8th September 2025
Remember that feeling when you first opened your own business, it was YOUR SALON, YOUR VIBE. You created the identity, the decor, the style; the way you wanted your salon to be, it was all down to you. And when it came to choosing the products you wanted to use and recommend, the influences of your years working for someone else naturally had an impact, as did the way sales people introduced themselves and their brands when they came along to see you.
Over the years, things change and your vibe starts to become engulfed in other things. As the salon gets busy, some of the specific elements that made your business what you wanted it to be, fade away. The decor gets left too long before it gets an upgrade, the retail products sit on the shelves gathering dust, the colour you chose to carry, well you probably regularly use less than half of the stock because everyone has fallen into a comfort zone and use just what they like as it’s the safe option. The posters and P.O.S become faded, and the entrance, well it could do with a lick of paint, but you’ll get round to it.
The brands you chose based on your initial decisions, most of them just become complacent, expecting their monthly order, and you in turn become complacent and give said order without thinking about what the business really needs to maintain itself and to grow.
Most of this happens because you and your team are too busy being hairdressers to think about everything relating to YOUR SALON, YOUR VIBE. And meanwhile, your product suppler goes off and finds other ways of generating revenue, like mass market channels.
In the current climate, it’s important to recognise if you are stagnating, is your business going backwards as opposed to surging ahead with new clients, ultra loyal existing clients, new products and services and staying ahead of the game with a new UPDATED vibe. Clients will stay loyal for a long time, but everyone looks at what else is available and if you become ‘old news’, their loyalty goes out the window.
SUGGESTION: Take a long hard look at what you offer, from the retail on your shelves, to the in-salon treatments you offer; from the refreshments you serve to the colour house you use. Has your original vibe been so diluted that you are now just like the salon down the street or over the road? If you honestly answer YES, then it’s time for a radical re-think.
Set yourself a task of learning about new and exciting brands that offer a point of difference, that make you STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD, brands that suit your vibe. Get obsessed with re-energising your vibe, your mojo, your passion for hairdressing, and the ‘fire in your belly’ that you felt when you first opened your salon.
SUGGESTION: Ask your team what they like and dislike about the brands you carry, then get some companies to come along and showcase their offerings. I am MORE THAN HAPPY TO HELP with details of salon professional brands that bring something new and exciting to our industry, brands that could be perfect for your business.
#YourSalonYourVibe #SalonPro #SalonExclusive #ProForPro
