The Stylist’s Toolbox.com

Thanks to a heads up from Modern Salon, I’ve been checking out Sam Villa’s website.  Sam is Redken’s Platform Artist of the Year and a true genius when to comes to hair.

In all my years in distribution, no other platform artist had the fan base and following of Sam. Didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing, there were a group of stylists that were going to be there.  His work is revolutionary, truly out-of-the-box, but still accessible to actual working stylists.

Sam’s website (SamVilla.com) is packed full of education, snapshots of Sam’s work, pics from the Redken Symposium and stylists testimonials. But what really got my attention was Sam’s video education clips.

Sam demonstrates great cutting techniques for shears, wet hair, adding texture, curly hair and twist cutting via short (4 to 5 minute long) videos. But I particularly liked his Hot Tips.

Sam’s Hot Tips are short videos with easy, but brilliant cutting and styling tips - cutting techniques to make fine hair look fuller, fringe shapes to enhance different face shapes and cutting curly hair.  Simple little things that make the difference between a good haircut and an amazing haircut.

Could be the best 38 seconds you spend today.  Check it out!

Sam Villa.com

This is the second in a series about using social media to promote your salon

With more than 100 million active users, Facebook is THE way to stay connected with friends both near and far. But have you considered that Facebook can also be used to connect with potential and current clients, promote your salon, your services and to grow your fan base?

Your friends and clients are already on Facebook (or will be there soon), making it the perfect vehicle for you to keep them up to date with what’s new at the salon, in-salon promotions and events, sales on services or retail, even to help fill those holes in your day.

This is the first in a series of how to use social media to market your salon business.

Are you on Twitter? Twitter is suddenly HUGE, posting growth of nearly 1400% in February. Twitter attracts more than 6 million unique visitors and 55 million hits every month.

What does this mean to your salon? Your clients are on Twitter and you should be, too. Oh and BTW, Twitter is free to use.

Last Impressions Count

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve got an appointment for a massage at a new place. You walk in, a little unsure of yourself because you’ve never been there before. You sit down and nervously smile while you wait for someone to tell you what to do.

When your massage therapist comes out, she smiles, comes over and shakes your hand, welcoming you to the spa. You and she hit it off right away and as she’s leading you back, she’s telling you about all of the wonderful scented oils you can choose from and how you can customize the music during your service. You smile and relax, knowing that you are in for the massage of your life with this great therapist that really understands you. You’ve really connected with her.

What is a business card? At its core, a business card is just a way to avoid scribbling your name and number on a cocktail napkin.

But used to its maximum advantage, your business card can be the most powerful business building tool you’ve got. It can demonstrate your work, show your personality and give potential clients a taste of what a visit to you might be like.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

But you can always improve someone’s impression of you by offering them a great handshake.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a terrible handshake. They come in several varieties - the floppy, “I’m supposed to shake your hand, but you look like you’ve got cooties” handshake, the used-car salesman’s hard press and pump, and the handshakes that make you wonder if they might ever stop.

Worse yet, is when you hold out your hand for a shake and it is ignored or not seen. Talk about awkward. What happens then? Uncomfortable silence while you try to pretend that you really just waving at someone else? Ick.

Do you know what makes a great gift?

Not something useful or needed or even extravagant. No, the secret to giving a really good gift is to find something that demonstrates that you’ve noticed some small thing about the recipient that most of the world misses.

Something that shows that you really get them.

This idea of really getting it applies to your salon biz as well.

Think about yourself as a stylist for a moment. What business are you in? The easy answer is that you are in the salon business. And you are, BUT -

Recently, I sent out a short survey asking about your life in the salon. (Thank you so much to everyone who responded!) I was blown away by what you told me and after a little soul searching, I think I owe you an apology, because clearly I have been getting it wrong.

A little background on me…

I spent nearly 20 years working in the salon industry as a stylist, booth renter and as a distributor’s sales consultant, calling on salons and selling shampoo and hair color. I worked for a great distributor that sold Redken, Matrix, Aquage, Pureology, American Crew and Kenra products. My clients were chains and independent salons, and I took care of more than 300 stylists, owners, nail techs and estheticians.  I dutifully talked the party line and sold my clients the new products, color lines and show tickets for more than a decade.

The distributor I worked for always said that the last thing you guys need is another bottle of shampoo and encouraged us to work with you to put systems in place to help you grow your business.

But near the end of my time at the distributorship, I began to suspect that the things we were telling you about how to run a profitable salon business had not kept up with the times. We’ve been telling you the same things for 20 years and most of the conventional advice in the salon industry is based around things that (used to) work in commission salons. But now that the vast majority of salons are either booth rental or chains, the rules of engagement are completely different.

Have you thought about using email to stay in touch with  your clients, but  haven’t gotten started yet? Does putting it together seem too complicated? You are not alone. The vast majority of hair stylists are not emailing or texting to their clients, missing out on this great opportunity to market for free! But it’s not too late for you.  In fact, email could help you make a lot more money this year!

Here’s why -

How many businesses send you emails? A bunch, I bet.  A quick glance at my inbox would show you email from American Airlines, Off-Broadway Show Warehouse, Restaurants.com, ITunes, Pizza Hut and Gourmet Magazine as well as a number of newsletters from different groups I belong to. Why do they do this? It’s an inexpensive way to stay in touch with me with great offers and details of upcoming events. Even if I don’t read them all, I see their name every time I open my email. It’s useful information that is cheap for them to distribute and easy for me to read.

How can this work for you?

2008 is finally over. It was a tough year - fewer customers, spending less money, buying less retail and waiting longer between appointments. But now that it is finally gone, let’s look ahead to 2009. In the spirit of improvement and changes, I’ve got a few resolutions for the new year that can revolutionize your business: