We’re focusing on grassroots marketing, like the Studio City holiday parade we recently rode the salon’s ROB|B logoed Smart Cars in. We’re also going to launch a campaign to attract students and parents from local schools. It will be an after-school special, where we offer promotions on services between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. We’ll be sending letters to all of the area schools and reaching out to school newspapers and parent-teacher networks.

We’re still having our mid-week service slowdown, though I think that’s across the board at all salons. People are slowly taking advantage of the free paraffin promo we’re running to combat this, and, luckily we are retaining our clients.

We’re below expectations when it comes to retail sales, but I think that’s because of the recession. I’m worried that the possible upcoming SAG (screen actors’ guild) strike will also have a huge negative impact on Studio City as a whole. But if we can get people in here and keep maintaining our level of service and our cleanliness, I don’t see us going anywhere.

We also recently hosted 10 celebrity travel agents at the salon. It was funny because the group’s expectations were low since it’s “just a nail salon,” but they were blown away by the place, especially by our level of detail. The hope is that some of their celebrity clients will start visiting the salon as well.