Salon Open day/evening for new salons?

[Layla-Louise]

Hi there i just wanted people's opinions on Salon launch evenings & open days for New salons, i'm recently going to be setting up on my own & im in two minds has to whether i should have 1:

A) as to i'm going to be the only beauty therapist working there & therefore it isnt like im going to be introducing & new team of employees with lots of guest speakers &
b) i'm quite limited on space in the salon

However someone did mention that i could invite some of the locals round for some wine & nibbles to celebrate the opening, but because ive never been to one of i just wanted to know what would be expected.
I know that its a great way of giving clients 10% off treatments booked that night or for any new clients that may have queries & want to speak and know who their therapist is gonna to be, but will potential clients expect to see around the salon & treatment rooms
As i know some people are just nosy & want to see what you've done inside & have no intentions of actually coming in & booking for something.
So i wanted geeks opinions on this matter & whether its worth it for me on my own to do something like this?

Thankyou for your help as always

 

[hippy-chick]

I think its an important way to launch yourself, I did this on Nov 1st 07.

firstly, get a friend to help out, I did most of it solo and its knackering.

secondly, get some biz cards or postcards made up with the date and time of opening and give them out to everyone. You can usually get the local paperboy to deliver them on his round (cost me tenner). Get your cards from vistaprint you get 250 free.

thirdly, get some bags and put your price list in it, perhaps a money off voucher, some wrapped sweets or a gift of some description.
I got some brown sandwich bags with handles, sprayed a copper Ohm sign on each one. Inside I put my price list, a special offer postcard to be used by a certain date, an incense stick, a herbal teabag and a typed affirmation.

when people came in, I handed them the bag straight away and asked them to look at the treatments and ask if they wanted to know anything.

fourthly, beg friends, colleagues, neighbours to come and support you, you want the place to be buzzing.

fifthly, serve a drink, I got loads of bottles of cava, bought loads of bags of ice and hired the glasses from tescos. enrol a friend to be server.

one other thing, which went down a storm (and I think it was cogsi who gave me this idea when we were on healthypages), I did a balloon raffle. I got a joblot of crystal bracelets in organza bags from ebay. I typed up what they would win or sorry you didn't win anything. some of the prizes were free treatments or £5 off a treatment. I also had some homemade bath bombs and a pamper bag with sanctuary products in it. I rolled each piece of paper up, secured it with a pretty label and inserted it into a balloon. blew up 60 balloons and people could buy one for £1. Supply pins for them to pop the balloons, and if they win the free treatment hand them a gift voucher stating that.

I also got personalised balloons made up with my salon name and NOW OPEN on it. It looked hellish!

Make sure your appointment book is in view. I also did a book 2 treatments on the night and get a 3rd free for that night only.
On the night I got 10 bookings. approx 50 people turned up.

HTH

 

[Blue Rose]

Hello Layla-Louise,

Ditto everything hippy-chick says.

Another thing you could do on the day/ evening is run a competition offering £x worth of treatments. Everybody who turns up fills in an entry form. You have 1 main winner, then for some others you can send them a letter telling them they've won a free back massage for eg.

You need to include a yes/no box for them to tick if they want to receive further info from you. It's a great way of starting a database so you can send further special offers & promotions out.

I've done this quite a lot in recent months at shops near to the salon & we've gained loads of new clients. It's surprising how many re-book after coming in initially for a free back massage. It's cheaper than advertising & it keeps my therapists busy.

 

[Blue Rose]

ps. Thanks Ann for that recommendation from healthypages about the balloon raffle