getting new clients

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tipsntoes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2005
Messages
64
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Location
kendal, cumbria
I have been in business nearly a year and i have few regular clients. I was wondering whether any of you would be able to give me any advise on how to attract new clients and be able to keep them. Any help would be appreciated
 
well. where do i start.....

leaflet drop (door to door)
yellow pages
word of mouth
special offers/indroductory prices
local paper
recommend a friend an get 10% off....

this should start a few ideas for you.
 
You could try the search facility on here. It has many useful ideas as well as other people's experiences. I've spent several happy hours searching for all sorts of things. It is really helpful.
 
Hi,
do you think it is something you may or may not have done?

Apart from the info Emma has given you as regards to marketing, maybe yu need to look at the treatments yu are offering. Are they in demand inother salons...if they are then why are they not in demand for you. Only yu are able to answer this question honestly.

Are other salons offering special rates and promotions that are taking clients away from you, you need to look at yur competition and see what they are doing to make themselves popular. Special rates are fines and dandy but i think if the quality of work is their in the first place this should show in your prices.

It is a tough one as some salons in my own area offer special rates but to be honest the quality according to my clients isn't always their.

Just take a step back and look at what yu may or may not be doing.
 
When I started I did a leaflet drop and got a 10% return on that which is supposed to be very good. However, my best responses come from yell.com as I have several call where potential clients have seem my add. It can be expensive, but give it a try. I also offer a generous discount to all my new clients and another if they refer someone who has a treatment.
 
have you thought about doing the nails of any family members or friends.....you could give them some business cards or make sure they have your number handy so if anyone mentions they like their nails they can give them your details.

you could also approach the bar maids of local pubs and stuff and say you'll do their nails at a discounted rate if they give your details to anyone who likes the look of their nails.

hope this helps a little xx
 
someone has just given me a really good idea that i havn't seen on here before. i've just been to a carnival and someone was giving out leaflets. that should be a good one too cause u can pinpoint potential customers. after all, she pin pointed me because of my nails and gave me a leaflet. i'll be doing the next carnival definately!!!
 
emma's nails said:
someone has just given me a really good idea that i havn't seen on here before. i've just been to a carnival and someone was giving out leaflets. that should be a good one too cause u can pinpoint potential customers. after all, she pin pointed me because of my nails and gave me a leaflet. i'll be doing the next carnival definately!!!

and to say the least...i was a bit peeved that i hadn't thought of the idea first..after all, they could have been my leaflets given out today. think of all those lovely clients i could have had.......boo hoo....
 
I've been self employed for 4 years, and the real turning point for me was doing the nails of a lady who owned a very successful restaurant in Fareham. Every time someone commented on her nails she gave them my card, I think at one point 50% of my clients were down to her recommendations (and she wouldn't take anything in return as she too was a business woman), so that was my big lucky break. She had to stop in the end as she was a workaholic and didn't have time to get them done!

Getting new clients is very easy, bet if you put a sign up saying Free full sets you'd be inundated, but would they stay faithful to you? Maybe, maybe not? Like Cec says it's all about pitching your place in the market. If you sell yourself cheap then you will get clients that only want cheap. You need to decide what type of client you want to attract. The loyal ones are those that are prepared to pay more but like the added extras - drinks, nice atmosphere, first class service, first class nails, etc.

If you have this month's Scratch there is a fab article about marketing on page 66 which I urge every Geek to read if they haven't already.

You should do a SWOT analysis, that is decide what are your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunitues, Threats. If you don't know what your opposition is up to then how do you know if you are better or worse than them, too cheap or too expensive, too upmarket or too downmarket etc etc etc. From here you can decide what type of client you want - loyal ones, salon hopping ones etc and pitch your pricing, marketing and style of advertising accordingly. If you want classy clients then you need to portray a classy image in your ads - if you want young clients then you need to aim it at a funkier angle.

Sorry not sure where all that suddenly came from lol, but it's not just about where you advertise as much as how you advertise to get those loyal clients.
 
Have you ever tried hooking up with a Hair Stylist? You can offer your nail services to her clients and vice versa. Here at my salon that's how we work. For the past year that my salon has been open it has been me and another Hair Stylist. She has had her clientel for years and so have I. So when we started working together we shared a lot of our old clients plus all the new ones. It may be difficult to find someone that you feel comfortable with. Have you thought of working at a salon? You can work off of other Hair Stylist. Hope this helps and good luck.

Nidia
 
thank you for all the help i will be trying some of them out whe i am back in the salon
 

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