There are loads of salons struggling at the moment and passing on savings is a great way to retain clients.
NK
There always has been clients that struggled with the maintenance issue with enhancements. This is why the budget salons grew so quickly. Now there are salons for more demographics than there used to be.
With the economic climate being what it is, there will be a higher than average level of clients that struggle with the cost of maintenance, however this is relative to their new spending level. What that translates to is that those families more susceptible to redundancies or other restrictions will more than likely look to cut expenses like maintenance. Trying to create a discount environment by substituting your professional purchases off of E-Bay will not prevent them from leaving, nor will it actually generate you anything worth while. Here is why:
- Take your price of a service (i.e. Maintenance) and figure out how much money per minute you generate from it (e.g. a £20 maintenance that takes 1 hour = .33p per minute)
- Take each product that you use and divide it into number of services to get a cost per application. Do this for all your products.
- Do the same as above, but look up 'bulk' purchases to see the difference it costs in using larger versus smaller sizes
- Do another column calculating the cost per application of substituting E-Bay purchases.
I will gamble that this is what you will find:
- The cost per application is equivalent to a (maximum) minute or two of your time.
- The cost dramatically reduces when you buy in bulk
- The savings in cost per application between E-Bay and legit resources are equivalent to about a minute of your time maximum (lets not look at those products that actually cost more, are counterfit, etc.. heck lets also ignore how much time you spent looking up, bidding and buying the products!)
- That if you were really interested in saving money, you would purchase in bulk which is much cheaper in cost per application than E-Baying small or regular sizes.
The bottom line is that if you were serious about saving money you would buy in bulk not off E-Bay (which often is actually not cheaper and brings a great deal of risk to how you work).
When you compare your time spent trying to obtain these kinds of savings (and the pitfalls with obtaining them) it is a false economy.
I believe that buying smart is always important, however if your version of buying smart is purchasing non legit products that are frequently contaminated or more expensive just to try and 'pass savings on to clients' than you are not working smart at all, nor am I convinced that you can save clients passing on a savings you should already be making in the first place!
In a lot of areas, business in our sector is up because in times of economic hardship, people want to escape and to be beautified. This isn't a god given right that you will be busy in a recession, but it does provide an opportunity depending on your area. Everyone will feel the change somewhat. The good news is that overall mid-range and higher salons will be the least affected by the economic climate, but they wont be bulletproof. Discount salons are generally attended to by clients that have less discretionary income to begin with and hence, are more discretionary about where they will spend it. Still want to discount?
As to your comment:
Maybe you should get in the real world and off your cotton wool nail wipe cloud...
If you want to come here to constructively discuss and debate, you are welcome with open arms. If your only method of debate is to personally attack because you lack the ability to offer intelligent points of views, then you are not.
Maybe you have mixed this site up with one of those others that allow your incredible wit and charm will go unaddressed. I would suggest updating your bookmarks.
nJoy
