Have you altered your business accordingly?

[loobylou22]

Not sure if the title matches what point I want to get across but here goes.
After yet another friend making 3 in the last year taking a day course at a local wholesalers to do nails i'm wondering which way to push my business.
i have been doing around 90% nails 10% beauty for about 5 years however now, with day courses and kits available in lidl, anybody can start up and become what took me 2 years at full time college.

I am now looking at stearing at my business slightly away from nails and towards other treatments, and have seen a slight rise in waxing, massage lash treatments.

I do a full range of beauty treatments and i'm thinking of adding hd brows and lvl lashes. I'm also looking at taking on a professional salon skincare range like environ.

Have any of you made a decision like me to step away from nails given the situation, 'Techs' are popping up everywhere. I know i do a decent set of nails looking at my client base however it's only a matter of time before there sister, niece, auntie daughter etc.... also trains in nails.
Has anyone you know succeed at changing?
Hope all this makes sense. Xx

 

[lilylily]

I have gradually fazed out nails altogether apart from mani/pedi. In my small town there are now around 10 beauty salons and now 5/6 nail salons as well. I found it was not financially viable to compete with people charging £15 for a full set of nails,so gradually we
Switched all our nail clients to OPI gel polish and the majority of them are glad they did.
I am now thinking of getting rid of my spray tan booth as we are inundated with mobile spray people charging £8-£10, we use St.Tropez and cannot compete with these silly prices.
I truly wish there was a law against 1,2,3 days courses if you have no other qualifications, they just make a joke of all the training, time and money genuine therapists spend.

 

[loobylou22]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I'm the same, small town do you find your busy enough then and have your original nail ladies moved to having other treatments or are you attracting a different clientele? Xx

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[lilylily]

We lost a few nail clients, but we now have quite a lot of new clients as we have concentrated on high end treatments, we do lots of facials,skin peels and microdermabrasions. Also we are the only salon in the area that uses hot wax for hollywood waxing,so I am going on the Kim Lawless course to hopefully take advantage of this and grab all the intimate waxing business.
Our client spend per head has gone up a lot since we dropped acrylics, we are attracting different clients that perhaps don't want to be in a salon that smells of acrylics. All of our clients comment on how nice the salon smells.
I think that whatever you do you have to constantly change and add new treatments, get in first and be the best you can as all the local salons will just try and copy you anyway.

 

[hazelb]

Interesting thread. It's almost like with competition popping up everywhere it's worth looking at what your niche services can be. Concentrating on treatments with good margins and where there is a definite market.

 

[Julie-Liz]

Our little town is like this, you can't swing a handbag without hitting a salon that offers nails of some description. In my street alone there are 4 mobile beauty therapists and 3 hairdressers!

I have noticed that lash and brow treatments are popular and only 1 salon out of at least 15 offer HD brows and 1 out of those 15 offers LVL lashes. I'm due to set up in a salon very soon and if I can get away with not doing nails I will. It might vary from area to area but lots of my friends, clients, girls I see in public seem to be more interested in the well defined eyebrows. Gel polish still seems to be popular but acrylics prices seem to be dropping and still with no interest.
I have a lot of males (who I massage) asking me if I do intimate waxing too, which I don't at the moment, I'm tempted to check out courses, it will be interesting to keep an eye on.

 

[La_belle_vie]

I'm interested in this thread but I am mainly hair ATM. The town where I'm from and surrounding areas are over saturated with salons, mobile hairdressers and hair extension techs.

I've recently started up all over again, I'd advertise something like hair extensions on local fb selling sites only to be undercut 10 mins later by another tech or I would advertise party hair only for someone who isn't even a hairstylist to totally undercut me and do the foil curls for a pittance. Unfortunately it seems price beats quality.

I don't bother advertising that way now I focus on my USP and my lovely loyal clients, they are my best advertisement. In this time I now have ladies that travel from all over the county for their hair services without questioning my prices and my hair extension clients wanting a higher grade of hair are building up all the time

 

[loobylou22]

Thank you for your advice ladies. I didn't think I would be the only one. Yes my female Hollywood's have gone up. I'm still unsure about introducing a high end facial range as I rarely do facials, maybe because I use bits from different ranges. It costs a lot to set up. Do you believe big names are the way forward from the price war that is nails?? Xx

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[squidgernetball]

I have a salon that offers pretty much everything. I don't look at what other salons do really as we are usually busy. I have never entered into a price war. We have an established mature client base who clearly like what we do. However, go back three and a half years and it was a different story. I rented a single room in a golf club. I did facials using Thalgo which wasn't cheap to set up with 10 years before. A newish client asked if Botox was her only option. I said there were skincare brands out there that could really make a difference. She asked why I didn't stock them. So began the search for the most effective skincare range available. I landed on environ.

Fast forward to the present day. We have a 5 room salon, two rooms we let out. We offer environ, silhouette dermalift and Swissdermyl facials. We retail make up and environ skincare by the bucket load, and on an event day, that environ provide free of charge, we can retail into four figures.

We are not a high street salon, we are a barn on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Our clients love it. They are away from the hustle and bustle and we have free parking.
We are now the 'go to' place for skin advice and talk about skin with passion, and our skincare and location is really our usp.

I have changed my business considerably from what it was 3 years ago but I haven't done it on my own. Choose the company that you keep and choose it well.

Everything I offer I truly believe to be the best available on the market today, and my client base reflects this.

If you offer cheap, you will attract clients that want cheap!

Good luck with your choices!

Vic x

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[loobylou22]

Thanks vic. That was a insperational read! I think my gut feeling is to go with what I feel is right. I am scared to make costly mistakes like I have in the past. I also what works for one may not work for others. Thanks you. Xxx

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[Mstango]

I have gradually fazed out nails altogether apart from mani/pedi. In my small town there are now around 10 beauty salons and now 5/6 nail salons as well. I found it was not financially viable to compete with people charging £15 for a full set of nails,so gradually we
Switched all our nail clients to OPI gel polish and the majority of them are glad they did.
I am now thinking of getting rid of my spray tan booth as we are inundated with mobile spray people charging £8-£10, we use St.Tropez and cannot compete with these silly prices.
I truly wish there was a law against 1,2,3 days courses if you have no other qualifications, they just make a joke of all the training, time and money genuine therapists spend.

I totally agree with you after spending thousands for my hnc then my hnd in beauty therapy and job blogs can set up with a day course. What's even more frustrating is the on line courses on Facebook. I seen reflexology for like £20 approx massage for like £10 down from £299 apparently. I keep putting a anger face on these posts as it discredits genuine therapists who have worked hard gaining their qualifications. I've got experience in salons and spa's but you can get like a full body massage for like £20 from some places think it is devaluing what we do.

 

[Noodle]

I totally agree with you after spending thousands for my hnc then my hnd in beauty therapy and job blogs can set up with a day course. What's even more frustrating is the on line courses on Facebook. I seen reflexology for like £20 approx massage for like £10 down from £299 apparently. I keep putting a anger face on these posts as it discredits genuine therapists who have worked hard gaining their qualifications. I've got experience in salons and spa's but you can get like a full body massage for like £20 from some places think it is devaluing what we do.

Just so you know this thread was created 5 years ago, and the poster you’ve quoted has been absent for the last 3 of those