Perth-based company, Worldwide Salon Marketing (WSM), announced this week that it has been named in the BRW Fast 100 list for 2009.
The list includes the top 100 fastest growing small to medium companies in Australia. Candidates are chosen based on growth in annual sales over the past three years.
WSM provides salons with a comprehensive toolkit of templated direct response ads, flyers and letters any salon can use without having to create all the material themselves, and the one-on-one guidance in how to use the system. The company accepts about 30 new salons a month into its Inner Circle membership program, with a benchmark goal to at least double each salon’s turnover in the first year.
The company says its growth has been spectacular. Starting in a spare bedroom in 2004, WSM has expanded into six countries, put more than 2,000 salons through the Inner Circle success program, and currently advises about 400 member salons in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
WSM co-founder and CEO Greg Milner said: "We’ve certainly upset a lot of so-called big players in the beauty industry by coming in and basically turning the industry’s entire perception of what makes ‘good’ marketing upside down.
"Our success is entirely due to overwhelming evidence that the marketing we provide our member salons actually works, gets customers through the door, in a measurable, accountable way that the typical ‘branding’ style beauty industry advertising most salon owners [spend] money on never did.
"We tell our salons that if they want response, if they want impact, they’ve got to get their egos out of the way and do marketing that appeals to the customer, not just give the owner of the business a warm fuzzy feeling – and no cash in the till."
Mr Milner says the company receives more than 100 applications a month for membership, and only accepts those who are ‘willing to do what it takes’ to be successful business owners and marketers, rather than mere technicians who happen to own a shop.
"We provide our member salons with all the marketing tools and guidance they need. And we back it with a money-back guarantee, which allows them to ‘dip their toe in the water’," he added.
For more information on the Inner Circle program, the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit, and testimonials from some of the hundreds of Member salons around Australia, visit www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com
The 2009 Fast 100 list will be published in BRW on October 29.