I know its just business but.......

[cabinkel]

Sorry guys, i need to rant, its a long one lol!
I am a very successful, home based salon. I have worked EXTREMLEY hard to build up and grow my business over the last few years, and I still continue to do this, working 60 hour weeks. I have always fully researched my products used, courses i go on etc, and constantly review everything and keep my eye on the ball with industry news, new products.
Why is it then that people think they can just come along and take a piece of it?! In the past I have had people come in asking all sorts of questions, finding out where i got this that and the other, then discovering that they have set up a carbon copy This is life and just business, I understand that. But last week I had someone knock on my house front door and ask if I could allow their boyfriend to come and have a look and measure up of my salon as she wants to build one! Literaly 5 mins from me!!!! Then today, someone phoned me, (actualy a family member) to ask if I could let her know what spray tan solution i use as she has just done a course and her friend said mine was the best spray tan she has ever had!!! Do these people think that I should just hand all my knowledge and research over to them on a plate?! The family member spray tanning will affect my businss, as I spray a few of her friends! (who came to bme by another client, not my cousins recommendation)
Am I being over sensitive, lol! (I am very tired after another long week):green:

 

[naturalnails]

I am afraid this is life. There are those people who will graft and scrimp and save to make it in this life and then there are those who will profit from copying what others have done.

I know which type of person I would like to be!

In some ways it is flattering that they aspire to what you have but you dont have to tell them LOL.

As to the person wanting to measure your room, I wouldnt have let them in - what an invasion of your privacy.

 

[angel fingers]

what a liberty !

recomend a product that you hate.

and try not to worry, people see you making a success of it and they probaly think it looks easy. a few months down the line they will probably see there is more to it than they realised.
you still have the upper hand here, you have experience.

 

[pazzy]

I would be exactly the same as you.


I will help anyone out - but to copy and to ask if they could measure up is total pi*ss taking.

You sound like a lovely person - and often this can lead to people assuming they can just do what they like.


They may be able to mimick your business, products, treatments etc - but can they copy the graft and hard work, stress and doing without that you have put yourself through?.....I very much doubt it.


xxx

 

[Jaffacake]

Oh what a p*ss take Kerry!! I hope you told him where to go! You have a fantastic salon and I have had some great treatments from you :green: I dont think you have anything to worry about where your business is concerned :hug: I would still tell them where to go though! x

 

[Retired]

As Nan on the Catherine Tate show would say: "what a f*****g liberty!" If someone had asked to measure my salon I think I would have flipped my lid!!!

 

[adelekeegan1]

Sorry guys, i need to rant, its a long one lol!
I am a very successful, home based salon. I have worked EXTREMLEY hard to build up and grow my business over the last few years, and I still continue to do this, working 60 hour weeks. I have always fully researched my products used, courses i go on etc, and constantly review everything and keep my eye on the ball with industry news, new products.
Why is it then that people think they can just come along and take a piece of it?! In the past I have had people come in asking all sorts of questions, finding out where i got this that and the other, then discovering that they have set up a carbon copy This is life and just business, I understand that. But last week I had someone knock on my house front door and ask if I could allow their boyfriend to come and have a look and measure up of my salon as she wants to build one! Literaly 5 mins from me!!!! Then today, someone phoned me, (actualy a family member) to ask if I could let her know what spray tan solution i use as she has just done a course and her friend said mine was the best spray tan she has ever had!!! Do these people think that I should just hand all my knowledge and research over to them on a plate?! The family member spray tanning will affect my businss, as I spray a few of her friends! (who came to bme by another client, not my cousins recommendation)
Am I being over sensitive, lol! (I am very tired after another long week):green:

I sympathise, I really do.

Ignore them all, its the only way really:hug::hug::hug:

 

[Lynne Baker]

Very cheeky indeed!
That said, there is always going to be competition and you need to have a strategy for dealing with it. In the dim and distant past I studied Economics A level and I remember an example about the importance of location to a business. An ice cream van set up on the beach and was inundated with custom. Seeing an opportunity another vendor set up on the beach but at the other end. Business was ok, but not great. Another chap came along and set up right next to the first, having bought an ice cream and seen the range on offer. He offered the same range, and some different ones. The other guy down the other end of the beach saw how both the other vans were doing a roaring trade and moved next to them. Trade improved enormously. And this is the reason that you see whole streets of hotels next to one another. People don't want to travel somewhere new, they prefer to go from one shop to the next. We all do it - think how many shoe shops there are next to one another in the malls. How they survive is by offering something slightly better/cheaper/different from their competitors.
So, when this chancer sets up 5 minutes away from you make sure what you offer is better/cheaper/different from them. Your business may even increase as the customers who go to the other salon find fault with the treatments there and come to you instead.
All is not lost - time to be creative with the marketing etc!

 

[thg]

People think thay can master nails beauty treatments just like that, they've seen us do it, decide the want to do it, just like that, but in fact there plans soon come crushing down, when they realise it's not so easy to master these treatment. so don't worry.
It take time money and a huge amount of hard work to achieve where your re at now.
I opened my salon 4 years ago just doing fine, and some moron opens up in the next block, why because they see you doing well and think i'll have a bit of what she's having,
just bide your time, what goes round comes round, just treat it as a minor setback, and keep chipping at it. good luck thg

 

[sknight]

I have had 3 of my friends looking into doing nails since i started but they have all since seen how much it will cost them and how much hard work and precious time goes into it and have since given up the idea so dont let it bother you.

 

[cabinkel]

Thank you so much you lot! I feel better now! By no stretch is this the first time that I have had this, and I know for certain it will not be the last but sometimes, grrrrrr......................lol.
I feel mean moaning about it as i know people just want to get on in life, but I can honestly, with my hand on my heart, say that I do this job beacause i LOVE it, not because its "quick money", and even when I am dog tired at the end of a week, I still love it. I believe wholeheartedly in "knowing my market" and researching anything new. I can often be found on my pc into the early hours researching, ask my hubby, lol! I refuse to just give all this info away. No more Mrs-nice-cabinkel, lol!
Thank you for all your comments. :hug::hug::hug:

 

[pazzy]

Aw bless you.

You shouldn't have made it look so easy LOL.

Yeah - its a passion rather than a job.

I wonder what I would do if I won the lottery....I think I would still want to do my work - like you - because I love it.


xxx

 

[cabinkel]

Aw bless you.

You shouldn't have made it look so easy LOL.

Yeah - its a passion rather than a job.

I wonder what I would do if I won the lottery....I think I would still want to do my work - like you - because I love it.


xxx

Abso-blooming-lutley!!