I don’t know how many of y’all are first time business owners here but I know I learned a ton after having to close up my retail stores in 09 after the housing crisis.
After that I worked corporate for a decade and saw how the big guys do it.
The first thing they do is they never let off the gas. We were expected to grow at 20% a year. Each employee has to make 10x their salary to keep their job and actually prove their worth. We were constantly innovating, tracking sales year over year, month over month, week over week, day over day. We tracked our email campaigns in 30 minute post send metrics.
So what did I learn from this? You have to constantly hustle. You have to invest in proper marketing. You have to know when times will be slow and find ways to innovate to help spread out your money across the year.
I know this might not help you now, but lead gen is key and you can’t ever be too embarrassed to work your leads. The only good customer is a paying one.
For the salon owner who started this thread. What bonus can you offer that has a high perceived value or is a nice to have when things are slow? Something that doesn’t cost you much but can be thrown in during times like this?
Can you hit up your retail partners and put together gift packs of samples? A “$19.99 value” while supplies last? Buy some champagne and have a ladies night event. You cannot wait for people to come to you.
People are getting their haircut elsewhere - steal them.
I disagree. Most people just want a good haircut and a pleasant experience. If they find that through a bonus (like a free bag of samples) they will not demand the free bag of samples in the future because it’s not why they are there in the first place.