A Suite Salon Blog

December 31st is only a few weeks away, which means it’s crunch time for small business owners to review the past year and ensure their salon suite business has everything in place before 2019 arrives. Now is a great time to review tips and strategies on how to save money on your taxes and improve your bottom line for next year. We recommend five key strategies to ensure the process is as painless as possible:

The excitement of operating your own salon suite can be so exciting it is hard to think of anything else.  The idea of owning a salon, making your own schedule, offering the services you want, selling product you like to use, being the boss, and the best part, keeping the profits are all thoughts swirling around in your head and most likely keeping you awake at night. 

Hair.

We go to great lengths to take care of our hair. From hair masks to keratin treatments, most women have no problem splurging on their hair. 

Your talent, skills and relationship building skills with your clients have made you a successful salon suite owner and entrepreneur. Clients are coming to you because they know you are great at what you do. Now, you can turn your focus to growing your income. A great way to do this is selling retail products to your clients. And there is no better time of year to sell your products than during the holiday season.  Clients are in the market for ways to look and feel better during the holidays and there is always the need for great gifts for their friends and family. Here are a few ideas to help you sharpen your skills to sell retail in your suite:

The holidays are upon us and you know what that means...gift giving season! If you have not done so already, you still have time to add the revenue booster of gift card sales to your salon suite business. We’ll let you in on a little secret the retail industry has known for decades – gift cards are an important source of profit for three reasons. 1. Clients with gift cards spend more. Studies show they spend an average of $20 dollars beyond the value of the gift card. 2. They are more likely to choose your salon for a service because they have a gift card. 3. Many gift cards go unredeemed. The statistics vary widely business to business, but it’s safe to say that a significant portion of purchased gift cards are never redeemed which means “free money” for the business.

Advertising your Salon Suite business on social media can pay off big time when your ads attract new clients or encourage current clients to come in again and again for services. So how do you make sure your ads are a success? Here are the top 10 dos and don’ts for advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Now that you have the steps to creating ads on Facebook and Instagram and ideas and best practices for creating content and images that capture attention and customers, the final step in social advertising is monitoring and managing your advertising to make sure your ads are a smart spend for your marketing budget. There are three keys to managing social ads: testing, engaging, and knowing the numbers.

In our last post, we guided you through the initial steps to get started with social media advertising for your suite salon business. Next up, we’ll discuss how to create copy + images for an ad that gets the attention of your clients and drives them to book a service or purchase a retail product.

Medical professionals across a number of fields agree that sleep is essential for overall health and wellness. Unfortunately, the average person (ahem, you and me) fails to realize that sleep impacts nearly every function of the body, including abstract functions we don’t think about daily — like our skin and hair.

The good news for small business owners is that advertising to potential customers is much easier and more affordable than it’s ever been - thanks to social media. Facebook and Instagram are probably platforms that you and your customers are very familiar with, so they’re a natural place to try advertising to promote your Suite business. Ads allow you to directly link customers to book an appointment, claim an offer or purchase a retail product. Even better, you can now use the same Facebook “Ads Manager” platform to set up, create and manage ads that will run on both Facebook and Instagram.

The excitement of operating your own salon suite can be so exciting it is hard to think of anything else.  The idea of owning a salon, making your own schedule, offering the services you want, selling product you like to use, being the boss, and the best part, keeping the profits are all thoughts swirling around in your head and most likely keeping you awake at night. 

As salon suite owners, we often know what our clients like and why they continue to make appointment after appointment. You have been in the industry for years and are very good at what you do. However, unless you are booked solid for months in advance, it might be worth taking a quick refresher and hear from clients on reasons why they stay loyal and book that next appointment. 

It always starts with a sudden flash of inspiration. Something you see, do, or hear, and the next thing you know you dive head first into the waters of business ownership. Sometimes the water is warm and you enjoy the fruits of your labor. Other times it can be a cold hard venture that either makes you stronger and ready to try again or seemingly scares you to the point of immobility. Either way it can be scary.

These days all the talk is about advertising online or through social media.  And while it is true those are very powerful tools, there are other ways to get your name and your service offerings out to potential clients. Discovering these ways will take some creativity and a bit of time, but then again anything good for your business usually does.  To get your wheels turning, we have listed a few ‘outside the box’ ideas to get you started:

As you move into your new suite there are many opportunities that are now open to you; flexibility of schedule, offering of services, selling product, and more profit.  Even if you have been at A Suite Salon for several years you may be ready for a bit of a refresh.  Whatever your tenure as a suite owner your brand and branding is a major part of your business and the set up of this branding can be a very exciting process.  A big key is to remember that this process should be fun.  So in an effort to save you some stress, we broke down the branding process into some simple steps.

We’ll let you in on a little secret the retail industry has known for decades – gift cards are an important source of profit for three reasons. 1. Clients with gift cards spend more. Studies show they spend an average of $20 dollars beyond the value of the gift card. 2. They are more likely to choose your salon for a service because they have a gift card. 3. Many gift cards go unredeemed. The statistics vary widely business to business, but it’s safe to say that a significant portion of purchased gift cards are never redeemed which means “free money” for the business.

So if you’re not selling gift cards in your salon suite, you should be. Here are five ways to merchandise and sell gift cards to maximize revenue for your business:

There are two things all salon suite owners have in common, they all have an entrepreneurs spirit and are undoubtedly great at their craft. It is key to remember…. You’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. Working in an environment where there are many other salon owners, it is key to soak up the wisdom of a salon mentor. Identify someone who is successful and inspiring to you. Ask outright if they’ll mentor you. Finding a mentor is one of the best investments you can make in yourself and your career. Along your entrepreneurial journey you will need advice from someone who has been where you are headed and can challenge and inspire you.

You likely send and receive text messages all day long to communicate with family and friends, but texting can be a powerful tool for business communication as well. When you’re thinking about marketing your salon suite business, one of the easiest AND most effective ways to directly reach established and prospective clients is through text message. 

Now that you are making money at A Suite Salon, it is time to start thinking about putting some money away for a rainy day.  You hear commercials every day from any number of companies promoting hundreds of different products to save for retirement, college, or medical emergencies.  Very quickly this process of saving for you and your family’s future can become so daunting, that inevitably you throw up your hands and go another several years without saving a dime.

When we ask current professionals how being their own Boss has changed their careers, almost every answer carries themes of freedom, making more money, being happy, and spending more time with family.