While salon owners are busy working to create the perfect salon environment and offering customers a wide range of services, they don’t always stop to think about the need to expand. There are some simple steps salon owners can take to expand their client base and grow their businesses.
When you open a beauty salon, you have to be prepared for the tough competition you will face both with other nearby salons and within the entirety of the industry itself. It will be your job to create and grow your brand, build your customer base, and build loyalty with those customers by offering consistently high standards. When you are ready to expand your business, maintaining high standards will become even more important. Many businesses find that they struggle to maintain control of their brand and quality if they grow too quickly.
When thinking about expanding your beauty salon business, there are a few different avenues you may pursue. Expanding may mean moving to a larger location so that you can have a single larger location. It may mean opening multiple locations, and including hiring managers to run the locations you will not be working at daily. A third option is to turn your beauty salon into a franchise business and allowing prospective entrepreneurs to open their own salons under your brand. When you expand to the point of bringing on other managers or salon owners, you want to make sure you are trusting your business to the right hands.
One of the best things to do is to establish a solid business foundation that can support the growth you are working towards. If the foundation is solid, you will be able to expand quickly and successfully. While building your business, you can determine what kind of expansion you want to work towards. The following five tips will help you expand your salon business in new and exciting ways, but they will only be effective if you have a successful business to begin with.
1. Get the software you really need.
There are plenty of software options for a small business to acquire, but only some will provide the services, like invoicing that you actually need. For example, Quickbooks will allow you to track all of your expenses and income quickly. This allows you to run reports when needed to analyze the numbers in a variety of different ways. With Quickbooks, you can analyze where you are making the most and least profit in real-time, which products are selling quickly, and which products are just taking up space. You can project future sales, create invoices as needed, prepare sales receipts, and print checks from the same accounting software. Additionally, when it comes time to do your taxes, you can print all the reports from Quickbooks you need to give your accountant. Quickbooks has revolutionized business software by providing salon owners with everything they need for bookkeeping in one place.
If you are expanding your business online so that customers can buy products and gift cards through your website in addition to in your store, you will need software solutions that offer Quickbooks Integration, like that offered by Nitrosell, that can create an online point-of-sale (POS) system that will work with what you already have. When you run your reports, you’ll be able to include both online and in-store sales without having to duplicate your Quickbooks online account. With Quickbooks integration, you’ll have everything you need while running your eCommerce store. There is other accounting software out there. However, Quickbooks has created a reputation for its versatility and reliability. You can take classes to help you get the most out of Quickbooks, and they have a strong customer service branch to help troubleshoot problems you may encounter.
With your business email address, you can set up Quickbooks online and sync it to your POS software to get instant updates, as opposed to buying and installing updated versions of Quickbooks. Quickbooks online will also allow you to access your information from anywhere, making it more flexible. Accounting software like Quickbooks that allows you to integrate your retail and online businesses will grow with you as you expand. Besides Quickbooks, you can also try using a salon management system. It might not have invoicing features, but it will save you a lot of headaches with booking appointments.
2. Keep your business customer-focused.
When running a beauty salon, you must keep your business customer-focused. Your services, decor, and furniture should all be chosen and laid out with the comfort and enjoyment of your customers in mind. You want your customers to feel pampered and cared for while in your salon to build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing through personal referrals. You have to remember that every detail matters from the minute they call for an appointment. From the moment they walk into your salon until they leave, they should feel special. From the moment they sit in a barber chair to the moment you lift the dryer away from their head, your customers should know they are in the right hands.
For services, you will need barber chairs, hairdryers, sinks, and more. You need to consider your customer with every purchase. For example, when looking at barber chairs for sale, you want to consider how they look, function, and feel while sitting in them. Your customers should be comfortable while you still have all the functions you need to get your job done. Whether you are running a barbershop or a beauty salon, you want to increase your services’ perceived value whenever possible. Keller International specializes in salon chairs and equipment that are designed and built with the customer in mind. You can choose the chairs that work best for our salon, knowing they are of the highest quality.
3. Offer brands you can stand behind.
When you choose the products you plan to use and sell in your beauty salon; you want to choose products you can stand behind for their quality. While you need to consider products at a reasonable price for your target customers, you also need to use your deep understanding of beauty and hair needs to choose products you are confident in. Choose a product vendor that will provide you with excellent customer service, reasonable prices, and hassle-free ordering and delivery. Offer your clients the top brands for the products you are selling. Choose a qualified company to help you enhance your product line.
As the owner with years of experience in the beauty industry, your customers will trust you with their hair care decisions because you do an outstanding job. They will accept your product recommendations believing they are in good hands. That is a level of responsibility that you need to take seriously as you expand your business. Too often, during business expansions, owners lose sight of the customer, choosing to make decisions for financial reasons instead. You’ll also need to look at availability and hours to ensure you are providing day appointments and evening appointments at times that are convenient for your clients.
4. Trust professionals when you need them.
Whether you are talking to product vendors, equipment repair people, accountants, or lenders, choose professionals you can trust with your business and reputation. For example, honoluluappliancerepairpro.com is the trusted go-to company for appliance repair in Honolulu. They have over 30 years of appliance repair experience and have built a solid reputation by providing consistently great customer service and expertise. Their customers know they are in good hands because they trust the company only to send out appliance repair technicians that are highly trained and experienced. It is that kind of reputation you want to look for in your vendors and contractors. These technicians are highly versatile and are able to work with appliances from all the major brands—Whirlpool, Frigidaire, GE, Siemens, and more.
Anytime you have to call or hire a technician to come to your salon for any reason, you want to know you’ll get an accurate estimate particularly if you are facing an expensive problem. Appliance maintenance is just an example of what you may need to consider. Equipment rental, appliance purchasing, and repairs are all things you may need to address. If you decide to put a kitchen area in your salon, or even a small refrigerator for drinks, you want to work with and rely on a professional appliance repair company who will handle everything from the ordering of parts to regular good maintenance. You may choose a few small appliances like a coffee pot or toaster for your clients or staff.
5. Always be in front of growing trends.
The beauty industry can be rough because beauty trends change seemingly overnight. However, you can keep ahead of the trends by monitoring innovations and product introductions throughout the industry. Consistently offering your customer base services and looking at prices they are used to will allow you to quickly expand your business through organic growth. As your customers grow in loyalty, they will actively share your services with their friends and family. Your customers will be walking advertisements for your business, so ensuring they always look amazing and leave happy is critical.
When you adjust your services to changing trends, you’ll demonstrate to your customers that they are in the right hands because you have such extensive knowledge of the beauty industry that you are fully aware of what they want. Make sure you can provide your customers with options to make a convenient appointment, including evening or day appointments. Customer satisfaction is critical in the beauty business. Whether you are running a barbershop for men or a spa-like location for women, you need to keep customer satisfaction as your central goal if you want to expand your business.
