How Salon Owners Can Prepare for Another Surge in Coronavirus Cases
As an in-person service provider, the surge in Coronavirus cases can feel unsettling. Will it mean states will return to lockdown? If so, what will that mean for your business that relies solely on salon services?
"You have to think beyond hands-on services. To your clients, you are a resource for helping them look their best. Ask yourself, as a salon owner, how you can translate the value you offer in-house, through online services?"
During the lockdown of 2020, hair salon clients took desperate measures by DIYing their hair services with home haircuts and box color. With the dizzying array of hair care products and DIY deep conditioning elixirs, salon owners may have left money on the table if they weren't online and offered product suggestions through affiliate marketing or retailing.
Suppose you are not active online in creating digital income streams for your salon business. In that case, you could be leaving yourself vulnerable as a solely in-person service provider in a post-covid world.
As daunting as that sounds, this creates an opportunity to diversify your services and create unique offsprings of your brand online.
What are the Opportunities Available for Online Salon Brands?
If you have a unique salon technique or a knack for business, that could translate to course creation through sites like teachable.
If you have a passion for hair color formulation, that could mean creating a retail line of hair care products or a Pantone-like book of hair color formulations.
Or, if you have a lot of hair care product knowledge, why not turn a website into an affiliate marketing e-commerce shop where clients click on affiliate products. When they purchase on a third-party website, you get a cut of the profit.
Affiliate commissions are a fantastic way to earn passive income, and commissions usually fluctuate between 5-20%. If you feature an affiliate like Amazon on your website, you'll even get a cut of the commission for miscellaneous items added to their Amazon cart at checkout!
Building an Online Presence
Gone are the days when you can get by with a one-page portfolio site as a salon business. Luckily, it's easier than ever to launch a compelling website requiring no coding experience, and that has all the marketing integrations you need and all for around $30+ a month.
Branding agencies like Cool Factor Lab in Seattle are even helping salon owners create websites that look on par with high-end salon sites with Squarespace Templates that cost a mere $325 to launch.
This year, Cool Factor Lab also released a Salon Branding Style Guide that features branding recipes with mood boards, color palettes, font combinations, & design elements varying in themes like Fashion Editorial to Bohemian Branding.
Although creating income streams online as a salon owner can seem overwhelming, know that it doesn't have to be with the available resources on the market. Sites like Squarespace make integrations with appointment booking, email, and affiliate marketing super seamless. You can create digital products within seconds on the platform. By upgrading your website branding to look like a high-end salon with Cool Factor Lab Squarespace Templates, your viewers may mistake you for a Glossier-level beauty brand!
The resources for salon brands to diversify their business by creating online income streams have never been easier.
Also, creating a diverse salon business model that adds online income streams removes some of the vulnerabilities salon businesses face in a Post-Covid world.
Action Steps
For more information on building an online salon website- Visit Cool Factor Lab's Squarespace Template page or start by creating salon clarity with the Salon Branding workbook available for Free Download.