon owners, responsibility, to create the community hub to nurture that community spirit. After all more you give more you receive… more clients you keep happy, more you get back.

As we move deeper into the digitalized “live life fast” lane it is worth remembering that the human spirit and the desire to belong to the community can only get stronger.

READ My Salon Business Success started in 1989…

But it is not always smooth riding and neither it is unusual to see empty salons and bored stylists flipping through the Instagram posts that noone benefits from.

To help inspire small town salons to remain relevant in the community here are 5 quick ideas how to turn a salon business into a success story for everyone involved.

1. Go offline… for a change

Start at the top. Every village, town and a borough has a person(s) an influencer, or some sort of center that connects communities together. Organizations that create a foundation to support local businesses. Connecting with the right person can open up doors you never knew existed.

2. Make no mistake… online reality is here to stay, make it work for you

Browsing through the pictures and funny videos are OK but that’s not enough to build a success. Social media can help you connect to your community, clients, and potential customers and groups of people. Master the right tool for you to reach those people.

3. Stick together

Cross promoting complimentary businesses is not only profitable for your hair salon business but enjoyable as well. If a wedding boutique shop is having an open evening, your salon can be there to support the evening and vice versa.

4. Don’t skip community events

Whether you live in a big city or a little town community events bring people of all walks of life together. Be part of that movement, participate, promote, connect.

5. Run your own community events

Don’t wait for others to run the events, create your own. As a creative hair and beauty business, you have a great platform to run your own themed events where you can draw complementary businesses to your shopfloor as well as members of your town and community.

In the end, success boils down to many factors and in the heart of it, you will always find strong communities, happy customers, happy businesses.

Tamara Machavariani Forrest-Smith

Team Salon Punk

“I just wanted to say thank you to Alan.

I married into hairdressing 9 years ago so im not a hairdresser, when i lost my job in the down turn and my wife was looking to sell her salon after having our first child, it was really rough, i came across some of Alan stuff online and joined his membership site on monthly payment thing

This was bad for Alan 🙂 but good for me because in one week i had enuff stuff to take my wife salon from a 2 chair drive thru village salon in Ireland to where we are now.

This year we moved to a bigger town so I bought the xtreme 21 and OMG, everything that Alan said to do I did, now wifey only works in salon on Saturdays, we paying for our house no bothers and Im actually bored and now thinking I need to move into the supplier and wholesale side of the business because I kind of shy having to be in the salon when everything is on autopilot.”

I bought the xtreme 21 and OMG

Woohoo it’s started working!It’s given me bags of confidence on upselling. It’s like there’s so much to do every day even if it’s quiet. It’s all the things we should know but we turn a blind eye to because we’re busy or just wasting time. I turned a £16 service into £45 today not to mention the product shell probably buy next visit!! It’s honestly paid for itself already!Thank you it’s sooo exiting…really getting confident now cheers guys

Georgia Florence Hair, UK

Hi Alan The way I see it as we begin our journey through 2016 is it’s going to be an even tougher challenge being a salon owner, manager, beauty therapist or stylist and its definitely going to be even more of a challenge as we approach 2017.The fact is our clients are bombarded with so much confusing information and marketing which quite often makes us feel misled or treats us like we are total idiots!So its no surprise that we are becoming meticulous where we spend our hard earned cash… It’s one of the reasons that reviews have become so popular because people are becoming more and more careful when they choose anything from a hairdressing salon to where they should buy their food!I see so much junk and rehashed and untested garbage that salon owners have been told to use in the salons that simply makes me feel despair because I know is just not going to work.

The way I see it as we begin our journey through 2016 is it’s going to be an even tougher challenge being a salon owner, manager, beauty therapist or stylist and its definitely going to be even more of a challenge as we approach 2017.The fact is our clients are bombarded with so much confusing information and marketing which quite often makes us feel misled or treats us like we are total idiots!So its no surprise that we are becoming meticulous where we spend our hard earned cash… It’s one of the reasons that reviews have become so popular because people are becoming more and more careful when they choose anything from a hairdressing salon to where they should buy their food!I see so much junk and rehashed and untested garbage that salon owners have been told to use in the salons that simply makes me feel despair because I know is just not going to work.So I was really excited when I received my copy of 21 Salon Extreme to see a work manual that would guide you the salon owners, managers, beauty therapists and anyone looking for a clear uncluttered powerful step-by-step direction to not only market your salon but to create a complete dynamic system that can be implemented instantly into your business – even when you have SO much other stuff to do! and is up-to-date and READY for 2016/2017 and beyond!!I love the fact that it’s something I can hold and make notes in, work with and have explanations that really makes you think and understand why and where the concept has come from for each part of the manual. It’s the first time I have seen a combination of multilevel marketing where your guided through everything from Facebook, social media, SMS text, email, direct mail,

So I was really excited when I received my copy of 21 Salon Extreme to see a work manual that would guide you the salon owners, managers, beauty therapists and anyone looking for a clear uncluttered powerful step-by-step direction to not only market your salon but to create a complete dynamic system that can be implemented instantly into your business – even when you have SO much other stuff to do! and is up-to-date and READY for 2016/2017 and beyond!!I love the fact that it’s something I can hold and make notes in, work with and have explanations that really makes you think and understand why and where the concept has come from for each part of the manual. It’s the first time I have seen a combination of multilevel marketing where your guided through everything from Facebook, social media, SMS text, email, direct mail, in salon promotions, how to use your website and the internet to templates for posters and flyers and everything you could imagine you will need to market your salon. It even shows you how to test and measure everything you put in place to help you build your salon business.Just as a personal note from me “Alan,I know you have put your heart and soul into this manual and that it comes from someone who understands what its like to have your home on the line and the bank manager breathing down your neck and what its like to have failure and success and what that feels like – and we both know that it simply works…

So I would like to personally thank you from our industry for creating a tool that if used correctly will help build any salon business, reduce a little bit of stress and make our industry great!

Steve xBest RegardsSteveSteveWynder.com – Hair & Beauty SalonSO Magazine
www.salonopinion.comHairBizSecrets – Online TrainingFantastic Hairdresser Australia – Training & CoachingBrisbane QLD

Steve Winder

Hi Alan

I signed up for all of Alan’s courses (e-books) after taking on a dying salon taking £300 per week. that was in may 02 ,9 months later I am now expanding into the empty shop next door. since putting all of Alan’s ideas (and a few of my own) into operation I am now unable to fit all of my new clients into my present salon and taking more money in one day than I used to take in a week, this is just with myself 2 other stylists and 2 juniors working.So…. if anyone has any doubts about any of Alan’s ideas and courses just re-read the above a couple of times and get out your credit card and sign up.

You wont be disappointed I promise.Jeanette (a much better off and happier salon owner)p.s. I am based in a small town in Liverpool UK and if we can do it anyone can.

trimmers-haircare.ik.com

HI Alan I think hairee . com is absolutely fantastic I am a bit rubbish on the computer don’t know how to work attachments. Love all the stuff I have read so far i think it has kept me sane, knowing its not just me struggling with staff matters. had a real nightmare this last year your advise has kept me strong thanks very much it is nice to know there is nice people around with love

Jayne king

Been busy with your material.

This is what I think about the material. The first moment when I started to download it I know it was the right thing.
I felt huge inspiration. This material is really important for me cause I am working in a village, that means you gotta get the clients to get there.

Everything was there, but it was really one thing that I felt was missing.
You got the voucher and ads. But when you open a new small salon in a village you need to make flyers and put them in the mailboxes, not just when you open like 4 times a year.

Everything in the package is so great I just would like to see ideas about flyers for the villages hair salons.
This is what I did already. I used your Idea about recommend a friend, but I did it a little bit different. I used my business cards and on the backside I printed the offer, I give my clients that like 10 each and I didn’t use off on service. I called places where you buy hair products and asked them if they had something they wanted to get rid off so I could buy them cheap and I told them my idea of giving them away.

I told them my idea of giving them away.

I bought stuff for 10 Swedish crowns like 10 dollars each I mean brands that people know shampoo gel, hairspray everything. so I give them one product for every new client. So the women that works in our food store give them out to nearly everyone she knows. Of course I have done her hair already.

I gave her limit time of course. So I ended up with 1 dollar each new client and I didn’t lowered my price.
I forgot of course the friend also get a product it cost me 2 dollars sorry. I will let you know more what I am doing. But Alan if you got an idea about the flyers please let me know. That was the only missing link the way I see it.
Fabulous package. I am on my way now. Thank you so much.

Madeleine

Hi Alan
I have found Hairee.com to be a wealth of information.
As a new salon owner I needed information on how to do a better job of marketing & I have been able to try some of the ideas from Salon Column Builder. I have 2 established stylists & a new one to our salon & I did not know how to start building a clientele for her. I have tried a couple of the ideas from the column builder & it is starting to pay off already. I just need to persevere & hopefully she will also have a full column in the not too distant future!
Many thanks

Amanda