Running a spa or salon is not easy work. If you’re like many of the spa and salon businesses out there, you have a small team which means you have to be the manager, marketer, human resources department, cleaning crew and stylist or esthetician. That’s a lot of hats for one person to wear but, as small business owners, many of us do it on a daily basis. What if you could increase your revenue and profits in creative ways so much so that it allowed you to hire more people and take some of that load off of yourself? It’s entirely possible and here we will discuss some creative ways to get you on the road to more revenue and profit so that you can run a less stressful operation.
OFFER SUBSCRIPTION-BASED SERVICES
You may be inclined to think that beauty salons or spas aren’t cut out for subscription-based services models. However, reserve your judgment for a minute because there is a first for everything and, luckily, in this case, there are already spas and salons that have successfully implemented subscription-based service models. For instance, one salon we discovered offers unlimited men’s haircuts for $80 a month. A different spa we are familiar with let’s clients get makeup and waxing services any time they want, as much as they want, for $250 a month. Now, before you start imagining one client coming in 200 times in a month and using up all of your staff and resources for a measly $200, let’s consider things rationally. How fast does hair really grow? The salon offering unlimited men’s haircuts for $80 a month will, at least, be getting $40 a haircut because who can get their haircut 3 or 4 times a month? This applies equally to the spa offering waxing and makeup for $250 a month. Sure, someone can come in repeatedly for makeup but not waxing. Also, you can certainly set up your subscription-based salon or spa services to only include services which are self-limiting like haircuts, waxing, hair-coloring etc.
CREATE MONETIZED SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO CONTENT FOR YOUR BUSINESS
One way in which your spa or salon business can grow, and even make you money while you sleep, is with monetized social media content. As a spa or salon, you have a lot of options with respect to this creative outlet. You can create “how to” tutorials for your clients, demonstrate any one, or all, of the services you offer, make videos about why you and your staff are passionate about your field and even do product reviews. Product reviews can simultaneously help generate more revenue on the retail end of your business as you should, logically, sell the products you are providing positive reviews for. Finally, the monetization aspect of the social media content means that your videos, through each view, will generate ad revenue for you and your business from the platform ( YouTube, Facebook, TikTok ) which it is hosted on. Simply put, the social media platform will run its own ads before or during your video and pay you to do so.
BE A BRAND AMBASSADOR
Video product reviews for quality products you are buying wholesale and then retailing at your business is a great way to get your foot in the door when it comes to retail revenue. However, when you find various products you like from the same manufacturer and want to take things to the next level, you can consider becoming a brand ambassador. Being a brand ambassador can have additional perks to the simple retail margin you would be getting from ordinary products. These perks can include higher sales margins, free samples for your clients, free equipment for your business and cross-promotion from the brand you are an ambassador for. Cross-promotion means that, while you are marketing the products of the brand you are an ambassador for, they could, similarly, do things like list your business as an authorized distributor and send extra business your way.
RENT OUT SALON OR SPA SPACE
One interesting phenomena that has entered into the beauty space recently is the tendency for businesses to rent (or sub-rent) unused salon or spa space. If this sounds enticing to you, there are a couple ways to go about this. The first and most obvious way is to rent out unused space to other hair stylists or aestheticians as the area is, logically, already equipped for these services. The second way to go about this is to rent the space out to a different, complimentary business. This could be a coffee shop, juice bar or anything else that you feel would add to the experience of your customers.
CONCLUSION
If you are chomping at the bit to increase revenue at your spa or salon, any one (or better yet all) of the ideas mentioned in this article have proven to be money makers for other businesses similar to yours. Additionally, they all require little to no financial investment up front and should be well within the financial reach of any salon.