Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hairstylist, like you got into this industry to make big things happen? Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you weren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer. Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Siva, social media and marketing strategist just for hairstylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist podcast. I’m your host, Britt Siva, and today we’re talking about the icks that stylists say turn them off from salons. So this is obviously something I didn’t cook up myself. Several weeks back at the time of you listening to this episode, I did a little Instagram poll and I didn’t expect it to blow up like it did. I do Instagram polls fairly frequently, several a month, and there’s an average, I would say participation rate of a few hundred people choose to participate in the polls. This one really got people talking. And what was interesting for me is how many stylists were like, “I’m talking about my own salon,” stylists saying, “These are the things about my existing salon that irritate me.” I thought that was really interesting.
Now, not everybody did that and I can’t even see the majority did that, but it was fascinating to me that people did that. We’re literally airing their own salons dirty laundry in real time. It was so interesting.
And the other thing I find interesting is when stylists feel comfortable telling me about the things that are irritating them, and it always crosses my mind like, have you told your owner? Have you told your salon manager? And I’d be willing to bet the answer is no. The answer is no, which is disappointing I think on all accounts hard for the owner and/or leader because if they are a good owner and/or leader, they want to create a happy, cohesive, healthy environment where all the boxes are checked. And I’m a business owner too. Sometimes we just can’t see things or we don’t know things. And the gift and blessing that it is when a team member tells you, “Listen, this doesn’t look right. It bothers me when this happens,” it’s such a gorgeous gift because, A, for the team member, it’s the only way they’re going to see positive change.
Hoping that the salon owner just magically guesses these hundreds of challenges you all have sent me is extremely unlikely. Salon owners aren’t psychics. They’re just normal humans trying to run a business. And we expect to be more than they are sometimes, especially leaders. We expect them to just be on the pulse of everything. Are you as a human or as an adult on the pulse of every single thing in your life? It’s just a little unreasonable.
And so my hope is that by sharing all of these big open shares that stylist shared with me, salon owners do choose to take a step back and say, “Okay, which of these things could potentially be something that may be currently happening in my salon space?”
Now, here’s what I’ve noticed over the last probably six months. For those of you who came to Thrivers Live 2022, I mentioned in front of a room full of 600 people that I felt like a great divide was coming to the industry. I was like, “We’ve been on a good run. For the last decade, it’s been very much like community over competition. We’re all friends here. Let’s all build and grow together,” and I could sense a funk in the air. I am now recording this podcast in 2024. It is funky AF right now in the industry and I see such a massive divide happening, like massive, massive in front of my eyes. I saw inklings of it in 2022. Now it is at my doorstep and I can’t help but see it.
And I think a lot of the divide is because there is a massive cry out from stylist for salon owners and leaders to level up. To salon owners and leaders, they’re feeling like, “This is not what I signed up for. I didn’t realize that in owning a salon there was all these other things I was going to have to do.” By the way, there’s no handbook that comes when somebody decides to own a business, right? Owning a business is a journey and it’s hard, and I think salon owners did not realize the pressure they were going to face moving forward as an owner. Things have really changed and we have not seen the worst of it yet.
So the reason why I keep talking about this great divide and the reason I keep doing episodes like this is because I’m trying to help you get out ahead of it. And the reason I brought up the great divide right now is I’ve noticed a real defensiveness amongst the industry in general. An educator, an influencer, an average stylist, a fellow salon owner will post something on social media. It could be a stat, could be just a thought, could be a conversation, could be whatever. And the amount of, “Well, that’s wrong because of this. No, I’m not having that. I don’t want to hear that,” an immediate outcry of, “I’m closed. I don’t want to hear what that has to say. I want to see things my way.” Man, if that is in the death of all business.
When you look at highly successful business owners… I’m talking about booth rental stylists. I’m talking about commission stylists. If you’re a commission stylist, you’re still a business owner. Your clientele is yours to grow and manage. Correct? When you look at successful business owners, be it independent stylists, commission stylists, salon owners, suite owners, whatever, when you look at the ones who are really making good money and are really living a balanced lifestyle, to me the one thing they have in common is a constant quest for education and curiosity and learning. They do not believe they have it all figured out and they do not have a natural defensiveness and they do realize that business is ever-evolving. This industry is changing really, really fast and you can dig your feet into the stand and decide you’re going to stay right here and watch the industry pass you by or you can put on some running shoes and jog with us and try and figure this out.
So what I invite you to do is as I share some of these things, some of you may have a natural defensiveness, tuck that away into your back pocket and choose to listen to this episode from a place of maybe if I just try a couple of these things Britt is talking about, I’ll see a positive result, just a curiosity. I’m not saying you agree with everything I have to say, although I am sharing data from hundreds of stylists who told me what irritates them. You don’t have to believe it, but it is their truth. I’d invite you to try believing it. But even if some of these things sound like lies or they sound too frustrating or they sound overwhelming or they make you angry, it’s okay to just know and understand that business ownership is hard, and I totally know that. Often defensiveness comes from a place of this is too much work and I don’t want to do it, so I’m just going to pretend it’s not true. So I invite you to imagine that this is all true because these are real responses that I got from real stylists, and try to see yourself in the data.
So I am going to share the six major icks that stylists say make them not want to work for a salon, and I’m ranking them in order of least common responses to most. Now, that being said, there were also some one-off responses that did not make this presentation. Whenever I get one-off responses, I always feel like the things that live on the extremes, I generally pull out of data reports like this. If one person said one thing, I don’t know that that’s a collective feeling versus everything I’m about to share right now, these six, I got dozens, if not hundreds of responses echoing these exact same thoughts. So these are common thoughts.
Okay, ick number one, when the salon appears stagnant. And I got a few different responses on this, but the two I pulled out that I felt like were very tangible for an owner to hear, this one was so interesting to me. When I look at a salon’s website or I see stickers on their windows that say best of the, insert city name, but the awards are from years ago. That’s a tough one. Was anybody awarded Best Salon in the city of San Francisco in 2012 and it’s still on your website? Best stylist in Chicago 2019? That was five years ago now, or 12 years ago now, depending on how long it’s been. It’s not to say that the accolade or the accomplishment isn’t incredible and wasn’t incredible at the time, but it’s almost like if I told you, “Well, in high school I was voted best smile.” It’s like, “Really great, Britt. Love that for you.” That’s not relevant today. That was two decades ago. So it doesn’t matter. That’s nice and it was nice back then, whatever. It doesn’t matter today because it’s not relevant today.
And so sometimes when you still leverage awards or accolades from the past, it looks like you’re living in the past, especially to a stylist who’s considering working for you. And it’s like here’s the psychological thing that we’re not taking into consideration. When you have something on your website or a sticker that shows you were the best salon two years ago, psychologically it says, oh, they’re past their prime. They were good two years ago, but in the last two years, something must have changed because they don’t have that award any longer. I want to go find the salon that did get that award. So it’s almost like the award is working against you sometimes. So be really, really careful about that.
The other feeling stagnant comment that I pulled was when the salon’s aesthetic is out outdated. If the aesthetic on the website or social media is dated, I assume everything is dated, meaning salon decor, pay structures, salon supplies. So if there’s any indicators anywhere in your business, digitally, in person, in process, in policy that feels stagnant to stylists, it’s a major ick and it does not make them want to work for you.
The second ick that came up quite frequently was turning clients away. Let me tell you some of the examples, closed books. I hate that phrase. Somebody else said, when a stylist, an owner or a salon collectively is not taking new clients, seems like bad business practice makes me nervous to work there. Here’s another one, no online booking option. Clearly, only promoting one stylist, the owner or senior stylist. Also, outdated photos.
So when it looks like you’re not accepting clients as a collective or only certain people are being promoted or some people are still taking clients and some people aren’t, stylists are finding that cringy. And actually, I’m going to go with that. Clients find it a little cringy too. And one of the things I always say is, tell me one other business that no longer takes new clients, one other. What is one other business that you can think of that literally has advertising and verbiage on it that says no longer taking new business? I personally can’t think of any.
The closest thing I can think of whenever I talk about this example is, you know how some doctors are no longer accepting new patients? I have absolutely seen that before. Depending on what insurance you’ve had, you’ve probably encountered that too. You find a doctor you love only to go to their profile or call your insurance and says they’re not accepting new patients at this time.
So in theory you could be like, “Well, doctors do it.” Here’s the thing, and I don’t know if anybody else has experienced this before, but I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I don’t know if all hospitals work like this, but I’ve been a part of many different medical groups. We have Kaiser out here. We have Sutter out here. We have the Stanford Network. We have all kinds of different medical groups. I’ve been a part of all three of them and others over my adult lifetime. And one thing that’s in common out here is it can be really difficult to get into see your GP, your general practitioner. So, often, in the area I’m in, if you get sick, if one of my kids gets strep throat, if something comes up quick, you could just go to urgent care, very common. At least in the area that I’m in, getting in to see your normal doctor on the fly is not going to happen.
So we have these medical networks and you get in and you go to urgent care and you can get an urgent care appointment, whatever. My last three GPs, like general practitioners, my go-tos, now my go-to doctors are people that I met in urgent care. I know this is going to sound bonkers, but my last three who liked me, just like, I don’t know [inaudible 00:12:44] I was funny or weird or what it was, but at the end of the visit would say, “Hey, I’m doing my urgent care rotation today. My practice is closed, but if you’re ever looking for a new doctor, I’d be happy to work with you.” My last three, I got that way.
So what I think is interesting about that is sometimes even when you see a doctor’s not accepting new patients, it’s like, well, not really though. They’re just not accepting randoms. And I want you to really think about that. It used to look cool on social media in 2016, 2008, whatever, when we’d say no longer taking clients, books are closed, but I want you to remember what marketing was like around that time. There was no Google reviews at scale. There was no social media. Websites weren’t as commonplace. And so you needed a full book of clientele and you needed to be like, “I have all the clients I can handle” because trying to build and market yourself was harder.
Now, on average, when you look at statistics, clients are losing stylists at a faster rate than they historically were. How come? Because it’s easier for clients to find stylists now. It just is. When I was in high school, most of us all went to see the same stylist. Why? Because I didn’t even know where to start looking for somebody new. So I just went to the woman who did everybody else’s hair because I literally was like, “I don’t even know where I’d start to find somebody else.” Well, now if I want someone to do my hair, I can find 300 stylists within 10 miles of me in 10 minutes.
So you saying I’m no longer accepting clients is not future proofing your business and you are going to, if you’re a salon owner hoping to hire, you’re going to start losing applicants. People don’t want to work at elitist type of salons. It’s a turn-off to clients. It’s a turn-off to stylists. It’s not modern. When you’re turning guests away, it’s not a healthy business model. It’s not scalable. I hope we don’t head into a major recession because that is going to burn you bad and it just gives the ick.
The other thing that came up with that I tied this in was another ick that came up was no DMs. So if in your bio it says, “Don’t DM me. Don’t communicate with me here,” first of all, I don’t know what you’re thinking with that because that, for, me personally in my business right now, DMs is one of the most viable ways I’m gaining new students into my programs, DMs. And when you hit up in the DMs, you get me. And I think that we’re losing the art of human connection real fast. And that’s not to say your business shouldn’t be systematized. I don’t believe you should be doing consultations in the DMs or doing appointment requests in the DMs, but to close off that communication network, damn, your website better be a 10 out of 10 because if you’re not accepting DMs, I can’t have a conversation with you and your website is a six out of 10, you’ve lost me. And that’s a huge turn-off to stylists considering working for you because it feels like you have a dated business practice. Okay?
Number three, the third biggest ick was poor stylist positioning. This one, it surprised me, but now I feel naive in saying that because it shouldn’t have. If I’m a stylist considering working at your salon, the way you position the rest of your team would mean a lot to me because it shows me how you’re going to position me and how I’m going to be seen in the eyes of a potential client. I want to share with you all of the stylist positioning quotes I got.
“It bothers me when I go to a salon’s website and I see too many coming soon bios that never actually come or no real info on the stylist.” Same for me. I don’t know why. If you are a salon owner and you have anybody on your website who’s a coming soon, think about what a red flag that is. If I’m considering working for you, and let’s say you have 10 employee bio profiles totally built out, and three work just has their name and says, “Coming soon,” in my mind I’m going to say, “Oh, does the salon owner not update the website? How long have they been coming soon for? If I join the team, am I going to be coming soon? It’s going to take six months for her to put me on her website?” All these questions start running through my mind.
And then if you say things like, “Well, my stylist won’t give me the info. My stylist won’t give the photo,” and you’re okay with that, you’re just okay with the stylist doing whatever the heck they want and you just let that be, that is not leadership. So either we need to make arrangements with our stylist to help them get that. Maybe they don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera. Are there things we need to overcome so that we can get that content? Or do you just remove them from your website altogether? I don’t know, but the coming soon thing is not it.
Here’s another one. “If I look at a website and I want to see the team page, bad stylist photos and headshots turn me off. Bad lighting. It looks like a selfie from their phone. Looks like a photo where they cropped out their partner. I don’t like it.” I agree. It’s not professional.
Here’s another one, stylist bios that read like a resume instead of reading like a get to know you.” Agreed.
Here’s another one. This is from Sarah. She says, “Not showcasing the stylist at all. Showcasing everything but the stylist.” And I totally agree. When I go to a salon’s website and you can’t get the heart and soul of the people who work there on the website, we’ve missed the mark.
Now, we got two quotes about this, “I don’t like it when salons use the term leveling up. It feels cringy and forced. I don’t think clients appreciate it either.” And then here’s another one, “Level systems listed in the bios make it seem like some stylists are better than others.” That resonates for me a little bit. And this is my issue with level systems, and I’ve talked about this very openly, anybody on my team who works with me will tell you we have a promotion system here in this company. I have a C-suite executive. I’m a C-suite executive. I’m the CEO and we have a COO. There’s two C-suite executives in this company I own right now. Then we have a director level, then we have a manager level. We have a supervisor level. We have a specialist level. So are there levels of employment here? Yes, but if you were to ask any of my team members what their role is, none of them would say, “I’m a level two employee at Flourish Shalom Business Development.” They would tell you what their job description is or their job title is.
Again, this is another thing where I don’t know a lot of other industries or professions where we categorize adults in levels. It’s very interesting. And to what this person’s saying, does a client know what a level three stylist is? I don’t think they do. And then we explain it and we’re like, “Oh, well they’ve done these different classes and they’ve unlock these specific goals.” It’s like to a client though, that doesn’t mean very much. In the eyes of a client, clients expect all of us, every single stylist to be incredibly educated, I’m incredibly confident. That’s the expectation. It’s not like, oh wow, they’re educated? They expect that. So sometimes we do these things and we think that it’s positioning for growth and it’s instead almost positioning for confusion.
So I want you to think about how you can position your more in-demand stylist in a different way than maybe somebody who’s a little bit newer to your business without making it feel like the haves and the have-nots. There are ways to do that and it feels more inclusive to a stylist who’s considering working for you.
So another ick, this one I thought was so good and Sarah wrote this in. And Sarah, I want to thank you for this because this got my wheels turning too. She said, “There’s no easy way to learn more about or connect with the stylists.” I thought that was so interesting. What if you as a salon owner were like, “Interested in working for us? You can DM any of my stylists at any time and ask them about our salon. They’d be happy to chat with you.” That’s hot. That’s a salon where I’d be like, wow, that owner is so confident that literally they feel like anybody could DM any of their stylists at any time and ask what it’s like to work here knowing that their team would say working here is a 10. I mean, that’s a big statement. I thought that was really, really interesting.
Okay, the fourth biggest ick, and I’ve talked about this on the website, I’ve talked about this on social media, social content created in poor taste was a huge ick. And the bummer on this is that this was very trending in 2021 and 2022. We saw it phase out in 2023. Although I have to tell you, I still saw one of these posts yesterday when I was on Instagram, so it’s still floating around. I’m going to read you every single one of these quotes.
“I hate it when I see a salon on social media making fun of clients or other stylists reacting negatively to salon experiences.” “Making fun of clients in their reels.” “Client and coworker bashing on social media.” “Any kind of video or post making fun of clients.” “Arguing with clients about justifying weekends offer high prices. I know it’s frustrating for all of us, just doesn’t seem like it belongs on social.” “Any salon that posts about policies or complains about their clients anytime you…” “When independent stylists post negatively about their clients, posts like not showing up, being late, no showing. I think it’s classless.” “Reels making fun of guests.” “Talking badly about clients demanding respect for our industry on social media in tacky ways.” “Client shaming or reposting reels that shame clients in their stories with a laughing emoji.” “Poking fun at clients’ behavior. I know we as an industry find it funny, but it’s icky when a business does it. I wouldn’t want my clients seeing that.” “When salon owners go off about clients and what they won’t respond to. Too many boundaries. Too many terms. Too many rules.”
I just read you a bunch. That’s not even all of them. There was a huge outcry from stylists saying, “I may have had a laugh about it, but do I want to work at a salon that is doing that? No.” And I had never thought about it in those terms before of maybe I’m not the one who’s posting the humor stuff. And you’ve seen these videos where it’s like a reel and it’s like how all of us stylists feel when a client shows up 10 minutes late carrying a Starbucks, and then it’s like ripping the client to shreds. And it is funny. I can relate to that. I can remember clients walking in, holding a frappuccino, being like, “Sorry, traffic on the freeway was crazy today.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but not so crazy you couldn’t stop for your coffee down the street.” And so I understand. It’s frustrating. We’ve all been there, but imagine if your client was somebody who did that a week ago and now she sees you post that reel. How embarrassing because I don’t think that the client did that because she wanted to you off. I think she was just living her life.
And by the way, here’s something I’ve had to realize too. This is our industry. This is our business. When clients are coming in to get their hair done, in their mind, it’s almost like being on vacation. And you know how when we’re on vacation time, there is no time? And so we forget that for clients, this is their free time. This is their time off. And for us it’s like, “Man, I’m on a schedule. This is critical. I need you to be on time,” but when they’re in vacay mode, their mindset’s just super different. Or making fun of clients who don’t know how to navigate a consultation well or making fun of clients who don’t say service is the right way, it is funny, it’s comical. We can have a really good laugh about it in the break room. I think that it’s time now to retire that narrative from social because it makes clients feel stupid.
And I don’t think that any of us as beauty professionals, that was the intention. I think the intention was we were coming out of a hard time, coming out of the pandemic. We really needed to laugh. We needed to come together. Unfortunately, when a collective comes together over a negative topic, it’s less humorous and more gossip and drama. And when we see clients now pushing back against us and making TikToks about how stylists are so full of themselves, we shouldn’t be surprised because for two years, we did that to them. And so I think it’s interesting that I got so many comments from stylists saying, “I don’t want to work for a salon that does this kind of stuff.” I just thought it was interesting. It’s worth bringing to the forefront.
Ick number five, salon culture branding and positioning mistakes. This was interesting too. So mandatory work schedules, the freedom and flexibility by the way, if you’re a salon owner and you don’t offer freedom and flexibility in your scheduling, it’s going to be a tough sell, getting someone to come work for you. Okay, the big thing, the big, big, big one. So many stylists said, “When people say we’re like a family, I think it’s gross.” “When they say we’re a family, it’s a turnoff.” “Forcing the we’re a family vibe.” “If you are truly a family, your culture will shine through. You shouldn’t have to say it.” I very much agree with that statement. This one said, “When salons say we are all like a family,” and then they do the emoji where it’s the eye is rolling into the back of the emoji’s head. Saying, we are like a family…
You have to understand the word family, that’s a loaded term and not everybody likes it. So for me, I don’t have a great relationship with my family. So when someone says, “Don’t worry, we’re like a family,” to me I’m like, “That’s so scary for me.” Or some salons have a culture where they think it’s cute to say, “We all spend more time here at the salon than we do with our families.” Oh, I don’t want to work for a salon where the expectation is I spend more time there than I do with my own family. No, thanks. So you have to understand that phrase of we are all like a family has become cringy. It was good for a good time for a while. It’s just not it anymore.
“No theme, no cohesive look. Looks messy, looks unorganized, slapped together.” “Lack of cohesive branding in general. Fonts and colors that are all over the place. No vision.” “Lack of professionalism.” “No clear vision, no mission, no core values, no point of view.” Oh, this was an interesting one too, “Lack of info. Gatekeeping basic info about the salon.” This is a pet peeve of mine as well. So a lot of times salons don’t put critical information on their website about their processes, their policies, their methodologies, their compensation structure, their booth rental rates, whatever, their schedule, whatever it is. And they say, “Well, I don’t want to do that because I don’t want my competitors to see it.” Okay, but then no one’s seeing it. So potential amazing stylists who would work for you are also not seeing it. And by the buy, if a competitor wants to know something about you, believe you me, they will figure it out. So you think you’re being like sly or protective of your intellectual property. Be really careful about that kind of stuff because often we’re gatekeeping and holding ourselves back rather than protecting anything.
Okay, ick number six. This is all about that website. So remember, I’m going in order of the least responded responses to the most. This was the second most popular ick was bad websites. If your website as a salon owner is not a 10 out of 10, not a five, not a six, not a seven, not an eight, not a nine, if your website is not a 10 out of 10, you’re giving the icks. Here’s the feedback. “When a website is clearly outdated.” “No sightless headshots on the site drives me absolutely bonkers.” “Poor UX,” UX is user experience, “from a client’s perspective. If I can’t envision a client navigating the site and being wowed by it, I would never work at that salon.” “Lack of basic info, contact info, booking location, online booking.” I’m so shocked so many salons still don’t have any of that. “No pricing on a website, big red flag, big ick.” “Ugly websites. Too much writing. Get to the point. Don’t make your website confusing.” “Super outdated website. No online booking.” I could have put that comment up at the top when I talked about salons looking stagnant, like if your website looks outdated.
And this is why I always say you can’t just say, “Well, I have the website.” Yes, but is it modern? Is it current? Is it a 10 out of 10? How’s the functionality? How is that user experience? All of that counts.
“Broken links, no website, no listed service prices.” “Complicated career page that I can’t get information I need on.” “I can’t stand it when salons have on their website just a stock photos screenshotted from their retail brand’s website. So gross.” This is why I always say do not use photos from your color or retail sales lines on your website. They do not belong there. “Website’s super focused on the stylist instead of on the clients?” That’s a big ick for me too. Sometimes I go to your salon’s website and the main image at the top is of you and your team. No. The main image at the top should be of target market clients. Now, you can have tons of pictures of your team on the salon website. I’m so here for that. That’s not what the… The main image is not we are great. The main message that we’re trying to share on our website is you belong here. When the main photos somebody sees when they come to our website is, look at us, it’s less inviting and more intimidating. So be really, really careful on that. And then another comment for dated stock photos from brands.
Okay, and last but not least, number seven ick. Does anybody know what it is? Social media misfires. Here we go. “Posting increases of prices or cost of goods.” “So 2020. So gross.” The way an owner announces a stylist has left on social media. Why do we need to post that at all?” And I agree with that one. A lot of times we’re like, “Well, how am I supposed to tell people?” Social media is one of the least effective ways to make a salon announcement. Does everybody realize that right now the average Instagram post reaches one to 3% of your followers? So 97% of people who are following you are not even going to see it. And those who do are going to be like… It’s a downer to hit the grid. We don’t want anything posted on social media to land like a downer. Okay?
So if you want to support your stylist who’s moved to new location, which by the way, you should, so if you want to support that person as they navigate to their new location, lots of different ways to do that that do not involve social media. It’s simply not what social media is for. When you look at other successful brands and companies, they’re not using it that way. And we shouldn’t be using it like that either.
This was a big one, “I can’t stand it when salons only show hair pics. I want to see your salon. I want to see the cool stuff you do.” This is interesting. Most salons, when you go to their social media, it’s hair, hair, hair, hair, client, hair, hair, testimonial, hair, hair, photo of our team, hair, hair, hair, salon space, hair, hair. That’s very 2016. We have to change our strategy on that.
“Sharing too much of their personal life, whether it be in stories or on the grid.” “Announcing price increases on social media. It shouldn’t make any sense.” Things that look like brags instead of like, oh my gosh, the experience there was incredible, it gives the ick. That goes back to what I just said about the photo on your website. When the photo on your website, the main photo is a big picture of just your team, it’s a little bit like here’s our brag book versus we offer something different here. Our experience is amazing. You’re going to love being a part of this. It just lands a little different.
This was interesting too, “Partying photos, photos and swimsuits on Instagram. That seems like something that should go on your personal page, not your business page.” “Only pictures of hair. Who the heck are you? Who the heck is your team?” “Not having a location listed in their bio.” If I had a dime for every time I went to a salon’s Instagram and their location is not even listed, I’d have a massive dime collection.
“When you know how fake the Instagram is versus the reality.” People can smell lack of authenticity these days. Be very careful about that. “Posting availability all the time in Instagram stories. It makes it look like the salon never has clients.” “Icky posts about product sales, come on in and buy our blank hairspray. It’s great for summer. Nobody’s buying products off of that.” “Posting how much supplies cost.” No more cost of goods posts, everybody. No more cost of goods, price increases. None of that.
“Bragging. Too many dumb photos of the salon team that don’t serve a true purpose.” I believe that photos of your salon team belong on social media. I believe they belong on Google. I believe they belong on your website. You have to give it more context than, “We’re all cool. We’re all beautiful. We all love each other. We’re a family here. Look how handsome our team is.” And listen, I’m sure that your whole team is stunning inside and out. I totally understand. But you have to give… Most clients aren’t like, “I want to go see the hottest stylist.” Some do, I’ll give them that, but most are seeing you for something else, right? And if I asked you, “Hey, what are your three best qualities?” Most of you wouldn’t say, “I’ve got a face that people would kill for.” Most people wouldn’t go to the physical. They’d say things like, “I’m a really great listener. I am super talented and skilled.” Show me that. When you’re showing photos on social of your team, showcasing a stylist, spotlight them for who they are and what a client would appreciate about working with them.
So this list of icks, why did I share this? I want to circle back and bring it home. If you are looking to hire an amazing team, if you’re looking to retain the team you have, remember, a lot of these people who reached out to me, were like, “By the way, my ick is about the salon I currently work at. Stylists’ turnover is on the increase. Stylists are looking to work at the best possible place for themselves. And stylists are demanding having a leader. And so I want you to think to yourself, where are the areas that you can improve? What are some of the things that you can leverage from this podcast in your business today? And I hope it’s been helpful. As I always like to say, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
