[ 00:00:05

]Welcome to the Hair

Hustle Podcast. I' m Heather Podlesny, your salon coach dedicated to helping

stylists master the business side of beauty. Whether you' re starting your

journey behind the chair or you' re a seasoned pro looking to level up, this

podcast is for you. Each week we' ll dive into the tips and tricks you need to

run a successful salon business with topics that will change the way you work

and earn. From budgeting hacks to help you keep more of what you make, to time

management tips that will keep your schedule stress-free, and the strategies

for boosting your retail sales and nailing that next promotion. Get ready to

build your dream business without burning out. Together we' ll cut through the

noise and get to the root of what makes your salon thrive.

[ 00:00:47

] So grab your shears,

turn up the volume, and let' s hustle. Welcome to episode five of the Hair

Hustle Podcast. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I am your host,

Heather Podlesny, and we are going to talk about one of the most amazing and profitable

strategies that you can have this holiday season, and it is the gift card

strategy. I hope that you are ready. We are approaching November very quickly,

and so I always like to make sure my salons and stylists have their gift card

strategy locked into place by November 1st. Does that mean you have to be doing

your promotion November 1st? No, that does however mean that you have to have a

plan.

[ 00:01:29

] So whether that is a

Black Friday blitz and you are selling gift cards at 10% off one day, or

whether that is an entire week of savings on your gift card or an entire 30

days, whatever that looks like for you, we need to make sure that we have that

plan in place. So let' s get started. First thing that I always like to talk

about is why. So you may be saying, Heather, I' ve never done gift cards

before. I m not even understanding why I need to have a gift card strategy or

why that really even matters for the holidays. I sell gift cards all year long.

Why do I have to create another incentive for that? Okay, you guys, I started

to do a little research and I sort of knew some of this research.

[ 00:02:18

] However, I must say, I

think my mouth was open as I was reading it because I thought, oh my gosh, I

need to share this with people. So here' s a couple of things that I found.

Number one, the average unused gift card amounts. If you' re a salon owner and

you' re multitasking, please start listening right now. Now is the time. We' re

going to go over a couple of whys and we' re going to go over some statistics

on why you want to have an amazing gift card strategy. Are you guys ready for

this? Do you know the average amount of unused gift cards per person in the

United States is $187? That' s right. $187. Just wait. It gets better. So $187

per person in the U .

[ 00:03:04

] S. have, we just all

have $187 gift cards hanging out somewhere. Are you ready for the next one? 6%

of gift cards are literally never even used. 10 to 19% of gift cards remain

unredeemed. Next, I was actually researching and I found this episode on CBS Detroit

here in Michigan. I was in Michigan and they interviewed a retail professional

and the statistic is there are $27 billion with a B dollars in unused gift

cards hanging around. And here' s the other crazy part is that according to the

National Retail Federation, gift cards are the number two given gift. The

statistics are mind blowing and why should you be offering gift cards? Because

it helps your cash flow.

[ 00:03:57

] And also I hate to tell

you, and this is sort of on us as consumers as well, but we don' t always

redeem the gift card. So I' m not saying to like catch people in this or

anything like that. However, this are all really important things to keep in

mind when we start talking about offering a discount on the gift card is that

that doesn' t necessarily mean that every single dollar will be redeemed. So if

you' re offering 10% off gift cards, don' t be scared. Okay. Cause we' re going

to talk about some promotions and I don' t want you to be afraid. So we' re

setting the stage with that next up as we get going, we' re going to talk about

something called girl math.

[ 00:04:37

] We all know all the

girl math rules. And if you don' t know, don' t worry, we' ll get into it. Now

that you know the statistics on why we want to offer some of these extra

special deals for a week or a day. We' re going to talk about why the strategy

matters for the holiday. So first things first, we Re going to create a holiday

exclusive offer. So just like we talked about, you have to decide, is it going

to be an entire week? Maybe it' s Black Friday. Maybe your salon is closed on

Black Friday. Totally. Okay. So maybe you do an entire week as like a holiday

kickoff. Maybe it' s the first week of December and it' s 10% off gift cards.

[ 00:05:20

] That' s the only time

of year that they can get it. So we are going to make sure that you' re going

to make sure that you' re going to make sure they get holiday exclusive, that

they can get 10% off gift cards, or maybe they get salon cash back. So maybe

they buy $50 in gift cards and they get $10 in salon bucks back. What would be

awesome about that is that we could also target new guests to our loyal guests.

So our loyal guests, we can say, Hey, guess what? If you bought $50 for your

friend, you could use $10 in cash for you. That' s a great way to also get some

new guests in your seats for the new year.

[ 00:05:54

] Also, why the strategy

matters specifically for holiday is just like we talked about cash flow for

slower months. Now it is recommended to have a separate account for your gift

cards. What that means is... We won' t get into crazy detail about it today,

but simply whatever you Re- taking in, in gift cards, we want to make sure that

we have that in a separate gift card account. So then this way, when someone

does come in to redeem the gift cards and services, we have the money to

actually pay our team. However, as the gift card does not actually cover any

card accounts keep building cash, you will start to see that maybe you may have

some cash that you can use that has been sitting.

[ 00:06:32

] We always want to make

sure that we have a separate account for our gift card money. So please make

sure that that is set up, especially if we are getting into some mega sales

here, because even though we are generating cash flow for slower months, we also

don' t want to get ourselves into a pickle where we spent that money and people

are coming in to redeem the gift cards and we have to pay our team for that. So

all things to keep in mind, just some good business practices. That' s what we

want to do. Let' s go over why the gift card strategy matters for the holiday.

We' re going to do some holiday- exclusive offers. We just said we' re going to

do bounce back in salon cash.

[ 00:07:06

] We might do 10% off

gift cards. We might do something, even if you purchase a gift card, you get a

free mini. Maybe in your 12 deals of Christmas in December, maybe that is going

to have one specific day that we' re going to do that. Do a bounce back and

just do a $5 off something fun and exciting, but that is just for holidays and

we do it every year. Next is targeting new guests. We can talk to our loyal

guests about gifting the gift of great hair to their friends and they can take

advantage of whatever deal is left. Then we are going to make sure that we have

a separate account. We' re enhancing the cash flow to have a really smooth

kickoff to the new year.

[ 00:07:53

] Those are all the

reasons why gift cards matter and having a sound strategy matters for the

holidays. Next, we want to unlock the potential of prepaid packages. Now, this

is where girl math comes in. I know that some of you are going to run 10% off

of gift cards and you may have a guest that comes in and says, ' She is,

extremely loyal. She comes in every four weeks and she says, can you add up all

of my appointments for the year of 2025? Or I want my next 12 appointments or

my next 10 appointments for the next year. You may be saying, Heather, why did

I just give my guest 10% off because they want to purchase for the entire year?

I feel like I' m losing my butt in that.

[ 00:08:47

] Please do not worry.

Number one, we need to make sure that we re training our team that when someone

does have a gift card, they almost need to be like flagged in our system that

they purchased their entire year out because we want to make sure that we are

talking to them about retail. At the end of the day, they' re going to purchase

more because all of that is taken care of. Not only that, you actually locked

that person in for an entire year. What a blessing that is. Not only were you,

able to take the cash up front, but you' re also able to lock that guest into

their loyalty for an entire year with you and your salon company.

[ 00:09:30

] And they now may have

the budget or the funds for the rest of the year to purchase retail to take the

upsell. So yes, Susan, your color retouch is taken care of with your gift card.

But please don' Forget that we have this amazing new conditioning treatment

that takes off a year of service damage. Would you like to try that today for

45 dollars and treat yourself? She' s probably going to say yes, so it is our

job to make sure that we are training our team in all of this verbiage of the

services that we have to offer as well as the retail that we have to offer. We

need to make sure that our team is trained and ready to roll for these

potential prepaid packages or potential prepaid clients.

[ 00:10:20

] Next, is a term that we

all need to think about that' s called ' Girl Math'. If you don' t know what

Girl Math is, please feel free to go look it up I. m going to tell you

essentially it is a set of rules that women we made up to justify impulse

spending, and one of the number one rules of Girl Math is that any money on an

app or on a gift card is essentially free. So what that means is: if we

purchase - yes, we did spend our money; yes, we know that we bought our entire

year of appointments at the end of 2024, and our entire year is taken care of

in 2025.

[ 00:11:07

] However, with this

trend, please make sure that you are using this i' Hint hint, I am giving you a

social media idea right now to be able to sell an entire year during your

promotional time. But also to make sure that they are still buying in 2025

because in the rules of Girl Math, anything on a gift card is pretty much free.

So when they come in in April for their hair appointment, oh that' s free! What

products do I need to use because my appointment was taken care of today? Other

rules in Girl Math do the same. You have to write about suitability and

constantly making the math include any money from a return - anything less than

five dollars is free. And also, pretty much anything paid with cash is free

because it doesn't count.

[ 00:11:58

] To affect the bank

account, even though this may seem a little ridiculous to you, I want you to

keep in mind this is how the consumer thinks. So, you now have a great social

media strategy for your gift card promotion and you also have a really great strategy

even for going into 2025 to make sure you have some of those really fun reels

and exciting things to remind your customers to spend their gift card but also

to remind them that we have other things to buy. If you came in and your

appointment was, quote-unquote, ' free' today, feel Feel free to pick up this

brand new shampoo and conditioner because it' s on sale at 20% off. Or feel

free to pick up the latest and greatest conditioning treatment to make sure

that you care for your hair all year long.

[ 00:12:54

] Now, I' m sure hope

this gave you some inspiration and some motivation to plan out what days or

what day you are going to have an aggressive sale on gift cards. I also hope

that it gave you a couple ideas on what promotion to run on your gift cards.

And I also hope that it gave you some marketing tips and tricks for selling

your gift cards. So I hope that all three of those things came to you while you

were with me here today for this quick episode on gift card strategy. And I

hope you got to learn a little something fun today as well. Because these

statistics shocked me. And if you are new to Girl Math, here we go. I' m happy

to share with you because I love some Girl Math myself. Thank you so much for

joining me on the Hair Hustle podcast for our fun holiday gift card strategy.

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you have another topic that you

would like to hear about, please reach out to me. I cannot wait to hear from

you. Thank you so much for joining me today.