Marketing and creativity block!

[Lucy_Lu]

Hi Geeks,

I’m a bit of a lurker here, but this Business board is my favourite part of SalonGeek! I signed up to SalonGeek almost eight years ago when I begun my nail technician training after having my first child. I don’t think I ever anticipated that that course would lead me to running a relatively successful business!

In that time, I’ve built up a solid client base, opened my own salon and now have a team. And this summer the salon turns 5 [emoji50].

I’d love to hold an event or run some promotions to celebrate but I’m hitting some creativity blocks! The salon isn’t particularly big so hosting a party would be tricky (and if I did, I worry about how I would “entertain” or what I would say to people?!).

I had hired a marketing consultant recently to help with this but (to cut a long story short) I wound up with very little except a big knock to my bank balance!

I’d be so grateful if anyone could spare the time to comment with some ideas and maybe the answers could give others some ideas too!

Lucy xx

 

[AcidPerm]

Congratulations on your forthcoming 5th birthday!
The past few years have been very iffy for many businesses so you should definitely celebrate your achievements.

Can you give us a little more info about your business?
How many staff? Are you just doing Nails or have you added any other services?
Are you based in a city, town or village?
Do you want to just have a 1 day celebration in your salon or do you want to get involved in some community events and celebrate over the summer?

I’ll be back later with some more detailed suggestions.

 

[Lucy_Lu]

Congratulations on your forthcoming 5th birthday!
The past few years have been very iffy for many businesses so you should definitely celebrate your achievements.

Can you give us a little more info about your business?
How many staff? Are you just doing Nails or have you added any other services?
Are you based in a city, town or village?
Do you want to just have a 1 day celebration in your salon or do you want to get involved in some community events and celebrate over the summer?

I’ll be back later with some more detailed suggestions.

Hi AcidPerm,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I love your responses on this business forum and quite often have a lot of your advice bouncing around my head if I’ve ever had to deal with any issues with staff!

Ah thank you for your kind words, I know - I really cannot believe it’s been five whole years!!!

Info about the business...
The salon is still solely Nails, we’ve developed a strong reputation for specialising in natural nails and have many clients who come to us because of problem nails (whether that be as a result of medical issues -thyroid/cancer treatments etc., or as a result of a bad experience at one of the many local NSS’s)

I have two members of staff. We’re all in our thirties which has meant that we appeal more to the slightly older clientele with the majority of our clients being upwards of age 40 (I find loyalty, retention and an appreciation of quality to be more consistent amongst these clients!)

Location wise we’re brilliantly situated right in the town centre and next to a pay and display car park. Clients love the convenience of this!

I love the idea of getting involved in some community events - that’s something I’d never thought of! I’d love to hear some more ideas surrounding that. We actually partner with a postnatal depression support group to raise money throughout the year (I did my training as a means of getting back on my feet after a severe bout of PND and I used this group back then so it’s nice to give back to them now).

I’d like to maybe run some promotions in the few weeks up to the day itself. But I’m completely stumped on what form those could take?! Usually with promotions I like to add value rather than discount - especially as it will be summer and we’ll be predominantly booked up anyway, reducing profit in these circumstances feels counterintuitive.

Running something on the day itself would be nice but as I say, the salon isn’t huge and I would be worried about “hosting” [emoji23]

Apologies for the lengthy post!

I’m so looking forward to your reply - thanks AcidPerm