Imagine you are away for the weekend or on holiday, its time to eat and that dreaded question comes up of what you want.

When you make this choice do you say let’s go for the cheapest we can find?! I mean I have on a couple of girls trips but that’s another story..

You might first think about what you like

What has great ratings and reviews

You may really fancy a food type and you look for somewhere that specialises

Do you think I’m going to totally ignore the way it looks and I’m eating there because it’s the cheapest?

Full transparency I will normally avoid the cheapest places because I made a few assumptions.. they don’t use good products, the service will be poor, the standards wont be high. They don’t value themselves.

Now I love a bargain and cheapest doesn’t always equal bad and most expensive doesn’t guarantee high value. I’m currently writing this on a flight and airlines also fit into this. I always regret flying with Rynair and I only do it when it’s a fast flight but I still regret it.

At Christmas I decided while I was in London I was going to buy some items from Harrods and reduce my “big shop” and just have a few nice items. The items from Harrods didn’t actually taste as good as the marks and spencer’s ones I bought so I’m kind of killing my point but I saw them as the ultimate goal. So I felt just a little smug eating them even though they weren’t as nice

You will always get bargain hunting clients and some of these are lovely people but a high percentage are not your ideal client. They are rarely looking to be loyal and will bounce from salon to salon. They are don’t seek out quality so will not appreciate  your message. They can quite often be difficult clients to deal with, I’m not sure why, they just are.

So if you aren’t hitting the mark? You have to options be the cheap place people come to because its cheap or get and do better.

Everyone should be investing in their trade! I’ve been in the industry since 1996 and I do multiple courses a year. I attend as many events as I can and I’m always watching for what’s changing. My clients deserve this from me and just like the deserve me using the best products and not buying cheap unregulated ones off ebay.

Your first step should be establishing who your target client is.

This isn’t just a I want 30-50 year old women, it should be detailed.

Plan out exactly who this person is, where they eat, what there job is, how they spend their money. Are you looking for a niche market, for example 30 year old men who are in to male grooming.

Give your client a detailed profile

This is what you are now going to use to market yourself, from the pictures you post, the language you use and the  people you attract to your page. A high percentage of your marketing should be speaking to them.

Brutal reality moment – the reason you aren’t busy isn’t because you are to expensive..  

I’m in a part of the country where the disposable income is not very high but I’m still one of the more expensive. If clients want your services they will figure it out..

Be really honest with yourself and really look at your business and services are you worth what you need to charge. What is the full experience you give your client from start to finish, can you make adjustments?

Another brutal moment (Yes I am that person)

Because the services aren’t worth it. Just like the food places there is not very good in our industry to and they should absolutely not be charging what I am. Clients deserve value.

Something else I’ve learnt is if we are quiet an offer will not fix it, we are just quiet.
 

I’ve put silly offers on just to fill a day and give our clients a treat, what happens? Nothing .. we might get the odd booking but the truth is if clients aren’t coming in they aren’t coming in.

One of my team once pointed out that a local salon was doing a gel polish hands and toes for a third of us, my reply? Great they will do 3 times the work for the same money as us and with that additional time we can do marketing, study, do content and in general self-improvement.  So it is a win, win, we earn more money and we worked on ourselves and what we gave to our clients