How important is it for businesses to continue marketing during this time? Have you found an increased demand for your services?
Yes absolutely continue marketing – but not just marketing…continue everything! To me there is a huge opportunity for those who can focus and that’s going to be the challenge at the moment – being focused. Those who push on will be hugely rewarded.
The main reason being that social media is up 70% and that’s because people are looking for people who are positive, as they are over it with the COVID negative drama posts.
They are looking for people who can see the positives and are showing their true personality.
Those who are saying yes it is negative right now but there is an opportunity here.
A lot of people are frozen – as in ‘I don’t know what to do, I don’t know where to go, I don’t know what it looks like therefore, I can’t move.’
Then there are those who say ‘I’m going to be in business no matter what. I can’t do XYZ but I can do 1.2.3’ and they will be the ones who will come out the other side.
Demand has been epic on salon owners. Those who are prepared to knuckle down will absolutely change. For example, when we at ZING downed tools, we had a particular number of clients and when we restarted, that number had doubled. That’s because we doubled down and came up with a strategy we would continue on no matter what because we knew that our services were needed and the same could be said for the beauty salons. (Some may think beauty salons are a luxury but those who are ‘frequent flyers’ KNOW that they’re a necessity!)
Don’t focus on what you don’t know – focus on what you do know.
What is some advice you can give to businesses who are struggling to come out the other side of this pandemic?
There’s a saying that is on page 222 of my book Your Salon Retail that says ‘Those who start off with half a plan tend to get half a result.’ Although it’s a difficult time for everybody, those who spend critical thinking time and actually come up with a very solid plan for the next four months are going to succeed.
It’s very difficult to not buy into this thinking that it’s a shit fight. But what I think you need to do is not freeze. I think you need to continue moving forward.
Here are my tips to do just that.
- Turn off commercial TV – don’t constantly keep
up with how many have been diagnosed with
COVID-19. - Limit the amount of time chatting about
COVID-19. Yes you need to be aware of what’s going on in the world but the best way you can look after others and your business is to put yourself first and look after yourself first. - Look for the good – it’s out there. Look for the joy. Be grateful to live in the great country you live in. We are incredibly fortunate compared to the rest of the world. We don’t have the challenges other countries have had and are still having.
- Plan your way to the other side in bite size pieces. Nothing too big and complex. ‘Every day the first 3 things I will do and at the end of the day, the last 3 things I will do.’ It might be as simple as that.
- At ZING we call this our Map To Action. We make a map and we teach how to action that map so you don’t have to look left or right, forward or back , you just do the first post-it note in front of you.
Are there other sources of revenue owners can look at during this time? - Yes. I think the greatest shift I have seen is over the ZOOM consultations which are helping people with their skin challenges at home – for example some are selling facials in a box.
I think it’s really important to ask your top 10 or 20 clients – what are they missing? What do they need? I think you can put together some great information around the things that I see make the basis of a good health triangle which is food/ sleep/water.
You might showcase an expert or two and maybe you’re the expert. It could be makeup tutorials so people can come away with a simple win like how to apply foundation correctly or how to do smoky eyes or perhaps how to make your lipstick not smudge….just really simple, fundamental things that I think would be really good.
How can owners stay positive and any strategies they can put in place to make sure 2021 is a successful year ahead?
I think you need to hang out with the right people. Never before has the saying “birds of a feather stick together” been more true than now. You are the company you hang around with. The three things that I think you need to understand more than ever is: your business breakeven going forward, you need to understand what a realistic KPI for our industry is, and you need a plan.
But this plan needs to be over the next four months and as luck would have it, The ZING Project has been prepared to gift that plan to those who are suitable to be in our program.
Our program is called ‘A window in, a better way’, the first three weeks of which is absolutely
free. And the reason we’ve done this is because people have felt disappointed by other coaching programs that they find lackluster and have promised a lot and delivered little. This is an opportunity to test it and see.
We are more than happy to take you through your breakeven, take you through what we call the ‘Business Health Check’, which is your industry’s KPIs and take you through your very first plan and turn it into a ‘Map’ so you just have to follow the steps.
If you’re interested, it’s for anyone who wants to change so that they feel safe.
This article first appeared in the July issue of Professional Beauty magazine. Download the issue here.
Visit the #BEAUTYSTRONG hub at https://www.professionalbeauty.com.au/beautystrong/
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