Knowing who you are and where you are going will give you the insight for your future.

What are your goals?

Getting ahead in life is all about focus and achievement in your life. Pretty big stuff, but not so big that you can’t get your hands around it and get back to the basics so you can achieve your life’s goals.

Here are a couple of questions you should be asking yourself:

1. Did I accomplish what I set out to do last week?
2. Did I even have an idea of what I wanted to accomplish?
3. Did I play the blame game?
4. Was it the economy that affected my goals?

If you have read anything about goals, principled leadership or even goal setting from an achievement perspective you realize that every one of us allows something to get in the way.

Its part of that negative, skeptical thought pattern engrained inside of us. You just naturally create barriers. But there is good news,barriers are meant to be overcome! Failure is the teacher for success. When you realize what your failures are, you can move on to your success.

A great way to do that is to focus on your past and your present, and use it to inform your future. First look at your past; all the great, terrible, wonderful, unique experiences in your life that makes you who you are.

If you look back in your life I bet you will remember those unexpected experiences in life that were surprises, not looked for as well as those experiences you wanted to happen and then found not as rewarding as you anticipated.

Disappointment is just as important as success and self-awareness. Any time you find out what gives you a sense of worth and value that experience is worth whatever it costs you.

Additional questions you should consider asking yourself:

1. Is your present what you expected?
2. Are you happy, fulfilled and motivated?
3. Are you blaming someone else for the failures in your life?
4. Do you even know why you don’t feel fulfilled, motivated or happy or sad or upset?

A lot of us are not even aware what causes these feelings. The point is, never quit looking, asking questions, reading and studying.

Success requires lots of diligent thinking, hard work and perseverance. If someone told you it would be easy, they told you a lie. If they told you it would be the greatest thing you ever lived, they told you the truth.

Your future is the jar full of dreams, possibility and glory. It is the amazing stuff that drives anyone to achieve anything. Success is born out of a lot of practice, study, and focused effort over many years. It often means taking risk for our actions.

If you say at this point “you just don’t understand my situation. It just isn’t possible right now to…” You are afraid to risk what you have now in order to get what you really want in the future. You think it is more important to hold on to what you have now, than to reach for a life-time of dreams.

You haven’t really assessed what you really have to have and what you can give up. You haven’t determined where your key principles are and how you are going to change your own actions to realize that dream.

Combine the past, present and future into the image of what you want to become. Your brain is a powerful tool and is created to help you grow into who you want to become. The sad fact is many of us grew into what someone told us to be and never listened to the still voice inside that said I have the power to be all I can be no matter what other people say.

Make the step today and be all you can be and reach for the stars.

Are you discounting your services to get business? It’s a common practice among salons, but it’s an expensive and ineffective way of attracting good, solid repeat clients.

What makes it so expensive? Let’s say you offer a $10 discount to 5 clients each week.  That means you will lose $2,600 per year in cold hard cash.  That’s like paying an extra month of rent. Just think how much back bar and retail product you could buy with that kind of money!  

But many salons and spas use discounting as a primary marketing tool. I think it’s largely because they don’t realize there are far more effective methods for getting new clients, methods that ultimately turn prospects into solid, repeat clients.

And then there’s the other ugly problem with discounting: It sets the client up to expect it again and again.

How to fix the problem

First, understand what’s going on with the public. Although 90% of Americans are working, there is still concern for the 9-10% that aren’t. That means consumers are looking for value to justify spending their money. The public needs to feel they’re getting more for their money.

So here’s the good news: instead of blaming the economy, use it to your advantage. Bundle services together in a package at an unbeatable price. For example:

“$286 in spa/salon services for an incredible $99!”

Here’s a sample from a partial hair ad:

&  FREE Semi-Permanent Colour Shine valued at $65

&  FREE Tingling Scalp Massage valued at $12

&  FREE Spa Gloss & Hydration Hair Treatment valued at $28

That’s $105 in value. 

It doesn’t really cost you $28 to do a hair treatment.  At most it will cost you $1.  And if you get the client in for $99 you’re way ahead, especially if you compare it to having an empty chair.

The same is true for the aforementioned hand massage. It doesn’t cost $24 to do a hand massage, but it does take some skill, sometimes even a certain technique. Give the hand massage a special name to reflect its uniqueness and the subsequent value.

Remember to place a value on your consultation time as well. It’s a service you already provide; place a value on it.

As you may have guessed, this type of marketing is called value-adding. It places the focus on more, not less. It also creates a WOW effect for prospects and current customers. Just think of what you can do with hair treatments!

Use Packages To Promote Other Services

Use packages to add complementary services with your offer like a light makeover. Then sell the make-up products. It just takes a little bit of your time and some make-up. Clients rarely leave without buying something!

Package offers together with a service you want your clients to know of and start using. When I owned my small spa, we did this all the time. It’s an incredible tool for building awareness and hooking people on another part of your business.

The Rule Of Three

If you arm yourself with this important mind shift, from discounting to value-adding, you can attract the clients you really want in your salon or spa. Focus on value, never discounting.

Just remember, get prospects back in three times and they are usually yours for life. The sooner you stop discounting and start value-adding, the quicker you’ll gain more clients, make more money and stand out from the pack. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

About the author: HAA member, Susan Vincent owned a small spa in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for 10 years. She is the now the owner and writer of Easy Salon Newsletters, a done-for-you newsletter service that provides hair, skincare, make-up tips and a bit of humor for salons and spas around the world.

Whatever economic status you fall in, there are chances that you may require beauty care either to enhance your beauty or to repair the missing assets. So, is the beauty care industry being affected? Here the question is how they are being affected by the economy? The answer lies although people tie belts and their budgets, can they afford the ever increasing prices of the beauty products?

How they have been affected by the economy will depend upon, how hard the times were and did it make them put off their beauty treatments? As per a survey done, expensive salons saw a dip of about 25% in their clientele, and celebrity perfumes for example, saw a dip of about 20% in their sales during the recession. People still bought perfumes, but settled for the less-expensive ones.

About the Author:

Charlotte Howard is a Business Consultant and Founder of Charlotte Howard Consulting LLC. Personally Connect With Her On FaceBook At The Group “Hair Artist Association” For Beauty and Business Tips.
Copyright © 2009 Charlotte Howard Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.