People like to look good and feel good about themselves, and your hair and nail salon business can help them achieve that. As a salon owner, you have two options. That’s to either buy a franchise or do it alone.
Getting a franchise can be a very promising investment. It helps to bring an existing corporate structure and brand recognition to the table. This makes your life as a franchisee easier. However, you’ll still be slightly constrained. If you’d like to be the one who calls the shots, having your own salon will be a better idea.
Whether you do it alone or take the franchising route, you’ll need to win the trust of your target niche. One of the ways to do so is to ensure that you have skilled members of your staff who can offer high-quality services.
As a hair and nail salon business owner, you also have to be qualified yourself. The first step you should take is to enroll in a cosmetology program. This training will help you gain a better understanding of your business.
Cosmetology is the study of the art and science of beautifying hair and nails. Students also learn how to provide skincare services. After training, you become a licensed cosmetologist who can provide cosmetic treatments.
Skills You Need to Learn If You Want Your Business to Thrive in the Beauty Industry
If you’d like to specialize in skin care services, you’ll be better off becoming an esthetician. An esthetician is a trained specialist who enhances the skin through different treatments.
Being an esthetician, you help improve the condition and appearance of your client’s skin. You also help them maintain healthy and clear skin.
The beauty industry has many skills. Apart from specializing in hair and skincare, you can learn about becoming a nail technician. The only thing standing between you and your career as a nail technician is the nail state board exam.
In most cases, you’ll need to take the nail technician practice exam and the nail technician theory exam. The examinations aren’t easy because they also cover scientific concepts.
You can prepare for these exams by taking the free nail practice test. This free test contains questions that appear on the nail technician state board exam. Taking this free test will help you understand the type of questions to expect from the actual exam.
Ways You Can Improve Your Hair and Nail Salon Business
So how do you improve this type of business? Here are 7 things you need to do to drive your hair and salon business towards success.
1. Streamline Your Booking Process
Streamlining your booking process is helpful to both you and your clients. Running a salon is about simplifying your processes with creativity and strategy.
The booking process is a great place to start for those who are fine-tuning a plan on how to manage a salon business. Use of the right booking app enables you to manage your salon services, payments, and reviews.
The right booking app makes it easy for your clients to check your availability. It also enables them to book their desired time slots. If clients want neon artificial nails or a classic manicure, they’ll find you through the booking app.
2. Attract More Clients
Your clients will become your brand ambassadors if you offer the best services. Happy clients would usually share a great experience and where they got it from through word of mouth and social media.
The use of referral programs is another strategy you can use to attract new clients. Many small businesses have embraced these programs to encourage existing clients to spread the word about their brand.
Provide a stimulus for your clients in the form of rewards through a referral program. You can also give discounts on services to old clients when they refer new clients. This strategy will help to bring in more clients. You can also explore out-of-the-box marketing ideas to spread the word about your business.
Talk to local influencers and give them barter services in exchange for promoting your salon. A local blogger with a large following can give you space on their weekly hair advice column.
You can use that opportunity to set yourself as an industry expert. Advise the readers on how to take care of wavy hair. Use that opportunity to get your brand out there.
3. Upsell Your Clients
Your older clients are a big deal in the hair and nail salon business. Remember that they have spent a lot of money in your salon over a long period of time, and so these clients must be treated with a lot of care and respect.
Convincing people to give your brand a chance is usually the toughest job. Once you have convinced them, you’ll need to keep giving them reasons to continue trusting you.
You can do this by keeping them updated about new or other services that you provide. Show them how these services can help them to achieve their personal aesthetic goals.
4. Invest in Your Team Members
Employees are a very important asset in a business. That’s because they are the ones who sell your services and create experiences for clients.
As such, you have to ensure that they are happy with their work and that they are rewarded for their performance. Their loyalty and hard work deserve recognition. You can also provide ongoing training to support their career growth.
Offer competitive pay and benefits and respond to their needs. Consider a monthly get-together to enhance employee morale. This is also a great way to socialize more and promote teamwork.
These employees, like everyone else, deserve a healthy work/life balance. They also have loved ones and personal pursuits that need their time, just like your salon. Just like competitive pay is crucial in securing employees, so is flexible scheduling.
5. Improve Efficiency and Minimize Overhead Costs
Keeping track of your expenses is very crucial in the management of your salon business. The monthly overhead that you pay to keep your business running is a critical number. You must ensure you have a good ballpark evaluation at the top of your mind. Also, ensure that you directly influence the prices set for the services offered.
Reducing the prices while keeping customer satisfaction high is not difficult. To achieve this, you must be creative about when to reduce the costs. For instance, you can shop around for the same supplies at a low price. You can also unplug high-energy consuming equipment when not in use.
6. Ask for Customer Feedback
Surveying your services is a great way to improve your hair and nail salon business. Through the survey, find out what clients want, what they don’t care about, and what they like about your salon.
For instance, you might be thinking of hiring a pedicurist, but you aren’t sure it will work in your salon business. That is where conducting a survey comes in. You can choose to conduct a survey on your clients informally or send them email surveys.
After getting their feedback, make sure to act on it. And, let your clients know that you appreciate them for completing the survey and what action you’ll take. Conducting a survey is an important process:
- You get to accurately know what clients need
- It makes your clients feel good for asking for their opinion
7. Frequently Market Your Business
Frequently marketing your hair and nail salon is key to the success of your business. There’s a lot of competition in this business. Thus, you must build your brand and communicate what makes it unique.
You can, for instance, focus on hair care tips, skincare routine, or have tens of options of nail polish. The point here is to let your clients know what makes you shine. New clients have many choices when booking their nail tech, for instance. So ensure they have a reason to remember your services.
There are a lot of hair and nail salon marketing ideas out there. The use of social media is one of them since that’s where the younger generation spends most of their time.
Conclusion
Your hair and nail salon business may be running smoothly and your staff seems busy enough. But have you ever wished your staff were busier and things ran more smoothly? There’s always room for improvement. We believe the tips in this article will help to boost your hair and nail salon business.
