GoSalon – If this is the solution then….
What is the problem? If GoSalon is the solution
This is a blog from 2019 – I have no idea why i never published it then, but feel that even in 2023 the lack of competition to GoSalon in the retail space is deafening. The points i wrote about in 2018 are still relevant today as they were then!
In 2018 we came up with the idea for GoSalon, we spoke about problems facing the hair & beauty industry and what we could do to solve them. “What are the problems in this sector?”
We had a number of responses; Education, Brexit, Impact of Technology, Social Media, Physical Marketing, Lack of Retail , Client retention, lack of new business, disposable income decreasing, increase of time between appointments.
All operating costs have increased, All this added up to a noticeable decline in salon profits.
We went through everything. What we found out was that all of these problems are relevant to all businesses on a daily basis.
Maybe not all at the same time but certainly over the course of a decade all of these things have provided salon owners with a headache or three.
Last year The Hair Council ran an economic impact assessment of the hair and beauty sector on the UK economy in England (by the hair & barber council) shows that 40861 business in the UK generate an economic benefit to England of between £4.9 billion – £5.7 billion.
With approximately 283000 employed in the sector the gross value added per worker is around £20k. With an average salary for a hairdresser at £19000. Does this seem enough to you? Hairdressing is hard.
For all the pleasure, there can be a lot of pain. Average wage in this sector is around £10 per hour. (BEFORE TAX) yes that’s right, marginally higher than the national minimum wage.
No wonder, we have seen hairdressers leave this industry to work in other sectors. They can easily earn that minus the risk, stress or insecurity.
How has the cost of everything gone up and yet hairdressers wages have hardly moved?
That is a debate for another day with an economist perhaps. However this question was fundamental in shaping my opinion of the problem we wanted to solve with GoSalon. “Let’s earn more money for hairdressers.”
Working within a busy salon for the previous 3 years and in the industry for 20. I was well aware of the problems faced by myself personally. The first one was the declining sales of retail. Back in the day (ahem early 2000’s)
I used to earn a commission, recommending professional brands to my clients. 25% commission (of the profit)on a shampoo sold was around £2 This soon added up to a nice monthly bonus. It was the incentive we needed to give expertise and therefore fantastic customer service to our clients.
The immortal lines from Vidal Sassoon reverberate around my brain “If you look good, we look good!” We had a vested interest to ensure that what the clients were using on their hair not only gave them their desired outcome but was a perfect fit for their daily regime or hair type.
These retail sales were our word of mouth. Our referral, our recommend a friend.
Yet the game had changed.
Bearing in mind the heyday of retail for me was between 2001 – 2007. The changes in E-commerce and Online sales changed the game forever.
Notably eBay, Amazon and Online retail was becoming increasingly popular as the technology evolved and got exponentially better. Diversion was a huge problem for the industry. Yet all the major brands insisted they were tackling it. Were they hell. They kept salon owners and hairdressers in the dark while removing them from the retail loop.
Look at amazon today, every brand from L’Oréal to Kevin Murphy sell direct to your customers via Amazon.
The Problem is the product companies and their distinct lack of loyalty to hairdressers
No longer were the Salon Professional products exclusive for salons. Oh no, they were popping up online everywhere. For a much cheaper price. Unit bias as a human trait can be insurmountable. Why pay £15 when you can pay £10?
There you go. I said it. It’s the product companies They have become too powerful over the last four decades. They have moved on. They will only provide you with support if you pay for it. They have exhaustively drained the industry dry.
They have adapted to the times. They have a need to continually grow and provide value for there shareholders. These brands are colluding with each other to find the most economic and efficient marketing strategy ever. It’s user generated content. The days of paying £4 million to Cheryl Cole to endorse a hairspray are over. Even the influencers that you watch have had there endorsement cut. They want your audience, not you. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but they don’t care about you.
So what are you going to do? Cry about it or adapt to the marketplace like they have?
You have to use what you have, remember they need hairdressers/barbers and beauty professionals in order to introduce new products or techniques to the public. The public in this context are your loyal clients.
They need access to them. Your clients value your opinion and heed your recommendations. You have to take back control of your business and look after the people that keep you going.
Let’s commit to the changes that have been forced upon us. Let’s be extra careful with who we partner with. Don’t trust, Verify.
Aaron Dorn is a hairdresser with twenty years experience. He now educates and is a consultant for a number of companies within the hair and beauty industry.
GoSalon is an app that is simple to use. You use it to earn commission from retail by simply referring your customers. No need to buy stock and let it gather dust on the shelves.
One click referral allows others to deal with the logistics of postage and packaging. While you get on with the important job of looking after your customers. And better still it’s free.
To learn more about GoSalon and it’s usefulness to thousands of hair and beauty business owners click here
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