The Salon Business Crystal Ball Predictions 2014

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sheppy

New Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
bearsted
My Sister works in the Hair industry and wanted me to post thoughs on the industry online. I hope you all like it. I have work with missguided pixiwoo ciate and others.

Jokes aside, there WILL be great shifts in the hair & beauty industry this year. Some will be brought about by technology (mobile apps, for example), some will be caused by changes in consumer behavior, others by the gathering increase in disposable income, and still more by competition

Be aware: assuming you’ll be able to run your business in 2014 the same way you did it in 2013 is a recipe for failure. The world IS changing. Here are my predictions for the year ahead.

Prediction: mobile – that means smart-phones and tablets like iPads – will completely swamp ‘old-fashioned’ desktop and laptop computing in 2014. Those salons which embrace mobile, find out how to use it, and exploit it will leave behind those who ignore it, hoping it’ll go away. It won’t.

Prediction: By the end of 2014, salons relying on retail sales of commonly-available products for their ‘cream’ will be largely out of business.

Opportunity from failing competitors

Sad, but true; more hair and beauty businesses will close their doors this year than ever before. The widely-accepted industry ‘churn’ rate is about 20%, i.e., 20% of existing businesses will close, replaced by another 20% opening up with hopes and dreams.


On the face of it, your competitor closing her doors is good news (for you). But few take more than passive interest, doing little more to take advantage of this than merely hoping some of her customers will come your way. This year, the winners will become much more aggressive in their efforts to grab market share, not only by actively seeking to damage a competitor’s business, but by being ready to pounce on that suddenly-available opportunity.


Which means this: database is King. Salon owners who recognize the immense (marketing) value of a well-maintained, clean and accurate database of clients and their contact details – all of them – will be in a position to not only take maximum advantage of their own client list, but also know what to look for when a competitor closes. And pick up that competitor’s database for peanuts in the dollar.


Cutting Costs:


It’s tempting, when things are going well, not to worry too much about ‘little’ costs. A few pounds here or there. But 2014 will require more attention. Electricity prices aren’t going down. Neither are staff costs. But the winners this year will pay attention to the little things. Getting a better deal on phone and internet supply. It’s easier than you think. Prices have come down dramatically, thanks to competition, since you negotiated your last deal. Product suppliers will – if you push them – give you sample products you can use as deal sweeteners.Newspaper publishers are struggling to sell ad space.


Ruthless Management:


Our business is a people business. By its very nature, it often attracts caring and sharing ‘people-pleasers’ who’ll bend over backwards not to upset anyone, clients and staff especially. Which was fine back in the days when clients wouldn’t dream of being disloyal and going elsewhere, when staff signed up to a career in the business.


Those days are long gone. Daily deal websites have turned millions of people into bottom-feeding deal hunters, who’ll descent like a swarm of locusts at the slightest hint of a bargain, strip the paddock bare and move on just as quickly. Even without the daily deal scourge, instant availability of products and services at the touch of a browser button has reduced concentration spans to that of a mosquito. People are ruder, more discourteous, more demanding, less forgiving, less patient.


Staff – particularly the young ones – no longer think in terms of a job for years. Very few think more than a few months ahead. Again, thanks to technology, competition and social media, your 20 year old staff member can find another job on the other side of the planet faster, and get their more cheaply, than most of us could have dreamed of even ten years ago.


Prediction:
The successful salon owner in 2014 will become more ruthless, less forgiving, more focused on figures, more stringent with staff demands, less willing to be trodden on by clients. She will demand deposits to secure long appointments. She will insist on staff being bound by a simple, carefully-worded Policies & Procedures “This is how we do things here” document. She will, in effect, be swallowing a handful of ‘harden-up’ pills as you’re reading this, determined that 2014 will not end – like so many years before – with her declaring “Next year, things are going to be different around here.”
 

Latest posts

Back
Top