[ 00:00:05

]Welcome to the Hair

Hustle Podcast. I'm Heather Podlesney, 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. Hey, hey, welcome to The Hair Hustle

Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. 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, I know that it is the

week of Thanksgiving and we are doing a quickie episode today. Today's episode

is all about your Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and I am going to give

you a little checklist to make sure that if you didn't get everything in order

and you're like, 'how is it Thanksgiving even though it's a little late?' We're

going to get it done today. Let's go.

[ 00:01:17

] The first thing on our

checklist is we are going to make sure all of our promotions are planned and

ready to go for Friday, Saturday, or Friday night. If you're not even open,

that's okay. We are going to make sure that they are locked and loaded for December

2nd when we kick off. Do you have a gift card promotion? Did that get pushed to

the wayside, but yet it's going to launch December 2nd? Make sure that you have

that signage ready. Make sure your team knows what that looks like. Get the signage

ready. Go on Canva, go on Adobe, whatever platform that you would like to use,

or if you have a team member that you need to pay to get it done, make sure

that's ready for Black Friday because we all know how this week is going to go

and you guys got this.

[ 00:01:55

] So let's get started.

Let's get started. Next is going to be, are you offering any type of service

discount or promotion? You know that I'm not a lover of service discounts, but

maybe you're doing like a blowout to go out for the holiday weekend or something

like that for some of your newer, younger stylists. So if that's a feature or a

promotion, make sure that all of those are lined up and ready and that we have

signage, that we've texted, called the correct customers, emailed the correct

customers, all of that so that we know. Next is going to be, count your sets

because we need to figure out what kind of retail bundle that we are doing for

Black Friday.

[ 00:02:30

] So if you do not have a

set in stone retail promotion, I am going to challenge you to count every

single set that you have and make sure that you're on track. If you're on

track, great. Maybe you can still do a Black Friday deal. Maybe you took

advantage of some of the other sales that were going on, and you got 20% off a

box set, and maybe you could do an extra 20% off flash sale on Black Friday.

Get that lined up and make sure that it makes sense to you. If it's like, hey,

I'm not even sure what is happening with these box sets. Has anyone sold any?

Then maybe looking at breaking them up and doing something like a 'buy two, get

one free' off of this specific table.

[ 00:03:07

] Whatever is going to

make the most sense for your salon, we're going to do that. Now that we've

decided, and I've given you a couple of examples on what you can do for your

promotions on Black Friday, we are going to look at an express menu because you

also need some type of a service promotion as well. So December 2nd, if you

don't have a holiday express menu out, get one out and get it ready. It doesn't

take super long. I just want to have super simple things on there and it could

be like a glitz and glam where you offer hair tinsel. It can be like a Mary

treatment where you have some type of a bonded treatment,

[ 00:03:44

] some type of a scalp

facial treatment, something that is holiday themed and exciting for your guests

who are coming in because we all know that we're going to have several moms and

several women in our chair who have been busting it out for everybody else this

holiday season and this is the time that they get to treat themselves. If we

can capture them with an extra five minutes on helping them to feel better

about themselves and get them through the season, we're going to have that

express menu ready to offer to them because they want to treat themselves. Even

if it is a treat yourself menu, we are going with it and we want to make sure

that we capture every single opportunity that we can when we're behind the

chair, especially in the season.

[ 00:04:29

] The second item on our

list here is going to be to prep your retail space. Now that you have

determined what the retail and service promotions are, you know what day they

have to be ready. If it's Black Friday, if it's Small Business Saturday, or

even if it is Monday the 2nd, we are now going to make sure that our retail

space is prepped and ready. What does that mean? That means we're going to have

all of our signage printed out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach

out to me. I'm going to be happy to answer any of your questions. We're going

to have the gift card promotion. We're going to make sure we have a sign for

that up at our front desk.

[ 00:04:57

] We are also going to

make sure we have some type of a cling on each of the mirrors. Whatever bundle

that you're offering for retail or if it's off of box sets, we want to make

sure that signage is ready. Next is going to be to create some type of an eye-catching

display. So once we have the signage ready, we want to make sure that we've

changed it up. Are you doing a stocking stuffer bar? Do you need items that

need to ship as soon as possible? Or do you maybe need to go to a store to

purchase some fun things? Some boxes, some fun stockings, something like that.

I'm talking inexpensive things. I'm not saying to go out and buy these crazy

things.

[ 00:05:30

] But if you have not

done any of that, and you're like, 'Wow, I wish', go find a local dollar store

and see what you can find to help your guests create a really fun gift for

their friends and family. And then just make sure, like I said, we have all those

shelf talkers. Signage is your silent salesperson. While all of your team,

possibly you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to

get everybody beautiful for Thanksgiving. We want to make sure that we're

utilizing those silent salespeople, which is our signage. So we're going to

prep that retail space. Last thing on our list because we're keeping this super

short and sweet is to make sure that you prep your team. This could be the most

important thing.

[ 00:06:09

] First thing we're going

to do when it comes to prep our team is: we are going to count all of our sets,

and we're going to do our homework. The second thing we're going to figure out

how many sets we have left to sell before December 16th, because if you've been

following me, you know that we like to have all the sets sold Before Christmas.

Next is: we are also going to start a pre-book and win contest. If you are

looking at your January books and you're looking at your February books, March,

and you're like, 'What has happened here?' We are going to start a pre-book and

win contest that we're going to talk to our team about.

[ 00:06:42

] And what that is, is

every time a guest comes in when they pre-book their next three appointments,

which then puts you January, February, March, some of the lighter months in our

industry. March is typically not, sometimes January is, sometimes it's not.

February does typically tend to be pretty light across the board. This contest

will lock in your guests for February as well. What this contest looks like is

every time a guest books the next three appointments, they get entered to win

something great. If that is a local restaurant gift card from you guys, that

maybe if you had to barter, totally fine, because it wasn't in your budget. If

you found an iron in the back room or on sale at a distributor, we're going to

put that in the description.

[ 00:07:23

] Great. If you want to

do free hairspray for a year and you can get a deal on 12 hairsprays, the guest

simply comes in and pulls one hairspray off the shelf for every appointment and

they get to take advantage of that. That one's a little bit easier also on your

budget because they're coming in every six weeks and they're taking one

product. So then this way it's also not an upfront cost. So that could be a

great one. And you can draw the winner on Christmas Eve to make it super fun or

even the 23rd. Another thing that we're going to do to prep for the next three

weeks is, we're going to prep our team: if you have someone that's doing your

social media, what are the 12 Deals of Christmas going to look like?

[ 00:07:58

] Because if you are

promoting the 12 deals of Christmas or the 12 Days of Christmas, that really

needs to start right after Thanksgiving. Why? Because you're only open probably

five to six days a week. And if you want 12 deals in there, it's going to take

you possibly three weeks to get those 12 deals in. I also have had people who

didn't run deals on Saturdays. Maybe they just did the 12 Days of Deals Tuesday

through Friday. So make sure that's ready to go and that anyone who's doing

your social media for you, or if you're doing it yourself, you're the social

media manager. So we need to make sure that we have that down and locked in.

Next is obviously if you're doing any type of holiday, VIP, we're going to make

sure that we have those people contacted.

[ 00:08:45

] Any type of event, we

want to make sure that we have all of those people locked in and ready to go. I

feel like Thanksgiving is a little bit later this year, so I do almost feel

like we're kind of missing out on a couple of extra days, which is critical.

So, that's why number three of prepping your team and making sure that we have

all of these things ready to go. We know how many sets that each one of them

has to sell, and we talk to them about it. You have to make your team a

checklist, just like I made you a checklist right here, get after it, and you

can do this. And we're going to make sure that everybody is ready to go, ready,

and set to go. I'm sure hope that this episode was helpful for you, and that

you were able to take just a couple of things in this probably eight minutes to

move forward with your holiday sales and make sure that you are prepped and

ready for December 2nd to kick off and for your Black Friday sales and your

Small Business Saturday. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today, and I

will talk to you guys next week on the Hair Hustle Podcast. Go make some good.