EDUCATION, GROWTH & OPPORTUNITY

Salon Education Classes Enhance Your Business

​In years past I have heard salon owners comment that they would never offer training to their staff or customers, because if they trained the staff they might lose them to better shops, and if they trained the customers they would lose them to doing it themselves at home. Most of those shops are no longer in business, and that attitude is a big part of why they did not survive. In the beauty industry, you must keep up on trends, changes in formulas and agents, current styles, new modalities of improved or hot topic bodywork, and many other things.​  If you want to run a beehive salon, you need to look for a small town with older patrons who will accept a change of ownership where they have been going for decades to get their hair done on Thursday morning before the bridge group meets for lunch. Good luck with that, because you are going to need it to survive. 

​Salon education is the way to keep your stylists fresh, your name out in public, and the public aware that your salon or spa knows what styles are “in” and treatments are now old school, The industry changes happen in very short spans of time, often from season to season or less. Your stylists need refresher courses, as well as continuing education in some states to keep their licenses current. Your whole staff needs to know current health department regulations to keep them, and customers, safe. And, becoming a destination location for classes offered by big players in the industry puts you in the spotlight for quality stylists and technicians that want to learn, grow their business, and increase their offerings to customers. Customers want to know where they can go get the latest styles, makeup offerings, and body treatments to enhance their health, de-stress, and improve their looks. Offering salon education classes can do all those things and much more for your business. You need to know how to offer them to make them pertinent, successful, and applicable for the attendees, and salon management training can help you learn how. 
 

​Training Your Staff For Increased Revenue Through In-House Salon Classes
 
Any time you add to the offerings at your spa or salon, you are offering more products to more customers and theoretically should reach an increased customer base. A customer who wants a new weave or coloring opportunity who cannot get it done at their current salon will more than likely become a returning customer to yours if you can offer what they are looking to get done. Clients tend to go where their needs are met, and that means you gain a new customer. The other part of the equation is that not only do you get, and hopefully retain, a new client, you have additional offerings that usually carry a sticker price of their own that is often higher than regular services, or is an add-on that increases the average ticket. This makes your staff happy as they are busier, and if you run your salon like most, your stylists, makeup artists, therapists, and estheticians are on a percentage share basis. They make more money and stay busy, you make more money, the salon stays busier, and overall, your other services probably get more attention and increased bookings to boot. There is only good to come through offering in-house salon courses for your staff. The question is do you bring someone in to teach them, usually at a price, or you offer some of the courses yourself or encourage your knowledgeable staff to offer them?  Not everyone on staff will be happy about teaching their trade secrets, but if you have one person who braids and rarely takes time to do it, but the requests come in, having them teach others in the salon increases everyone’s overall revenues and the services that can be offered. 


Becoming a Location For Salon Business Classes Can Set Your Salon Apart

​Many salon owners would be hesitant to have other salon owners and managers get trained in how to properly run their business, as they are afraid of competition. You need to own your business and own the industry in your area, and that means you are the competition. Setting a standard of high quality services and great customer service in a lovely location means other businesses in the area have to step up their game. Sure, some customers will go to the same place for 30 years. Others will not, especially younger clients who want the newest or best services they can find for microblading, hair coloring, eyelash and hair extensions, or the newest trends in using essential and healthy oils in reflexology treatments. 
Offering business classes sets your shop apart as the expert in the area, with the confidence to throw down a gauntlet for others to step up to the plate and improve their game. Improving an industry in a geographic region rarely means losing customers, and it does mean you get looked at as the leader. Being able to start strong with confidence in knowing your industry and how to run your salon or spa in an efficient, financially sound manner means the best stylists and therapists will come to you to look for booth rental space, or to join your staff. By offering salon management training, it may provide you the opportunity to step into a co-ownership role in the future for another location, allowing you to expand. It also helps you polish your own skills as you refresh your own training. You can offer your own salon classes, or have a professional trainer do it at your site. Either way you get the marketing impact and increased credibility in the market share.
 

Will Your Business Lose Customers If You Offer Salon Classes to Customers?
 
​It is unlikely you will lose customers by offering salon courses open to your current customers. Utilizing the trainers from the companies you do business with for products and equipment is a smart way to be able to offer special events to clients, such as a free haircut or color from an industry expert. Services that require expertise rarely are attempted by the public, but often will bring them back to your location. Have a written policy for handling customers and classes, especially those taught by your own staff, and also make it known what your policy is for staff attendance and participation. 
By utilizing your own people, you can improve and grow the culture of your own business and improve teamwork among your personnel. Everyone has a passion, and that passion can help build the team by increasing cross-referrals and bookings. As the leader of that team, you set the expectations and atmosphere for growth and skill development for your staff, and it shows your customers you care about your business and employees. It is very unlikely you will lose customers, even if you offer hands-on training, because most people come to your shop because they are not trained and cannot do what your stylists do, and honestly, most do not want to even attempt to do. Going to the salon is a break, an outing, or a stress relief. Offering a fun day out to play beauty queen provides a festive event that is educational and creates rapport with your customers, and that rapport will bring them back.