All businesses have a period when they make more money then at any other time of year. As a business owner, you have to take a step back and see the trees through the forest. It’s the only way you can take a true stock of your situation and make necessary changes to feel an impact on your life. You have to be able to see the things that are affecting your business and your life.

Think about it; are you running your business or is your business running you? Find a quiet hour or so, and don’t tell me you can’t! My website statistics tell me that my business is visited the most between the hours of 9 pm and 11 pm at night, and while I am always grateful that people take the time to visit the website looking for products and information, it’s quite clear that this happens at the very end of the day when salon owners and techs find an hour to themselves. So, if you can find an hour to surf on the Internet, you can find an hour to think about your business. I am a great believer in numbers and statistics. For instance, I know my company’s most profitable lines and the ones, which if sales increase, bring me the most return for the effort put in. I also know the least profitable lines that, even if sales increase by 100%, will not make me much more money.

I also know the lines that are complicated for my production staff to manufacture and the ones that are created more easily. I take time to look at all aspects of my business to maximize the return that I get on my product and service offering. I also look at how I can streamline the business to make life easier for the team. I closely watch any new business we pitch for to ensure we’re able to close a deal that adds value to the company, not just work. So I’m suggesting you sit for an hour and look at your business. Are you fully booked and have no spare time for new customers? If so, does this mean you need to recruit more staff or increase your prices?

If you’re fully booked, what are the most profitable treatments? Which ones do you need to do more of to maximize the time you have? You know which treatments make you the most money and surely these are the ones that you need to do more of. If you have treatments that don’t make you as much, but fill your books, what can you do to make money from that treatment? Do you want to expand your business? Will this involve more staff or space? If you have the space, then, just like a restaurant, you want to make sure you have as many tables placed as you can. If you’re fully booked then what else can you sell that doesn’t require much staff time? What about retail items? I know many salons that sell products for home use that report well over 30% of their income comes from retail. There are silent sales people i.e. displays that do the work for you. Again, if you’re thinking about keeping your work life easier, what better way is there, than increasing revenue by 30% without taking on the extra responsibility of a new member of staff.

I mentioned Christmas, which is fast approaching, I also said you need to look at how you can really maximize your busy season. Christmas gift packs are a great way to increase sales, but you must plan it now, get them in the shop, tell your customers and if you’re mobile, show your customers well before Christmas. Don’t wait until November before you start thinking about how you can make more money at Christmas. Act now and plan ahead. Also look at areas of cost in your business, you can always, I repeat always, get your costs down. The name of the game is costs down, profitable revenue up, do less of the things that make you less money, more of the things that make you more money, add income streams that don’t take up time. Don’t stop marketing whether you are busy or not.

And back to numbers, keep score, set targets and give yourself, your staff and your business marks out of 10. Rank your treatments in terms of profit and popularity. Rank your customers – know your top 20%. Look at the cost of the products you use, there are many great products out there at very reasonable prices. Take that hour and think about where you are with your business and where you want to be and realistically plan how to get what you want.

I’m giving a seminar at the London Olympia Beauty show 19-20 September 2010, so come see and speak to me. I am always willing to help and give advice.

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.

Planes, trains and automobiles have been the order or the day recently, as I have been lucky enough to have spent time travelling around Europe again recently, visiting Belgium, Ukraine, Germany and Holland.  Each time I visit these spectacular countries, I gain more of an insight into not only their culture, but the way they carry out their day to day business.  There are always different things happening within the global nail industry, but there is always one thing that remains the same and that is business in general.  I can tell you now, categorically; BUSINESS IS BACK – forget last year’s credit crunch, what credit crunch?  It’s all about the here and now – today.

I write this column today, not just as President of the largest nail care company in the world, but your global informant from around the world – I travel the extra mile (literally and physically) to ensure that my business survives whatever the economic climate is throwing at me – I wonder, what do you do for your business?

One thing we must all do, is not lose sight of the need to survive, during good times and the bad (I feel a song coming on!), no seriously, I am proud to say that I have noticed more and more nail technicians around the globe are turning into entrepreneurs.  When the going got tough (here I go again, I can’t stop myself, it must be all the fresh air!!), sorry, where was I ? . . . When the going got tough, the entrepreneur in you added extra services to generate more income; you actually used your brains, you thought outside the box – it’s incredible to see and I love it!  My message to you is don’t stop doing this just because business is coming your way and you are finding the market a little easier than last year; keep on top of your game and don’t lose sight of the fact that only the strong survive in both a poor economic climate and a healthy one.

Now then, the hottest thing I have noticed in services today all over Europe and the US market is the demand for the new soak off semi permanent UV nail polish.  It can’t have escaped your attention that this service is heavily promoted throughout the trade magazines, not only from my company but my competitors too.  As a nail tech, you need to think about your next income stream and this popular service will, without a doubt, be just that.  Soak off semi permanent polishes have been around for a number of years but only just seems to be taking off – that’s because the entrepreneur in you is making you sit up and pay attention to what’s new around you.  Remember only the fittest will survive, it’s the natural cycle of business and this process cleanses the industry of the weak minded – you have to innovate to be successful.

The only thing in the industry that is constant is change, you have got to keep up with the Joneses (as you British say). You need to make every penny work for you.

What are you waiting for?

I suggest that all salons and spas have an up-to-date website set up. This way client’s can go on line and plan a trip to the salon or spa. They can leisurely shop around the site and see promos, package deals and products without the need of human interaction. Now to make life just a little easier there are programs to help book appointments for services. Helping to fill books any time of the day! I would also set up a retail section on the website offering clients a way to purchase spa products without having to stop by the salon.

Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc) is an outlet to let people know up to the minute press and deals but I am not sure how well that works with getting people to come in for a treatment. While an e-blast of promotions or special services help specifically drive traffic though your doors, it targets the people that have already signed up to be on your e-blast list that have shown interest rather than a shot in the dark. I have found that e-blasts with promotions give people time to marinate with the idea of a special or service. Creating original services can often entice clients to stop by the salon for a visit.

One of the major suggestions in my seminars is to have gift certificates at the cash register. What better way of getting people to pre-buy services than gift certificates?  I would set up a program to give people the ability to order gift certificates on-line and pay with a credit card and print out the gift certificate to take to the salon.

Finding creative ways of marketing on-line will help increase sales and drive more traffic through the doors without the need of hiring another receptionist. Let your online business help generate sales and more business for your salon!

I am sure we have all experienced the ups and downs that the year brought to us and I am sure you join me now in feeling much more optimistic about 2010 now that we have had a few festive days worth of business. Just like me, you will have set yourself New Year’s resolutions and will be determined to stick to them. As always, most of mine (apart from eating and drinking less) are all geared to how I can make more of my business, make it more efficient, profitable; and maintain growth, so that 2010 can be an even more successful year for me.

We all start the year with great plans and enthusiasm and by the end of January, most of us have given up on our resolutions. New gym memberships are all the rage for the first two weeks of the New Year and then memberships decline as the weeks go by. Most new resolutions fail because we either set ourselves unrealistic targets for too many for us to keep on top of.

I always make the point of only setting two key factors in each area of my business, that way, my self and my staff have less to make sure we stick too. I also break these resolutions/goals down in to small, meaning full chunks. For instance, rather than set a goal for my self of running the New York marathon, I would set my self the goal of running for 10 mins. every other day and then increase this by 1 minute every run. By the time you have got past a few , will regularly be running for a good period of time. So to choose a more realistic goal, and example would be, if I want to grow my business I need to get my sales team to get 1 new customer per week that’s the goal! That is the challenge my team can remember. This is achievable and will make a difference to my business. If I can get each of my sales people to get 1 new customer a week, by the end of the year we will have 52 new customers per sales person and that will make a great difference to my business!

For you, let’s set a goal of getting 1 new customer per week per technician into your salon or 1 new mobile customer – you have to do this to make your business grow. Next, let’s set the target of getting an existing customer to purchase a more expensive treatment or to try an additional service. We now have two simple New Year’s resolutions: 1 new customer a week and 1 customer a week to have an additional treatment.

I am not saying they will transform your business in the first two weeks of the year, but unlike all of your other New Year’s resolutions, keep these ones going all year and see what a difference they can make at the end of 2010. While doing this, add a little retail in there for good measure. You and your staff need to sell one extra retail item a week. Write these goals down: 1 extra customer, 1 extra service, 1 extra retail. They are not big resolutions and not something that you can’t commit to and more importantly, not something that is too hard that you give up after two weeks. My New Year’s resolutions and yours are to keep our New Year’s resolutions… I am out and about all over the world again in 2010 and I am sure you will see a lot more of me. If you do, please come over and say hi and if I can help you with your business then I will be more than happy to do so!

Happy New Year 2010!!

I hear it all the time wherever I go, “We are a Gel salon, we are an Acrylic salon, we only do Fiberglass,” and to be perfectly honest with you, I find myself asking why, why, why?

Surely in this day and age you are (and yes, I appreciate those of you who are switched on, don’t have this issue) not so narrow minded as to only perform one artificial system in your salon.

You need to have all bases covered – you should be offering Hard Gels, Soft Gels, Acrylics, Fiberglass, Manicure, Pedicure, and Nail Art. Think about it, it would be like going into a restaurant and only being offered Steak, imagine that – what about the vegetarians???

You get my point surely and yes, I have an agenda, I want to sell more products, I want to make more money, but so should you – don’t limit yourselves to the basics, branch out, expand your mind and be prepared to ponder to the needs of your customers.

Just imagine how many more customers you could attract if you offered just one more service; for instance, those that actually do want Gel Nails and not Acrylic, those that do want Fiberglass – more money in your pocket, less in those of your competitors. Don’t go around thinking you can’t afford to get your staff trained in other systems; there are plenty of training courses available out there, some companies even offer conversion courses at reduced rates for this purpose – you just have to shop around.

For instance, I am hearing more and more about the new soak off gels and how popular they are, don’t miss out on new trends like this, don’t be afraid to try something new – call and ask suppliers for samples, if they want your business they will send them to you.

My European distributors are doing fantastically well with the new soak off gel products, their customers just can’t get enough. They are even marketing the services as a semi-permanent polish service – remember to be creative with your offerings as well.

Imagine if all those years ago, I had only stocked the Fiberglass system, I wouldn’t be here today relaying all of my pearls of wisdom to you now would I?

Until next time . . . . .

Thanks!

People are always asking me how to make more money and where they can make the next quick buck? Money doesn’t grow on trees, it doesn’t come easily, and it takes a lot of hard work and effort to achieve a substantial bank balance.

So what’s the magic cure? Well, here’s the deal… there isn’t one! You work hard, you employ a decent staff, you have a nice salon with a book full of customers, you are busy most of the time, and you have a display of different products- what’s next?

Today I want to talk to you about retail products; we may have touched on this in the past, but with Christmas around the corner, I think that retailing is where your salon can make a big difference to your profit margins. There are many elements to this part of your business, but with anything, take it a chunk at a time and investigate each point thoroughly to maximize the impact a few retail products can make.

What Products to Choose
You have to be happy with the products that you use every day at the salon, not just because the company sales girl was nice and gave you a great deal- what are you going to do with a heap of different products that might look cute but you know nothing about?

If you and your staff don’t believe in the products that you use everyday, how can these possibly be used in treatments with confidence and discussed/sold to customers?

Product Training
Your staff should be trained and fully conversant in the features, advantages and benefits of each of the different products with in the ranges they use everyday. The product supplier should insist on this training for your staff, otherwise they are just dumping product on you don’t have any interest in building the brand or any business with you in the future. I say again, you and your staff need to love the products, they need to love everything about it, how it looks, how it feels, how it smells, what it does, etc,etc.. All of these things will make the collection easier to sell: Nothing sells a product more than passion and genuine interest from the person selling it. Think about it, someone calls you up from a sales center, trying to sell you a new, let’s say bed, for the sake of argument. You’re just a number, they don’t care about the bed, they don’t care about you, they just want the sale and it comes across, you are just next on the list. In a salon environment the compassion and care is already there, having been built over the last few months/years between you and your clients. Add to that the genuine enthusiasm for the fantastic new products you have just taken on, that actually do what they say they do and the sale is easy as pie.

Discuss the Products
Instead of idle gossip (yes ladies, I mean you) at the salon during nail treatments, why not take the time to explain to the customer what exactly it is you are doing and why? Explain how the product you’re using is benefiting them, this then nicely leads into home care products and why home maintenance is important. This in turn will increase the trust between client and staff and ultimately make selling retail products much easier.

Best Placed
The brand you carry/use in your salon needs to be seen- to be sold. There is no point having a cupboard full of retail products that you overwhelm your client with at the treatment. Products on display will sell themselves most of the time. Think about window space, an area by the cash register or in the treatment room- a nice brightly lit, clean, airy space is retail heaven, but on the flip side a beautiful display can actually turn people off! Keep to the basics, make sure you have plenty of stock, neatly displayed, already priced with samples to try- this will take the pressure away from customers, most of which will approach the display by themselves and ultimately feel more comfortable making their purchase.

Staff Incentives
Yes, I know a contentious issue sometimes, but you know small staff incentives go a long way. Imagine selling something you love and getting paid extra to for it! How incredible is that? Even if its wrong with a little competition, it might even make some of the slackers sit up and pay attention.

Promotions
Always ask your product supplier what their current promotions are. Nine out of 10, they will offer you something, even if it doesn’t have any structured promotions running at the time. Make the most of these opportunities, invest a little extra time and money in taking these from your suppliers and reap the rewards in the future. Your clients will thank you for passing on the benefits of the promotions and in turn it will make selling easier, as the clients are effectively getting more for their money.

Change is one of the most powerful forces in the world-we can either fight change or we can embrace it, its not something to be scared of. Think about how the world has evolved for the better in many ways and without these changes we would still be wearing fur pants and dragging our better halves around by their hair!

I have, throughout my life, always been the kind of person who has sought to embrace change. I have always tried to look at the positive benefits that it can bring. As I’ve traveled around the world over the years I’ve seen so many changes that it’s truly been astonishing and a real eye opener in many cases.

I have traveled all over the Eastern Bloc, which until just a few years ago was still a communist country and incredibly backward in so many ways. Over the past 20 years I have privy to stories of people in food queues with a lack of basic human necessities- just imagine that! Now, when I visit my global distributors and meet their children who have grown into their teens I see they have the latest iPhones and all manner of gadgets- they are completely in tune with the Internet and have no recollection of the harsh lives that their parents endured in the recent past. These families are a good example of how easy it is to embrace a changing world and also how rapid that rate of change can be.

I embrace change in my daily life and always try to see if there are quicker and better ways of doing things. I like to believe that change is constant in my life and particularly in business where I feel, if you don’t change and adapt, you can soon find yourself for a better choice of words, extinct! There are many stories of how businesses that were successful for many years suddenly found themselves out of business and the explanation that is often given is merely that they didn’t change with the times and got left behind.

I, as a product company CEO, am constantly looking, with my team to see how we can change and improve not only our existing and traditional products, but also what we can invent or develop in the new system products department in order to give better results in quicker times. We have in development right now new system products that we feel will revolutionize the nail business in the years to come.

As I said earlier, you need to be thinking about how you can embrace changes in many ways. Think outside of the box, don’t have tunnel vision and just focus on the day to day running of your business- look at all of the aspects; premises, staff, training, products, marketing, services etc. Don’t throw away the leaflets and magazines that come though your door, send off for samples and try other products- you are not under any obligation and if you don’t try new things, you will never know what you are missing out on.

Don’t become overwhelmed by change by trying to do everything at once; take it a section at a time, which also allows you to give “change” the attention and time required to be successful. Changes don’t have to be huge, small things here and there can have maximum impact. Take time to reassess your business and you will soon be reaping the rewards, trust me!

Everywhere I travel people are starting to become more optimistic about the future. However, just because the economy is looking like it will improve, it doesn’t mean we should stop doing those things that have helped us get through these tough times. In fact, now is the time to refocus our efforts on getting more and keeping hold of our current customers. Without a doubt the landscape in the nail industry is changing, as many companies having already suffered with the down turn, are now finding themselves in difficult waters.

I believe you will see many changes in the nail industry as time progress, not only in the domain of the nail distributors and suppliers that you may be purchasing your products from, but also ultimately, changes in the manufactures of these nail products too. The vast majority of genuine manufactures of nail products are based in the Untied States of America and I have been watching and listening with interest to all of the things they say and do. So it will be interesting to see who survives the downturn. It may well be that you have already seen changes to the supply chain that you are involved with.

Take training for instance; this is one of the sectors I predict you will see radical changes in over the next six months. For me, too many of the nail companies in the UK see training as a nice way of earning money and they often charge far too much for the privilege of you being able to learn how to use and ultimately buy their products. A lot of this manufacturer training gets swept into the debate of qualifications and which awarding body does what for you at the end of the day. You should actually be able to get cost effective training from any manufacturer, as it is the nail product creators that want and need you to buy their products. And they want you to buy these products for a long time to come. So surely it’s in our best interests as a product manufactures to help you to do this by keeping the prices that are charged to learn to use these products as low as possible?

Now, I’m sure you are aware that this is not the case for private schools that are in the business of making money from education itself, I know a number of these types of companies and they do provide excellent training facilities to enable beginners and more advanced students to develop their skills.

My point is, that manufactures (me included) shouldn’t be shortsighted and overcharge you to learn how to become a nail technician or for you to become a more advanced nail technician. I do believe you will see this controversial element changing in the months to come, so keep your eyes open and compare the cost of your training before you spend your hard earned money; remember if something is less expensive it doesn’t always mean it is worse or that you get less, think in terms of how the whole jigsaw puzzle fits together- now there’s some food for thought!

Featured in the July 2009 issue Scratch Magazine

Seminario/Taller Professional Workshop
August 16-17 2009
Mexico City
Lady Nail Seminar Information