Most salon, clinic and spa owners understand that bad economy means cutting expenses…

You see your competitors falling all around you. You know and understand that you need to lower your cost and lower your budget in order to stay afloat. However, the first mistake in keeping a business alive during tough economic times and global financial crisis is cutting your marketing budget.

Big businesses separate their expenses into those they can control and those that are a necessity. Controllable expenses can include everything from the brand of coffee served in the office to the brand of toilet paper in your restroom. Necessary expenses, well, those they can not be cut in any way. And if you want your business to get through the recession, that includes marketing.

Cutting out your marketing budget is one of the most dangerous things you can do for your business. If you don’t market to the clients that are out there those clients are not going to know the products and services you have to provide to them as a consumer. While the news screams recession not every consumer is without money.

Marketing is the only way you were going to get new clients and keep your profits coming in.

So how do you market in a failing economy? Great question! Marketing in a failing economy where you need to cut expenses simply means marketing harder and marketing smarter.

Old marketing style - sending out mailers (cost $200)
New marketing style -emailing clients (cost $0)

Old marketing style -sending out postcards (cost $100)
New marketing style - phoning your clients (cost $0)

Use low cost options like following up with clients on the phone. Or completely free options like emailing your clients about an offer rather than posting a mail out. Using low-cost or free marketing means you stay afloat because you can reduce your expenses while still keeping clients coming in. Plus if do it well enough, you’ll not just ’stay afloat’, you’ll grow and thrive.

Times of financial struggle are not the proper times to put your business at risk by ceasing all marketing campaigns. These times require innovative thought and ingenuity. You can continue to build your business even if you do not have the marketing budget you use that have. All you need to do is concentrate on low cost and free marketing techniques and you can build your client base despite the news reports of a global financial crisis.

Look around you, are your competitors failing? Maybe they chose their marketing budget as the first place to cut costs! Don’t allow a dip in the economy to cause your business to go under. Perseverance is the key and low cost or free marketing can make it all work.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

Well, it’s been a busy but exciting few weeks!

Doug and I have found and booked our reception venue for our wedding next year.  The venue we eventually decided on is just beautiful and the staff there are ever so lovely.

In fact, it’s been quite an interesting experience going around and viewing all these different venues…

All of the venues have been lovely to look at, but what ended up clinching it for us was the staff at the place we booked.  At some places we went to, the staff weren’t overly helpful.  But at the one where we booked, they were so welcoming and ever so helpful.  In fact, even our phone calls to book and sort out the details have been an absolute pleasure.  Their warm and friendly customer service has made the entire experience relaxing, easy and fun (like planning a wedding should be!).

Anyways, it reminded me strongly of how important customer service is in both getting and retaining clients - especially in today’s market where clients are expecting their money to go far further than it used to.

So something to try this week is to record a few of your phone calls then listen back to how they sound.  Most phones and digital cameras have a record function on them so just keep one by the phone and press record when it rings.

Is your tone of voice happy and friendly?  Or is it a bit strained because you’re in a rush?  Are you upbeat and positive?  Or a bit tired cause it been a long day?

Listen back to those phone calls and see what comes across second time round.  Is it how you want to sound?  If yes, fantastic!  If not, then it’s something to work on.

To your success,
Rebecca

Our world is in financial turmoil and businesses small and large are going crazy. More and more people are feeling that the faster the economy declines the harder it is to keep their business afloat. Unfortunately for the small business owner, some of them will fail during these economic tops.

However, some businesses will find the silver lining in the cloud and they will fly.

The businesses that will survive during tough economic times are the ones who employ a successful, ‘get smart’ marketing campaign. These businesses will look at what they are doing everyday, analyze which marketing techniques work and which don’t. Then focus on the marketing techniques that will bring in the profits and those only.

The key to this style of marketing is to not get greedy. Let us say for instance your business does a marketing campaign which includes mailers or flyers. The marketing campaign costs $200 and returned $500 in sales. The total profit for this marketing campaign is $300.

Many businesses may look at this and think ‘gosh, I don’t want to spend the money it will cost me just in case’, or ‘gosh, that isn’t much return’. But the smart ones, look at that profit exponentially.

For example, if you walked into a business and that business owner offered you a tree for $200 but that tree had five hundred $1 bills on it, how many would you buy? Any sane person would buy every tree in the store because with every purchase there is an instant $300 profit.

This is the same way you should look at a marketing campaign that makes you money for your clinic, salon, spa or therapy practice. Though $300 in profit may seem small, if that marketing technique works over and over again those profits will add up.

Now let’s take the same idea and make a bigger…

Your $200 mailing provided $300 in profit. What if you took that mailing an expanded the number of people who received that marketing information? You can focus and even streamline your marketing techniques by sector of the population, age, and economic background.

Sending out the same $200 worth of mailers to a young population with a really good introductory offer for your hair, beauty or alterative health or therapy services will provide your business with $300 in profit. And then you could send out the same set of mailers to an older population with a certain offer discount aiming in that mailer toward the needs they have and again you’ll see $300 in profit.

Do you see the pattern here? The more mailers you send out that make a profit, the more money you’ll have in your bank account and the less you will feel the global financial crisis.

If you want your health or beauty business to succeed in tough economic times, then focus more on what you can do and the profits you can make and less on what the media are saying. This will keep your business alive while others are failing.

With words flying around the well-being business community like ‘global financial crisis’, ‘recession’, and ‘bad economy’ your clinic or practice needs to find a marketing and advertising campaign that fits within your budget and still provides a substantial profit.

Whether you do beauty, therapy, homeopathy, life coaching, hairdressing, or any other any holistic or complementary therapies, you can profit by simply changing your thinking. By thinking that every dollar of revenue above and beyond that which you spend, is a worthy profit. Even smaller profits repeated over and over are nonetheless profits.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

Most people feel a buzz of exciting and a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when all the lights, tinsel, and gaily decorated trees come out in the stores, on the streets and in our homes. Bringing that excitement and celebration of Christmas to your business will definitely give both your clients and your income a boost.

Of all the industries out there, the health, hair and beauty industry has the most to gain from the festivities in their salons and clinics. When a beauty therapy salon decks their customer service area out with lights and balls and tinsel and gift bags, it is a real draw to bring business through their doors. Then when hair salons, masseuses and hypnotherapists offer real live gift bags with products that relate to their services, their revenue also increases.

In short, no matter what specific business you have within the industry, the glitz of Christmas will not only bring customers in your door, but it can be the beginning of a long-term relationship in the future.

Christmas brings a sense of excitement and you can play off that to attract more patrons and increase both your service and retail or product revenue. Christmas is a fun time and that is what has to be portrayed to the customer. People like glitter. People like to feel good about where they are. When customers come into a facility that sports hairdressing, tanning, or spa rooms, they come to relax and feel good about the experience. The glitter of Christmas decorations will enhance that experience.

So without consciously even thinking about it, your clients then start wondering if their aunt, or brother or sister might like the gifts you’ve got out on display. And then once they’re in the swing of shopping, they buy more products because it feels good.

Almost anything can be a potential gift but putting items together into gift bags are a fantastic draw to bring in new clients and to increase revenue. Group them together as “his” or “her” products, pop them in a nice bag or box and you’ve got a ready made gift.

Plus if you make sure your label is on everything and if you group together items like a bottle of shampoo, or some beauty cream for the face which the potential gift-receiver might use regularly, they can get hooked on that product and want to return to “buy” the next bottle of shampoo or container of beauty cream themselves later

Celebrate Christmas with all the glitz, glamor and excitement of Christmas decorations. Enjoy the influx of clients and patrons and give away as much as you can to lend yourself as much as possible to the season. Play off it and let the tinsel blow in the wind and the dollar bills flow in.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.