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SEARCHOPI launches The Edge training with a California salon and mentors them through each stage. Follow their progress in this year-long project as they learn new business skills and incorporate retailing in their salon.
A workstation had to be relocated to make room for the OPI Retailing Center, but the staff of Secrets is enthusiastic that the adjustments they’re making are going to pay off big. Even clients have gotten on board with the salon’s new program and started picking up retail items even as the unit was being constructed.
“I want to make more money!” That’s the typical response we get when we ask nail technicians what they want to achieve in the year 2000. However, there is no typical response to the question, “HOW are you going to make more money?” Maybe retailing, maybe increasing your service prices or adding new services, or perhaps you need to expand your salon. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone helping you navigate through the complex decisions that need to be considered? Well, OPI is here to help. Not only do we call The Edge, that will teach you important business skills to help you develop the standards and systems for success, but we’ve decided to show you how The Edge works in real life by working directly with one salon as they try to achieve their goals.
We’re focusing on helping them implement the lessons of The Edge and we’ll track their progress so you can see how the system works, experience their successes with them, and see for yourself the great opportunities to be had from retailing continuing your education, and working closely with a partner who cares—in this case, OPI Products.
We’ve “adopted” Secrets Nail & Facial Salon in Long Beach, Calif., and we’re going to work hand-in-hand with them on implementing the program. I am going to be overseeing the project with a small team of OPI educators, including Cheryl McCowen, who works in the salon, and Nadine Galli, southern California regional manager.
For the best possible results, we at OPI recommend that a salon commit at least one year to incorporating the concepts of The Edge. This gives the staff time to change habits and learn new skills, allows clients time to adjust to the improvements, and ultimately enables the salon to track its progress so that there is a benchmark against which it can measure its progress. We will keep you posted on the success of Secrets Salon in the pages on NAILS every other month.
Secrets Nail & Facial Salon is owned by Lynn Kogle, and the salon has five independent contractors, who range in age from 35-40. The technicians’ own experience varies, from five years to Kogle’s 23 years.
Until we talked to them, the salon did not retail at all and felt they didn’t have a system in place to build a retail business Besides retailing, they also want some help with building their client base and learning ways of increasing productivity through time management and organization skills.
The salon’s independent contractors have been trained in attracting and retaining new clients, time management, increasing retail sales, tracking “the numbers” to achieve results, and setting and reaching personal and professional financial goals. To launch the program, we invited the technicians to OPI headquarters for The Edge training and a product orientation. They now have the basis for improving their performance and the confidence to make product recommendations and put these skills to work. We’ll be checking in regularly, consulting with them, and troubleshooting on any challenging areas. By the end of this project, Secrets Salon will be transformed into an “OPI retailing center.”
Secrets’ Business Profile
Average number of years doing nails | 15 | |
Average number of days worked per week | 3.6 | |
Average number of hours worked per day | 9 | |
Average service ticket | $27 | |
Average weekly income | $639 | |
Average weekly tips | $9 | |
Average weekly retail sales profit | $0 | |
Average salon total of services performed weekly: | ||
Acrylic full sets | 1 | |
Acrylic fills | 100 | |
Light-cured gels | 1 | |
Manicures | 4 | |
Pedicures | 12 | |
Paraffin | 5 | |
Nail Art | 2 | |
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