Wellbeing Salon Secrets

Christmas Photoshoot Craziness

Published October 29, 2012 | By Rebecca

Dare I even mention the “C” word… yes I believe I’ll risk it… here we go, here’s a blog post about Christmas, before Halloween is even out of the way…

Funnily enough normally we aim to plan Christmas at our salons back in about July or August. That last 8 weeks of the year contains such a large chunk of our profits that it’s worth putting in the extra effort really early.

Note I said we “aim” to plan. Errrr ummmmmm. Well this year I was a little busy in July having just had a baby! So no, we did not plan it that early. In fact, if I’m going to be totally truthful we only started planning it properly last week. Which means we have an ENORMOUS amount to do in the next 2 weeks to have our salons still perform financially how we want them to over the holiday period.

And first things first on the list was to prepare our Client Christmas card. It’s not like a normal xmas card though. Each salon has a different one. On the front it’s got a photo of the staff at that particular salon. And then on the back an offer for January, and another for February. Which means yes it wishes our clients a happy holiday, but it also generates bookings for that even more crucial period – the New Year doldrums where booking generally go flat. So to us the Christmas card is really important. Because it’s warm & fuzzy for our clients, the staff love it, and it books us up for Jan & Feb.

Sounds like a good idea right? Well in theory absolutely. But try organising three different salons, for three different photoshoots, all with staff who want their hair to be fabulous, and ideally for me, Mum, Dad and the baby to all be there with them at very short notice! Crazy.

Want to see the first of the three salon’s pictures? Here we go! Here’s us and our girls.

What do you do for Christmas in your salon? Comment & share some ideas!

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Life in the Kepple-Page household

Published October 19, 2012 | By Rebecca

I promised this blog would be a mix – from what we’re doing in the salons, to general life in the Kepple-Page household. And this week is most definitely the latter…

A dear friend of ours Hayley is a hugely talented photographer and she does this amazing package consisting of a series of photoshoots over the first year of a baby’s life, culminating in a coffee table book chocablock full of stunning pics. She’s doing one for William and we had the second shoot last week. And oh my word were the pictures uh-maz-ing!

So proud of my little man:

P.S. If you fancy seeing more of Hayley’s photos check her out on Facebook –
www.facebook.com/HTilleyPhotography

P.P.S. We’ve just launched Gelish nails in our Dunstable salon. Does anyone else use Gelish? And if so what have you found the most popular colours to be? I can’t make up my mind what ones to get in. If you use it, can pretty please comment & let me know what ones you’ve found your clients like the most?

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Sprucing up our product retail shelving

Published October 13, 2012 | By Rebecca

Update from this week… The phone switch is done – *huge sigh of relief*.

We’re now happily taking phone calls and bookings for our Baldock branch remotely from our Northampton salon. Hip hip horray!

I must say though, not without a few hiccups. First Lindsay spent hours on the phone with the tech guys getting the Internet fixed. Then when we finally flicked the switch the phones diverted precisely… nowhere. For half a day no one answered the phone full stop. I don’t even want to imagine how many calls we missed (gives me palpitations just thinking about it!). Once we figured that out though it’s been working like a dream ever since.

The girls in the Baldock salon are finding it a bit weird. The phone doesn’t ring there anymore so it’s lovely and quiet. But suddenly they’ll look at the appointment book and new appointments will have appeared. They’re enjoying it in a very hesitant, lets-just-see-how-this-pans-out-long-term kind of way.

It’s a bit early to know if it’s making a difference financially. I’m hoping in the next few weeks we’ll be able to see a difference in the bookings. Watch this space!

In other news when I was in the Northampton salon this week I had literally 15 minutes spare while I was waiting for a meeting. So I raced about like a lunatic sprucing up our retail area. There’s a million different ideas and ways for doing retailing. But I just wanted it to look tidier. So no fancy stuff. Just neatening it all up as fast as my little fingers would move.

Fancy seeing the results? Here’s my 2min tutorial on how to make it look like there’s double the amount of product on the shelves…!

1. First I moved all the bottles there were behind other bottles so they were side-by-side and clients can see them.

2. Second I squished them all together so there were no gaps between them.

3. And third I made sure all the labels faced the front.

That’s it! Like I said, no fancy stuff. Just 15mins shuffling bottles on the shelves.

I think it looks a million times better. Looks like there’s twice the amount of product and we didn’t spend a penny. What do you think?

Have you got any tricks or tips for quick retailing success? Please comment & share them with the rest of us!

P.S. How did I manage going to a work meeting with a baby you ask? I left him helping Beverly get some work done in the office

William helping Beverly (aka Grannykins) work

We’re changing!

Published October 7, 2012 | By Rebecca

After much thought we’re changing how we do things at Wellbeing Business Secrets.

Previously I’ve emailed out loads of articles with advice on how to get your salon or clinic more profitable. And while they’ve been filled with great information, it’s starting to get a bit “same-y”. Why? Well to get a salon profitable, it IS the same old stuff. Rebookings, retail, training… rebookings, retail, training… rebookings, retail, training… over and over and over. Blah blah blah blurgh.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit bored of it. Yes it’s all critically important but I’ve heard it all before. And I’m guessing you have too

SO… we’re going to do things a bit differently from now on.

From today when you go to our website you’ll notice we’ve changed the name to Wellbeing Salon Secrets. That’s because from today I’m going to be spilling the secrets of what life is really like running a chain of salons.

The ups, the downs, the great bits and the rubbish bits. Warts and all.

Blog style, I’ll be updating you on what we’re doing in our salons – live and as we do it. So you’ll get to hear all about the things we try that work AND the stuff that doesn’t. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting. Fingers crossed even entertaining at times. Almost certainly though you’ll pick up ideas you can try for yourself in your salon.

Yes of course we’re still offering our membership (got to keep the pennies flowing!) At any time you can go to our website to have a nosey at and buy the system that we use in our salons to keep growing our client base. And yes I’m sure I’ll mention the membership occasionally but more often than not you’ll hear about what life is like juggling being a new mum, wallpapering our new beauty room and making sure we don’t run out of till rolls! Probably with more than a few pictures of life in the Kepple-Page household thrown in.

So needless to say I’m a little nervous about this!! Will anyone read it? Will you all suddenly unsubscribe? Is it actually going to be interesting? I hope so! Please do comment and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy.

Without further ado, here’s my first update…!

One of our biggest problems in our Baldock salon is the phone not getting answered. It’s one of our smaller sites and there’s only 3 staff. If they’re all with clients, that’s it. The phone just rings and rings.

Firstly it’s incredibly irritating for the clients in the salon (have you ever been in a shop and listened to a phone just ring. Makes me want to roll my eyes and drum my fingers on the counter). And secondly it’s the fastest way to lose a new client. They finally call to book in and no one answers. Gone. Faster than you can say “spiced chai latte please”.

So I had (what I think is) the genius idea of creating a mini call centre at our Northampton salon and diverting all the Baldock calls there. We’ve hired a lovely new lady to answer the phones (hello Ashton!) and given her remote access to the Baldock computer system. So she can answer the phones and book appointments for both salons. And the launch is THIS WEEK!

– William having a sleep at our Baldock salon while I wait for the phone engineer to do the tech stuff -

I’m so mega excited. This is my first real dipping my toe back into the running of the salons since going on maternity leave.

What I’m hoping is it’ll make a huge difference in our bookings at Baldock. That we’ll catch all the phone calls and book clients in before they’ve even thought of calling the next salon down the list in the yellow pages. If it helps we’ll do the same at our other branch in Dunstable too.

So what do you think? Am I barking mad? Will it make a difference? Click here to comment & let me know.

P.S. Well I hope the phone divert will start this week! As I write this the internet connection has just gone down at Northampton and we can’t access the Baldock bookings system. Hurumphf. I hope noone is saying I told you so this time next week… Wish us luck!

P.P.S. I had the BEST post arrive this week. Two new magazines, £35 cash and vouchers for a free apartment holiday from one of our suppliers. That is most definitely how to put a smile on my face. Universe please deliver me post like this again next week.