Well... I'm sad to have to say it, but.... I think we learn only very slowly and with much pain and suffering in the process. Bad habits have a way of dying only painful deaths. Its the whole rut-in-the-road concept. It's why superstars get married 6 times and wonder why they can never find the right marriage partner. There's some sort of addictive behavior that's gotta be thrown in there, too. It's easier to deal with a bad, painful situation by doing the same things we did before, because at least we'd be assured of the consistency of failure.

And maybe you should get some manners mate!

And maybe you should re-read my post, the point of which was that the people who buy off ebay NEVER pass any savings they may make (and that is debateable) on to their clients. They don't!

I wasn't born yesterday. I started my business in the worst recession the UK had ever had (1985) and my business THRIVED. Women flocked to get their nails done and it made them FEEL GOOD about themselves. Three months after I began I was fully booked and worked a 50+ hour week. I really was never not fully booked after that and increased to 3 salons in 3 years. I also trained and supplied work to many many girls who became GREAT technicians and who are now still running their own successful businesses today.

I know women and I know that we will weather this storm and the good ones will pull through and possibly even grow like I did through it and the bad ones ... won't!! This recession may even serve to separate the wheat from the chaff and we can say good bye to some of the bad businesses out there and all benefit from it.

So the question arises are YOU one of the good ones who has not only the skill but the business sense to be giving it your all at this point to make it work ... ?

There always has been clients that struggled with the maintenance issue with enhancements. This is why the budget salons grew so quickly. Now there are salons for more demographics than there used to be.

With the economic climate being what it is, there will be a higher than average level of clients that struggle with the cost of maintenance, however this is relative to their new spending level. What that translates to is that those families more susceptible to redundancies or other restrictions will more than likely look to cut expenses like maintenance. Trying to create a discount environment by substituting your professional purchases off of E-Bay will not prevent them from leaving, nor will it actually generate you anything worth while. Here is why:

1. Take your price of a service (i.e. Maintenance) and figure out how much money per minute you generate from it (e.g. a £20 maintenance that takes 1 hour = .33p per minute)
2. Take each product that you use and divide it into number of services to get a cost per application. Do this for all your products.
3. Do the same as above, but look up 'bulk' purchases to see the difference it costs in using larger versus smaller sizes
4. Do another column calculating the cost per application of substituting E-Bay purchases.

I will gamble that this is what you will find:

1. The cost per application is equivalent to a (maximum) minute or two of your time.
2. The cost dramatically reduces when you buy in bulk
3. The savings in cost per application between E-Bay and legit resources are equivalent to about a minute of your time maximum (lets not look at those products that actually cost more, are counterfit, etc.. heck lets also ignore how much time you spent looking up, bidding and buying the products!)
4. That if you were really interested in saving money, you would purchase in bulk which is much cheaper in cost per application than E-Baying small or regular sizes.

The bottom line is that if you were serious about saving money you would buy in bulk not off E-Bay (which often is actually not cheaper and brings a great deal of risk to how you work).

When you compare your time spent trying to obtain these kinds of savings (and the pitfalls with obtaining them) it is a false economy.

I believe that buying smart is always important, however if your version of buying smart is purchasing non legit products that are frequently contaminated or more expensive just to try and 'pass savings on to clients' than you are not working smart at all, nor am I convinced that you can save clients passing on a savings you should already be making in the first place!

In a lot of areas, business in our sector is up because in times of economic hardship, people want to escape and to be beautified. This isn't a god given right that you will be busy in a recession, but it does provide an opportunity depending on your area. Everyone will feel the change somewhat. The good news is that overall mid-range and higher salons will be the least affected by the economic climate, but they wont be bulletproof. Discount salons are generally attended to by clients that have less discretionary income to begin with and hence, are more discretionary about where they will spend it. Still want to discount?

As to your comment:

If you want to come here to constructively discuss and debate, you are welcome with open arms. If your only method of debate is to personally attack because you lack the ability to offer intelligent points of views, then you are not.

Maybe you have mixed this site up with one of those others that allow your incredible wit and charm will go unaddressed. I would suggest updating your bookmarks.

nJoy

Sorry but Ebay just p's me right off. They sell most of Dermalogica at ridiculous prices, o.p.i nail polish and not to mention tons of other stuff that I am trying to sell my clients but cant because the will just 'buy it off Ebay'.
I wuld much rather support Capital Beauty who are very careful not to let customers from the public into their shops in fear of putting beauty therapists out of buisness.
Sally's on the other hand do not care and are open to anyone so i would never shop in there!
By buying from Ebay do we really know this stuff has never been used when they say it hasnt and do we really know where it has come from? Sorry to sound snobby but it all feels a bit scummy to me
xxx

Sorry but how rude. Think we can see exactly the proffesional from the unproffessional her Geeg.
xxx

My manners will not permit me to reply to you as you deserve.

People who behave like you, and post like this, are a discredit to this site IMO

Aside from all the rights and wrongs of ebay who can seriously be bothered to sit there and work out all the prices & postage from the various sellers. I know I couldn't and quite frankly even if you did save yourself £10 or whatever you've wasted 30mins faffing about comparing prices imo.

With regards to passing on the savings to clients (Assuming there are any) I guess the type of professionals that buy off ebay in the first place tend to charge bargain basement prices as it is so I still can't see any benefit.

You said it!

Very classy reply. That's why you ROCK!

A discredit to this site and the beauty industry. Glad i'm not going to her for my beauty treatments!

Thenailking, can you fill us in a little about your experience and how long you have been in business? I'd rather take advice from people who have built up a huge wealth of experience and expertise over the years and whom I respect immensly.

I've been reading about E-bay here for awhile, many posts about it...

And this is what I don't understand - so if someone can clear it up for me - maybe it's different in other countries, all this book keepings and laws, or I haven't been reading right, but here in Croatia:

1. For every single thing that comes in to my salon, I need to have an invoice that has my name, my business name and some other stuff on it. I'm allowed to buy things online or from abroad, but if I do, I need a proof that I payed taxes, custom fees or whatever needed.

2. For that every single thing that exists in my invoices I have to fill out a form regulary. That form shows on what dates and in which amounts I was using that product, and finally, the day when, for example, one pot of gel was emptied. All of that has to match my reciepts that I give to my clients after every service.

3. Every year I have to bring my invoices, copies of my receipts and that forms that I described to my tax lady. And all of it has to match.

4. Tax control, or financial control can come to me out of the blue as they like. For every single thing in my salon there has to be a matching paper. If they find something that I haven't got an invoice for, I'm in trouble. If I have an invoice for something which says I do have it, and I don't, I'm in trouble.

So, as far as I know, E-bay folks do not write invoices. My boyfriend once thought he was doing me a favour so ordered some nailforms from e-bay. No invoice, no nothing. Just a little parcel. As we can easily predict, in 2 weeks, glue on forms went dry and I threw away 500 forms. Stupid feeling all around.

So apart from buying whoknowswhat and compromising my quality (and peace of mind), I would be violating the law.

So why would anyone do that? How does it work in your countries?
Or I'm just a naive little fool...

Since I use paypal for many online work related purchases, lot's of books, computer parts, my nail geek subscription, I have a "paper trail" for proof when it comes to taxes.

Years ago, I misplaced an important business related tax reciept, or possibly never recieved it (trade show cash purchase) My tax preparer explained that I could write my own reciept, keeping in mind that I was honest with the amount and use it as proof.

I keep all my reciepts, all of them.

I went to a face/body painting jam a couple of weeks ago.
$50 to enter. I purchased some books and guess what? No reciepts. Gas/travel too. I will use these amounts at tax time. I kept the amount in my palm pilot. It was so exciting I didn't even think of asking for reciepts.

You've got some excellent points about business practices and inventory control when it comes to ebay. Some people, like myself, see it as a business avenue. Others see it as a garage sale. No wonder ebay has problems.

I personally do have to track everything for my taxes because I have a business license and pay self-employment tax. So by golly I have to track every single sale with both a paper trail copy and a computer file copy. I need every expense deduction I can get!

So when a customer makes a purchase from me (ebay, etsy, website) - they get not only an email receipt for their purchase, they also get a packing slip. I email the customer to let them know their package is on its way. And I print everything twice: once for the customer and once for my stuffed-to-overflowing file cabinet.

But I understand things like that tend to be less common on ebay, and you take big risks when buying there. I don't buy my supplies there. I did at first. But now I only buy in bulk from recognized suppliers because I've been burned on ebay and save money in the end by not shopping there. Also, I'm assured of delivery times and quality of product, and the things I buy from my suppliers are backed by money-back satisfaction guarantees. You don't often find that combination on ebay.... but I also want to say that companies like mine exist there. We're just outnumbered by the beach shack variety of business.

Cat

OK, thanks