Power Book 2018

Manage your way to business growth

POWERBOOK

GOOD TO GREAT Next steps for your salon

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19/04/2018 14:33

SIT BACK. WE WANT TO TELL YOU A STORY… AFTER SUCCESSFUL CAREERS as the owner of a barber shop, a top-performing salesman and a national sales manager, Henry Meyers found himself at odds with bureaucratic managers who had no idea what was happening in the field. He had done everything else in the barber/ beauty industry – so why not start a new company, or better yet, buy one?

In late 1959, at the age of almost 50, Henry acquired a small manufacturer in Indianapolis, IN, called Kenra Laboratories, which had long been trying to make its way into the shampoo business.

Henry knew what it took to make shampoo and to sell shampoo.

He loved every aspect of the business and progressively grew his company until it was regarded as producer of high-quality, professional products.

The staff of Kenra were his extended family. He relished pay-day, when he would personally hand out every cheque, making sure to enquire about everyone’s families, their troubles and their joys.

Henry remained active in Kenra until he was diagnosed with cancer in 2000. He died on 6 March 2001 and the beauty and barber supply industry lost one of its pillars, one of its very best. But we are all richer for Henry Meyers having dared, shared and cared!

Under new ownership Kenra has continued to flourish, launching Kenra Platinum in 2004 and Kenra Color in 2012. Kenra Professional is now available in the UK exclusively from Salon Success and Salon Services.

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18/04/2018 13:38

(ADVERTO RIAL)

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KENRA PROFESSIONAL For the true Kreative!

KENRA

Kenra boasts some of the most popular styling products on the market – its iconic Volume Spray 25 has won the Behind The Chair Stylist Choice Award for Favourite Hairspray an unprecedented 13 years in a row.

Moisturizing

Volumizing

Daily Provision

Shine Spray

Matte Texture Putty

Volume Mousse

KENRA PLATINUM

Launched in 2004, Kenra Platinum introduced luxurious ingredients, premium fragrances and innovative technology, fast becoming a firm favourite of stylists and consumers alike.

Revive Collection

Thickening Collection

Color Charge Collection

! g n i h c r Ke KENRA PLATINUMon

ND tors KENRA A sy-to-follow hold fac ven e ea both have roducts making them p all styling r to retail to clients s a e ie

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(ADVERTO RIAL)

WINNER STYLIST CHOICE AWARDS 2017

behindthechair.com

Curl Glaze Mousse

Root Lifting Spray

Styling Gel

Design Artformation Spray Spray

Thermal Non-Aerosol Styling Spray Volume Spray

Featured in

Volume Spray

THE DAILY MAIL

Dry Shampoo

Ultra Freeze Spray

Blow-Dry Spray

Silkening Mist

Thickening Spray

Dry Texture Spray

Hot Spray

Silkening Gloss

“Volume Spray 25 is a great performer, leaving hair feeling luxurious without overwhelming it or weighing it down. It’s a must if your client struggles with limp hair” C AR L B ROW N, CO - FOUNDER, RUSSELL AND BROWN’S

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18/04/2018 13:46

For the convenience of shopping online and in store visit: www.salon-services.co.uk

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08/02/2018 17:04

NEW

& EXCLUSIVE

TO THE UK

F O R

T H E

T R U E

K R E AT I V E

#KREATE Since it’s US launch six years ago, Kenra Color has become the brand of choice for thousands of trend-driven stylists across America. With unparalleled grey coverage delivering true to tone, natural looking colour and a consistency you’ll love; you can expect soft, shiny results that your clients will crave. ®

Award -Winning • Performance Driven Professional Only • Cruelt y- Free

B R I NG I NG YOU T H E WO R LD’S TOP SALON B R ANDS For preferential pricing, full salon support, launch kits and education call

salon-success.co.uk/kenra

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0845 659 0011

08/02/2018 17:04

WHY CHOOSE KENRA COLOR? Kenra Color by Kenra Professional makes it easier than ever to achieve stunning results. This straightforward, easy-to-use hair colour line produces consistent, reliable results that you can count on

Metallic Collection

Designed for pre-lightened hair with silver, violet and bronze shades in limitless permanent and demi-permanent colour combinations

Permanent Coloring Cremes

With a gentle, low-ammonia formulation that delivers vibrant, long-lasting results and outstanding coverage

Demi-Permanent Coloring Cremes

Formulated without ammonia for improved condition and manageability with intense shine

Permanent Blonding Category

Includes a variety of offerings such as the Kenra Color Lightener Collection, High Lift Series and the extremely versatile Blonding Creme

Demi-Permanent Rapid Toners

Formulated without ammonia, and designed to process and tone in five minutes or less

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18/04/2018 13:50

(ADVERTO RIAL)

“Kenra is true to tone, gentle and provides awesome grey coverage!”

SAR AH C R AC KN E LL , HAIRDRESSER

“Absolutely love Kenra Color! As a professional I look for products that are easy to use and deliver great results. Love it!”

GAB R I E L A RO DR I GU E Z, HAIRDRESSER

“It’s hands-down the best colour line I’ve ever used!

I love the versatility and easy-to-use formulation! I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!”

Z AN E DR E ESM AN, HAIRDRESSER

“Kenra has the best reds I’ve ever used, and I’ve been a redhead for years! All other colour lines I’ve used have faded so fast, but Kenra continues to stay vibrant and actually stays red substantially longer than any other line I’ve used” JAC KI C L AY P OO L, HAIRDRESSER

“I love the way the hair feels, the colour lasts and the shine is amazing!”

AN NA M AR I E DE AL ME I DA, HAIRST YLIST

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18/04/2018 13:50

(ADVERTO RIAL)

10 GOOD REASONS

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH KENRA PROFESSIONAL 1.

LONG ESTABLISHED, REPUTABLE BRAND Over 85 years of dedication to the professional beauty industry, salons, stylists and their clients

2.

PURELY PROFESSIONAL Commitment to professional beauty and non-diversion, always putting the stylist first

3.

INNOVATION High quality, performance-driven products designed to meet the most demanding stylist needs

4.

TRAINING AND INSPIRATION A wealth of support and education available on demand, with a dedicated Kenra Salon Business Consultant and professional log in website

5.

RECOGNITION AND RELIABILITY Multi award-winning products tested in independent laboratories for superior performance

6.

CRUELTY-FREE Kenra Professional is not tested on animals

7.

PHILANTHROPY Kenra Professional has been partnering with The Rapunzel Project since 2010 and has donated more than $50,000 (£35,600) so far

8.

EXCLUSIVITY The UK is the first country outside of the US to have the Kenra brand, which is available to salons exclusively through Salon Success and Salon Services

9.

FAST AND RELIABLE SERVICE Salon orders leave our warehouse with a 98 per cent success rate of delivery within 24 hours

10.

VISUAL MERCHANDISING Support including free point-of-purchase materials to create eye-catching window and in-salon displays FOR LAUNCH KIT OFFERS AND TO DISCOVER HOW PARTNERING WITH KENRA PROFESSIONAL CAN HELP TO GROW YOUR SALON BUSINESS, CALL 0845 659 0011 OR VISIT SALON-SUCCESS.CO.UK/KENRA

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Cover by Kenra Professional. This page, HD Brows

( CO NTENTS )

P O W ER BO O K 201 8 04 SALON BOSSES UNVEIL THEIR #SQUADGOALS

32 RE:INVENTION HOUSE STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN

16 BUILDING A COLOUR BUSINESS? SOPHIA HILTON SHARES INSIGHTS

36 GET AHEAD WITH PR EXPERT, ALISON JAMESON

20 HOW TO TURN AN IDEA INTO A WINNING INNOVATION

40 MELISSA TIMPERLEY ON HER SUCCESSFUL START UP

EDITOR Amanda Nottage. CONTRIBUTORS Beth Davie. ART Graeme White. CHIEF SUB EDITOR Adam Wood. ADVERTISING Laura Tucker. PUBLISHER Catherine Handcock.

Power Book is a supplement of Creative HEAD. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the prior permission. All information correct at time of going to press. Printing by Buxton Press. creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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19/04/2018 13:27

GOAL DIGGING

LISA WHITEMAN, WHITEMAN SOHO GOAL: GROW MY COLOUR BUSINESS

I opened my new salon at the end of last year (pictured above), and I’m aiming to successfully re-invent the way a client experiences colour in-salon and give them supreme confidence. I’d like to grow my colour business revenue by 75 per cent – as a start-up with a very high break-even monthly figure I need great results to continue in this beautiful location. I also plan to start my own training and education programme for up-and-coming stylists. I’ll be working on this throughout the year and hope to inspire them with a programme that includes a client cut and colour programme and teaches them about client retention and customer service.

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POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:28

( BUSINESS PL ANS )

Time to get laser-focused as salons identify their #SquadGoals for the months ahead...

TOM O’BRIEN, BAROQUE HAIR

ANNE VECK, ANNE VECK SALONS

MARK WOOLLEY, ELECTRIC HAIRDRESSING

GOAL: GAINING BETTER CONSISTENCY

GOAL: WINNING A MOST WANTED AWARD

GOAL: NAILING EDUCATION

We know happy clients are loyal clients. So we’ve worked hard to create new policies that ensure we meet and exceed their needs. Our biggest challenge is continuity – when the bar has been set so high to deliver a premium experience, it has to be delivered each and every time. If it isn’t, a decline in rebooking and revenue is sure to follow. So we’ve just launched the Baroque Hair ‘Service Wheel’.

The experience begins as soon as a guest enters the salon: they receive a warm welcome at our reception, a detailed consultation, indulgent hair spa experience, professional delivery of their hair service, and finally, they’re given a bespoke product prescription.

We recognise revenue can only be generated through trust and loyalty. We always encourage our team to upsell only if needed by the client. With the ‘Service Wheel’ in motion, our aim will be to ensure transparency and customer care are at the top of our business priority list.

Winning awards is a very important part of our marketing mix. Our salon clients love going to an ‘award-winning salon’ and talk about it, thus attracting more bums on seats. Winning improves our credibility in the industry, which helps the artistic team and I get more education and show work. We aim to win at least one major award each year as a minimum, and as we haven’t won a Most Wanted or It List yet – though we have been finalised a few times – this is our goal. We love how much value Creative HEAD gives to its winners, so it’s a priority to win one! We’re also looking to increase turnover and profit at our refitted Bicester salon. We would expect a 20 per cent growth in turnover within 12 months as a reasonable return on investment. However, the new refit makes us a standout destination salon, so we’re aiming for 33 per cent! We also have The Big Hair Do in September as well to get the name out there further.

It’s all about education for us, whether through our comprehensive training programme for stylists or our intimate creative learning course, Electric Sessions. Working with my education director, Steve Robinson, we’ve been developing a collection of tailor-made education courses that are aimed not only at our stylists but also stylists from salons that stock the Electric product range.

Internally, we’ve also created a development system called the Magnificent 7, which covers the key elements of hairdressing as if it were a typical day in the salon.

At the end of the programme, each trainee is tested by having to create seven key haircuts, seven key colours, and seven key finishes, just as they would on the salon floor. Every art director works to that standard with the salon trainees so we can all deliver the same level of education in the same way, throughout the salon group.

LEAH DURRANT, LEAH DURRANT HAIR SALON AND BEAUTY RE:TREAT GOAL: PERFECTING MY WORK/LIFE BALANCE I had my first child before opening the salon in 2010 and was pregnant with my second child during the set-up and launch. I literally did everything on my own while breast-feeding, it was crazy! With all this in mind, my goal for the future is to perfect my work/life balance.

Being a ‘mumpreneur’ can be challenging and you can sometimes feel guilty spending a lot of time at your business and not with your children. I’ve appointed two managers, one for the hair salon and one for the beauty. They run everything on the days that salon co-director Andrew and I are not in. Having these two members of staff managing when I’m unavailable is great, as it keeps my mind at ease that the business is achieving its goals when I’m not around and that other members of staff are completing specific tasks and reaching the goals that they have been asked to. creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 14:29

NEW LEASE OF LIFE Forget CPR – this is how you bring ‘Flatliners’ in your business back to life – with the help of 3•6•5’s Ken West

AT SALON SMART THIS YEAR a salon owner and friend of mine, Carolyn Sweeney of Creations in Chichester, joined me on stage to share how we created a special programme together. Why, you might ask? It was to help the ‘Flatliners’ in her salon get back onto the upward curve to future growth. Every salon owner I know has Flatliners – people who, whatever role they are in, have reached that point where they are just drifting along. They may be achieving good results or poor results, but either way they are not growing, and probably have not grown in a long time. They are comfortable and content and no one is rocking their boat so they just keep drifting along.

The biggest challenge is that often it’s the salon owner that is drifting along. Unprepared, too afraid, or just unsure of what to do to rectify it. One thing is sure though and that is that flatlining will never rectify itself.

So, what are the warning signs? The key indicator, in its simplest form, is sales. If sales are flat, whether for the salon as a whole or for any single individual then, if not addressed, profits will fall because costs will inevitably increase. However, that’s a simplistic answer, as we know sales are a result of who we employ, what services they provide, the quality of those services and our ability to attract and retain clients. Stylists need to understand they are responsible for, and in control of, their results.

What I do is ask stylists to share with me their own key performance indicators: What are their average weekly professional sales?

What are their average weekly retail sales?

What is their average number of clients per week?

What is their average income per client?

06

What is their new client percentage?

What is their request client percentage?

What is their client retention percentage?

The first four should be ingrained in their brains, just like their address or their date of birth, because they are the numbers that will affect their earning potential. Sadly, most stylists have no idea of these numbers let alone understand why they need to know them.

Hopefully when you took them on you set minimum performance standards for each of your team. Awareness of these numbers and the numbers that they are currently achieving gives you a perfect starting place to create a plan of action for the future. As a business, you then need a clearly defined strategy to support and help people to achieve their goals. Before you start to manage the Flatliners out of your business, you must provide all of the education, coaching and guidance that they need.

You will have heard the expression: “You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. But you must provide the water, make it taste nice, put it in a receptacle that is easy to drink from and then make the horse understand why it should drink the water. Then if the horse decides not to ‘drink’, you better find yourself another horse because that one isn’t going anywhere!

If you do all of the above and are still not getting the Flatliners to grow, then you have to use performancerelated disciplinary action to manage them out. Some people leave it so long that they think it’s too late to start performance management. It’s never too late to draw a line in the sand and start performance managing; it will just take longer to reach a conclusion the longer you leave it.

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:29

( MOTIVATIO N )

creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 14:38

LET’S TRY SOMETHING NEW You’ve built up a solid salon business, but it’s beginning to feel a bit samey. Take a look at the myriad ways you could be building new sources of revenue BONDING ADDITIVES AND TREATMENTS

KeraStraight

Never underestimate the power of add-ons, especially bonding additives and service enhancements such as smoothing treatments.

They tie in perfectly with what you’re already offering clients and offer no-fuss applications and instant results – two things clients always appreciate.

There are an abundance of smoothing services out there and it’s always worth checking with your brand partner to see what it offers, but the most recent addition to the market is from a brand already known for its smoothing services: Ultimate Treatment and Ultimate Booster by KeraStraight.

The Booster is designed to deliver extra straightening power for clients with resistant, very curly or Afro-Caribbean hair.

Priced at the discretion of the salon, but recommended to charge upwards of £150 by KeraStraight, Nathan Walker, international technical director for Trevor Sorbie, has found Ultimate Treatment and Ultimate Booster to be an easy and affective way of boosting a client’s bill.

“When you suggest something that could add an additional £600 spend a year, a client needs to get their head around it,” says Nathan. “We’ve been able to put it to them by explaining that they wear their hair every single day. Once they try KeraStraight, enjoy the product and find it delivers what they want, they will find a way to do it.”

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POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:30

( BUSINESS BUILDERS )

Rebecca Judic, trade sales manager at iconic eyebrow brand, HD Brows, believes brows are the perfect additional service for salons as it offers a range of options for salons looking to increase their revenue and client offerings.

“No prior beauty experience is needed, training your stylists in HD Brows is a great introduction to beauty for any salon, with minimal cost, space and equipment required,” says Rebecca. “What’s more, it’s a great way to keep stylists loyal to you as an employee as they see you investing in their skill set.”

Then there’s the added revenue stream it offers.

Training starts from as little as £1,395+VAT with further discount available for additional stylists to be trained. “As part of your investment, you will also receive a kit with enough product for 60 treatments, a place on the HD Brows salon finder and free marketing materials,” says Rebecca. “With a recommended treatment price of £30, your initial training could be paid back in a matter of weeks.”

Karen Brown, owner of Hair by JFK, found adding brow services very effective in boosting a client’s average salon bill. “It allowed us to add value to our hair salon experience and get clients talking,” she says. “Clients waiting for their hair colour to develop are often interested in these quick services, which is great for salon profit.”

HD Brows

BROWS

HD Brows

L’Oréal Professionnel Smartbond

And then there’s the bonding additives – try not to make these already included in your client bill or, if you do, make sure the overall price is more than what you’d previously charged as they’re simply too good at making money.

Sophia Hilton, owner of Not Another Salon and 2017 Most Wanted Colour Expert, discovered this when she took on Innoluxe and the recently launched Innoluxe V2. “I had to start looking at the money, because if I was charging £120 for a balayage, by adding Innoluxe every time it was actually £150. You can imagine the difference it made to the money coming into the salon.”

Affinage has created a handy calculator for salons that use ASP Vitaplex – the brand’s Biomimetic Hair Treatment – revealing how salons can grow their business with the treatment. It shows that if just 15 extra clients a week opt for ASP Vitaplex at £20 a service, then the salon will make a weekly profit of £191.25 and an additional annual profit of £9,180.

Meanwhile, Deep Hairdressing in Teeside has made an incredible £24,000 in sales in the past year with L’Oréal Professionnel Smartbond. The team has sold more than 2,000 applications, so not only does it clearly increase your colour revenue, it also generates loyalty as your client’s hair becomes stronger and looks healthier.

And don’t forget the retail opportunities bonding additives afford, with most including a third aftercare option. Deep Hairdressing has found clients are rebuying Smartbond Step 3 conditioner, while Innoluxe Elixir V2 is a leave-in conditioner that can be used at home and has a recommended price tag of £25, and Affinage says an additional £6 per client is achievable if they take home the Vitaplex 03 Bond Preserver.

creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 15:37

Remi Cachet

( BUSINESS BUILDERS )

offers education courses from £175 and complete packages from £449.95 to train three stylists. The brand also offers a six-month hair quality guarantee on all 100 per cent human hair extensions (when using the Balmain Paris Hair Couture aftercare range) – a strong draw for clients.

Remi Cachet’s training courses are open to hairdressers with minimum NVQ Level 2, Victoria Lynch, founder of Remi Cachet, suggests looking at either the Mini Tip and Ultra Tip two-day course or Hot and Cold Fusion two-day course as a thorough introduction to extensions. “The initial investment for the two-day courses are £1,200+VAT for one person, but additional stylists from the same salon are just an extra £300+VAT,” says Victoria, who says the stylist should break even after just four full heads. Extensions are enjoying a boom period and the service is now the norm in many hair salons and with a wealth of extension brand suppliers to choose from, you can find the brand that’s best for your salon.

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Balmain Paris Hair Couture

Great Lengths

As with many additional services, extensions are a great way of directly increasing both your profit and customer loyalty. “For salons that don’t have a huge budget, hair extensions are a great option as you can start off with a small investment, but still have the potential to earn big,” says Hair Rehab’s Lauren Pope.

Extensions make up 60 per cent of business at Wills & Parker salon in Harrogate. “Extension clients spend anything from £100 to £1,000 depending on the amount used, and my advice to any aspiring stylist is to always seek out a company that provides great hair, fantastic training and good customer service,” says owner Tracy Roche.

She uses Great Lengths and has found extensions are a great way at growing a loyal client base as they’re more likely to come to the same salon for their colour and blow-drying.

Salv Mulé, salon director at Academy Salons in Surrey, has found offering extensions to be quicker than carrying out a colour service. “We now facilitate a full head of extensions in 45 minutes, which is quicker than a colour service and more profitable,” he enthuses. “We can also introduce risk-free colour to clients who are chemical-shy, which is a real asset.”

Salv uses Balmain Paris Hair Couture, which

Great Lengths

EXTENSIONS

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18/04/2018 15:37

TRADE ACCOUNTS APPLY AT REMICACHET.COM

FORM A DEEPER BOND WITH YOUR HAIR PRE BONDED - WEFTS - CLIP-INS - TAPE - HAIR PIECES Indian, Russian-Mongolian & Chinese Hair

#GorgeousHairIsAChoice Ask your #RCStylist

remicachet.com

2017-06 • Remi Cachet Hair Magazine SP CREATIVE HEAD.indd 1

18/07/2017 15:42

( BUSINESS BUILDERS )

Aveda

Nioxin

RETAIL

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MEN’S GROOMING

Redken Brews

You probably already know that more than 50 per cent of people will experience hair thinning at some point in their lives, but how are you catering to these clients in your salon? Trichology and hair thinning services are no longer niche sectors and aren’t as expensive or as time-consuming to add to services as you might think, but they’re worth investing in as “you will have something new to talk about to at least half of your clients”, advises Sophie Ruggiero, commercial education manager for Nioxin.

You first need to consider if you have an area in your salon that you could use for private consultations, as well as available retail space, while setting aside a certain amount for training is also advised as stylists need to be able to sensitively discuss the needs of clients who may be experiencing hair thinning.

Nioxin starter packages are around £750 and this covers treatments, backwash services, retail and style, but salons can invest in Nioxin from as little as around £300 – and all receive training as standard.

Philip Kingsley recommends its starter package, which costs from £1,000, to provide the salon with the brand’s key lines and best sellers and enable them to offer the Hair & Scalp Spa treatment as a service. And Hairdreams is offering a 20 per cent anniversary discount on its Microlines hair thickening system starter package (until 31 May), which includes free in-salon training, marketing materials and 20 per cent discount on the range.

HOB Salons has recently launched a Hair Thinning Clinics service and has found that stylists typically add it on as an additional scheduled component to their client’s regular appointment. “In terms of the client’s bill, the new service has had a direct and very pleasing effect,” says Natasha Grossman, regional manager of HOB Salons.

Aveda

SCALP SERVICES

Retailing make-up and supplements are a no-brainer as they’re a relatively low initial investment and don’t take up a lot of space. “Adding beauty services such as make-up has become hugely popular with clients, allowing us to grow our business, bring in more clients and give existing clients an even better service,” says Karen Thomson, owner of KAM Hair and Body Spa in Lossiemouth.

Aveda has recently launched its Feed my Lips collection, specifically designed to go hand-inhand with hair services. “There are few beauty transformations as powerful as a hair colour refresh and update, but changing a client’s hair colour can often mean they say goodbye to their favourite lip shade,” says Janell Geason, Aveda global artistic director for make-up. “As a hair and make-up brand, Aveda makes finding a complementary shade effortless and with Feed my Lips salons are now in a position to find a lipstick shade that will best complement a client’s bespoke hair colour.”

The collection is a four-step process and if clients buy the whole package, it’s £64. So if you sell just two collections a day, that’s an extra £896 a week, just from selling make-up. When it comes to supplements, anything with a celebrity endorsement sells well and Viviscal is a celebrity and beauty editor favourite. Viviscal Professional sells to salons at £35.99+VAT a pack, but recommends you retail it at £59.99 a pack. Sarah Morrissey, owner of Sarai Hair and Beauty in Crowthorne, Berkshire, admits: “We talked about Viviscal Professional so much that we had sold half of the stock in just a few weeks.”

Men are high-value clients who visit the salon more frequently than women and are willing to pay for expert advice and services.

“We offer a Beard Trim and Shape as well as a Hot Towel Shave and we also have a Deluxe Package,” says Ross Charles, owner of Ross Charles Hairdressing. “Offering this alongside their cut and finish is both convenient for the client and an effective way to boost our average bill.”

If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to your brand partner. Redken Brews offers a Cut & Camo service for men, enabling you to upgrade your male clients in just five minutes.

And Aveda has introduced an in-salon Scalp Facial targeted at men. This £15 add-on is designed to effectively deep cleanse the scalp and help skin cell turnover using the Aveda Pramãsana range.

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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18/04/2018 15:38

STR I V E TO BE U N R I VA L L E D TAKE YOUR PLACE AMONGST THE CRÈME DE LA CRÈME. BECOME A GREAT LENGTHS EXTENSIONIST TO UNLOCK LIMITLESS LOOKS AND CREATIVE POSSIBILITIES. Our extensions are 100% human hair. We have a global reputation for excellence and an inspiring team of expert educators.

Great Lengths is in a class of its own. Don’t you want to be a part of it? Find out how you can become a Great Lengths certified stylist.

GREATLENGTHSHAIR.CO.UK/BECOME-A-CERTIFIED-STYLIST

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19/04/2018 13:31

( COLOU R BUSINESS )

COUNTDOWN TO COLOUR LIFTOFF! Get in control of your colour business! Most Wanted Colour Expert and Business Thinker winner Sophia Hilton of Not Another Salon – not to mention It List Entrepreneur, too – has a few lessons on what NOT to do…

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DON’T EXPECT PEOPLE TO BUY IT IF YOU’RE NOT SELLING IT

When colourists tell me they want to do more creative colour but complain that no-one comes into their salon for that sort of work, I say to them: ‘Yes, but did you tell anyone you do it?’ No-one came to Not Another Salon to have creative colours until we started to share them on social media. You have to advertise what you do – and if you don’t do it, you need to fake it, at least for a while! Get in models and do their hair for free until you have enough images to show your salon can do it.

DON’T FORGET TO COVER YOURSELF

It’s boring, but skin testing and consultation sheets really do cover you, not to mention save you a fortune in re-dos. We even have a sheet they sign that states: ‘bleach is the most damaging chemical we can legally use on your hair’, just to be dramatic! Dot your i’s and cross your t’s and make sure everyone that’s having your services knows what they’re signing up for.

DON’T LET YOUR SENIORS GO STALE

So often your senior colourists are the least inspiring people in your business.

Yes, their fully booked columns might be great cash cows, but be aware of how these members of the team might damage the business in the long term. Young staff need inspiration, they need someone to look up to, someone who loves colour… not someone who has turned themselves into a money machine.

DON’T REPRIMAND YOUR STAFF FOR ‘TWEAKS’

No-one likes the anxiety of having to tell their manager they need to get a client back in to re-do a toner. But as managers, if we make our team feel bad about it, they’re more likely to just let the client leave, cross their fingers and hope it doesn’t become a complaint. Now that’s going to cause some damage to your business!

I encourage my staff to re-book clients BEFORE they become complaints by keeping the conversation about ‘tweaks’ very casual and comfortable.

DON’T MISS OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Just because you’re not 20 years old doesn’t give you an excuse not to move with the times. For colour salons, social media is a business tool that you have to learn and it’s no different to learning how to work a spreadsheet. You don’t have to love it, you just have to master it. On 2 July, I’m running a social media event in London, so get down there and learn it – you will start really understanding the value of free advertising…

FIND OUT MOREIA’S ABOUT SOPH COURSE AT

y.com notanotheracadem re mo s and see loadia on from Soph .com/ creativeheadmag t pain

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GAIN NEW CLIENTS SELL LOTS OF PRODUCTS BOOST CLIENT LOYALTY HOST A BIG HAIR DO! Registration costs £75

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Twenty years ago, the world changed. The first Apple iMac was introduced, the MP3 format was published – and Paul Mitchell launched into the world of colour.

In 2018 Paul Mitchell continues to push boundaries with outstanding vegan colour products, marketing support and education.

What hasn’t changed, however, is Paul Mitchell’s commitment to keep colour in the salon, exactly where it belongs.

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PERFORMANCE. PURE AND SIMPLE Paul Mitchell the color XG is about so much more than just tubes of colour!

YES, YOU GET ALL the performance and reliability your team could want – 90 intermixable rich, permanent cream shades in an easy-to-use system that achieves the results you want, every time. But with the color XG, Paul Mitchell also wants to help you build and maintain your colour ratio in the long-term. That’s why you’ll benefit from practical colour education and events that teach you creative, on-trend, salonready techniques, as well as how to market your skills and some of the most beautiful point-ofpurchase material on the market.

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With Paul Mitchell the color XG, the colour you envision is the colour you achieve – always predictable, always beautiful. ● Dyesmart system – allows

for maximum penetration, greater colour longevity and predictability

● Brilliant shades – unsurpassed

grey coverage, a rich red series and an exceptional highlift series

● Pure XG Protection System

– easy to mix and apply.

Cottonseed oil and rice milk leave hair shiny and healthy-looking

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More power to your paint!

POP XG, Paul Mitchell Professional Hair Color’s semi-permanent line of cream hair colour, is formulated to deliver a bright pop of colour – and no developer required. Choose from a spectrum of 18 shades, whose rich conditioning cream texture is perfect for controlled, clean application and leaves hair soft, nourished and super-shiny.

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LIGHT FANTASTIC MARILYN MONROE once said: “I like to feel blonde all over.” The scientists behind The Blonding System from Paul Mitchell Professional Hair Color couldn’t agree more. So create the perfect spectrum of sun-kissed hues this summer and watch your colour revenues shine. The Paul Mitchell Professional Hair Color system has a full range of products to grant all your guests’ blonde wishes…

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THE DEMI: THE PERFECT FUSION OF SHINE, CONDITION AND COLOUR

THE DEMI CONDITIONS hair while it colours, providing incredibly rich, shiny results that last up to six weeks. The gentle conditioning formula, mixing from liquid to a gel-like consistency, is ideal for both bottle and brush application, with 33 intermixable shades allowing unlimited customisation and more varied shade options with depth and/or translucency.

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THINK INK INKWORKS is a collection of six intermixable, semi-permanent and vibrant colours that work beautifully as an overlay for an added pop of colour or to add flashes of brightness to pre-lightened hair. Choose from Yellow, Red, Hot Pink, Purple, Blue and White (for clear results or dilution) – you control the intensity of the tone, based on how much pre-lightening has been done.

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CREATE EVERY SHADE OF GORGEOUS Complimentary colour education all year long ● Pigment Points loyalty programme ● Marketing support ● Colour care products to take home ● Cruelty-free ● Vegan ● Truly professional – no supermarket brands ●

COMMITTED TO KEEPING HAIR COLOUR IN THE SALON, WHERE IT BELONGS

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PAUL MITCHELL PROFESSIONAL HAIR COLOR, CALL 0845 659 0011 OR VISIT SALON-SUCCESS.CO.UK/PROFESSIONAL-HAIR-COLOR

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#MWIT18 IT’S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENTER! CLOSES THE IT LIST 1 May 2018 2 5pm, Monday

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ED CLOSES MOST WANT14 May 2018 5pm, Monday

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Karly (left) and Abby Whittaker

NET WORTH Discover how a little bit of netting (and its creators Karly and Abby Whittaker) became a QVC star… and winner of the Most Wanted Award for Innovation SAY HELLO TO The Scrun, a netted scrunchietype accessory that’s fast becoming a client’s secret weapon. It’s the winner of the Most Wanted Award for Innovation, and it’s lighting up the phone lines at QVC! This little tool has been designed to create, shape and hold hair in an up-do, allowing your clients to create more current looks than any traditional hair doughnuts or sponges. Simple and quick to use, reusable, compact, offering loads of different looks from the every day to special occasions – The Scrun can do it all for £12.50.

It’s all down to the sister act of Abby and Karly Whittaker, directors of Sarah Hodge Hairdressing in the West Country (and Karly is a previous Most Wanted Hair Trend winner to boot!). At The Clothes Show Live 2017, one Scrun was sold every minute; one new salon a week comes on board to sell it to clients and the sisters made their QVC TV 20

debut in June last year and have been asked back again and again.

“Since winning the Most Wanted award, the success has been immense,” admits Abby. “Once you become an award-winning brand it accelerates the speed you can move something forward. It has given us the confidence to knock on doors that were previously closed to us and give them a knock again with our award in hand.”

With that award, The Scrun saw its second QVC viewing moved forward (and the Most Wanted trophy was televised front and centre) and received an increased purchase order following the win.

Back at Sarah Hodge Hairdressing and sister brand The Salon Group, the teams are all proud to be from ‘the home of The Scrun’. “It isn’t just a hair tool that we sell,” says Abby, “it’s embedded into our services.” And it’s because of their clients

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Abby sewing an early Scrun

QVC

( INNOVATION )

LAUNCHPAD LESSONS

For any hairdressers with a germ of an idea, here are Abby and Karly’s three top tips IS YOUR IDEA VIABLE?

Work through it backwards: how much would it be worth? What would be the purchase price? If you’re aiming to sell it on the high street or wholesale, take their margin out, which can be anything from 40 to 60 per cent of the product price. With what’s left, can you afford to make it, market it, send it and store it? All the associated costs to running a business will sit within your product as well. Suddenly ‘margin’ will become your go-to word!

FAKE IT BEFORE YOU MAKE IT that The Scrun even exists. “We wanted to help solve challenges with hair up within our salons and for our clients. Whether the challenge was time, a skills gap, the cut and blow-dry regular who just wants you to put their hair up quickly for a party, the 16-year-old for who wants half-up/half-down for the prom, the six bridesmaids aged from 6 to 40 that all want the same look – the Scrun has it covered.”

In their salons you’ll find The Scrun on the Hair Up menu, so clients can now pick one of six signature Scrun looks, each one possible in a 20-minute appointment. It has also meant the salon group’s Hair Up service revenue increased by 39 per cent year on year. With the UK sold on The Scrun, the Whittakers are currently securing agreements across Europe and are in talks to licence The Scrun in the US. Expansion will also see session and travel kits added. Not bad for a little netting…

Don’t order thousands until you have a buyer for thousands! These days you can make an idea a reality digitally, and with good organisation and a clear line of communication, you can get great lead times without high financial risks. Also, without a backlog of stock, you can be flexible with your buyer’s needs and if they need to make tweaks, it can happen for you both.

KEEP YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN

Know the sacrifices you’ll need to make and ensure you’re prepared to make them before you enter into the financial, emotional and the time concerns that are involved. We always tell ourselves: “If life was meant to be easy, diamonds would be cheap and you wouldn’t have to try so hard to shine bright!”

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JOINING THE DOTS

Winning new clients and building revenue with existing guests requires a full-circle approach in today’s market, says leading hair brand Paul Mitchell – because no single channel of communication to consumers can win anymore. How many channels are you focused on?

PHILANTHROPY

Philanthropy is an idea, event or action that is undertaken to better humanity and usually involves some sacrifice in terms of time or investment, as opposed to being done for profit. John Paul Mitchell Systems has philanthropic values embedded in its business, supporting charitable causes on behalf of hairdressers around the globe.

How can philanthropy help grow your business?

● It connects you, your business and your team to your community ● It embeds your name in people’s minds, growing your profile in a positive way ● It’s an opportunity to share your activities as part of your PR & digital marketing ● It creates consumer trust and boosts sales ● It boosts team morale and can help attract future employees

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EDUCATION

Invest in education to expand your business or artistic skills and to provide continual improvement for you and your team.

Paul Mitchell provides award-winning education to keep salon teams confident and inspired, and was named Favourite Education Team at the Behind the Chair Stylist Choice Awards!

How can education grow your business?

● Acquiring new information and skills helps you expand your business and creative confidence ● You benefit from bouncing ideas off like-minded peers ● You gain inspiration to bring back to your business to help it grow ● Stay relevant in a fast-moving industry ● It keeps your team motivated

SUPPORT MATERIALS

Support materials are a means to amplify your message, and should be implemented at every opportunity. Paul Mitchell will provide customisable and downloadable business-building tools to support you throughout the year.

How can support materials help grow your business?

● They give you a louder voice by showing you as part of something bigger ● They save you time and money as you do not have to regularly create marketing materials yourself ● They show you how to take national campaigns and tailor them to your own needs and activities ● By using the most current messaging and images, your salon is linked to national advertising and campaigns

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DIGITAL MARKETING

This growing area of your business includes social media activity, blog creation, your website, emails, e-newsletters and SMS marketing. Working with Paul Mitchell gives you access to digital tool kits and the ability to use and share a variety of carefully crafted social media content across your social media channels, expanding your reach and attracting new clients.

How can digital marketing help to grow your business? l An online presence provides a 24/7 window into the personality and capability of your salon – clients are actively seeking examples of your work online when forming decisions about your business l Social media advertising is both targeted and economical l Most clients research goods and services before making a booking – your website can make or break that decision l Digital marketing connects and engages you directly with your customer base

PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR)

PR is about building a favourable reputation for your business by sharing brand values, stories and building relationships. Done well, it can influence consumer opinion and behaviour. The heritage, philanthropy and product innovation behind the Paul Mitchell bottle provide a constant stream of PR stories, editorial coverage and advertising to raise consumer awareness and help drive traffic into your salon, building a favourable reputation for your business.

How can PR help grow your business?

l PR grows your profile and reputation, making you famous locally and nationally l It helps give you a competitive edge l It attracts the right kind of clients l It attracts the right kind of team members l When local people think about hair, Paul Mitchell wants them to think of you

TO-DO LIST PHILANTHROPY

What can I do to connect to my community and embed my name in people’s minds?

EDUCATION

What’s my plan for improvement, learning new skills and keeping the team motivated?

SUPPORT MATERIALS

What does my manufacturer offer and how can I use it to give me a louder voice?

DIGITAL MARKETING

Am I channelling our news and activities to connect and engage with our audience?

PUBLIC RELATIONS

How can I spin all of these activities to help grow our profile and give us a competitive edge?

FOR MORE INFORMATION, IDEAS AND CASE STUDIES, CALL PAUL MITCHELL ON 08456 590011 OR VISIT SALON-SUCCESS.CO.UK

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HIT THE BUTTON Is your technology working as hard as you are?

We identify the business hacks to make your salon and software work in harmony BOOK SERVICES WHILE YOU’RE ASLEEP! Thanks to the proliferation of online retail, TV on demand and social media, consumers now want to be able to book appointments when it suits them, not just when your salon is open, and will expect you to offer online booking. Just think of it as having someone working that reception desk while you sleep… “Customers appreciate booking from their desktop or mobile device, as they can do it from anywhere, at any time,” says Charlotte Newton, senior manager of EMEA marketing at MindBody. “You can make yourself available 24 hours a day without lifting a finger,” agrees Ophelia Horner, UK head of marketing at Treatwell.

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ROCK YOUR STOCK

MAKE IT PAY

“Stock can be a real challenge for salon owners and one of the last things they think they need to keep on top of,” admits Salon iQ ambassador Sam Kendall.

She suggests delegating this job to a senior member of staff and, along with using a software system, get a handle on your stock control. “You can say goodbye to running out of your best-sellers and stop re-ordering dead stock,” she adds. “We recommend using Salon iQ’s stock app once a week to update all your retail stock you have.

This will ensure you are keeping a close eye on what’s on your shelves and what leaves your shelves each week.” It means the time you spend monitoring and reordering is cut down, too.

Once upon a time, the phone and the diary would chain reception staff to that front desk.

Now, thanks to clever mobile technology, there are options on the market that allow owners and staff to function without being tied to the front desk.

Hallelujah! “One thing that we often hear from salon owners is that they want to be able to free themselves from the front desk more often, so they have the flexibility to take care of all other aspects involved in running their business,” explains Charlotte Newton. “Our business app users can run day-to-day tasks from a mobile device, allowing team members to move throughout the salon and make updates in real-time.”

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IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR UBER…

BRUSH UP YOUR HISTORY

Ever wished you could charge more for appointments at key times when everyone is looking to get their highlights done?

Well, make like Uber with its surge pricing and consider the power of ‘dynamic pricing’ – that’s a pricing strategy that changes based on current demand, and was recently introduced by MindBody.

“It uses the same algorithms that airlines or concert promoters use, which adjusts each service’s price based on a multitude of different factors, such as popularity, time before the service, high-and-low thresholds set by the business, and even a few variables such as weather conditions,” says MindBody’s Charlotte Newton.

Client history is a key customer retention tool, but with GDPR introduced this May, you need to ensure you have it all properly.

“Client history is an important feature in our software,” says Treatwell’s Ophelia. “Safely storing all of your client’s details and history means not only can you send them a note on their birthday, but you also know exactly what colour they like to use on their hair. We will soon be launching look books on Treatwell, so our customers can get to know salon stylists even better, too! And with GDPR coming into force, we’re introducing more reminders and prompts in Treatwell Connect to ensure all our partner salons have got the consent they need from their customers.”

“More than 90 per cent of your clients will leave a mobile number when they book, giving you a great way to promote what’s going on in the salon. Not only can you remind them of their appointment, but you can also share offers, incentives and any stand-by appointments. We’ve invested in software that stores client data, allowing us to offer bespoke packages and identify a client’s preferred products. It also allows us to send personalised SMS. But remember, with GDPR you must have your client’s express permission to contact them in this way, and always give your customers a clear and transparent ‘opt-out’ option.”

DON’T LEAVE THEM HANGING

GIVE NO-SHOWS THE HEAVE-HO

Dull or annoying ring tones?

Constantly engaged? Lousy answer phone messages? All client turn-offs. According to Mutu, more than 20 per cent of calls don’t get through. It’s time to rethink reception. Mutu offers Salon Call Manager, where consumers are met with a professional branded welcome, whether you’re open, closed or busy. If they don’t get through, an automatic SMS can be sent to their mobile to assure them the salon will call them back. And a live call data web view gives you a single point of control, helping reception to identify and return missed calls, rescuing potential lost revenue. It’s all about the power of customer retention, says Nick Pratt, director at Mutu.

The dreaded no-shows will always be a salon irritation.

However, using a software system does offer you some control, giving you the chance to minimise them. “Salon iQ has built in an automated SMS and email reminder that salon owners can activate,” explains Salon iQ’s Sam Kendall. “This means that booked in clients will get an SMS or email to confirm they can attend.” As well as the automatic triggers, Treatwell Connect has a tool that has proved effective in filling last-minute spaces.

“It allows you to discount appointments if they’re about to go unfilled,” explains Treatwell’s Ophelia. “It matches the demand we see from customers searching on our site for last-minute offers.”

Joanna Macdonald (left) and Jennifer Linton

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( TECHNOLOGY )

J OAN NA M AC DO NALD AN D J E N N I F E R LI NTO N, LINTON & M AC, ABERDEEN

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YOUR NEW BUSINESS PARTNER

Think Treatwell is just a software provider? Think again. Here’s how the largest hair and beauty website in the UK & Ireland can help grow your business MANAGE

Treatwell will help you manage your business more efficiently Its Connect salon management software will allow you to take bookings 24/7 and will reduce no-shows with automated booking reminders via email and SMS. You can also take bookings from your own website using Treatwell’s widget – for free. Don’t have your own website? Treatwell can give you one of those, too. Reporting tools within Connect let you keep a close eye on bookings and individual staff performance, spotting opportunities where you can grow your business. And as for filling those lastminute slots, Treatwell’s smart pricing tools let you discount certain treatments or stylists during quiet times or due to last-minute cancellations.

ATTRACT

Treatwell sends you new customers Its marketing team works around the clock to drive new customers into your salon. Treatwell manages all of your digital campaigns, building awareness of your salon among its existing audience via email marketing, onsite merchandising, editorial content and social media. At the same time, it invests heavily in advertising campaigns from the London Underground to national TV. Worried how much this is going to cost you? Don’t – Treatwell only charges you commission on new customers that it is paying to acquire for you. After that first booking with you, they’re yours. For free. Every time they book, within a year of that first booking, there is no commission payable.

Treatwell’s software also helps you remind your customers they’re due for a trim or a colour top-up, enabling you to send highly targeted emails directly to them. Finally, Treatwell encourages customers to leave reviews of their service, stylist and salon experience after an appointment. This helps build your online presence as ratings and reviews are the most important factor in guiding someone to choose a salon, after a personal recommendation from friends or family. And don’t forget – any repeat bookings that come from you successfully retaining your customers are all yours. Treatwell doesn’t take any commission on these bookings.

Embrace Treatwell’s salon management software, make use of its marketplace and install the free booking widget on your own website today.

Clients love the ease of online booking, so help make it even easier for them…

RETAIN

Treatwell makes it easier than ever to keep your customers coming back Its rebooking functionality makes it quick and simple for customers to rebook their previous appointment at the tap of a button. When customers open the Treatwell App, they see a rebooking reminder (for your salon) at the top of their screen, which takes them straight to your venue listing.

JOIN TODAY AND START CONNECTING TO A WHOLE NEW CLIENT BASE. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND PRICING STRUCTURES EMAIL HANNAH@TREATWELL.COM OR VISIT TREATWELL.CO.UK/BUSINESS-INFO/WELCOME creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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BRAIN BOOSTERS Don’t get stuck in a rut. Make every day a school day and get you and your team ready for anything…

KEN WEST, DIRECTOR of 3•6•5 Education, believes continual education is the key to ensuring your stylists don’t get stuck in a rut, from both a business and creative perspective – and it’s not just about going on the newest course.

“Attending education isn’t always about learning something new, it can be just as beneficial to reaffirm what you already know and revisit courses you’ve previously taken to refresh your knowledge,” says Ken. “If you aren’t going, you aren’t growing.”

Anthony Mascolo, international artistic director and founder of TIGI, agrees: “Our courses aim to help the individual and the salon, leading to enhanced skills, tighter and more motivated teams, retail expertise, stronger customer service and client loyalty.”

But it can be hard to decide on a course and which team members to send. This is why 3•6•5 offers a one-day Salon Management Masterclass, 28

which provides an insight into the kind of education that 3•6•5 can offer, with “tangible ideas to take back and implement in your salon to improve your results”, adds Ken. For the already qualified hairdresser, Anthony recommends the TIGI Creative Cut and Colour course as a must-attend. “It helps hairdressers progress their work, get inspiration and technical information, and the course is based on the latest TIGI collections,” he explains.

If you or your colourists can attend just one course this year, Darren Oram, UK education director for L’Oréal Professionnel, recommends the brand’s Colour Specialist course. “This is still the ultimate colour course for anyone wanting to take their hair colouring skills to the next level,” he says.

“You will gain expert knowledge in colour and learn how to grow the salon colour business.”

For Darren, it’s vital for your salon team to keep

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( EDU C ATION )

MICHAEL VAN CLARKE sends his team on a variety of courses they probably didn’t think they’d ever go on when they first started out as hairdressers, to teach them life skills and confidence. “Building long-term relationships with clients demands more than just technical and creative ability,” argues Michael. “We teach our stylists a range of life skills to enable each one to mix with all levels of society.” Here, he reveals some of the courses he sends his team on and why…

Samurai War Games

AN EDUCATION LESS ORDINARY

TONY ROBBINS

“Entrepreneur and best-selling author, Tony Robbins, is a master at opening people up to a greater world of possibility, and we have been sending the team to his events since his very first seminar in the UK more than 25 years ago. Four of our team will be attending his four-day Unleash The Power course next month, which will include the Firewalk – which is exactly how it sounds.”

DEBRETT’S ETIQUETTE AND MODERN MANNERS

“This new addition to our syllabus is a two-day course that helps our team mix fluidly with high society. It ends with a late lunch at Claridge’s for training in table manners.”

SAMURAI WAR GAMES

“This is a two-day event the whole team has participated in. It’s designed to sharpen selfawareness and teamwork. Developed in the ’70s, it has been adopted by many Fortune 500 corporations as part of their executive training.”

up with the latest trends and digital innovations.

“Trends and technology move forward at such a pace in our industry,” he says. “Today’s salon clients are savvy and tuned-in to trends; they are able to follow the industry leaders and instantly see the latest product innovations, cutting techniques and styling, so it’s paramount to remain at the fore as an industry authority.”

But how often should you and your team go on a course? Do you need monthly updates? Is once a year enough? “It’s good to send your team on a course at least once a year, however, our courses change throughout the 12 months, so a twice-yearly course is the absolute best,” advises TIGI’s Anthony.

If you’re on a budget, education and training aren’t just about courses and face-to-face classes. “We are lucky that we are living in an exciting time where we have an abundance of education resources available to us,” says L’Oréal Professionnel’s Darren.

“Of course, face-to-face courses are always invaluable, but we can now also use e-learning.

With Access – L’Oréal Professionnel’s online education platform – every member of the team can decide when and where they want to learn, from the palm of their hands.”

The TIGI App was created for this very reason, too. “Today, everyone wants to have access to knowledge every day, anywhere and at any time,” says Anthony Mascolo. “TIGI App 24/7 gives hairdressers access to new techniques, product knowledge, colour formulas and mood boards with the facility to create and save information.”

Ultimately, you want to build a successful business and a motivated, knowledgeable team that includes not just your stylists and colourists but the assistants and receptionists – and the way you achieve this is through education. Start planning now, for a better business tomorrow… creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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FAMILY VALUES

If you’re looking to partner with a brand that believes in you and your team, look no further than TIGI. Let’s face it, any brand founded by the legendary Anthony Mascolo is going to treat you like one of the family!

TIGI BELIEVES IN creating strong relationships with its customers, providing an all-inclusive package that encompasses education, information, creative inspiration and professional products. Founded on Anthony Mascolo’s core belief to share everything he and the TIGI Creative Team create, TIGI guarantees total support in every aspect of your business.

At TIGI the team knows first-hand the challenges of running a salon, and has developed tools to help you create services tailored to your individual clients. For a start you’ll get first-class education packed with creative ideas because at the TIGI Academy in London, the courses are regularly updated to ensure stylists and colourists can progress their work in line with new trends and product innovations. Alternatively, if in-salon education is more important to you, the TIGI Regional Education Specialist team is available to provide support and information on TIGI copyright©olour and TIGI product knowledge.

Second, your team will get motivation and inspiration from TIGI Inspirational Youth – one of the most respected and successful youth-training programmes in hairdressing.

During a five-day ‘boot camp’, the TIGI Inspirational Youth team members expand 30

their technical and creative knowledge, enhance their presentation skills, learn about fashion and photographic work and develop as individuals and, ultimately, as a strong team. The original UK concept has now expanded into a global offering and, since 2014, participants in Germany and the US are also able to take part in this exciting, life-changing journey, competing to be the best of their generation.

There’s more: Bed Head Studio is central to the creative force that is TIGI. Used by the world-famous TIGI Creative Team for its award-winning, highly influential photoshoots and events, TIGI partner salons have the opportunity to shoot their own photographic collections at the Studio, supported by TIGI’s in-house photographers, make-up artists, art directors, fashion stylists and production team.

Finally, TIGI products are created for professional hairdressers and their clients, combining a professional in-salon experience with retail products suited to the client’s own hair needs. From the iconic Bed Head to the breakthrough technology behind copyright©olour, TIGI loves to push boundaries and technical know-how, to benefit you, your business and the hairdressing industry as a whole.

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COMING SOON! “This summer sees the launch of a new and exclusive TIGI salon brand, created to enable salons to build client loyalty with a specific care regime that starts in the salon and continues at home.

“Designed to perfectly complement the TIGI copyright©olour range, the new products will excite hairdressers and inspire clients with personalised, perfect results every time.”

Chris Miller, head of TIGI UK & Ireland

TIGI BELIEVES IN GIVING YOU THE TOOLS TO ENSURE BUSINESS GROWTH, TEAM STRENGTH AND CLIENT LOYALTY. TO FIND OUT MORE, CALL 0344 844 0944 OR VISIT TIGIPROFESSIONAL.COM/CONTACT creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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( BUSINESS STR ATEGY )

INVITATION ONLY Jak Bakewell (left) and Scott McKay-Wood

Clients at Re-Invention House must be personally invited to the salon.

Jak Bakewell explains why he feels it’s the best decision he’s ever made

STAFF HEADACHES, employment red tape, VAT bills. Ever fantasise about walking away from it all?

Jak Bakewell, co-founder of Re-Invention House in the affluent Lincolnshire town of Louth, did precisely that. However, he still has a business and he’s still seeing clients. But now he’s doing it all on a much smaller scale. Smaller, but grander.

“With changes to employment laws I felt it was getting too difficult to manage a large salon and team,” says Jak. “The decision was also built on a massive saving in rent, having no employees or payroll to deal with, and deregistering for VAT. So even with a dramatic fall in turnover, I would be better off each year, with far less stress and anxiety and a better work/life balance.”

So, Jak closed his Reinvention salon, bought a property two streets away and opened Re-Invention House, a boutique offering that is utterly customerfocused. With him is stylist Scott McKay-Wood, and together they oversee an exclusive venue. Guests from their original clientele received a handwritten invitation including an access code for the house, a map, the change date and what they could expect, along with a bespoke price list.

Some owners might be concerned they wouldn’t get enough clients. Did he ever consider it a risky business move? “With the promise of more features for guests and the excitement of something new, I felt they would at least all try it once,” smiles Jak. “We had teased people’s curiosity, and invited guests referred to the invitations as ‘golden tickets’. We calculated that we’d invite 20 per cent more guests than we wanted. Fortunately, they all have visited and all rebooked.” In fact, the salon is still over-

subscribed from its initial invitations, while future guests are placed on a waiting list.

Beyond an oak door with a discrete brass plaque, guests arrive at a private courtyard. They each have their access code, which they use to let themselves in, allowing Jak and Scott to stay focused on their current guests. Arriving clients can take a seat on the Jean-Paul Gaultier cinema seats – there’s no reception desk anywhere, no barrier between stylist and guest. With fresh flowers and luxurious décor, the vibe is closer to an upmarket hotel or private members club. Easels are used as workstations, where the mirrors reflect the ‘artist’s work’.

“Guests love the private room,” says Jak. “On the first day, my second colour guest had got a panini from our partner eatery, made her Earl Grey tea, sorted her daily newspapers and had Barbra Streisand playing on the Sonos! It’s been great to see people taking full advantage of all the touches we have worked hard to add.”

Any teething problems? “The access code has been interesting,” admits Jak. “Some people enter it correctly, let themselves in and take a seat, while others ring the buzzer, use the knocker or try and break the door down!”

Plans for the future include encouraging group bookings as Jak has seen best friends, mother and daughter or sister combinations coming into the salon. “They love having the room to themselves and often enjoy taking advantage of the prosecco or gin and tonic,” he grins. “Guests enjoy that they can talk about whatever they like without anyone else overhearing. It’s also helped me increase my turnover by having guests in-between colours.” creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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19/04/2018 13:43

THE DANGERS OF DISCOUNTING

Discounting may seem like a good idea to win sales and clients, but it can backfire on your business.

Two members of business coaching club 3•6•5 discuss their experiences

CASE STUDY 1 BLEND, DERBY JOANNE PILBEAM opened Blend five years ago. “When we first opened we believed that discounting was the best way to get new guests through the door, so we offered 50 per cent off for all new clients,” she explains. “We also offered a discount of 25 per cent to all of our existing guests and to local traders, NHS workers and students.”

After joining business coaching club 3•6•5 in 2015, Joanne decided to halve the number of discounts on offer, but was still too afraid to rule them out entirely. “As a result, the team rarely hit their commission targets – every guest that came through the door received a discount. We weren’t taking a lot of money and were afraid that if we removed the discounts,

STYLIST 1 2 3 4 5

QUALIFIED IN JANUARY

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CUT & FINISH PRICE £45.00 £45.00 £42.00 £40.00 £35.00

we’d lose guests to other salons,” she explains. “My talented team didn’t know or understand their worth and were scared to raise their prices.”

Business was a constant struggle for Joanne, and there were some months when Blend failed to break even, which left her team demotivated. “We couldn’t afford to buy nice extras for the salon or invest in education. I had to work so many additional hours to just make ends meet,” she says.

After the team attended a 3•6•5 Bitesize course, where director Ken West discussed the pitfalls of discounting, Joanne knew they had to make a dramatic change. “When Ken explained how the price of a haircut is broken down into the various overheads, he asked who in the room wanted to earn more money. Of course, everyone raised their hand, and he explained right there and then that the discounting needed to stop tomorrow.”

In the two months since Joanne stopped discounting, the team have seen dramatic results and are reaping the rewards.

“We’ve had the best month of takings for the past five years, our team have had great results in commission and our graduate stylist hit her CPP [Commission Pivot Point] for the first time since she qualified.”

Joanne’s advice to other salon owners offering discounts?

“Stop them – don’t just reduce them! We tried that for two years and more and more guests kept creeping through with a discount. The team forgot who they gave discounts to and who they didn’t. Ending discounts was one of the scariest business decisions I’ve had to make but it’s changed the salon and team morale for the better.”

Look at the difference it made to the Blend team when the discounts ended (see table below)

AVERAGE BILL WHEN DISCOUNTING £51.67 £51.07 £59.87 £47.25 £34.11

AVERAGE BILL AFTER DISCOUNTING ENDED £61.17 £54.89 £70.32 £60.24 £46.29

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:44

(ADVERTO RIAL)

GROW A STRONGER BUSINESS WITH 3•6•5

CASE STUDY 2 OBSESSIONS, RAMSGATE JEN MORLEY opened Obsessions in Ramsgate in 2005, but considers her business career only really began when she joined 3•6•5 four years ago. “I first found out about 3•6•5 by attending a Salon Management Masterclass and it blew me away,” she says. “I went home after and crunched the numbers and found that I was losing money on each and every guest. I was essentially running a failing business.”

After a one-to-one meeting with 3•6•5 director Ken West, Jen thought he was going to advise her to close down her salon. “Instead he suggested I increase my prices, remove all discounts and take a hard look at low-ticket items.

The next day I did just that – and unlocked the wealth within my business.

“It was hard to explain the price rises to our guests, but the majority were understanding,” she continues. “We did lose a few, but they tended to be the price-sensitive ones and not who we were marketing to.”

When it came to the team, Jen helped them to see the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) by asking them what they would like her to spend the extra profit on: training, an additional apprentice or new equipment? As soon as they could see that they were going to benefit from the new business practices too, they were on-board.

Since following Ken’s advice four years ago, Jen’s bottom line has increased by 50 per cent. Her advice? “Can you honestly afford to ignore such a lucrative strategy, at a time when our industry outgoings are changing so dramatically?”

IF YOU’D WANTED to go cross-eyed looking at spreadsheets, formulate marketing campaigns and deal with challenging team members, you probably wouldn’t have chosen to be a hairdresser! 3•6•5 has been helping salon owners take control of their businesses since 1982, with systems that are simple to use, easy to understand, and leave you more time for what really floats your boat.

l A history of successful business coaching for salons l Personalised exclusive marketing materials l Ongoing practical business education l Online educational support l Coaching for your whole team l Bi-annual member conferences l Advice from industry experts – Ken West (pictured above) is a regular in Creative HEAD and at Salon Smart

With prices starting at just £197 plus VAT per month, the only thing 3•6•5 doesn’t coach you about is how to cut hair!

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN JOINING 3•6•5 OR SIMPLY WANT TO LEARN MORE, CALL 0845 659 0015 OR VISIT 365SALONEDUCATION.COM creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 12:07

( VIE W FROM THE TO P )

SILVER SERVICE Leading hair industry PR Alison Jameson is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her agency, AJC93.

We ask her to share with salons the key business lessons she’s learned…

HONESTY IS ALWAYS THE BEST POLICY “I would never say anything to a client that wasn’t either truthful or achievable. It’s important to keep expectations realistic. Sometimes being honest isn’t always what people want to hear, but if you can back up what you are saying and offer an alternative option, most people will listen to reason. The same applies to clients – never say you can do something you can’t or that you’ve done something when you haven’t – you always get found out.”

BE A RELATIONSHIP BUILDER “Good working and business relationships can take time to build and in our industry having strong relationships is integral. Little things make a big impression, just as they do in the salon – remember names, little details about them and you’ll make the right impression.”

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY “We often ask people what have they been doing and they answer: ‘nothing much’. That isn’t going to help build your profile or get you seen in the press!

Whether you use a PR or not, it’s important to have 36

something to say. Be active in your community, put on client events, enter awards and competitions, create inspiring photographic images – there’s so much that you can do and a lot of it doesn’t cost much, it just takes a bit of time and effort.”

CURATE AN AREA OF EXPERTISE “Knowledge is power and expertise is your calling card. There’s no point in saying you are a long-hair expert when you do a couple of long hair looks and that’s it. If you are an expert, know everything there is to know about it and continue to develop your skills.”

KEEP AN EYE ON TRENDS “With the world being so fast-paced, trends come and go in an instant so it’s important to know what’s going on in the world. Know what’s happening in social media, what the latest online tools are – is your business missing out by not keeping abreast of trends? Are you missing out on being able to provide a new, profit-increasing service you’ve dismissed as a fad? Not everything’s right for you, but in order to stay ahead of the game – look to trends.”

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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18/04/2018 15:48

( INTERIO RS )

PIECES OF GREAT

Whether you’re refitting your salon or looking for a little livener, we have a few ideas to tszuj up your interiors…

Available with sliding seat and backrest, electric legrest and a nextgeneration ‘New Shiatsu’ massage system, the stunning Luxury shampoo unit from Salon Ambience really lives up to its name.

You can choose from an array of Sky Colours at no extra cost.

FROM £1,169 UNTIL 31 AUGUST, USUALLY FROM £2,209 07554 990965 SALONAMBIENCE.COM

Want to create a relaxed vibe for your guests and your busy team?

Then peruse the Zen collection by Takara Belmont. It reflects the Japanese art of Zen with its consciously minimalist furniture, offering balance and calm. We love the Zen Mirror and KU Styling Chair.

CHAIR FROM £675, MIRROR FROM £1,150 020 7515 0333 TAKARAHAIRDRESSING.CO.UK

INTERIORS

No need go on a long hunt for mirrors when you have the Treasure from Salon Ambience. With an elegant frame, LED backlighting, a practical work shelf with hairdryer holder and a footrest, this unit will be your jewel in the crown.

£609 WITH FOOTREST UNTIL 31 AUGUST, USUALLY £1,159 07554 990965 SALONAMBIENCE.COM

If you’re looking to maximise your space, consider the clever Yume Oasis mobile shampoo system from Takara Belmont. It means your client can stay in situ as you simply move your backwash station into position – a perfect little touch of theatre as well as a practical solution.

FROM £4,000 020 7515 0333 TAKARAHAIRDRESSING.CO.UK

creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 15:52

NO MORE DRAMA

Founded by Ben Cooke and Jonathan Long 13 years ago, Lockonego has been a fixture on London’s famous King’s Road for 13 years. However, everything can change in a heartbeat – here, Jonathan shares his experience of keeping calm and carrying on in a crisis “ONE MORNING, I found a note on the front door of the salon. It said that there had been a flood in the top floor flat and I was to contact an electrician before entering. Looking through the window, I could see that half of our suspended ceiling had fallen down and there was about five inches of water on the floor. My stomach flipped – I knew we were in deep trouble.

“But instinct kicked in. I called our landlord, insurance company and our electrician, who gave me the go ahead to enter. Clients started turning up and obviously we couldn’t offer services. I sent a couple of my senior team to Duck & Dry, a blow-dry bar over the road, to ask if they could help us out in anyway. Luckily for us, they said we could work out of their basement.

“Once we had raked out all the water from the floor of the salon, the enormity of the flood hit home – this wasn’t just cosmetic. I spoke with the manager 38

of Duck & Dry to see if we could continue to work out of their basement longer term and we agreed to a day rate.

“With Christmas fast approaching, I knew we had to get back in to our own salon ASAP. With the insurance company taking an age, we decided to pay for our basement to be refurbished.

“My wife came up with the idea of a Winter Wonderland theme, so we redecorated, creating a walkway through the hoarding upstairs with 2,000 Christmas lights and willow branches to make it look magical and festive, rather than like a building site!

“We got through Christmas and really focused on the redesign of the salon. We looked at the flood as an opportunity to start from scratch and we worked with interior designer Mustafa Afsaroglu from Taner’s Sons Design Studio. We came up with a concept: a private members club/gastro pub vibe,

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:49

( INTERIO RS )

with bare brick, parquet floor, wood panels, splashes of colour... but, most importantly of all, a salon that didn’t look like a traditional salon, a really light and open inclusive environment.

“We worked with Salon Emotion by L’Oréal Professional Products Division and the designer to plan out the retail, backwash and mask bar concepts. And through Redken we discovered Derrywood Display shopfitters, which had experience with salons. During the refit I made sure I came in every day and worked alongside the Derrywood builders, who came up with a solution for every problem. Being onsite every day was invaluable as I was there to make immediate decisions. And now, four months later, we’re open and looking better than ever. I feel better than I ever thought I would and we’re all so very happy with the result, as are the clients. Every cloud does have a silver lining…”

SALON IN A JAM?

HERE ARE JONATHAN’S TOP TIPS

DO...

l Get a good team l Be tough with your insurance company l Communicate clearly to both the team

and clients l Think outside the box l Challenge your preconceptions l See if another business can lend a hand

DON’T...

l Panic l Be bullied l Take first offers l Get stressed – life throws you curve balls,

but everything happens for a reason! creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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19/04/2018 13:49

FIRST LOVE Melissa Timperley opened her eponymous salon in Manchester’s Northern Quarter in December 2016.

Eighteen months on, the salon has won four industry awards and been voted the Talk of Manchester Best Newcomer Business. Now thinking about the future and possibly expanding to a second salon, Creative HEAD asked her what she would do again… and what would she do differently!

40

BUILD A BRILLIANT TEAM

MAKE THE FINANCIALS WORK

I’m really lucky that we’ve built up a small team slowly, one at a time – I started with just me, and now we are five professionals who all get on, work well together and have got each other’s back.

I did start out thinking that the way to generate revenues would be to adopt a rent-a-chair approach, but I soon realised after interviewing some candidates that there was no way I could build a cohesive team working in a similar way under the Melissa Timperley brand. Everyone I interviewed had their own ideas and individual way of doing things, and I could see a major problem ahead if I tried to control free-spirited creatives! If I did open another salon, it would be even more crucial to recruit professionals of like-mind and attitude as I wouldn’t be there in a second business all the time, and consistent client service is everything to us.

“Know your costs and know your daily and weekly break even,” my accountant said before I had even cut a strand of hair. Not the most motivational words, but probably the best business advice that I’ve had! Really work out what everything costs from the outset – I’ve got a good handle on the costs now that we have a year under our belt, but I had little clue when we started out. Now, I’d want to know from day one how much we need to make before we start making profit. I admit, it’s not my first love to get the spreadsheets out, and I don’t know many hairdressers who do love this aspect of owning a business. But I know that to be a businesswoman I need to have a good grip on what everything costs and how we are doing against our budget – and to make sure we have the cash to pay what’s required.

My recurring nightmare is thinking that we haven’t

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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19/04/2018 13:46

( PL ANNIN G )

THE TIMPERLEY TOP TIPS ALWAYS

got the cash flow to pay a bill. I can hear my bank manager’s words ringing in my ears: “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity!”

MARKET TO ATTRACT NEW CLIENTS Never assume your marketing is going to have an immediate effect – or even that it will bring in any clients at all. That’s my take-away from a year’s worth of marketing effort every day! The experience has taught me that marketing results take much longer to achieve that you would hope – especially if you are aiming to build a business from scratch.

We’ve tried all sorts – flyers, social media, ‘refer a friend’ schemes, magazine articles, hair tips pages, links with other businesses, entering awards, doing shows and shoots and more – and all of it works to some extent. I’ve realised building a client base through effective marketing takes time and effort, but the more you put in, the more results you get.

GET THE RIGHT PREMISES AT THE RIGHT PRICE My ‘mistake’ was to fall in love with a newly-built, three-storey building – built on the site of an old public loo would you believe! Then I badgered the building owner to take a chance on me and let me transform what was intended to be an office block into a hair salon. He finally gave in… which was great, until I had to start negotiating the lease, pay the rent and the rates! The immediate shock for me was how much everything costs. Being employed previously, I hadn’t been exposed to any of the necessary costs of running a business, and I soon had to become more worldly-wise. It was all too late when I’d signed the paperwork, and I swallowed hard when I saw the running costs for my beautiful building, but we’re over that now. Next time I’d make sure I got all the financials in place before I made an offer on any other premises!

l Use a professional salon designer to help you to create the look and feel you want l Get shopfitters who know the hair industry and have worked on salons before l Find plumbers and workmen who are reliable and will turn up when they say they will l Build in some contingency (for deadlines for opening and so on) to take some of the stress off you l Check out all of the regulations you need to abide by before you get the green light to start trading l Get your salon software running and tested so that you don’t hit any unforeseen snags that could affect client service

NEVER

l Start trading before you know that everything works – we had a gas leak on the first day! l Use an expert who is not on your wavelength.

They will make things twice as stressful l Sign up to the first utility supplier who approaches you. It’s likely to cost you more, unless you’re lucky l Hope that being a really good hairdresser is the same as being a really good business person l Get an internet service that’s not the best, just because you can get a good deal

creativeheadmag.com POWER BOOK

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18/04/2018 15:02

( O PINIO N )

THE DEATH OF THE HAIRCUT What does the continued trend for long hair mean for salon businesses? asks Michael Van Clarke

“MY PRIMARY FOCUS FOR almost 40 years has been the haircut and, in that time, I’ve developed a unique method to get the very best from any hair – The Diamond Dry Cut. It’s allowed me to charge 10-times the industry average and keep clients happily returning.

More than 100 clients have stayed with me for more than 35 years.

Across those decades, I’ve watched the ebb and flow of different industry fashions and training methods, and seen the core training around cutting slowly diluted.

“Starting in the ’50s, Raymond (Mr. Teasie Weasie), then Vidal Sassoon and Leonard, initiated a wave of excitement, with Sassoon’s revolution putting the haircut at the centre of a new monthly lifestyle routine in exchange for the weekly roller set. But in the mainstream of the industry, there was a lack of investment and development in the training of this core service beyond what Sassoon had established.

As demand for new styles and shapes widened in the post hippy-era, the industry did not develop cutting techniques to reliably give clients the full range of shapes on offer. Most clients still got a blueprint for one of a limited range of haircuts the stylists had been taught.

“Flat bobs became ‘deconstructed’, with thinning scissors, point cutting or razors; shapes were promoted as being ‘disconnected’.

Connected shapes were never talked about! But the industry was still leaning very heavily on the simple bob shapes and basic techniques that Sassoon established. The product revolution of the ’80s gave the industry more time as poor haircuts could be scrunched, dishevelled or bed-haired to give a new look, but one that the client found very hard 42

to repeat at home. Long hair usually became a long A-line bob. Layers were mocked up out of another mid-length bob sitting on top and then chopped into to disguise the steps. It wasn’t proper layering... flat irons came to the rescue next in the ’90s as the extreme flattening effect could iron out distortions of poor haircuts.

“Salon chains started discounting aggressively to lure clients on a merry-go-round of chase-the-voucher. Real average charges began to tumble. Salon income for services flat-lined. Desperate for income, salons built up other streams from retail, colour and beauty. Long hair services like Brazilian blow-drys and hair extensions fed the trend for clients trying to avoid or delay haircuts. The booming electricals market helped them with homecare. Most cutting now has polarised to the extremes of simple long cuts or short barbering. There is less to be found in the middle, and capabilities are diminishing. If the money is coming in through other streams, does it matter? I think it does.

“The limitless range of shapes that hair can hold requires a sculptural precision that only comes from seeing and working with hair in three dimensions. Almost all cutting training nowadays derives from simplistic methods of treating hair as a two-dimensional material, which it essentially is when wet and flat dried into bobs.

While it saves costs and training time, it’s no longer fit for purpose.

For what should be an incredibly skilled and valuable service, mainstream hairdressers earn a pittance across a short career span.

The industry needs to rethink how it delivers training and can no longer rely on outdated methods.”

POWER BOOK creativeheadmag.com

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18/04/2018 15:13

CREATIVE HEAD EDUCATION

" ? s i h t r o f y d a e r l "You al

education

OUR FEATURED ARTIST IN MAY IS SAM BURNETT

He’s the current Most Wanted Hair Trend winner, founder of London’s gorgeous Hare & Bone and the star of The Coterie In Session… now Sam is our man to share his world of inspiration for your delectation this May! education

HEAD ONLINE NOW! CREATIVEHEADMAG.COM/EDUCATION

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18/04/2018 14:51