Inspiring Salon Professionals

I ran out of time last week to record and so was a last minute Larry today and knew I needed to just get something down and was procrastinating over which subject I was going to cover today as had a few.  Then I started receiving messages in response to my first post in my local village group about my new home salon which was great, but 2 of them didn't read my information and started pushing my p...

When you're developing your business and have goals you want to achieve, make sure you use SMART goal planning to make sure they are... SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ATTAINABLE RELEVANT TIMELY In this episode we cover how to use SMART goal planning to ensure you keep your goals and projects in the right lane.  Keeping to the SMART system will allow you to keep the goal on track when one of those threats fro...

What is SWOT analysis?   It's a simple business system to help you assess the following: STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS In this episode I run through how this can help you when planning for your business.  If you want to expand, develop a new treatment line, take on a high street salon, completing a SWOT analysis can help you work out the viability of your plan.  Here's an infographic...

In this episode I'm talking about how adversity sometimes allows the brightest of ideas to form and gives the opportunity for new projects to build.   One of the biggest and brightest light bulb moments in my career came from a second hand surgery following a not so nice car accident.  In the days after the surgery 5 years ago today, a series of conversations led to the idea for Nabuno - The Evolu...

After an unplanned break in recording, Inspiring Salon Professionals is back!  I've been away concentrating on a bit of self care and building on a long term project that is making its way back from the back burner to launch ready!  Super exciting time for me and my partner in crime, Di Hughes as we bring Nabuno to the salon industry after having heads down on the project for the last few months,...

This episode welcomes Sam Blake, the Salon Safety Geek, as she prepares to launch her all new salon wellbeing tools in the new year. This episode finds us discussing staff welfare, understanding when your coping pot is overflowing, challenges of the Christmas season for salon owners, teams and clients. How to help your team negotiate their work and sometimes personal issues that may be affecting t...

When setting up your salon business getting your branding correct is imperative to being recognised in a busy commercial salon marketplace.  Your brand is more than just your logo, business name or slogan. Your brand tells your potential clients who you are, what you do, what they can expect and reminds your existing clients of who you are whenever they see your strong brand message on social medi...

If you want to start your own salon business, this episode is all about how to build your vision, look at you why and building the skills you need to make a success of your dream.  Grab a pen & paper as if you're looking to build that dream then you may want to do the couple of exercises included in this episode. With more and more colleage/course graduates wanting to become solopreneurs the indus...

Being faced with a challenging business environment in the upcoming couple of years means we have to address how we look at attracting the clients who may be fewer and who may be more discerning.  As salon professionals one of the things we can do is tell our existing and potential clients about why they're making a good choice by investing in you and your business.  Within this how you stack up a...

White space - the dreaded gap in the salon diary.  At this time of year it is probably the biggest cause of stress to any salon business owner or professional.  With colds, flu, covid, gastric bugs, Xmas on the horizon, less events, higher heating and food costs, many clients cancel and often at the last minute.   This episode looks at making that stomach flipping moment of dread turn into a more...

This is episode is intended as a guide to how modern slavery and human trafficking affects its victims but also how us, as the industry professionals, should recognise, behave towards and potentially report this illegal activity. With thousands of victims across many industries and money making activities, modern slavery is big business in the drug scene and is known as County Lines in this field...

Joining me on this episode is Carl Hinder of Salon Help.  Carl is a widely known salon coach specialising in correct pricing and using retail to boost your bottom line.  He has developed a fantastic app (Salon Help App) to help you reach the 'correct price' and his positive can do attitude is infectious!   His book, Salon Products, Sell or Die (Not Trying) has helped so many salon owners get a han...

Joining me on this week's episode is the inspiring Sam Marshall talking all things DEI, Be Trans Aware and more. Discover how Sam entered the industry and what she's been doing to reach her success as a beauty, skin and wax guru in Media City, Manchester.   Sam is a huge advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and through her work with Be Trans Aware with her partner Keri Nobbs, they are teaching the...

Join Sarah Cogin-Smith and myself as we talk about her long salon industry career with 26 years served as a successful salon owner and more recently as the owner of Cognito Spa 'Almost Edible' products and the Salon Industry Networking Group (SING) on Facebook.   With Christmas just around the corner Cognito Spa has a time sensitive offer on her famous lip balms which are great as client gifts or...

Talking to the self professed Queen of Memberships, Phil Jackson about how his membership training can help you set a stable financial future for your salon business.  As always Phil gives sound advice not only on his specialty but bringing his own successes and failures into his wise words.  With a degree in banking and finance under his belt, Phil started out in the hair industry in 1999 with a...

Since the COVID pandemic there has been a shift away from employment by many salon professionals and a subsequent crisis has occurred throughout the personal care sector.  Many previous employees are now working in their own businesses be they home salons or mobile as they have seen the increase to their earnings possible when they do it themselves.   Salon owners consequently have got to up their...

A quick intro to Season 2 of Inspiring Salon Professionals.   This season I'll be talking more about business and how you can grow from a graduate through to a salon owner and how to make the most impact as a salon professional.  

Join me over the next two episodes where I’m in conversation with the award-winning mindset coach, Philippa Holding.    Here’s Philippa’s explanation of what she does and how she helps women change their lives…   I help women change unwanted behaviours, habits and beliefs that hold them back from feeling empowered to thrive and redefine what’s possible for them in business and life.    After years...

Join me over the next two episodes where I’m in conversation with the award-winning mindset and female empowerment coach, Philippa Holding.    Here’s Philippa’s explanation of what she does and how she helps women change their lives… "I help women change unwanted behaviours, habits and beliefs that hold them back from feeling empowered to thrive and redefine what’s possible for them in business an...

On this International Women's Day I'm talking about how we address failure and deal with change in our lives and businesses. As women we see old paths ending too often as failure, we need to seem them for the new opportunities that they give us. We all have unfinished plans, and I'm no exception, with a mountainous to do pile always in progress, learning to forgive myself for not completing everyt...

Entering and winning awards is a fantastic way to get your business or your skills noticed.  From mobile solopreneurs through to top end destination spas everyone wants to be seen as the best in their specialty.  How do they do it though?  A huge part is in the initial application and in this episode I am giving you a guide to how to put together the best application possible.  Your application is...

If you are in the salon industry you will, at this point of the year, be seeing the marketing posts from organisers at various points of their awards calender.  Some are already closed, some are due to close and some have yet to begin their call to action.  I've listed below some of the key industry and national business awards that you can enter and there are many others, these are just a few tha...

What will you do when you need to take a planned or unexpected absence from your business?  Planning for adversity is something that every business owner should do and have in place.  Last week I had my own unexpected absence and regular listeners will know that last week's episode didn't drop and that was because I had an unexpected medical issue that landed me in A&E!  It took me out of my day t...

When you're developing your career as a salon professional as a hairstylist,nail tech, beauty therapist, holistic therapist, lash tech, aesthetics provider there is so much that goes into it and as you work hard to achieve your goals you may need help and support along the way.  The first point for many of us is our family and friends, but support comes in many forms and in this episode we look at...