In today's economic marketplace, all the signs for a slowing economy are evident: housing starts slump, gas prices rise and drop and raise again, the stock market whiplashes downwards, food prices soar. Our bread and butter clients start thinking about cutting back on unnecessary goods and services.

At first, to stretch their dwindling discretionary dollars, they stay away a little longer to extend the life of a cut or color. They forego the luxury of our quality products for the hair care tucked in the aisles of the neighborhood grocery. We start seeing a trickle-down effect in the hierarchy of salons. The higher-end salons give up clients to the drive-by strip mall salons who, temporarily, enjoy a spike in popularity. Soon, they see the drop-off, too. Eventually, we are all staring out our windows into empty parking lots.

We have all suffered slow periods before and some have developed strategies to combat them. A good salon cleaning, moves to increase the availability of services and a push to tighten up stylists' appearance and skills all work towards a more successful and profitable salon. Yet, we sense our best stylists are looking around for another opportunity. We clean out the junk and toss out the less than profitable retail lines. Yet the bills keep rolling in like ocean breakers. How do we keep the stylists in, the creditor letters out and attract some old and new clients?

The first thing you should do is go into the home office, pour an appropriate refreshment and review your business plan. If you don't have one, this is a good time to build one. The plan should include a look at the marketplace for services, local demographics, financials projections, and analysis of costs and, most importantly, a realistic stare at the minimum growth needed to keep afloat with a goal of increasing it to sheer unadulterated success. Your business plan will show you what your goals are and how you expect to meet those goals.

After the plan is reviewed, you need some fresh looks from the people you wish to fill your salon with. You need marketing. You need marketing that does not impact the salon with vast outlays of time or treasure. You need marketing that does not trust big marketers to send us a few new faces for a c-note per head. You need marketing that takes advantage of your staff and location. To survive and thrive in a declining economy, you need guerilla marketing.

After each new customer visit, a new service or look on an existing customer or after a client refers you, send your client a thank you note. Send it through the snail-mail and hand-write it on a card which bears your salon imprint. This lets your customers know that you appreciate them while reminding them that you are available to serve them. Your customers will appreciate a note from you and tell a bucket of people you took the trouble to send one.

Send a promotional card to your current/former clients offering a discount on services and products upon their next visit. One salon in Bellevue, Washington gives out holiday dollars that offers clients a discount for services in January and February. The coupons look like real money and offer, not a percentage savings, but real dollar savings, like ten to twenty smackers. Another salon in Portland, Oregon gives clients double-dollar coupons to give family and friends as stocking stuffers. At the first of the year, their chairs are full of appreciative clients who are happy to take advantage of the deals. Another idea is to be straightforward with the clients and tell tem you recognize the tough times. Offer clients recession-fighting discounts and a way for their friends to stay above the tide, too. Promotions and specials keep your customers coming back.

Take a few hours per month to focus on prospecting. Your community is full of women's and social groups tied to charities, schools and hospitals. Offer them a night of beauty or a clinic showing them how to use those ubiquitous flat irons. Make it a party with refreshments, a door prize, and activities. Approach it as your way of thanking them for their excellent community work. Many such groups will see your offer as a way of filling their group's activity calendar. You may become a fixture on the annual calendar of a number of groups and they, in turn, will reward your efforts with loyalty to your salon.

Begin a referral campaign - arguably the best method of obtaining new business. Print up some cards offering clients a free service - a cut or color or pedicure - when they refer three new clients. Keep tally of the new clients on a ledger and promote this at the reception desk and at the stations of stylists. By offering the new clients a discount on first services, you make assurances the bounty of new clients will come in with the referral cards.

Change the look and upgrade the content of your website. Your website is more than just a digital brochure. It can be a meeting place for new clients and business opportunities. Tweak the colors, layout and navigation of your site to reflect changing fashion and changes in your salon offerings. You don't need to perform a major overhaul, unless your site has not evolved since 1998. When big changes cause way too much apprehension, minor appearance and navigation fixes may be more acceptable and can often have positive results. When Yahoo updated their website, they did so slowly over a period of three months to lessen the disturbance to the mystical customer force. Add new content every season or quarter and include all your current offers and new services/products up front on the start page. Keep your visitors coming back to see what's new.

Network with other salons and product distributors. Join an association that offers salon promotion and management support. In Seattle, Portland and lands in between, we are fortunate to have Ed Wyse, Salon Services, West Coast, and Malys, which all are vitally interested in our salons' health and weal. Their ideas provide a wealth of information to keep us encouraged.

The solution to slow periods is guerilla marketing. By following these suggestions in peak production periods, you will experience great rewards during slower economic times and thrive while others only survive.

Edward Paul - Capelli d-Oro©2008

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