From Passion to Profit - Turning Your Salon/Spa into a Money Maker

You've heard the phrase, "Do what you love and the money will follow." I am certainly a fan of this premise, however if taken to naively it could become a disaster.

If you are a salon or spa start up, or are already running your own business, then in common with many salon/spa business owners is a love or passion for industry. A love for all things beautiful and a love for nurturing and caring for people. But turning that passion into a profitable business requires more then just a desire; it requires, knowledge, business savvy and an ability to execute.

All to often as a Salon & Spa Business Coach, I see people mortgage out their home or take on serious debt to open the Salon or Spa or their dreams. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent on building out some of the most attractive spaces, and acquiring the best equipment, only for these businesses to never turn a profit and eventually fail.

So, how do you take all of that energy - desire - passion, and make that equal a comfortable living? I think the answer to that is simple in theory, and hard for many to execute and deliver on. So the next time you’re lying awake in bed, thinking about your business and wondering, “Should I go on?” ask yourself the following questions:

1) Are you willing to spend the same amount of time and energy you spent (or will spend) on designing and decorating your place as you will on learning how to be a smart entrepreneur?

2) Will you do what it takes to train, study and learn from the best? (Study from others who have went before you and now are successful)

3) Will you have the perseverance when things are not running as you planned to be able to look at things objectively and course correct?

4) Will you be smart enough to admit you don't know everything and get help?

If you answered yes, to all of the above, then the chances of turning your passion into profit will be much more likely for you. If you answered no to any of the above, I suggest you rethink just how passionate you are about obtaining a profitable business.

Turning a passion into profit will demand a lot from you - But if you are willing to put the time and energy into it - you'll come out on top.

Labor Unions and the Salon Industry

The so-called Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "Card Check", is likely the biggest legislative threat you've never heard of.

The nation's labor unions are aggressively pushing a far-reaching and radical agenda to, in its own words, "take back the economy." Headlining the agenda is legislation to make it cheaper, faster and easier to unionize Main Street businesses and small retail establishments. (read more)

What Is Salon & Spa Business Coaching?

Salon & Spa Business Coaching is an extraordinary relationship between Coach & Client that has a commitment to common goals and future of the business. Salon & Spa Business Coaching is directed toward the entire business and is focused and dedicated to transforming the organization for success.

The role of the Salon or Spa owner/manager is to be willing to change their approach to business and be open to reinventing themselves and their current belief system. The client must be committed not only to change, but to learning and growing.

The role I take as the Business Coach is to discover what the client is passionate about in their business and to intervene when I see the client drifting or losing focus on their goals. As the Coach, I am always standing in the future that the client envisions and I'm totally committed to their success.

Business Coaching by design creates an environment for a Salon & Spa to see its potential while not being influenced by the past. Salon & Spa owners/managers are often limited by their own self imposed limitations or fixed positions that prevent taking action or producing bottom line results.

Business coaches uncover these areas by facilitating breakthroughs. These breakthroughs reveal and eliminate the “not working” and facilitate new ways of doing things that produce positive results. Business Coaching can be powerful for Salons & Spas that want to have breakthroughs in areas where they have been stuck or experienced unsatisfactory results.

Salon & Spa Coach - Ana Loiselle-Donahue

Join Me For a Webinar on Surving & Thriving the Recession

theSECRET Salon & Spa Coaching in conjunction with outsidethebox
Presents a DSA + IMSA Webinar

Ten Recession Proof Strategies to Grow Your Business in Hard Times
January 26, 2008 - 4pm EST
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

Times are tough and getting tougher. The good news is, even if the recession is here to stay a bit longer, you can survive and prosper! In this one hour dynamic presentation, Salon & Spa Coach, Ana Loiselle-Donahue will discuss how you need to change your strategy and take action to cut costs & streamline your business operations.

You will learn how to:
Tighten your marketing focus,
Make your prices more competitive,
Use the power of referrals to generate recession proof income,
and much more!


CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

SpaFinder Reveals Top Ten Spa Beauty Trends to Watch in 2009 From Press Release - Jan 9, 2009

The world of beauty, always a hotbed of intense competition and marketing innovation, is poised for another year of fresh global trends in spa beauty-oriented products and treatments, according to SpaFinder Lifestyle Online Magazine’s new report: “Top Ten Spa Beauty Trends to Watch in 2009.”

The much-anticipated spa beauty trends forecast from SpaFinder Lifestyle’s Editor-in-Chief, Melisse Gelula, showcases an eclectic mix of beauty concepts and products emerging from the spa world that will shape everything from the red carpet to the drug store aisle in the year ahead. Gelula’s annual trends have become a go-to resource for beauty journalists and bloggers, having proven a remarkably prescient crystal ball for what’s around the corner in spa beauty.

For 2009, Gelula forecasts a boom in facialist-branded skin care, multi-tasking beauty products, and niche nail polish formulators. New antioxidants and gem stone extracts will infuse products, while a heightened focus on diet’s role in beauty will be the talk at the spa—and beyond. On the spa-ritual front, hammams are red-hot, while blistering debates about the safety and effectiveness of sunscreens will to continue to be a source of controversy. Also look for suds-free shampoos, better definitions of “organic,” and a big interest in science-based products, driving the beauty consumer’s ongoing, two-faced fascination with both organics and injectables, reports Gelula.

Read a condensed list of the “2009 Top Ten Spa Beauty Trends” below, or

1. Multi-Tasking, Money-Saving, Products

The explosion of targeted skin-care products in recent years will give way to products that have two, three, or four beautifying uses, such as Joey New York’s Quick CTSM2, an all-in-one cleanser, toner, scrub, and mask. Multi-taskers are good for both a drooping face and dropping dollar. Another result of the heightened rallying around value and affordability: more do-it-yourself and at-home spa-treatment-inspired products like facial kits, etc.

2. Brand-Name Facialists

Dermatologists Murad, Perricone, and Wexler are being joined by a new generation of facialist-branded skin-care treatments and products. Fifth Avenue’s Tracie Martyn and Los Angeles’s Kate Somerville are becoming franchise-facialists with treatments at spas besides their own, and the skin-care lines of facialists Eve Lom and Tammy Fender are some of the new group of ‘faces’ that will reach the retail big-time.

3. Gem Stoned

Move over gold, silver and platinum…spas worldwide, such as New York’s Cornelia Day Resort and The Park Hyatt Dubai, are now boasting the benefits of beauty products infused with precious and semi-precious gems. Whether gem extracts are as beautifying as the real thing has yet to be scientifically determined, but more spas will swear by the subtle healing energies imparted by them.

4. The Skin-Care Diet

Food is the new skin care, reflecting a return to the inner-beauty mantra that a good diet begets good skin. Organic-derived ingredients, topical probiotics (the beneficial bacteria) in brands such as Bioelements and Nude, and a growing number of beauty supplement-like beverages are on the rise.

5. Antioxidant Free-for-All

All manner of teas, hearty alpine herbs like edelweiss, and rare fruit extracts will be joined by more--and possibly increasingly obscure--sources of skin-benefiting antioxidants. For instance, next up, suggests a recent article in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology…burdock fruit.

6. Sunscreen Controversy

Are mineral sunscreen particles too small to be safe? Are chemical sunscreens bad for you? Do some antioxidants boost protection from UV rays? More questions are simmering about beauty’s most serious and important skin-care product than the industry can answer, at least in 2009. Expect a summer of mixed messages and hot debate.

7. Suds-Free Shampoos

By popular demand, shampoos without the controversial ingredient sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) or traditional foaming agents are hitting the shelves. Brands from California’s Sumbody to Paris’s Leonor Greyl produce a soft lather or emulsification, making suds-free washing a far more sophisticated experience than previous incarnations.

8. Organic Panic

While beauty brands continue to scramble for a USDA Organics logo, strip parabens from their formulations, or swap their packaging for something more earth-friendly to meet consumer demand, others will use 2009 to better define exactly what shade of green they subscribe to, while touting transparency as their angle. Call it green beauty marketing 2.0.

9. Hammams Are Hot

This year’s hottest beautifying bathing ritual is the hammam, a traditional Moorish-Mediterranean steam room, now found in brand-new spas from the Montage Beverly Hills to the InterContinental Montelucia in Arizona. Moroccan-sourced product ingredients such as argan oil, myrrh, and black soap are also building steam. After all, lounging at the hammam for hours, (which often involves less therapist-based costs), is a great way to stretch the spa dollar.

10. Hard Science Sells

There’s nothing like proof that a product works to justify a cosmetic purchase or a higher-price point. That’s why science-backed products will be flourishing even in tough economic times. Look for the drug company debuts of Botox-competitor Reloxin in 2009, an injectable; and the much-anticipated eyelash-lengthener Latisse, by Allergan; along with more growth hormones, skin-penetrating peptides, and nanotechnology in over-the-counter beauty products. The marriage between science and beauty will also continue to strengthen because of the use of biology textbook terms (like cellular, epidermal, dermal) invading skin care and its labels, reaching a whole new level of skin-care marketing.

BONUS TREND

Niche Nail Polish

Essie, OPI, and CND aren’t the only games in town. Deborah Lippmann is taking off as the bespoke nail bedazzler with the Lippmann Collection, and makeup artist Michael Marcus has partnered with the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo for a nail line. Expect new offerings in this fun, affordable, recession-proof beauty category.

Click here to review the complete report online.

Why Use A Coach For Your Salon or Spa?

The simply answer to that is.... a coach works! Works to help you define how you want your business to be different, better, improved, healthier- AND then holds your butt accountable for making that happen! Yikes, sounds intense. It is, but it's worth every penny you spend.

I personally have a business coach, and wouldn't be a true coach if I didn't believe in the process myself.

So, here's how it works:

Business Coaching is all about helping you get very clear on what you most want, creating a great plan that aligns with your values and builds on your strengths, and supports you in making all the changes needed to achieve the outcomes you desire. As a professional service,coaching consistently delivers a high return on investment over 200%) and can be a powerful partner in helping you achieve far greater levels of success, happiness and fulfillment.

If you have a big dream or are just wanting to get your Salon or Spa to the next level - or feel unfulfilled, stressed out, tired of the results you are currently getting - I invite you to look into working with an experienced professional who is totally focused on helping you succeed.

SO WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK???? Contact me for a FREE 45 Minute, Consultation!

Are You Ready to Make 2009 Your Best Year In Business?

Are you tired of struggling with not knowing if you can meet payroll? Fearful of the current economic crisis? Overwhelmed by all that needs to be done? then....

Right Now is the Best Time to Take Action and Set Your Goals for Success in 2009.

New Year's Resolutions offer the first opportunity for making change and improvement in your business. Over the next few days millions of people will be setting New Year's resolutions - asking themselves questions, attempting to figure out how to improve their business.

Some will decide the answer is to work harder...even though they feel like they're working their butts off now. Others will think a brief second about how they'd like to see things change...but will remember all of the years they've failed, and will simply throw in the towel before even giving themselves a chance. Then their are the people that think "hope" and "good luck" are effective strategies for change.

As an expert on this subject (through my own trials and tribulations), I can tell you that more than 75% will fail to achieve their resolutions, with most having abandoned them by the end of January.

But wait there is hope! - There is a very small, but special group of people who are committed to making this year different. They are committed to real change in their businesses. They are committed to a plan, and understand that life will not go according to plan if they do not have a plan.

Do You Have a Plan?
Do you have plan for how you are going to execute that plan?
If you have the above two - Do you think you will be able to stick to it?

I have put together an effective program that will help you achieve your goals. It's partly an evaluation of your current business habits as they are today and partly a blueprint for doing things better — and I mean much better.

Contact me for your FREE 45 minute Consultation so we can make this year your best year in business!