New member - advice welcome

[Tanqueen1]

Hi all. I run a tanning salon (in my 19th year) and as we have a spare treatment room I have allowed my daughter to use it to set up her new beauty business. Bank of mum has paid for her training courses and we have opened an account with Dermalogica and invested in a Neo Elegance LED canopy to give extra benefits to treatments. My daughter is getting a few enquiries but just a trickle of bookings, I guess it's not ideal to have started a luxury business during a recession! We have advertised her business in salon and on our social media, for the first time in years I agreed to a full page advert in a local magazine but as yet that hasn't gained us any enquiries.
We have ideas - she has a friend that has a lash business and they are going to do a collaborative competition, we are also going to have a "Dermalogica weekend" where products are discounted and clients can come and test the most popular products. I have given my staff all free facials so they can recommend her, but enquiries are still slow. So I am looking for lots of ideas of how you have been able to get clients. How do you manage to get them to re-book and become regulars, and of course buy (Dermalogica) product? I have spoken to our rep, saying that therapists in salon are totally disadvantaged by the numerous online sites that sell discounted product, but she just shrugged me off without an answer. My daughter has only trained in facials and peels, and says she cannot touch f@@nies and feet so does not want to learn waxing or mani/pedi to offer extra services. She said she would do a massage course but she doesn't want to massage gents. There are a lot of things above, I would love all your input, thank you sooooo much in advance. Katherine.

 

[RosieR]

I could not survive on such a limited treatment offering, but there are specialist facial salons around so they do exist. Word of mouth has been my absolutely solid form of gaining clients for many years but times are different since Covid.

The school gates were my main platform for introducing my services many years ago, and so was pre school nursery too.
The LED canopy is not a cheap piece of kit to have, she is very lucky that you have invested in it. You have ready clients, I can't understand why it's not working really.
I worked in a sunbed salon before we had a beauty room and it was full to bursting with our sunbed clients when it opened. You have got to sell, talk about it and get it up and running.

Sell the LED as a course and say do a free peel after 4 treatments or whatever to see if the clients may re book. Contact your Neo Elegance rep and see if you get some additional promotional leaflets etc.
Hope you get some good advice from other geeks.

 

[Tanqueen1]

Thank you that is so helpful. I have had a conversation with my daughter many times saying that to be busy she needs to have a widespread of treatments but she sees friends who are solely lash technicians, or nail technicians being very busy. Having suffered with bad skin through her teens she has a real passion for anything skin care, and having cleared her issues now wants to help other people. We did not expect to be busy in the first week or even in the first month but we are finding it hard getting clients to notice, many sit in reception on their phones rather than read the posters we have put up advertising different services. Having done a recent social media course I know that about 1500 Instagram followers only 20 see our posts and stories! I like your idea of pay for four treatments get a 5th free, and will get back in touch with Neo Elegance. Come on all other Geeks, advice needed. X

 

[RosieR]

I'm not suggesting you give away your LED facial as the 5 th freebie btw. Just offer an alternative free treatment. You have invested a lot in buying the unit, so don't undersell it before you have got a steady client base. You'd be slashing your prices by 20% on all the sessions and that would not be good for you.
It would encourage clients to try something else at the same time.
So out of interest what other courses has your daughter completed ?
Dermalogica could advise on other facials which you don't need the LED unit for, but could lead to the possibility of expanding the facials offered.
Eyebrows used to be a big thing for my clients and so easy to market......would that be an option she will do ?

 

[TheDuchess]

Hmm. I’d have added services which struck me as an easy sell to my existing client base. You’ve done something different and invested in services which interest your daughter. Now you need to find the sweet spot and market specifically to the client that ticks both boxes!

To exploit the huge asset of your existing footfall you need to understand your typical customer. You may have several “types”. Create a detailed description of each and ask yourself which services she would be interested in

For instance you may have some clients who use sunbeds to manage skin conditions - spots and psoriasis can.be improved with a few sun bed sessions. These ladies may be very interested in a regular led facial. Your marketing needs to be based on “needs”. Your clients need to think “I need this!” so explain what yoir facials offer.:skin balancing, dewy, fresh looking skin, sun defender etc.

Running an established business looks effortless from the outside - that’s because there’s a tried and tested system. You now need to create a manual or system to funnel convertible enquiries to this new venture. You’re looking for the equivalent of the “anything else?” question when you buy a coffee.

It is a numbers game - if you ask every customer “would you like a skin care review?” You’ll get bookings and you”ll get information on what sort of KPI’s you need to set. If one client in 20 says yes and you see 100 clients a week - you need to set targets of one booking a day (as an example).

Your daughter sounds inexperienced. Has she been drilled in the “what product would your client like to buy today and when is she returning?” mantra. Does she feel the pressure to build her column or is she assuming that it will magically fill itself?

I set myself targets of X number of bookings a day. I’m really focussed, counting up at regular intervals throughout the day. When I go into a treatment I am asking myself what new service I am going to mention - and it’s always a linked sell, I”ll tell them why I think this services will be great for them based on what I learn from the client.

Speaking personally, I find that nail (manicure) clients are very hard to convert to other bookings, and as I make less an hour on manicures, I’ve decided that I am not accepting new client enquiries for manicure bookings only. But visual services are an obvious sell for tanning salon clients - I’d add lash lifting, make up, brow tinting and shaping, body scrubs, cellulite reduction; toning treatments, and wraps to my menu.

I find that some services allow you to chat to your client and build a rapport, so even though I specialise in facials and massage, I still offer waxing services and pedicures, because these lead to bookings for other services.

I’d be marketing led for the décolleté and I’d offer incentives that don’t cost me anything - so free led for the hands when adding an led service to a facial.(do it during the cleanse and exfoliate stage of the facial.)

You could think about the equivalent of the free coffee on your 10th visit - reward customers with a service they haven’t tried before, or add a free product when booking a course.

Put your products on display in your main studio. Train all your staff in selling products, have a different “product of the week” on counter display. Have team meetings and challenge staff to pick up a product and name 3 benefits from its use. Create cheat sheets for staff, have “shelf talkers”. - little hand written cards giving a review of a product. Keep some boxes and have a “restock session” in progress when customers visit, actually you’re cleaning and rearranging, but handling the bottles in front of clients creates interest. And get sales trained! I used to hover near the Bobbi Brown counter and ear wig the consultation, listening to the consultant set up her sales by engaging with the client’s concerns.

Make your daughter’s business an expansion of your business. The equivalent of Santa’s Grotto in a department store. And get your daughter out of her treatment room when she’s not with a client and meeting and greeting studio clients - immaculately presented as a therapist, smiling and helpful - she’s the shop window for her business so don’t hide her away!

Good luck

 

[Tanqueen1]

Sorry I havent logged on for a while so have just come across your reply. Thankyou so much for taking the time to write all this, it's been very helpful.
We invested in Dermalogica as the brand has so many products to help numerous skin issues and therefore thought their facials would meet more concerns than just offer relaxation and a nice pamper. We have quickly found that many clients do not know the brand, and that they consider it expensive. There are so many products it is impossible/unaffordable for us to stock them all, so we decided just to stick to the 'hero' items until we know our clients better. However, just this weekend we had a request for a masque that we didn't have in stock, but to get an order from Dermalogica quickly would cost us £7 p+p which leaves us with a dilema if we don't need to place an order for other items.
I thought we had done our research and looked for the treatments that were popular now, Professional Beauty is full of articles about LED and it's numerous benefits, so we thought it would make a great add-on to facials but clients seem non-plussed.
I like your tip on approaching advertising on a "needs basis" asking if our clients suffering from psoriasis/acne realise we have additional treatments that would help them.
As a tanning studio primarily, I initially thought I would feel a bit awkward just asking a tanning client if they would like a skin care review, but hey, I will give it a try.
Yes my daughter is inexperienced, so we do practice different scenarios together. 1 sales technique I was shown, is to get 3 bottles of different product you think would be great for your client, then select the 1 that you consider they must have, and see if they go for it. A lot of our promo so far has been FREE treatment worth £15 added on etc, rather than disounting and we have considered buy 4 get 1 free with facial/peels to encourage clients to remain loyal and re-book.
My daughter has booked a massage course to add that to her treatment menu - I would be very interested to know if you can recommend a cellulite reducing / body toning treatment?
Product display. We consider the main window area of our salon simply the best to advertise but, we have the direct sun shining in through the window from midday so this is an impossible space to work in or use for product display. The shelves behind reception are used for tanning products so I will have to put some consideration to sorting a better display of products, even though we have the Dermalogica logo and product pics on the main window, and lots of posters, in the wondow and on reception walls regards product and services. I find when clients wait in reception they just stare at their phones and don't take in all our promo :-(
As yet the staff that work for me (tanning reception) have not been instructed in Dermalogica, and have simply been advised to direct all enquries to my daughter and she contacts the client immediately. I had considered there was too much for them to learn about the brand and all the different products, and during peak times we simply haven't got the time to spend talking about skin services. Even as I write this I know it sounds bad but I don't have a solution as my daughter can't be on reception 60 hours a week to catch enquiries or talk to clients......again something we need to consider further and wonder if anyone else has ideas?
There was a degree of expectation, thinking that as soon as we introduced these new products and services that we would get a lot more enquries, but it's apparent my daughter is going to have to try a lot harder to fill the diary.
Thanks so much again, everyone's advice greatly appreciated. x

 

[TheDuchess]

You’re absolutely not alone. I used to be a business consultant so I thought I’d be fabulously successful when I started up my own salon. The reality is that I drop just as many clangers as my previous clients.

You may find an investment in a business building mastermind worth every penny. Caroline Sanderson springs to mind - she’s a hairdresser that bounced back from near bankruptcy as a pregnant, suddenly single Mum whose Manager walked off with her client list and set up in competition nearby. I did some courses with Caroline’s mentor John Assaraf. I ended up suffering a bit of course overload fatigue but it got me out of a dead end in lockdown and I reckon I earned back what I spent in just a few months.

Don’t get overwhelmed. Look at what is working and build on successes.

Tanning is successful. Try adding a body scrub/polish as that’s a logical add on and you can start with just one product! You know your clients - if they find Dermalogica expensive don’t go high end. Cuccio do a very nice pomegranate and fig spa scrub and Cuccio is stocked by lots of wholesalers. Some of cuccio’s scrubs have big chunks of salt intended for toes not tushies. So read descriptions on Cuccio’s own website carefully before purchase and have a practise.

The easiest way to train in scrubs is to book one in a Spa, look on You tube and have a couple of practise sessions on staff in their free time. Who doesn’t want a free treatment? I’m suggesting the diy approach to scrub training as your daughter will be studying a level 3 massage course. Otherwise try a scrubs and wraps one day course with a private training school.

Starting with hero products is sensible, I experimented with stocking levels discovering the hard way what sold well and what sat on the shelf fading….When we started selling makeup we discovered to our chagrin that we were one of 5 new accounts opening within a square mile. Sheesh! We ordered anything clients requested and prepaid for, ordering one for stock at the same time. We tried to order once every 10 days by telling clients - I’ve just had a stock order come in, but I’ll be ordering again in a week - is that ok? Then I got my head down and focussed on finding one or two more sales within the next 7 days so that I was restocking or ordering in another special request each time I paid postage to reduce my costs. If you can order 4 products for £7 p&p that’s not so bad.

 

[TheDuchess]

Re cellulite - does Dermologica not offer a product that you can use to create a treatment? There are loads of seaweed based products that you can buy to include in wrap treatments. A lot just need to be massaged in. So you could do a quick scrub, massage in seaweed toning gel, apply cling film, cover with blanket, switch on electric couch blanket and tuck a space blanket (tinfoil) over the top to keep client toasty, leave for 20 minutes (time to add an led upgrade…) then unwrap and rinse off or leave client to wipe herself down or shower off depending on your facilities.

Alternatively try lava shells - they do hot and cold detox massage which is very slimming for bloated tummies. I’m doing a roaring trade at the moment. I wouldn’t invest in another machine, prove your market before investing.

 

[TheDuchess]

Re product sales. Place each of your chosen three products beside client so she can see them and handle them. Watch for response. Recommend one but don’t forget that some people will buy both a twix and a crunchie bar…(different types of chocolate bars for non U.K. readers)

 

[TheDuchess]

Re displaying in a sunny shop window. Snap! That’s what window decals and hanging posters are for. I saved empty bottles of products I had used myself and put them out as display items and sometimes you just have to take the hit and say - hey, I’m going to spend £200 on a fabulous display that will look amazing for at least 8 weeks and I’ll discard the products afterwards (or use them myself) it’s still cheaper than a magazine advert.

I went to a salon in a small market town where the products looked amazing. The display shelves were only one product bottle deep, well lit and mirrored. OMG place looked amazing - and their sales were startlingly high…still haven’t got round to doing this myself, but I am dreaming…

 

[Tanqueen1]

All very helpful Duchess . The inital buy in to Dermalogica was £3500 but we considered the 'brand' and their training to be worth this. Of the brand I would say, I now realise a few negatives, 1 being they don't seem to mind how many salons open within a square mile, they don't promise you any exclusivity. We are a small business with a young inexperienced (but enthusiastic) thereapist - Dermalogica insist that you take 1 of every professional product in the opening order, despit the fact that many of these items will just sit on the treatment trolley unused as the therapist needs to complete their further training in peels etc. It would have been practical to suggest we stock the hero items in multiples rather than 1 of this serum and 1 of that masque, products that are expensive and go out of date quickly (SPFs). Once I had spotted this they did allow me to return a few items and we replaced them with others. We have very quickly learnt that we cannot compete with the likes of Beauty Flash online for pricing so we are advertising our Dermalogica products with a 20% discount on RRP, this week we went 1 further with 25% off skin kits and we have sold 3, no great receord but not bad considering they were clients respoding to social media posts.

Regards Social Media! I was recently given the opportunity by my local authority to attend a course about social media for business. They had paid an 'expert' to come along and speak to a room of business owners who are baffled by such advertising. I remain as baffled at the end of the six week course as I did at the beginning. My main question was – why is it you can have 1500 followers but only about 20 of them ever see your posts? His reply was that social media is not really for business, so there are no easy ways to boost your profile other than pay for followers, if you are that vain. To gain a client who actually likes you, recommends you and generates further income for you is a rarity, unless you are offering them some incentive. I regularly receive direct messages from influencers suggesting that I should allow them free sunbeds as payment for them liking my business, but I really cannot see how a follower in Glasgow say, is going to make any difference to my turnover in London. It's all about the hashtags apparently, so I have followed the principles that were given to us by the social media 'expert', but have not seen any change on my page or that of a new therapist @beautologee (please follow and like haha)

No Dermalogica only do a body wash and moisturiser, no other body products, they are missing a trick maybe! But we all know there is nothing that really works on cellulite (wraps / lotions) or none of us would have any In my yonger years I was conned many times by a model's slim shapely body in the advert, parting with money for products which promised but didn't deliver.

Whilst I completely understand that business consultants sell their services based on their own success, I really wonder how that might translate to my business - I mean I can always tell someone how my salon became successful but I would still never be bold enought to suggest they take my advice haha.

I certainly must put more thought to a product display for Dermalogica in our reception. I currently have a glass cabinet with the skin kits inside but it is stood back from reception due to the intense heat we have with sun shining through our front windows. Previously I had hung some product boxes on fishing wire in the window to create a promotion but our shop is right in the corner of a shopping parade and it really didn't make a big impact.

There are three posters on a hanging display in the window all regards Dermalogica and we've included the pricelist of our skin therapist - we have more posters inside the salon reception but it seems we really have to draw a client's attention to the displays to get them to notice. We have a very large decal of product bottles in the main window, that has been there for a couple of months yet you can be talking to a client in reception and they will say "oh I didn't realise you sold Dermalogica" I despair!

I guess I just hoped that we would be a lot busier than we currently are, but starting a luxury service in what sounds like the worst recession for years, has not made it easy for us. We will plough on, thanks again for your reply

 

[Tanqueen1]

I'm not suggesting you give away your LED facial as the 5 th freebie btw. Just offer an alternative free treatment. You have invested a lot in buying the unit, so don't undersell it before you have got a steady client base. You'd be slashing your prices by 20% on all the sessions and that would not be good for you.
It would encourage clients to try something else at the same time.
So out of interest what other courses has your daughter completed ?
Dermalogica could advise on other facials which you don't need the LED unit for, but could lead to the possibility of expanding the facials offered.
Eyebrows used to be a big thing for my clients and so easy to market......would that be an option she will do ?

Thankyou for taking the time to reply. Further to her VTCT qualifications, my daugther has completed all her other training with Dermalogica, incluind their peels training. None of their facials require a LED device but we throught it would be a popular add-on, pretty much based on their great reviews in the beauty press. We attended Pro Beauty in February and went around all the stalls, there were so many gadgets we were wowed by, but Neo-Elegance in our opinion had the best canopy, and were giving a big discount on their hand-held LED gadget which omits radiofrequency too. In hindsight we chould have just bought the smaller hand held gadget, it's not that the canopy isn't a great piece of kit, I just havent found a client who yet has an understanding of the benefits of LED therapies, we should have done our research before we went to the show.
When my daughter told me she wanted to re-train as a skin therapist, I had so many reservatins, especially being so limited with her treatment menu, but guess what, her freinds had all assured her that they, and their mums / sisters would all come along for treatments......I think she has seen 1. Instead of saying "told you so" I am really trying to encourage her to take on more services and at least she has booked a swedish massage course now. She is off to a slow but steady start I guess and we just need a few more pointers and ideas I think to get her noticed.

 

[RosieR]

The Swedish massage course is an excellent idea and will help to promote more holistic body treatments. I also use Cuccio and am very impressed with their fab choices of smell combinations.

So I was thinking about something new for you to trial and thought back to 2 years ago.

During our re-opening month in July 2020 I invented a luxury back facial which was very successful. It was a way of using up all of my opened existing stock which was quickly running out of date. Since the back is the most neglected part of our body and plenty of people have acne or scarring. I created my detox back facial.
Basic effleurage would be used to apply the products, removal with hot towels, exfoliate, clay masque to detox, hot towels to remove the masque followed by a full back massage or the LED canopy if it will fit over the area in need.
All the massage techniques she learns on the course could lead to creating a truly bespoke back treatment. I charge the same price as a luxury facial, and it is easy to sell.
Currently It is pedicure season for me though, and so my holistic body treatments are on hold and waiting to be promoted in the Autumn.

 

[cola]

Dermalogica used to have quite a lot of body treatments in the professional range, including a seaweed detox wrap. This was 20+ years ago when I did my training and they were facials AND spa treatments. IDI used to offer a spa certificate.
They seemed to have dropped that side of things now.

 

[WeltZumerr]

Hi all. I run a tanning salon (in my 19th year) and as we have a spare treatment room I have allowed my daughter to use it to set up her new beauty business. Bank of mum has paid for her training courses and we have opened an account with Dermalogica and invested in a Neo Elegance LED canopy to give extra benefits to treatments. My daughter is getting a few enquiries but just a trickle of bookings, I guess it's not ideal to have started a luxury business during a recession! We have advertised her business in salon and on our social media, for the first time in years I agreed to a full page advert in a local magazine but as yet that hasn't gained us any enquiries.
We have ideas - she has a friend that has a lash business and they are going to do a collaborative competition, we are also going to have a "Dermalogica weekend" where products are discounted and clients can come and test the most popular products. I have given my staff all free facials so they can recommend her, but enquiries are still slow. So I am looking for lots of ideas of how you have been able to get clients. How do you manage to get them to re-book and become regulars, and of course buy (Dermalogica) product? I have spoken to our rep, saying that therapists in salon are totally disadvantaged by the numerous online sites that sell discounted product, but she just shrugged me off without an answer. Fantasy Tabletop Miniature Game - Eldfall Chronicles My daughter has only trained in facials and peels, and says she cannot touch f@@nies and feet so does not want to learn waxing or mani/pedi to offer extra services. https://erasmus-home.com/en/rent-apartment/rent-apartment-zadar/ There are a lot of things above, I would love all your input, thank you sooooo much in advance. Katherine.

We did not expect to be busy in the first week or even in the first month but we are finding it hard getting clients to notice, many sit in reception on their phones rather than read the posters we have put up advertising different services. Having done a recent social media course I know that about 1500 Instagram followers only 20 see our posts and stories! I like your idea of pay for four treatments get a 5th free, and will get back in touch with Neo Elegance. Come on all other Geeks, advice needed. X