The Coaching Chronicles

Gearing Up for Back-to-School

by NAILS Magazine | August 31, 2012 | Bookmark +

I can't believe it's time for back-to-school already. In Walla Walla our county fair is on Labor day weekend too, and school starts around it. We have two school systems right next to each other, so one starts the week before Labor Day and Walla Walla starts right after. We started seeing our guests come back about three weeks ago to start getting their children ready for school and the college students have started to come back in to get their new looks too. It is always a busy time for the stylists and for us nail techs for manicures and pedicures. Everyone wants to start off the new school year putting her best foot forward.

 

All of these suggestions Jill has mentioned are great ways to make sure we are also putting our best foot forward. Our stylists are wonderful about suggesting new looks and they are very busy making sure that we all look our best. Rachael and I start talking to the stylists about their nail color and make suggestions for them to wear the newest colors. We as a salon start working on our fall looks about the beginning of August so that we all are freshened up by the back-to-school rush. We have noticed that is helps to create some buzz about what we are doing and it's a great way to promote new items and services or just change up current services.

 

This is a great time to debut these new fall colors for hair, makeup, and nails to our clients. For instance we have a new collection of gel-polishes that are great fall colors. To help create interest in them we post an ad on our Facebook page containing the new colors and for the stylist stations I copied that ad and made small copies and put them up near their stations. I also make a pallet of those colors so that the clients can see the true colors since we all know how different a printed color can look. I also do this for the new polish collections. If the clients can see it they will ask about it.

 

It’s not enough for us to just consider our hair, nails, and makeup, we also need to consider our wardrobe for work. As Jill said it is a good time to get a few new key pieces to update our look for fall. It is also a really good time to go through your closet and put away the summer clothes and find out what fits well, and looks current for the new season. I do this every year and it really makes me feel organized for moving into the holiday season when I don't have time to consider these things.

 

It really does make an impact on your clients to see you dressed professionally. I remember early on in my career something a very great nail tech said to me about dressing professionally. It was Elaine Watson — she is now the global education director for and v.p. of marketing for Star Nail. I was still a booth renter at the time and we were talking about how to raise my prices. She told me that in order to raise my prices she suggested that I also update my wardrobe and dress more professionally. That doing this would raise the perception of my business to my clients. I immediately went home, updated my look, and raised my prices. I was very pleased to find that most of my client never even blinked about the price increase. I have never forgotten that conversation and will always thank her for taking the time to share her knowledge with me.

 

Jill has given us a wealth of tips that are invaluable to us as salon professionals. We can too easily get stuck in a rut and forget about our own professional look. If we want to stand out and be the best we need to stay fresh and updated.

 

— Sandy

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