So I was zipping around my hood the other day, and much to my surprise I saw a for lease sign at yet another “European Salon and Spa”establishment. The entire place was stripped bare, and the only thing left was the signage on the outside of the building. After seeing this I kinda of started thinking. Is this the end of the European Salon/Spa trend or was it just poor management on the part of the owners of said business?
Especially in my neighborhood…Tons of Salon/Spas opened with dreams of becoming the next Paul Mitchell and they failed miserably, and then there are those salons that managed to succeed. I am intrigued by the culture of this industry, and I frequent establishments for nail, hair and even facial services. When I’m in client mode I see things differently, and I certainly try to keep this angle while owning and operating my business.
So here’s my unsolicited PROFESSIONAL opinion on what is happening. Clients I am pulling back the curtain and giving you a first hand glimpse of how we really get down in this industry. When you go to beauty school they tell every single one of us…that we can be whom ever we so chose, and the sky is the limit to our success. What they don’t tell you is that you’re going to have to work your keister off and break your back in the process to achieve that level of success, or that it takes money to make money.
Now you have the “Best Student” in the entire cosmetology program graduating and believing that she is going to go out there and become the next Paul Mitchel or Marcia Kilgore, in about six months. That she’s going to take the her community by storm and everyone will adore her, because she was the best in “beauty school”. Six months comes and goes and she barely has a full week let alone enough clients to open a business.
Scenario 1
She then gets the bright idea to talk her hubby into letting her open a business, and they re-finance their home or borrow money from relatives to make her dream a reality. “Best Beauty Student” puts all of her money into making her place look pretty, and allocates a couple of dollars for marketing. This is a crappy approach to doing business, right?! The funny thing is..she’s counting on YOU (the reader of this blog post), to drop everything and run to her new shiny business and spend all of your hard earned money there. And when you don’t come month after month, year after year because you never knew she existed. She is forced to close her doors.
Scenario 2
She makes her business shiny, still allocates a few dollars on marketing…but learns all about how Groupon can bring you thousands of dollars in repeat business. So she sells everything on the menu for 50% off, and brings in a ton of new faces. Yeah the only thing with these new faces is once the deal is gone…so are they. I affectionately call this “The Great Migration, these kinds of clients are only looking for the best deal and will never be loyal to a business…unless you are constantly discounting. You guessed it, after some time she’s forced to close up shop.
So here’s My Spin
I know one thing for sure Metro Detroit is no New York City. NYC’s population according to the 2010 census is 8,175,133 and counting. Where as Metro Detroit’s population is 4,296,250 and this includes 6 counties. We physically don’t have enough people to go around to support these mega Euro Salon/Spas on every corner of every neighborhood.
So unless you are reinventing the wheel…Pretty please don’t open another European Salon & Spa. I feel that it’s a played out concept that died with the Auto Industry here in MI. How do you feel about Salon & Spas closing without warning?
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xoxo
Tiffs
