Having just spent the last few weeks watching my staff getting ready for our biggest show of the year – Cosmoprof North America in Las Vegas, It struck me just how hard my team works for our company. Notice how I use the term, “team and our company.” Without a doubt, one of the biggest lessons I have learned in my 30 years in this industry is that you are only as good as the team you work with. As a business owner, it is my job to lead the team; but I must also make sure that every member of that team feels valued so that they can make the fullest contribution that they can to the overall effort and most importantly they must feel like they are part of something special.

I am very fortunate that within my company as we have grown over the years I have managed to attract and keep some very key individuals that have been essential in developing what is now a multi-million dollar international business. I was thinking about how far we had come as I accepted (on behalf of all of the team at Cuccio) the Award for Vendor of the Year. This was at the Sally USA vendors’ presentation breakfast during the recent Cosmoprof Las Vegas show.

For those of you that don’t know how I started in this business, my wife Roberta and I began our venture 30 years ago with little more than $200 stock and a table on the edge of Venice beach in California. Over the years we have been through many highs and lows, including surviving earthquakes and many events that would test any business. But survive, we did.

Those that know me know that I don’t often reflect on how well we have done, but look to what challenges we have coming up next. However, this occasion has given me the opportunity to think about what I was going to say in my speech to all those people that attended the awards ceremony. I kept on coming back to the same theme as I thought of the people I had to thank for helping my wife and I get to the position we are now in and the award that we were receiving. I thought of those key people in our team and I thought of the years that they had worked with me. I realized that even though we started small, many of those people who had joined us along the way had stayed with us. Many of these people have been with me for 25 years or more and others 20 years, 15 years.

Now, if you know me (I will be visiting the Beauty show at Olympia so please come and say hello), you will know that I am a figure who knows his own mind and so I take it as the supreme compliment that I have been working with many of our team for over 20 years. Now here is the thing, I know that I work very hard in supporting my team, motivating them, pointing them in the right direction and even correcting them when necessary. I try to build a sense of purpose and of direction and I do this because the value of knowledge, experience and wisdom that my team has gained over the years is invaluable. Yes, we and I say we, have made mistakes, but we have learned from them and then grown from them. You need to make sure that you understand the value of long service and the rewards that it can bring for your business and I don’t mean complacency. You still need to challenge your team and they need to challenge you, but I think we are living in a disposable world – everything from clothes to music. You need to make sure that your staff members are not disposable, they cost you in recruitment, time to train and the time it takes for them to become an asset to your business.

Please take the advice from someone who has been lucky (and a little smart enough) to see the real value in the quality of the members of your team and the loyalty. Honesty, support and on many, many occasions; dedication beyond the expected, as your employees move from staff members to team members. I look back and also forwards in my business and I see the people who have made it the success it is today. At the end of the day without them, we wouldn’t have achieved anywhere near as much.

Off traveling again I can’t wait to meet with my distributors in the Far East, if you ever want to see what real competition and entrepreneurship is like, then visit China! China without doubt is becoming a very important territory for all exporters, the Chinese customer is becoming more educated all of the time and we are finding unparalleled levels of growth for our upscale signature brands. Price is not the only factor as far as this developing market is concerned and the end user is becoming more and more discerning. This leads to the nail technician and salon owners becoming increasingly interested in which brand of product they use and even more importantly they retail.

One of the hardest decisions you will ever have to make as a nail technician is which brand to invest your time, and even more importantly, your money in. You might think that the difference between one brand and another is simply down to how the product performs or even whom you trained with, but in today’s world I am afraid it can be more complex than that. You need to get your products from a company that will supply the products you believe will produce the results you want, at a price you can afford. It is no use buying a product that will destroy your service, profit margin or make you charge a price that is either uncompetitive for your area, or indeed for the economic climate. Having chosen the right product at the right price, you then need to make sure that the level of support in terms of delivery, product availability and something that is especially important is the level of technical support that is offered. Without this technical support you are on your own and believe me it is a tough old world out there on your own.

The product supplier also needs to be working hard to support you in terms of marketing, product posters, samples to give to customers, ideas on how to grow your business and ideas on how to compete. You can’t just buy your products from any one you need, to be looking for companies who care about the nail industry and are not just looking for a quick sale and a fast buck.

You also need to have a little understanding on how your product supplier fits into the nail industry, who are these people you are giving your hard earned cash to; who are these people you are trusting with your future, your chance of prosperity. I have seen many companies come and go in the nail industry in the 30 years that my company has been supplying products. Companies with big marketing budgets who go broke, small companies without the resources to supply and support their customers. I have seen them come and I have seen them go. I have been in this business so long that I think I am the only founder left in the industry from the original companies that started all of those years ago. Many, many companies have sold to other companies and this is one of the main points of debate today – do you really know who you are buying from and what their long term plans are for the business? You need to be sure that the supplier selling their products to you is going to be in business in the future. Whether a company goes out of business in these tough times or sells their business to new ownership who have different ideas about the type of distribution they want to get a return on the investment they have made in buying the business. All of this could affect how you get your products, what they cost and who else may be getting the brand and indeed, in which part of the industry they fit.

So when you are choosing whom to buy from, take a minute and think about the full implications of the investment before you make an informed decision about where to buy. Don’t be afraid to ask your supplier what their plans are for the future before you entrust your future to them.

It is safe to say that in terms of marketing products and services that the last few years have seen the most significant change to the structure and creative dynamism that we have ever seen in the world of marketing.

Taking a step away from our industry and looking at how conventional marketing has changed is a real eye-opener to the future in terms of marketing our products and services. What used to be a way of launching a product– advertising to build awareness, sample campaigns to initiate trial and promotions to encourage purchase–have given way to a total about-face in the momentum of marketing.

In the past, manufacturers were the controlling influence in the success of a product. Was it possible for a poor product to sell well and become a household name? It was to some extent as you have always been able to buy market share and certainly build it by spending in the conventional ways.

The customer is now at the center of everything that happens. In terms of an educated market we have never experienced the scale of self-education that now takes place. If a customer is researching into a product, they now have all the information they need at their fingertips. As part of the buying process, information gathering is a stage used to reduce the perceived risk of buying a product (particularly a new product). What has taken this information gathering to new level is, of course, not just the internet, but also the customers who now have a voice. Check out the best selling websites and they will all have comments on the products they are promoting, coming directly from the people who have bought them and used them. If you are not sure about a product, look at the comments from people who have not only bought it, but also actually used it and they will also comment about the level of service. This is a very powerful tool that can literally make or break products.

Now instead of advertising being the persuader, it is those satisfied (and sometimes dissatisfied) consumers who are able to directly influence the popularity of a product. This is seen in it most extreme cases where you find websites with girls who use a product and then comment about it on video or streaming – a whole new way of marketing your products now exists.

Bear in mind that these style icons have upwards of 2 million viewers and you can begin to see the scale and size of the opportunity or that faces today’s manufacturer. How does this affect us? We have the opportunity to give consumers not only a voice (they created that for themselves) but we have a 2-way communication processes that will help us shape products and services that the consumer really wants. Instead of a company launching a product (with some market research) and then seeing how it sells, they can look at what consumers are looking for. They can see the market leaders and spot new trends to exploit and maximise the investment in their products and services.

How this effects you is that you should now use this as a driver for your own business. Set up a Facebook page where your customers can leave comments about your business and the service you give. Look at your competition and find out what they offer, what they do well and what they don’t do well.

If you engage with this new media and create a community around your business, you will see it grow. Word-of-mouth has been fuel-injected by the word of touch by the web revolution. If you don’t have a website with a community section and Facebook page that your potential customers can see the genuine comments about you from your clients, then you are missing the single most important change in marketing. The customer is now at the center of the universe and you must become even more customer centric in this, the most competitive of times, to survive and most definitely, if you are going to thrive.

Off around the world again, this time its fast paced Rio and over 2000 people in a seminar itching to hear how to make money in the nail business – what a fantastic turnout!  It’s always incredibly humbling to see so many people in different parts of the world who take the time and effort to attend my seminars, with the hope of picking up hints and tips on how to move their treasured businesses forward.

The seminar itself was a 3-hour presentation ending with plenty of questions from an eager audience, which I just love!

It is always really interesting to see what techs from all over the world are interested in, I am never tired of it.  Naturally, in the countries that have less money, they focus mainly on how they can take their skills and make a basic living for themselves.  However, in the more developed countries it does tend to focus on skills and those extra techniques on how to produce the most beautiful nails for the clients as well as keeping up with what the latest trends are.  It never ceases to amaze me what a huge interest nail technicians have in new products and trends.  It seems that if we keep turning out new and interesting lines, there will always be a demand for the next new product . . . just like I never tire of meeting new people, techs all around the world never tire of trying new things – which is great!!  As I have said before in these articles you have to keep ahead of the game at all times and not fall by the wayside, ever!

In a way it is interesting to see how all of this interrelates into a global industry.  I was asked by one tech how similar running a global nail manufacturing business is to running a salon and I had think about the work we had recently been involved in with the launch of some of our latest brands to come up with the answer for her.

Just like a salon, we have to research the market, look at what products will be attractive, how we should position our price, how we are going to build demand, how we generate new customers with offers and promotions, how we keep our customers coming back and buying new products and of course, keep tabs on our competitors – always!!  We have to look at our sales service, our after sales service, then we have to adapt to changing market conditions, new product innovations like our soak off gel colors and of course deal with the ever changing economic climate.

I realize now more than ever that what it takes to build a truly global brand of nail care products is really so similar to building a first class salon business.  We all have to be ideally placed to be able to help and support our customers; we have the same basic needs and benefits

Just keep an eye out for those cowboys who come around trying to steal your business with cheap products and empty promises.  Steer clear and protect yourself against these types of shady individuals, they have no idea or understanding of what it takes to run a successful business or how to look after their customers properly.

See you next time.