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[ 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 the Hair Hustle Podcast. This
is episode 10. And I am so excited to be here with you today as we kick off
this December. If you can believe it. As we begin to round out the year, I want
to say thank you so much for being here with me on this last few months of the
year. I appreciate you coming to listen. Also, we are going to talk today about
creating seasonal promotions that attract and that get you sales. Now, I know
that you're all excited to be here with me today. I'm so excited to be here
with you today. I know that you are like Heather. I already have all of my
retail promotions lined up.
[ 00:01:31
] It's the beginning of
December. And if you do high five, I am so proud of you. You can keep
listening. It's a short, fun episode. And maybe you can even get some tweaks to
really move through some product or even increase your add-on services for your
team or for yourself. This episode could be very beneficial for you. And then
if you are like, 'sister', I am so far behind. This is for me. I am so happy
you're here as well. Let's dive right into it. In this episode, I want to share
five tips that are creative that can either elevate the promotions that you are
already running or there's something that you can simply start right away. You
can start them today because you don't have a ton of time.
[ 00:02:16
] We're going to get you
going because let's be honest, December is one of the busiest months for
salons. Why are we not making it the most busy month for salons? Why are we not
making it the most profitable? Let's get started with tip number one. We are going
to do a countdown to Christmas. So if you have not started this, this is
similar to my 12 deals of Christmas. If you're like, I can't do 12 deals of
Christmas because I don't have that kind of time. That's a-okay. You could do
the 12 days of Christmas and like list them off and then someone could pick and
like take advantage of what those would look like. But also you could do a
countdown to Christmas. How fun would that be to have it be seven days in
December?
[ 00:02:55
] Where you simply build
excitement. A couple of examples for days and things that you could do would
simply be, purchase a gift card of $100 or more. You get $20 in salon bucks. We
don't always recommend 20%, but it's one day and it's one day only. And it's
not like an annual commitment because it's simply the seven days that you're
counting down to Christmas. Also, maybe a free conditioning treatment with any
color service. We can post this on our social media, hoping to engage with some
guests that maybe need to get in last minute. And we can put them with some of
our newer, less seasoned stylists. Also buy two retail products. You get one
free.
[ 00:03:37
] Those would all be
something that creates a sense of urgency because it's one day we're counting
down to Christmas and you can follow along. It'll also help your social media
engagement and it will create urgency. The first year, I will say I've had salons
do this for years. The first year, I've had salons do this for years. The first
year, I've had salons do this for years. I do feel like it's a little bit
lighter because it's getting used to it. But at the same time, the more that we
do it, the more guests start to love it. And so the first time that you do it,
don't ever feel like it's a flop. Tweak it and go from there. Next tip, holiday
glow up package. Let's get a holiday glow up.
[ 00:04:13
] Everyone who comes and
sits in your chair wants to be glowed up. Let's be honest. A couple different
things that you can do is you can create a bundle package. So that would be
like a service and a service. And then you can create a bundle package. So that
would be like a service and a service. And then you can create a bundle
package. So that would be a retail product wrapped up into one. And I really
love to focus on blowouts this time of year because I feel like it can actually
capture people's attention to want blowouts all year long. Of course, they're
going to want to get blowouts this year. They have family pictures. They're
seeing all of these people that they haven't seen in years.
[ 00:04:40
] And maybe they're
seeing, you know, family members that they don't even really like that much.
They want to look their best. So this is the time where we could do like a
blowout, a gloss and a retail product, maybe for one set price. It doesn't
necessarily have to be a blowout. It doesn't necessarily have to be a blowout.
It doesn't a discount but it can be featured in that bundle and especially for
your newer stylists who have lighter books this could be a really great
opportunity for them to also grow. Another example in the holiday glow up
packages is simply an express menu. If you are a seasoned stylist, and you're
like, 'I do not have any room in December coming up with a holiday express
menu.' It's very simple, quick add-on services that you can offer anywhere from
$15 to $25, and it can be conditioning treatments, it can be a gloss, it can be
little things that do not take a ton of time but they have very high impact.
[ 00:05:38
] I want you to think
about doing those things because then this way number one it builds confidence
in your guest, but then also it puts some more money in your pocket which we
absolutely love. Third tip is going to be gift cards. Did we offer gift cards?
What does that look like? I know that some of you have already offered gift
cards and you probably want to be like, 'Heather, stop talking about gift
cards.' But I'm not stopping talking about gift cards. If you have one great.
If you do not have one, something that you can offer is bonus bucks. Very
simple, clean, easy. It can be if you purchase a $100 gift card you get $10 in
salon bucks back and that $10 in salon bucks could be used January 1st to
February 28th, something along those lines.
[ 00:06:22
] They can use it on
retail anything like that. That's always a fun one. You can also offer 10% off
gift cards to create a sense of urgency. Only offer them for one week or
something like along those lines and here's a little bonus for you. Make sure
that you are contacting every single one of your top clients, partners,
spouses, moms, aunts, whoever it is-whoever would want to purchase for your
guests. Think about contacting those people to make sure that they are aware.
We all experience gift buying burnout when you're like I have no idea what I'm
going to get this person or I have no idea what I should buy whoever it is.
Make sure that you are contacting like spouses and things like that to make
sure that they could look like the hero at their Christmas because they stuffed
their wife's stocking with a gift card to their favorite hair salon.
[ 00:07:21
] Who wouldn't love that?
Do not forget about those people. We want to make sure that we're talking to
them and that they know the deals and discounts. Next tip: self-care sale.
Everybody's very into self-care right now. This one's a little fun tagline to
help you with your retail sales, so it could be Self-Care Saturday. If your
salon's open on Sunday, great. It could be Self-Care Sunday. It could be
Self-Care Wednesday. It really doesn't have to even start with an S. However,
for the entire month you could have a self-care promotion. You could offer
discounts on retail for services booked on a lighter day. So maybe Fridays just
don't seem to be the day that we are busting it out in December this year.
[ 00:08:03
] So we could have
self-care Friday and book a Friday blowout and you get 15% off a retail product
of your choice. That's for a lighter day on the books and in your salon. So if
you have newer stylists that are not booked on certain days or certain times or
certain days are lighter, this is the perfect way to get people in and
especially with that blowout. A blowout is a great way like we had just talked
about. People want to look their best especially for the holiday season and
it's a great way just to get your team booked as well. Next and last, number
five, is something that I call the Nutcracker Hop. So everybody can benefit
from this. I don't care if you have a promotion, whatever it is.
[ 00:08:49
] This is a really fun
promotion that's for your team and for your guest. You simply need to go to
some type of store, so you can go to a Christmas store, you can go to a dollar
store, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, all the things, and grab a nutcracker. So we're
going to grab a Christmas holiday-themed nutcracker. We're going to pick it up.
You probably pick one up for 10 or $12. We are then going to take that to the
salon and we are going to designate days, or we may do from December 2nd all
the way until you know Christmas Eve. And we are going to designate days for
that. So we are going to designate days for that. And we have a nutcracker hop.
[ 00:09:22
] What this means is that
every single time a stylist sells a product, the Nutcracker hops to their
station. This promotion was so fun and super successful. And you can even do a
bunny hop. And I've done a bunny hop during like spring, and it's very successful
then as well. With the Nutcracker hop, you have to make sure that you have
someone behind the scenes. So if you've got a buddy, a friend, a mom, a sister,
a son, something that has someone that helps you behind the scenes that can
call the salon during certain times, even if they have to put calendar
reminders and every time they call whoever has the Nutcracker on their station,
the stylist gets a gift card and the guest gets a gift card and it can be a
five-dollar coffee card, simple things, nothing crazy.
[ 00:10:14
] It can be a lottery
ticket, a scratch-off, something like that to keep it light and fun. And then
even for the guest, it can be $10 towards the salon. Or it can be a voucher
that's like $10 to use in January, or maybe even a free treatment for their next
visit. Something fun and exciting for the guests that also gets the guests who
are sitting there that one engaged to possibly buy retail to keep the
Nutcracker on their station. So that one is a super fun one that helps to
generate retail sales. It keeps the mood up in the salon and the culture up as
well, which is something that we also have to keep in mind, especially during
this holiday season and the busiest time when everybody is really just
crunching the clock trying to get through.
[ 00:11:01
] A couple bonus tips of
do's and don'ts. Now that we have gone through the five seasonal promotions
that will attract and get your sales going, I want to give you a couple of do's
and don'ts for this process. First, we're going to make sure that we plan ahead.
I know that it's December and the planners who are listening to this are like,
'You're too late.' I'm already into February. And I love you because I love to
be that way. However, there's several of us that are not and that is okay too.
So please make sure that you're scheduling the social media posts that we talk
about. Make sure you have a calendar that says this is going to be the gift
card promotion.
[ 00:11:43
] If you have an email
list, make sure that those emails are scheduled to go out. Make sure that you
have it on your list. Make sure that you have it on your list. Make sure that
you have when you're out shopping with your family to pick up a nutcracker if
you decide to do the Nutcracker Hop. Another do is to make sure that you're
adding value to everything that you do, not just a discount. And I talk about
this a lot when it comes to offering certain packages that they don't always
have to be discounted, but they can be a feature. And some of these things,
instead of offering money off right there, they can also be redeemed next year
and we can create a voucher as opposed to a gift card.
[ 00:12:19
] So I want you to keep
that in mind. Also, you've already heard me talk about it. The silent
salesperson is your signage. We're promoting it everywhere. It's on our social
media. It's on our website banners. It's on everything. It's on every mirror.
It's on every single place in our salon. When you look, we should be able to
see some type of a sign that's talking about one of the promotions that are
going on. And also, lastly, don't forget to make it exclusive to create a sense
of urgency around some of these deals. So when you do a gift card promotion
that's 10% off gift cards, make sure people know it is for this week only. It
creates that, oh my word, well, I guess I need to buy it right now.
[ 00:12:58
] An urgency buyer is
someone who buys right then and there because they do not want to miss the
deal. There are a couple of don'ts, to be honest, but I want to talk about one.
You have, if you've been listening to this podcast, you probably have so many ideas
because I do spew out so many things that you can offer. The biggest don't that
I have when it comes to creating seasonal promotions, but also just creating
promotions all year long. So this is a something that you can take into 2025 is
to not overcomplicate it. And if something seems too hard or too much, we're
going to take it off the plate. We need to focus on if it's gift cards, we're
focusing on gift cards.
[ 00:13:40
] If we need to focus on
moving our box sets, then we need to focus on moving our box sets. Don’t
just keep layering on top of your team because there’s going to be
so many things going on that they just give up and they don’t
do anything. I want you to keep that in mind when you are planning these
promotions. So if you’re looking at your numbers and it’s
like, I have so many things, why are the box sets not selling? Why is this not
happening? It could simply be that your team actually has too much to talk
about that they don’t even know what to talk about. The
biggest don't when creating promotions is don't overcomplicate or overwhelm.
[ 00:14:15
] I sure hope that you
got something great out of this podcast. Way to kick off December with me.
Thank you so much for being here. Please do not forget, you can always reach
out to me via email, hellohetherpod at gmail . com with questions, any of my
social media platforms. And I am so happy to help you with any questions. And
please feel free to tag me in any of your successes or if you created a
promotion that I inspired you, please send it over. I would be so happy to see
it. Thank you so much for being here today and we'll see you next time. Go make
some great hair happen.
