Beyond The Mirror
Welcome to "Beyond the Mirror," your go-to podcast for business insights in the hair, skin, beauty, and wellness industry. Hosted by Adrienne Varga and Jodie Fielden, we're your guides on a deep dive into these dynamic sectors.
Discover industry secrets, actionable strategies, and inspiring success stories that drive business growth. From essential business tips and effective marketing hacks to crafting exceptional client experiences and staying updated on industry trends, we leave no topic unexplored.
Join us to unlock your business potential, elevate your brand, and embrace limitless opportunities beyond the mirror. Tune in for a transformative journey you won't want to miss!
Beyond The Mirror
Unlocking Salon Success: Navigating Challenges in Today’s Market
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This episode dives into the current landscape of the salon industry, focusing on client acquisition and retention while also addressing staffing challenges. Through insightful conversations, we aim to equip salon owners with strategies to overcome the roadblocks they face.
• Celebrating the milestone of 30 episodes and discussing podcast longevity
• Exploring the two major struggles: finding clients and staffing issues
• Delving into the need for more clients versus retaining existing ones
• Sharing anecdotal experiences of client retention struggles
• Highlighting the importance of effective communication with clients
• Discussing the recruitment landscape and strategies for attracting talent
• Emphasizing staff training for improved engagement with clients
• Understanding the need for focusing on business fundamentals
• Introducing the Salon Accelerator program for owner support
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Our guarantee to you... Increase your revenue in 90 Days without hunting for more clients OR YOU DON’T PAY.
Introduction and Episode Milestone
Speaker 1Thank you. Skin, beauty and wellness industries. From business success tips and marketing hacks to industry insights and trends, it's all here. They leave no stone unturned. So get ready to unlock your full potential, evaluate your business, leave behind the limitations and embrace the endless possibilities that lie beyond the mirror.
Speaker 2Hello and welcome everyone. It's great to be back. I'm Jodie Fielden and I'm here with my work wife, bestie and business partner, adrie Varga. During these podcasts, we share how you can leverage your passion into profit. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a seasoned salon owner or someone who's just thinking about starting out, you're in the right place because we've just about done it all and we're here to share with you that you can too, because it's time to believe your salon can be everything you ever wanted.
Speaker 3Yes, that's true. Hi everyone and welcome back, and it's great to be back for our 30th episode.
Speaker 2Wow, can you believe it? It's 30 episodes. 30th episode today. I know the big 3-0 and it's almost nearly three months into the new year. This year's just gone by so fast and we've been so busy that we haven't even had time to record.
Speaker 3Absolutely, and I just looked up the statistics. Actually, according to statistics, only a very small percentage of podcasts, estimated around 10% or less, actually reaches episode 30 and over.
Speaker 2Yeah, and 90% of podcasts don't publish more than three episodes oh wow, okay cool we're in the top 10 while we do a little bit of a celebration and a happy dance. Uh, do you want to just bring your microphone closer to you and just make sure it's turned up? Yeah.
Speaker 3I'm very like, it's very close, like it's right on my chest almost. Yeah, it's on your face.
Speaker 2Yeah, Is it better? It's getting. Yeah, I think that's better. It's been so long since we've done our podcast that it's like all the equipment's just a bit dusty and rusty and it's like, oh, back to work.
Speaker 3Yeah, absolutely. It's actually crazy how busy it's been and how fast the year has already flown and how much things have changed just in the past couple of months, have changed just in the past couple of months, which brings us to today's hot topic, which is finding your way as a salon owner in today's market. And it is a very hot topic because the past two months we have been inundated with salon owners struggling with the same two things.
The Challenges Salon Owners Face Today
Speaker 2Yeah, look, 90% of the salon owners coming to us at the moment are struggling with finding staff and finding clients, and that's salon owners globally, and I'm talking about, you know, from Denver to DY. It's the same two major problems at the moment.
Speaker 3Yeah, so today we will cover really three things yeah, so our clients and staff really are a roadblock, and how to find what the roadblock really is and also how to fix it.
Speaker 2Yeah, so it's all about roadblocks today, so let's jump straight into it. Yeah, so it's all about roadblocks today, so let's jump straight into it. Roadblock number one that I guess this is the top thing that they say to us is that I just need more clients.
Speaker 3Yes. And then we hear this day in and day out, isn't it? I just need more clients and then I will be fine. And the question is, do they really need more clients? Just need more clients and is going to fix the problem. Or the question is, you know like, why do you need more client?
Speaker 2I think that's the first discussion yeah, look, the two top reasons, like from where we sit, is that the only time you need more clients is, well, there's three. You know, like, if you're a brand-new salon, if you've got a new team member and if you're scaling, like I mean we always need some new clients coming in because you're naturally going to lose some. But you know, know, it shouldn't be like I'm constantly in this turnover. If you're a salon that's older than you know, eight, two years old or three years old, you know it should. What do you think?
Speaker 3yeah, absolutely, I, I totally agree. You know, like when you have an established salon and you are in that position, when you are not ready to grow or you just want to breathe a little bit, yeah, because after every single growth period you know like it's nice to just to stay a little bit on the same level until you can sort of recover from growth, because it's very overwhelming and it's very struggling to push, push, push, push, push, push, you're going to end up really overwhelmed and probably not really, uh, liking your salon, or it's true for every business actually. So generally, you know, like what I believe in, you know, like you, you push, you push through a growth period and then you rest and you enjoy the benefit of what you achieved so that can be financial benefit, time benefit or any other benefits and then, once you're ready to move to the next level, then you push through again. So I totally agree with you with the three uh oh there goes my husband walking through the background.
Speaker 2Thank you, love, that's all. We're podcasting big fire up. You go, um, look, yeah, and the thing is that you need that period of stability to be able to maintain, because if you can't maintain at that level and you just keep going up and up, then it just all tipples over because you don't have any of the foundations in place, you don't have on any of the systems in place. But I think, um, coming back to like when someone's saying they need more clients, if they're not any one of those three things and they're saying I need more clients, I think they really need to have a look at why they need more clients. Like, if they've been in business for three years, you should have a pretty good client.
Speaker 3Uh, client, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's uh, it's really really true because, um, after a while, you don't necessarily need to go for hunt for clients, and this is a big thing. People are saying you know, like I need to hunt for clients, I need to constantly bring new clients in if you are not, uh, not ready for your new team members because you are not 80 85 percent fully booked. If you need to hunt for clients because you cannot retain clients, there is a's a much, much more deeper issue than just I just need to bring clients in, whatever offer I create and whatever I'm discounting my price, and then you just need to replace clients constantly. That is a really, really deep problem for the business, and hunting for clients, catching more clients, is not going to solve that problem.
Speaker 2No, the problem is like why aren't you keeping the clients and that's um, I think that's the hardest thing to look at as a salon owner, especially if you work on the floor as well is like, why aren't clients coming back? Because it means that there's something wrong, like usually there's the natural they move away or they no longer. You know that natural transition period. You know a client is usually only with you for a certain amount of time before they want to transition on anyway. But it's having a look at like oh, what happened to make them stop coming?
Speaker 3Yes, absolutely. And then you really need to get into the to the, to become a little detective. I always say yeah, because you want to find out what is the problem and and this is normally putting salon owners a little bit into or outside of their comfort zone when we talk about you know like you actually need to call them. You need to pick up that phone and you need to have the conversation to figure out what is wrong. And many times you know we get, oh, but I don't want to call because maybe I'm calling in the wrong time, and all the excuses, yeah, what you can just come up with.
Speaker 3But the fact is that you need to put aside that it's going to be, or you need to be aware.
Speaker 3Put aside that it's going to be or you need to be aware.
Speaker 3You know it's going to be uncomfortable, but you need to be able to push it aside because what you want to figure it out, the only way you can find out why people are not coming back if you ask them.
Speaker 3You are never going to be able to figure it out because it's always just going to be an assumption and you're always going to find a way to explain or find, you know like excuses why they are not coming back, but you actually need to pick up that phone and call them. And yes, you're going to call 50 clients and maybe five going to pick up that phone and maybe three is going to answer. But that three is going to be gold because once the people and be open-minded, you know like probably they are not going to answer, but that three is going to be gold because once the people and be open-minded, you know, like probably they are not going to say positive things and that's good, because you need to be very grateful for people who share their experience and even if you cannot win them back, but at least you know so you can fix it.
Speaker 2Yeah, because you need to be able to fix that hole and honestly, like when we speak with salon owners, you know so you can fix it yeah, because you need to be able to fix that hole and honestly, like when we speak with salon owners, they're like, oh, they just can't afford it anymore. It's very, it's very rarely that all of a sudden they can't afford it. It's just that they're remembering one or two people have said you know that's an issue and they hear in social media or in the news and everything that the cost of living and all that kind of stuff. But if you have the right client base that are value focused and result focused in your business, then it's not going to be because it's become very rarely, it's because it's become too expensive. There is going to be a few that look, I just can't afford it anymore. It's become too expensive. There is going to be a few that look, I just can't afford it anymore. But a lot of the time it's going to be.
Speaker 2There's been some sort of incident that's happened in the salon that hasn't been resolved correctly. Um, you know, like I was. Uh, for example, I was talking with um, a salon owner, the other day, looking to join our program and we were having a chat and she had a call come through while she was on the zoom with me. And she's answered the call and this is someone that's looking for new clients. She said I need new clients, I don't have enough clients. Um, I don't know what's happened to my business. I've had the business for 20 years. I've been in this location for five.
Speaker 2Um, anyway, she answers the phone and the client says to her I'm here, I'm here for my appointment, and the salon's closed. And she's on the Zoom and she goes I'm sorry, you don't have an appointment, there's no appointments today. The salon's closed. And she's like well, no, I do and I'm standing here. She's like no, no, you don't Look. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm busy in a meeting. Can you just text me through your details and I'll have a look? And the client's going. But you booked me in the last time I was here for this appointment and this salon owner was just dismissing her, going look, um, I can't talk to you right now. Text it through and you wouldn't have an appointment, because if you have an appointment, we send out automatic um messages and so just text me and I'll get back to you.
Speaker 2And then she hung up and I'm like wow, and I'm looking at her going I don't know that I can help you because exactly right there, you know like, and she's wondering why she doesn't have clients. You know it's, and that was obviously someone that was a repeat client that had been booked in before. Instead of taking accountability and just saying no, I'm so sorry that something must have happened. Can I have your details? Let me just have a look. She did no investigation while she was on the phone, showing that she even cared about this woman that was standing there waiting to get into the salon. You know, and a lot of the time someone that's been in business for that long all of a sudden saying I need more clients is actually it's the salon owner or the team or something that's going on, you know.
Speaker 3Yeah, I can tell you another example about a team not being trained how to respond. So I'm working privately with one of our clients and she just mentioned to me that very lately she lost a couple of clients and when they call them back, they always or most of them they say it's a budget issue, because they cannot allocate enough money. And then when she further investigated, actually her team knew already, because it was a couple of visits that the client already very softly touched about. You know the budget and everything. And instead of them to recognizing that here is something what the client is trying to say and trying to communicate, and not just you know, like not just ignore it, you actually can address it and and what you can do and you can train, train your team is to basically listening, acknowledging and coming up with a solution. Even if your team cannot come up with a solution, but what your team member can say I can understand. So let me talk to X and Y and I ask her to call you back and we can come up with a plan for you based on the budget, what you can afford, and in that case you actually keep the client.
Speaker 3So luckily, this salon owner is in a good habit of calling clients. So we caught this in the I think it was a three months period. She lost four or five clients and every single one of the client they communicated very softly with the team member that they cannot afford it because their, like, their living circumstances has changed. So can she win back a couple? Probably she can if she goes into the conversation, but again you know, like the team did not know how to approach it or they just didn't listen. Because when it comes to consultation and talking to our clients, many times we know that listening is a skill that most of our chitty-chatty people will lack because we are busy with formulating what we are wanting to talk about, not listening and taking on the information.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly, and the clients that you know that she'll be able to win back are the clients that really they love coming to that salon. So you've made that experience their priority and they want to find a way to be able to stay. So, if you can come up with a plan and alternatives, you know, like things, we can just do this this time and then we'll do something else next time, instead of doing it all together and you know, stacking it and stuff like that. So there's the ones. Even though their budget might be restricted, they're still valuing the service and the outcomes it's provided. Yeah, so, um, so it's really important for our team not to, yeah, just sort of ignore those gentle conversations that someone might be trying to say, which is very different to the kind of client that's just like, oh, you're too expensive, I can't afford this anymore. You know, like that's a very different.
Speaker 3Yes, yes, absolutely. I totally agree. But there's so many layers on, you know, like, how you can keep the clients who you already have. And also, you know, like, here is when the client journey is going to become quite important, because many times we mentioned in our podcasts also that most of the salon owners they are focusing on getting new clients into the business and they don't really put too much thought into keeping the regular clients or how are we going to reward them? Because the reward always seems to go to the new people and there is no appreciation, inspection of appreciation towards to the clients you have. And I always say you know, like you actually need to have two different pipe of client journey one, it need to be mapped out for the new clients, but then you need to have a client journey for your regular, regular clients. So when it comes to clients, more, more, more time but most of the times you don't really need new clients or more clients.
Speaker 2You just need to make sure that you know your client journey is right and you're going, you're you're going to make the most out of the clients who you already have in the business and I think there's this little bit of a trend that's happened over the last few years, with everything being online, is that, um, salon owners are out of the habit of rebooking their clients in and retaining them that way.
Speaker 2Um, whenever the quickest way to um fill your books of your appointments is to rebook your clients, and that's like six weeks, you can have a massive difference, you know, and whereas trying to get new clients in, that's a six or twelve month job. You know that costs a lot of money, because there's very few people out there that know how to do it in the right way that you can retain that client instead of it being just a one-hit wonder, like a group one or something like that. Right, and we've relied on. Oh, they can just book in themselves online and then, like Adriana she calls it the free-range chickens like they just come and go whenever they please, and that's why your appointment books are so patchy and all over the place. You need to be consistent, you know you need to have that consistency there so that you have a predictable, measurable amount of income coming into your salon.
Speaker 3Yes, absolutely. And you know, like working with so many salon owners, I clearly can see when the rebooking is high, that business is secure. When people are saying, oh, but we have the, you know we have the online booking and we rely on that their rebooking is like around 35 and 40%. There is no future security in your appointment book and, as Judge said, you know like all your clients, or you know like six out of 10 clients, they are free-range chickens. You know they're just walking around and in the morning they wake up with terrible hair or terrible skin and they just give you a call. So it's not beneficial for the client, it's not beneficial for your salon, it's not beneficial for your salon. But I just find it lately many salon owners, they find it as an excuse to basically giving me an answer why their rebooking is so low.
Speaker 3Because we have an online booking and I always say and I still still believe in online booking system should be for your new clients so that when they come, they look around, they can open your menu. They can, you know, booking quickly. But once they are in the door, at the end of the service and even in the beginning with the consultation, you need to make a plan so you can close the deal at the end of the service and that client will come back when you, as a professional, going to recommend them to come back. They don't know. If my beautician doesn't know when should I have my next appointment, how would I know? I don't know how often I have my next appointment. How would I know? I don't know how often I have to have pierced. I don't know how often I have to do the needling Like they need to educate me. And it's exactly the same for the hair also.
Speaker 2Yeah, and you know like. You're not recommending your client anything that's not beneficial for them. If you're recommending something that is not in the best interest of your client, then you should be stepping away and not calling yourself a professional. So if you're recommending something that's in the best interest of your client about when they need to return, then you are being a professional. You're giving the best advice to your client. Yes, it's great for your business and it keeps your books full, but it's a win-win situation. It's what's right for your client and it works for your business yeah, it's it goes hand in hand.
Identifying the Real Issue: Client Retention vs. Acquisition
Speaker 2It's not just some sort of scheme to get more clients in. You know throwing a 95 off deal, that's a scam to get your clients in to try, you know, just get anyone in and hope for the best, like that's not in the best interest of the client because you're going to be rushing it. You're going to be, you know, probably cutting on whatever products. You know like it's not going to be in the best interest of the client 80% of the time. And I know because I used to do Groupon when it first started. I know the shortcuts that salon owners take to get those numbers through the door. So you know it's it's not in the best interest of your client, it's not in the best interest of your staff and it's not in the best interest of your salon and and, and I think it's just.
Speaker 3If you think about as a salon owner, you know like you don't do any good for your business by giving the power to your clients to decide whatever.
Speaker 3You want to come back, it's fine.
Speaker 3Just make a booking online.
Speaker 3It's actually not beneficial for your business. You're losing out on a lot of revenue and also you're going to lose out on client connection. So your client is not going to see you anymore as a professional whose advice is something what they would value, because you just give away your power completely because you're afraid of that they're going to say no or they're going to say I need to look my calendar or whatever. And because you don't know going to say no or they're going to say I need to look my calendar or whatever, and because you don't know what to say. So it's very, very important to get a clarity around why you are passing through the opportunity to an online computer system when you are there who actually should be able to communicate with your clients, when is the next time, what will be the next appointment and you know, like when I'm going to see you back and I will book you in exactly and honestly, it's not in the best interest of the client anyway, because it ends up costing them more because they've gone overtime.
Speaker 2So now they have to have a colour correction, or all the benefits from the last facial have now gone and it's started to dry out again, or whatever happens. It's now that you're back at point one and it's going to cost them even more time and money to get to where they should have been. So you're not doing your client a favour to get to where they should have been. So you're not doing your client a favor, you know.
Speaker 3There is a huge difference between salons who have very strong rebooking and salons who are struggling with rebooking, and your online booking is not going to fix the problem. You're just pushing your responsibility to the online booking system because there is somewhere in the process you and your team is struggling, and that's the easy way to get out.
Speaker 2Oh, you know what I hear. You know, the best excuse that I've had is oh, there's not enough time, we're too busy. Mate, if you were too busy, then you wouldn't be looking for new clients.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's true, sorry, you know, like, if you're that busy, busy, then you wouldn't be looking for new clients.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's sorry. You know like if you're that busy then you don't need new clients. If you can't have like a two minute conversation or stand there at the desk and put something in and write it on a card and organize you know, like you're not that busy so yes, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3So let's move on. Move on to the second roadblock, because in our future episodes we're going to get into complete details, you know, for the client's part and then for the second part, which is what is the second roadblock? Staff.
Speaker 2I don't have enough staff, or especially, more so, the American sellers that we deal with, because they're commission based staff is that the staff are standing around and they don't have enough clients and they leave the salon if there's no clients there yeah, yeah, so that is globally.
Speaker 3We know that is the same problem, that there is not enough stuff yeah everyone is searching for, hunting for stuff, and once you get it, you know like that's again another skill to actually keep them. So it's very, very important for you to understand that. How are you going to attract them? That's one thing. And everything has changed. Yeah, the attraction has changed.
Speaker 3Your wording in the advertisement is extremely important. You need to know what to say. Very easy, very quick example. It's a spa clinic I work with and the lady put out a job advertisement for I don't know how many months and she didn't succeed and I said just give it to me, let me have a look, I will you know. Like reformulated. I gave her back two different version and I told her these two needs to go in in the same time and she got 111 application. Obviously not all of them was good application, but she ended up employing four people, yeah. And I asked her what do you think the difference was? And she said is definitely the wording of the advertisement. So it's very important for you guys to understand how to attract the right people.
Speaker 3And also we need to be flexible sometimes because her advertisement left very, very little flexibility for people. And you know, people, they were just deselecting themselves because it was so many different components. And I told her, look, you know, like, tell me what is the most important. And it was two most important thing and I said, all right, so we're going to run two different advertisements and then we just be flexible and we're just going to make sure you know like you're going to get the right people with the right attitude, because you can train and, unfortunately, most of the salon owners they don't want to train and I can understand it's exhausting, it's time consuming, but the reality is that we do need to train people and I always prefer to have someone with a quite little experience than over someone then who has 40, 50 years experience and they do not want to learn or they think they know everything. So I think it's very important to start from the beginning advertise for the right people.
Speaker 2Yeah, 100%. And the thing about when you're advertising to fill a position in your salon it's basically a sales pitch to potential employees about why they want to work for you. Stop putting in there what's in it for you. You know they don't care about what's in it for you. They want to know. The first thing they want to know is what's in it for them, the same way as if you're buying anything, everyone wants to know what's in it for me and that's you know, especially this industry. There's so many jobs out there. If that first little grab isn't like oh yeah, that's what I'm looking for or that's different, you know it's not the same old, tired, you know salon position or beautician or esthetician or. You know it needs to be something different and it needs to be based around what you can offer them, not what you want out of them.
Speaker 3Yes, absolutely. And then this is when we can talk a little bit about you, attraction and incentives, profit share and commissions, because this is a very, very hot topic and everyone is asking other salon owners. You know like, oh, I need to know a little bit more about commissions, incentives and whatever. And then all these answers are flying in the air. You know they need to make their times of the wage, four times of the wage, this and that, but what people don't realize?
Speaker 3Everything, or every single decision, what you make regarding your business is based on numbers regarding your business, unique numbers to your business. You cannot copy others because your business is very different from their business. And when they say three times of their wage, based on what and what kind of wage gross wage, net wage what is it? And I work with salon owners when they set up a commission system which wasn't based on anything and then they are struggling right now because it doesn't work for them. It really works for the team, but it doesn't work for them.
Speaker 3So, when it comes to setting up profit share, commission reward system, it all needs to go back to your numbers. And also the other thing what people tend to forget your pricing need to be able to help your team members to reach their targets. Because if you set targets because you are listening to other people and that sounds like a good idea and your pricing is not supporting the target because it's impossible for them to reach that target, you're just dangling the carrot. After a while, no one is going to care to reach the target. So it needs to be very strategic. How are you going to set up a commission system? We are actually teaching three different methods and within those three different methods, we still can create a unique method to your salon, but it all needs to be based on pricing, break-even, kpis and everything else. You cannot just implement a system based on nothing.
Speaker 2So do you know what most of the.
Speaker 2This is more for the US salons. That on this business model is that I speak to all the salon owners that are first coming through looking for help Nearly all of them that I speak to. Their commission split is 40% to 60% to the staff, which means that the staff they're already capped out, like they can't earn any more money unless they're working hard at seeing more clients, things like that. The thing that the salon owners aren't taking into consideration. When I speak to them, I'm like okay, so who pays for all the running costs? Oh, I do. Okay, who pays for all the marketing I do? Who earns the clients? They do so, where is this benefit in it for you? And they're like well, this is the way it works. Well, it's a broken business model and that's why, especially in the States, this commission structure and people are coming to us looking for us to show them a different way to do. It is because it is a broken business model. And they say, oh no, but there's really, um, there's salons over, there's so many um, profitable salons and they're big and they're big names and they do so well, I've been having a look at them and most of the ones that I've been looking at. The salon owner is has either their own product line they have some sort of other income stream, um, they may be an influencer, they may be some sort of technician that does teaching, um, all these. They may own a hair extension line. They have these other income revenues. Their money is not.
Speaker 2From what I can see and the digging that I'm doing and understanding the commission structure and seeing the way things are going, the salon is very rarely what's made them so successful and popular. It's usually whatever they're doing outside of the salon, because I can tell you, in the, in the booth suites, you're only capped at whatever chart rent you can charge. You know, unless you've been smart enough to say, right, you have to give me a percentage out of your profit and you pay for all your outgoings. You know like there's all these different structures. But new salon owners, like when I spoke to today that she's um was she's just jumped into, it's her first rodeo, she called it, and she's doing a 50 50 split.
Speaker 2She's paying for all the marketing, she's paying for all the supply. So I'm like, so really, it's not 50, 50, it's now, you know, 30, 60. You know like they're getting 50, all your costs. So now you're just getting whatever's left over after all the costs of you getting in the new clients and building up their chair for them to go okay, great. You know I need a change now, or I'm not making enough money here because they're capped at that commission ratio. So off they go.
Roadblock Two: Staffing Challenges in the Salon Industry
Speaker 3You know, like it's just so yeah and also, you know, like, with America, most of American salon not just pay the commission, the quiet high commission, they still contribute to 401k and they still have to pay the workers insurance also. So it's, you know, like when we go through the break event, what we use, those salon owners, they are up for a really big wake-up call and they just realize, oh my god, there is no wonder I'm struggling, there is no wonder I can't make any money out of you know, out of my business, because what it is, and the other thing that people complain about and share about all these boot renters, freelancers or commission people, that there is no team, so everyone is individual, they come and go whenever they feel, like you know, like there is nothing. I mean, I do understand, understand, obviously, the rent a chair and everything, what is it? And I still think you know like a rent a chair is actually a better option than you know to have the big commission share or commission operated business.
Speaker 3But but yeah, it creates a struggle for the business owner. It is because this business model was created a long time ago and everyone is copying everyone and everyone is, or most of the people. They're struggling, Some of them, they're realizing it? Because we had a couple of salon owners, especially from America, came to us and they said well, our business model doesn't work, so what else we can have, what else we can offer, isn't it?
Speaker 2Yeah, sorry my technical difficulties, because we're a bit dusty. I got stuck in the waiting room. Yeah, they are, they're coming to us and they're like well, I got stuck in the waiting room. Yeah, they are, they're coming to us and they're like well, how can we do this? And so that's when we introduce them.
Speaker 2To all right, you need to have that awareness of the running cost of the business and your profit or your wage, and everything is very separate. You can't think that, and that's why we need to educate our team members as well and show them a new way. And what I do I have been doing since me, mostly I do, but for the last six months is really going through and finding the new structure. And I just put that and that's one of the things that we've added to our salon accelerator program, for when you've got staff and you're trying to find one, how to find more staff, because you've got more clients and you know what to do with Two, what can I offer them?
Speaker 2That's different, because the old commission no one thinks that's very special, and so we formulated, especially for the, the states, a way to give them a salary, a base salary, so that there's none of this fear about oh, my chair's empty, so I'm not going to be taking any money home this week and and how to overcome those things, because we've been doing it in australia this way for since the day dot um, but we've tailored it to suit the american um way and we've bought some of the good things from the american stuff and we've introduced to some of the australian salons.
Speaker 2You know, like we've kind of taken the best of everything and sort of brought it all together because it doesn't matter like. What we've learned in the last four years um is that it doesn't matter whether you're in la, whether you're in um london or whether you're in LA, whether you're in London or whether you're in Melbourne it's still the fundamentals of the industry, is all the same. So finding those ways and having that unique offer for staff that is tailored to them and what's in their best interest, as well as the business's best interest, is what helps bring things together and that's reflected in, for example, the ad that Adriana did for the spa owner, a couple of weeks ago is because it was a unique offer that covered what the salon owner needed, but in a way that it was what the potential employees were looking for.
Speaker 3Yes, absolutely. And look, you know like it was a huge amount of people, I think it was 111 people applying. Yes, not all of them was the right candidate, but at least this triggered, you know, like a big amount of people to respond. And then, obviously, the salon owner had to sort it out, but it ended up. You know she ended up employing four, so that's a really, really good outcome.
Speaker 3The last thing that I wanted to talk about the commission systems and profit share, and we are not going to get into details in this session, this podcast, because we're going to get into details in a very close future podcast. But it's the employment trap, which is the wages, and many times the team members who are, or people who are applying for a job. They come with hideous amount of money. What they request, you know like they come to your business, they want 40, 45, sometimes $50 an hour and the salon owner is like, how can I pay that much? And the salon owner is like, how can I pay that much? And the thing is that you don't have to, and in our next podcast, when we're going to talk about all how to set up this system and also how to create an offer, we will get into details that how you can come around and how you can be very strategic about what you're going to offer, when you're going to offer and how you're going to offer it, and it's going to be a fair system. It's not going to be out of.
Speaker 3Uh, you know like sometimes salon owners make very silly decisions. I was one of one of those. When you are on their pump, yeah, when you have to you pump yeah, when you have to. You have to have team members, you have to, you have to attract people, and then you just agree on stupid things, and it happened to me too. I already knew that person wouldn't be good for my business, but I grabbed her anyway because I was very desperate and I ended up with a not so nice situation and I could have avoided it if I would listen to my sixth sense, but I choose not to. So it's very, very important for you to have a plan how to make an offer and how to make it fair.
Speaker 2Exactly so. That is going to be in our next episode, where we'll take a deep dive into how to work out the profit share and the incentives and how not to, like Adriana said, make a panic. I don't want to miss out on them.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2So now and I want you to I'm just having a look at our notes. So, yep, that's us for this week, audrey.
Speaker 3Yes, and remember, you can find out more when you book a free Salon Accelerator program demo with Jodi or one of our sales team. And our program has the money-back back guarantee, which we are very proud of because we know it works and we can offer 100 percent money back guarantee because if this program doesn't work for your salon in 90 days, then we going to yeah, we have the money back guarantee, then you don't pay yeah.
Speaker 2So, essentially, we'll give you three key results. First, we'll help you make up to 20% more per client using our pricing formula calculator. And in that calculator, adriana has included the commissions-based structures. So those three different salary Adriana, I'm having a mental blank so those three different methods of working, like profit, share, commission and straight wage. So that's included in the calculator. And since most salon owners aren't charging accurately, it creates a cycle where they have to work harder and hunt for clients. So we want to break that yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3And the next step, what we will help you with, we will help you to optimize what we call the seven magic metrics, because most salon owners only track their stock and some of their outgoings and they are constantly wondering where all the cash went and why their salon revenue is not growing.
Speaker 2Exactly. And then, last, we'll show you how to run your monthly profit promos. We haven't really spoken about that much today, but that's designed to attract those value-based clients and repel the discount um chases who you know, like groupons and things like that, who waste your time and cost you money to serve. And, like I said, if we don't help you increase your profit in under 90 days, then you don't pay.
Speaker 3Yes, yes, absolutely, and we know it works. So this is why we are very, very confident about it. So, if you are interested in learning more about how all this works, then just click the link below, or you can send us a DM, if that's easier for you, and you can schedule a free demo and we will break it down for you. We will break everything down for you and you can ask as many questions as you want. We are very transparent and also, if you don't believe that our program, what we offer, is right for you, we're actually going to tell you. We're going to be extremely transparent about it because I want to make sure we're going to offer the program for people who who are ready for the program, and we don't have any intentions to bring in people who are not going to take a benefit for having the program exactly, and so we'll see you for our next episode.
Speaker 2Remember to follow us on Instagram and Facebook at FocusGDT. You can also send us an email at hello at FocusGDTcom, and we're here. If you need a hand, reach out. We're more than happy to have a chat.
Speaker 3Bye for now, guys. Bye, bye, reach out, we're more than happy to have a chat.
Speaker 1Bye for now, guys, bye. Well, that was beyond the mirror. Thank you for being a part of this exhilarating adventure. Join andrea and jody next week as they continue to help you unlock the true potential of your business so you can leave your limitations behind and embrace the endless possibilities that lie beyond the mirror. And if you have a burning question that you'd like to feature as a guest on this podcast, just leave us a message at the podcast page at focusgdtcom. So until next time, keep pushing boundaries, keep thriving and always remember that your success is right here, right now, beyond the mirror.