BALAYAGE – THE FASTEST WAY TO KILL YOUR COMPANY
As a salon owner myself, I am more aware than ever of the effects social media has on our industry and more importantly – on our business. We simply just do not color hair the same way anymore. In fact, the average color booked with a new talent uses 35% more color. 1 in every 3 appointments booked in a salon today is Balayage. What does this mean? It means every new stylist you hire will use more and more color per customer and increase the amount of time spent with each guest. The direct response to this will squeeze out your bottom line and decrease the amount of serviced customers by 40%. This, unfortunately, leaves you with no room to grow. The average customer that gets balayage has their hair done 2-3 times per year. When we push our guests past 4-6 weeks, it affects the communication between the guest and the stylist. It can break the bond with our guests. With consumers seeing every salon advertising balayage, the risk of their loyalty decreases dramatically with each prolonged service. As powerful as balayage is to promote and offer in a business, it is a sure way to kill your company. More and more social media accounts are out there promoting the 5-hour color corrections with 6X more color per application. This is what the new faces in our industry are getting accustomed to. We are training and molding them that “more is more” and this is the new standard.
Do I think it is wrong? The answer is no. I do however think we have a responsibility as an industry and as educators to provide tools for these trends. We have to put the business first always. Think of it as a house. If we use the power and water all day and all night and refuse to pay the bills for it, what happens? They shut off! Our businesses are no different. Salons have always had a hard time producing enough profit to grow. It’s simple if we don’t track the expenses then a small leak will sink a great ship. Have you noticed in your city or town how many salons are closing? 8 out of 10 salons close each year in North America. Even scarier, this number is increasing rapidly. “So Alicia, do I have to stop doing balayage to keep my salon open?” The answer is YES… just kidding absolutely not! You most certainly have to offer more types of services and train your new talent to do a wider range of services. It is only after they are past 3-4 years that they should ever specialize. Provide a solution in your company to get butts in chairs more frequently and to increase loyalty. Loyal, happy customers will always be the secret hack to growing your empire.
