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How to Bullet-proof Your Salon or Spa during Downturns

Written by: Caroline Nelson

Article Overview: When economic times are tough salon and spa owners need to use strategies to not only reduce costs and save money but also to learn ways to improve business operations. This article will help all salon and spa owners to streamline their business.

How to Bullet-proof Your Salon or Spa during Downturns

Every business owners realizes that times are a bit tough at present and because beauty services are ‘luxury' services, then we are more likely to feel the pinch. So what steps can you take to counter economic downturns so that your business can survive and thrive? In a nutshell you need to cut costs, conserve cash, improve core business, keep your team's morale high while asking them to for their full support during this time and retain and improve market share by marketing aggressively.

Cutting costs and trimming the fat from your Salon or Spa will in turn conserve more of your cash. Have you ever stopped to consider how much you are paying for your consumables? Could you buy in at a better deal? If you don't know, why not ask your suppliers or vendors if they can help. Are you taking advantage of special buy-in deals? And if you can't afford the full buy-in deal ask if you can have a reduce deal. Also review thoroughly all protocols and services then streamline wherever possible. Check to see your employees are using the correct amount of product for each service and reduce wastage. And then communicate the various rationales for cost cutting to salon and spa employees, never keep them in the dark instead get them on board supporting and helping to trim the fat.

Employees are often the biggest cost to a business so this means everyone must pull their weight with every single minute of the work day be productive. Performance must increase. So keep close check that you haven't got some that are time wasting thumb twiddlers. And keep a close eye on the time each staff member is taking to do each service. If a treatment should take one hour to do and they are taking an hour and a quarter then they are losing you money. This is the time to be tough and make them aware that this is not acceptable. Take no excuses.

One of the best ways to build your salon or spa business during slow times is to focus on your core business. Your core business is the service/s that brings in the most dollars for the least out lay. So it makes sense to encourage your team to concentrate on up-selling these services. Conduct team training on the methods of promoting up-selling and re-booking these core services.

Keeping moral high can be hard at times but it is vital that during these times we do not allow employees to start ‘talking negatively' with customers. Customers want to receive their service in of peace and tranquillity. Insist that your team talks only about positive pleasant topics and preferably talks more about treatment and product benefits and how they can make the customer happier with their skins. At the end of the day both customer and therapist will be happier and you will have more money in the cash register.

This is the perfect time to analysis your competition for any weaknesses. Capitalize on them to boost your market share. Try to sell your way through downturns by profit building marketing campaigns. Unfortunately many owners cut back on marketing but this is not a good time to start taking resources away from advertising or marketing budgets. On the contrary, this is the time to be really focusing on bringing in the business. So beef up salon spa marketing and promote all your core services and you will not only weather this downturn but you will grow a more sustainable profitable business.

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Article Tags: advertising, boost sales, business, business operations salon, business owner, caroline nelson, communication, competition, cost cutting, customers, economic, economic times, market, market share, profitable, sales, salon and spa, salon owners, slow times, spa, spa owners, support, therapist, unproductive



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