Are your dreams of a great 2020 totally over?

Do you feel that you are out of control,  just want this pandemic to end and for the status quo to resume?

I want to share with you how I overcame the world’s biggest recession in my lifetime and even grew my salon’s profits to be my biggest and successful year ever.

When I opened my first salon in the UK, it wasn’t long before we grew to a team of 5 and were busier than ever. We could attract clients easily and had no issue finding or keeping clients. It was a breeze, to be honest. Then it all changed when we were hit with a huge recession in the 1990’s which lasted for over 3 years. 

My salon was in Coventry at the time – the main hub for cars being built and the motor industry was about to hit a huge decline. Factories that, at one time, couldn’t build cars fast enough, suddenly had no orders and people were losing their jobs everywhere. I didn’t see it coming, but with lost jobs, people stopped spending. I wasn’t prepared for this downturn and didn’t know what impact it was going to have on my salon. 

The phone suddenly stopped ringing like the phone company had cut us off.  I often picked it up just to check it still had a dial tone. White spaces started to appear in the appointment book and they grew bigger and bigger, until we had more white spaces than appointments booked. 

 

The staff were getting restless and bored and I was feeling very much the same way. They were looking for me to do something, to reassure them that things were going to be ok, but I feared it wasn’t. I was struggling to pay the bills by this time and the pressure for me to perform like I knew what to do was taking its toll. I was winging it, like all the other salon owners and scared that I would be found out as a fraud. I was meant to be the captain of the ship and I didn’t know what to do. 

A lot of businesses were closing around us and the fact I opened with no debt and was able to work 7 days a week, somehow we managed to scrape through by the skin of our teeth. 

That recession cost me years of salon growth. It used up all the savings I had and knocked the stuffing out of us.

I was burnt out. I lost my mojo and I didn’t know if I would recover.

I knew if ever there was another recession like that again, I would give up the fight and go and get a job. But it’s not that simple. I’m not a quitter and I wouldn’t just let the staff down that rely on me, so I had to be better prepared for the next one.

That recession of the 1990’s put me back years. So while the salon was not fully booked and I had time, I used it wisely to prepare in case there was ever another one. I started to observe what other salons were doing. Some salons didn’t seem to panic and returned to their usual busy salons very quickly, while many went into a price war as they were desperate to get clients at all costs. After all, there was now an abundance of new clients floating around and lots of salons trying to entice them in. Pretty much like what is happening today.

I started to observe the successful salons and find out what they were doing. I wanted to know which books they read and what coaches they were using. They had something that other salons didn’t, including me.

I found out they were obsessed with 3 core elements of their business

HOW TO ATTRACT THE RIGHT CLIENT, WITH EASE

HOW TO CONVERT THE CLIENTS TO RETURN

HOW TO DELIVER A REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE

This was now my mission. To master all 3 elements in my very own salon.

I knew I had to learn their secrets and as the salon was quiet, time was on my side. Over the next 5 years I went to every seminar I could. I invested a lot of my time and thousands of pounds to learn what these salons were doing and how they managed to grow their businesses, even in a dire recession.

One of the things I found was that not all the people that were so-called ‘business gurus’  were masters at what they were teaching and I was taught a lot of systems that didn’t work in my salon. I persevered with my mission, looking towards other industries for ideas and strategies. I implemented my new findings, month after month, tracking our progress as I went, until I looked around my salon and it was full again, I had become a true master at growing my business. Not by winging it, but with a clear, concise, strategic plan.

The only true test would be if we went into another recession, but I had to wait until 2008 to truly test if my hard work had paid off. In fact, we were about to head into the biggest recession since World War 2.

Right now as the UK enters its biggest recession since records began and Australia’s first recession in 30 years, Covid-19 will affect EVERY business and every salon, be it hair, beauty or nails and the impact will be unavoidable for all.

If your salon is less than 12 years old, you will have never experienced working through a recession before. You will need skills and the knowledge to get you through it successfully. 

Forearmed is forewarned, as they say and learning and implementing the right foundations will give you a fighting edge to survive. 

The only thing you can do now is be prepared and grind it out. You will be called upon by your team to have the answers. You will be called upon by your clients to be strong and calm. You will be called upon by YOU to look after your health, your family, clients and staff. So let’s fill you in on the necessities you’ll need to know…

You need to know that there’s safety in numbers.

Taking your salon through the biggest recession of our lifetime will not be easy and doing it alone isn’t good for your health or motivation. There will be lots of negative people and groups with lots to say. Everyone will suddenly be an expert and there will be drama. People will have everything to blame and you will need a tribe of like-minded people to surround yourself with to drown out the noise so you can focus on what’s important right now. Only today in my private coaching Facebook group, a salon owner asked a great question and fellow salon owners jumped in to help him. Real, successful salon owners that have been there and done it, that know and understand your world. Knowing that like-minded people have your back will help you get through this, without you carrying all the pressure yourself on your shoulders.

 

You must understand that clients habits have changed

Almost every city in the world has experienced a lockdown of some sorts and the result of locking someone up for a length of times has its knock-on effects. Here in the UK after 16 weeks of not going to the salon, some clients have changed their habits. While some clients have got used to their natural hair colour, own nails and beauty regimes, others are just out of habit. They don’t have the desire to visit the salon as most are not going out, holidaying or visiting friends. These habits need to be nurtured to get the clients back.

 

You need to find the right clients that are looking for a salon like yours

If there was ever a time to master your salon marketing then it’s now. We’re not talking about making your instagram look pretty or posting the same before and after pics on your facebook every day, I’m talking about REAL marketing that converts your followers into loyal clients and gets your appointment book full. You’ll have more time on your hands and more clients will have the time to see your posts. The problem most salon owners have is not knowing what to put out there and getting no response from their efforts. Both can be resolved with a little effort and knowledge.

 

Prospective clients can be broken down into 3 categories. 

The RED – 30% of clients will not see your ad or even respond to it if they did. They are someone else’s hard core clients and they are going nowhere. 

The GREEN – 3%  will be tempted with a discount or offer. They will leave any salon for a good deal and that includes your salon too. Most salon owners try to tempt these clients because that’s all they know. It’s easy and it’s lazy. They’re the discount chasers.

The AMBER – 67% are the best. High-paying clients that will not be tempted with discounts. They stay loyal to a salon for a long time until that salon annoys them or takes them for granted. When this happens they start looking for a new salon to call home. They are looking right now and may see yours as their next salon, but you have to say the right things in your ads and posts to attract them. They will check you out to make sure you are safe and offer what they desire. All you need to do is convince them that you are the salon that can fix their problems.

 

Understand that everyone will get desperate to attract clients and a price war will start.

Today in every city there are way too many salons compared to how many clients live there. Things are tight and some salons were struggling to get their team to hit the 3x wage before the pandemic and recession and it’s generally because there aren’t enough clients coming to their salon. They didn’t know how to attract the right ones or convert them to come back and be loyal. Now, with all that’s going to happen, these salons will need to do all they can to survive and that will result in lowering their prices to try to fill their salons again. This tactic can be very successful but only if you know how to do it correctly. Most salons don’t over use this and this really affects their client retention. 

See below how this impacts the salons turnover.

The clients desires have changed 

The result of lockdowns, restrictions and the pandemic is that people’s attitudes have changed. We are seeing this in the services that are thriving in salons right now. People want experience, relaxation and me-time, compared to services that were once results-driven.

Salon owners that were winging it before the pandemic will definitely feel pinch this time around. Some have already given up and closed their doors, while some are tired and feeling overwhelmed already. 

The era of how much you learn will compare to how much you earn is here and present. Most salon owners see investing in themselves as a bill. Sadly, those salon owners will never be free of the stresses of salon ownership. But those salon owners who believe investing in themselves are seeing fantastic growth in their salons, even now.

 

You’ll need to to ‘Know your Important Numbers’  

The one thing that most salon owners shy away from is numbers, preferring to outsource their bookkeeping and only look at their financial figures at the end of the financial year with an accountant. This is never acceptable but most salons get away with it. During hard times you will need to have your finger on the pulse, know exactly what’s going on and be able to adapt to change pretty quickly. To start with, you will need to know your break even point (the amount it costs you to open your salon, this will cover all bills and wages) so you know exactly how much takings you need to make to keep you profitable. Once you know this figure there are two more figures that are important and they make up the takings, your average client spend and how many clients you service. Once you know these three numbers you must track them on a weekly basis. 

As you keep track of these numbers you will quickly notice over time what your salon needs to do to stay above break even and even make profit. You will be able to work on these numbers to increase your salon’s takings. If you do more marketing or implement a ‘keep in touch’ strategy the number of clients you service will increase. If you work on your client journey and their experience, how much they spend with you will increase. You will notice this is the same strategy as the 3 core elements that successful salons are using also.

So the time had come to see if my salon growth systems would stand another recession.

The year was 2008 and I had moved to Australia and started my new salon life from scratch. This would be a true test of my systems as the world was going into a melt down. To top that, my team of 9 decided that if the world was going to be hit with a recession, they would enjoy the year the best way they knew how, on holiday in Europe. 

I lost 7 of my team in one fell swoop and I was left with me, a first year apprentice and a part timer. This was going to test me and my systems to the max. I had to employ new staff fast, train them up with my proven systems and move into hyperactive mode all at the same time.

The systems held strong. I used my attraction strategy to attract staff and clients and my hyperactive mode prevented me from losing around $167,000 in a year as this would have been the cost to the salon as some clients were dragging out their visits between appointments.

See the impact this would have on an average salons staff member doing around 30 clients a week.

It soon adds up how much a salon can increase their takings by 10,000 per week just by getting clients in one week sooner. But as you might be experiencing in your salon clients are actually dragging their appointments by weeks. This is having a massive impact with salons takings dropping.

As other salons became quiet, we held our own and even grew a little. But the biggest impact was with our profits. My accountant was speechless. We had increased our salon profits by a whopping $90,000 during the world’s biggest recession since World War 2.

Today we help and teach salon owners the same proven tactics that we used in our salons to save them from going backwards. We don’t know how deep this recession will be due to this pandemic and what effect it will have on businesses around the world. But I do know how to give my coaching clients the best chance to stay afloat and grow with proven systems that work in any recession. Saving salon owners years of decline and thousands in lost revenue.

Give a man a fish

People love to say ‘Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.’  What they don’t say is ‘And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod’. That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.

Youtube can teach you anything, but a good coach that knows what they’re talking about can supply the tools as well.

You see, that’s what I do best. I help salon owners like you, get more out of their salons. 

At this point, you have two choices. If you have a lot of time on your hands you can take your salon to the next level yourself by reading, learning and figuring it all out on your own. It’s the longer and seemingly cheaper route and something that requires a lot of time. Or you if you are time-poor and want the quicker route, get the help and guidance you need from someone who is an expert and has lived and survived it.

It may have taken me years, but I cracked the secret and I now teach this to hundreds of salon owners just like you. My step-by-step, proven program that will help you keep moving forward.

*Special Invite*

Every month we invite 7 salon owners that want to trial our systems and take their salons to the next level. 

You must hit the criteria and are wanting to make more profits post-Covid and want to get your salon back on track again, even better than it was before.

There will only be 7, hand picked by me. You will get a chance to experience everything we do at an unbelievable, unheard of price.

If you think this is something that you would like to learn and implement in your salon email me here with the subject line ‘Mag 7’ and I’ll be in touch.

A little bit about you.

You MUST have said yes to EVERYTHING BELOW.

Do you employ staff?

Do you want to secure your salons future with proven ways to fill your team?

Do you want to pay your team more?

Do you want to earn more money and work less on the floor? 

Do you know that you will not only be successful but you’ll help others on the way? 

Do you want more time with your family? 

Do you want more experiences in life?

Then you are perfect for this.

Looking forward to meeting you

Rich

Richard McCabe

‘The Lifestyle Salon Coach’

www.lifestylesaloncoach.com