Let me tell you about my friend Mike…

Mike is EXTREMELY talented at what he does. He’s a bodybuilder and also makes films. So he’s built like Arnold Schwarzeneggar and can create the most amazing and lifelike models for his movies… but know what he really is? A night watchman.

You see, he’s been burnt (in the movie business? go figure) and it’s hurt him. His first venture after film school was with a friend and they basically screwed him out of any and all rights to the movie. Then he made another film (borrowed 100 grand) and lost most of that too. Finally he hired a hollywood actor, made a film, got it released, it’s made about a million bucks… and the distributor has kept every cent due to his contract loopholes.

Mike has been stuck in the same deadend job for about a decade now, and he’s unhappy. VERY unhappy. He dreams of starting his own business, invests time and money and then on the verge of making it he allows fear to kick in and gets sucked back down by his life, his friends, his habits and ends up quitting just before he finishes his project and can begin a new life… self-defeating himself (can anyone relate to this?).

Some may pat him on the back, say he’s had it tough, and console him, blaming “them” for all his problems (these types of friends want to see you fail… they don’t want anyone to out-do them. Misery doesn’t only love company, it demands it).

…not me though, I kick his butt.

I say he needs to radically change his lifestyle and keep on going until he reaches his dreams… otherwise he’s doomed to another decade (which will turn into another, then another until his life is over) of unhappiness.

So what should he do?

Simply put, he needs more energy… positive energy.
This means:

1 - Drink only water. No pop, no coffee, no acids & sugars.

2 - Stop watching the boob-tube (or brain-drain as I call it). Nothing will paint a big “doom and gloom” picture faster than watching the news (on any media) or wasting time on mindless tv. It sucks the life right out of you.

3 - Develop a positive “can do” mindset. And this WILL mean cutting ties to those so called friends who keep bringing you down and creating new ones.

…toss in a little exercise there and you’re on the fast-track to success!

EVERY morning I start my day focusing on all that I WILL accomplish that day, that week and in my life.

Are you being held back? Are you finding it hard to reach your goals? Perhaps you could use a little change for the better in your life too?

…change begins with a decision. Decision actually means “to cut off.” So cut off your old life, make a decision, and reach your new one.

If you’re up for the challenge, I DARE you to succeed.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya
www.SalonSpaOwner.com

Please, share your thoughts below.

According to yahoo news, Jennifer Aniston, Liv Tyler, Anne Hathaway, Melanie Griffith, Scott Speedman and possibly even Cher were victims named in court for credit card fraud.

Salon owner of Chez Gabriela Studio, Maria Gabriella, is accused of making $280,000.00 of fraudulent credit charges to clients over the last year, manually running charges once she had her superstar clients credit information. She was arrested in her Beverly Hills salon and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of her two counts of fraud.

Share your thoughts below or on our fan page!

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya

As I make this post here on Friday the 13th, I’m reminded of how scary operating your own salon spa business really is.

…but if you don’t learn from the mistakes of the past you’ll repeat them. So here are the “top 13 mistakes salon spa owners make.”

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya

P.S. Please comment below and let me know if I missed any.

Every now and then I have to keep myself on track to my goals by remembering that WHO I surround myself with is a vital part of achieving them. To do so I pull this out (originally from Jon Gordon I believe) and re-read it. Enjoy~!

“Beware of Energy Vampires”

They lurk in our businesses, our families and our social organizations. They are real. They are everywhere. And they will suck the life out of you if you let them.

If you’re like most people, it has happened to you. You were talking to someone and before you knew it, they drained the life right out of you. You looked for fang marks on your neck but they were nowhere to be found. Then you realized Energy Vampires don’t have fangs. They have other means to suck your energy.
Here are a few:

Negative comments –”Did I tell you how much I hate my life and work? Did I tell you what so and so did to me? Did I tell you how my life stinks? Did I tell you why nothing goes right?”

Dream snatching - “You can’t do that. How are you going to do that? Are you living in fantasyland? Get back to the real world. You should do this instead.”

Shrinking devices - “What is wrong with you? Can you do anything right? You are the worst. I hate working with you.”

In other situations the words may be less harsh but the result ends up being the same. Once an Energy Vampire starts sucking it is difficult to break free. Don’t let this happen. Instead be prepared to neutralize an Energy Vampire from the beginning. You don’t need a stake or garlic.
Here are 4 techniques:

Action Steps

Look in the mirror - Sometimes we are the Vampires. If we pay attention to our thoughts and words we can eliminate the Vampire in us. Are you being negative or positive? I ask myself this often.

Confront and Reform - Tell your Energy Vampire (EV) that he or she is being negative. They may not even realize it. Ask for support, positive feedback and encouragement from them. If your EV is a colleague, family member or friend, perhaps you can reform them into an Energy Addict. Show them how to spread positive energy. If they just don’t see it or refuse to do it then you may have to give an ultimatum. You might say, “This is my goal. This is where I am going and if you’re going to be negative then I can’t be around you.

Turn on the Light - When you were a child and scared of the dark you turned on the light and felt better. Negative energy is like darkness. When you encounter an Energy Vampire, turn on the light. When an EV comes at you with fear, negativity, hate and anger turn on the light and respond with love, kindness, and positive energy. Negative energy is powerless in the light. Think about what happens when someone gets mad and yells at you. If you don’t yell back they lose momentum and power. If you return with kindness they lose even more power. On the other hand, if you yell back at them then the negative energy grows and grows.

Run - Run as far and as fast as you can. This sometimes is the best technique if you are not close with the EV. You only have so much energy and in today’s world you need to keep all you have. If, for example, you are in the grocery store and you see someone who drains your energy then run away fast. Really fast.

May your day be filled with boundless energy.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya
http://www.SalonSpaOwner.com

P.S. Post a comment below and let us know you’re alive!

Necessity is the mother of invention… and it’s been created by competition for google! You see, facebook has been dominating them and has gotten into the PPC (pay per click advertising) game. Googles (or any search engine) PPC results are down… people are starting to ignore those ads… so what does google do? They get creative!

Since local search is highly used right now, they’re capitalizing on that fact and placing advertising options there.

Here’s an email I just got from them. Check out the local search image on the right and tell me what you notice?

Do the blue scissors (coupon) on the little yellow flag stand out?

Now you can “tag” your location with a coupon (that yellow arrow-flag) on your local “places” business listing.

They’re offering this feature free for a month (or cheap) and then $25/monthly. So what should you do?

TEST IT OUT, and see if it pays for itself. Just got to www.google.com/places to signup.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher

P.S. Oh! We’ve switched our name, we’re now at www.SalonSpaOwner.com

P.P.S. Please share your thoughts below.

It’s a crazy thing owning a salon and spa. Heck, it’s a crazy thing owning ANY small business. You’re overrun with duties and responsibilities you never knew existed before. Bills, maintenance, bills, management, bills, marketing, bills

Many of us are still working IN the business as a stylist or therapist, and MOST are working IN the business trying to get everything accomplished day in and day out. It’s like 1 step forward and 10 steps back. Not to mention trying to keep our staff happy and profitable.

Owning your own place often leaves us with little time (or money) for ourselves, so we seek out places that can help us follow the right path. This can (and unfortunately more often than not) leads us to people who will take advantage of us (and thousands of our dollars) without providing much help at all. Then if you do find a place to get help you’re often overwhelmed with it all, which leads to nothing getting accomplished as well (and checking things off your owner “to-do” list is VITAL to making lasting changes).

…so we thought we’d help out with a free gift for you.

Our Salon & Spa Business Manifesto, download it here.

Hopefully it’ll help give you a little guidance and allow you to plan out your course of ACTION.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya
www.SalonSpaOwner.com

P.S. Here’s the link again (we’re updating our security certificate and changing our url’s, but it should work fine).

Prefer to READ THIS (or want more info) CLICK HERE.

Prefer to READ THIS (or want more info) CLICK HERE.

WOAH!
When we said “email us with any questions” we didn’t ever think we’d get the response we got! Ok, let’s get to it then!

First off, thanks for all the messages and stories. It seems that we all have our fair share of stories about “advertising disasters!” Some of my favorites were:

The radio rep that got you to give away thousands of gift certificates for them to sell and keep all the moolah themselves in the name of “exposure” (or worse yet having to donate a “grand prize” and then having to buy a grand of air time too!).

Or the TV rep that sold you a 6 grand all encompassing package that didn’t even pay for itself.

The 2 grand coupon magazine/mailer to 100,000 homes that only brought 6 coupons back in (and 2 of ‘em wanted to use it with gift certificates/other specials)!

Even back to the “old days” (when things didn’t work either it seems) of hundreds for a single newspaper ad (or phone book) that didn’t get the phone to ring, not even once.

…all promising results and all falling short. All shots in the dark hoping something will work.

SO…

There were quite a few questions, but they fell pretty much into groups, so here are the most popular ones…

Question #1 was of course “how much?”

The answer? MUCH LESS than you will think. If we don’t deliver TEN TIMES the cost in value I’ll quit my own spa. You’ll have to wait until Monday (Sunday if you’re on the priority notification list) for the exact details, but it’ll be a whole system for cheaper than a single ad.

Question #2 was “what do you mean by done-for-you?”

It varies with each system naturally, but it is basically either “paint by number” or “fill-in-the-blanks.” We show you exactly what and how to set things up and get them implemented. We do have some literal “done-for-you” options, but those cost more and we thought we’d lay it all out for you to easily follow and do yourself to Save.

Question #3 was “what’s the ‘how to AND done for you’ mean?”

If you’re anything like me, you want to know how things work and the reason why before moving ahead. Each marketing system will have a “how to” portion to explain the “why” along with the “done for you” portion showing you how to implement and start getting more clients.

Question #4 was “If everyone gets these won’t they become less effective?”

This is a VERY valid point and something we spent a lot of time thinking about. For that reason, we have limited our initial production to just 99 COPIES. After that we’ll look at any possible market side effects or local saturation and determine how to continue.

Question #5 was “What’s the GUARANTEE?”

Our guarantees are always outstanding, so these are too. SIXTY DAYS, no questions asked, no hard feelings. Simply return it, PROMISE not to use what you’ve been shown, and that’s it!

Question #6 was “How do we know this will work? Not much else has in the past”

Exactly! Something we personally struggled with for years until we found things that DO work and then NEW THINGS for the New Economy we’re in. These are the same systems that we use in our own spa that have helped us to Triple our sales the last 2 holidays, which were up Double from the year before. Even our daily numbers are still heading UP this quarter over last year (which was up as well) by 50%! Now, honestly, some people won’t even open it up, let alone implement, so they would be up zero. Others could blow me away. Your numbers will be up to you taking action.

…THAT brings up another point. These are systems (plural), there’s more than one. We’ll be shipping them out monthly to give you time to implement each one. But there’s more than one because more than one system is required for results.

I’m sure you’ve heard “there’s not one way to get 100 clients, but there are 100 ways to get one client” and it’s TRUE. If you’re fishing, who do you think will catch more fish, the spa with one pole in the water or the spa with a dozen?

The first system actually builds a foundation via an “ad creation system” that shows you how to create ads that get results (and gives you half a dozen templates) so you can spark some life into your existing advertising and then use it to make all the other systems (email, video, social media, PPC, direct mail, etc) more effective.

Here’s the priority notification list once again, those on it watch for an email on Sunday, if we’re not sold out we’ll email the rest of our list (about 10,000 salon, spa and medspa owners) on Monday.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya

P.S. Yes, MEMBERS will get a special bonus, so make sure to signup as a member if you haven’t yet, because our dues are going up next week.

P.S. You’re going to LOVE what our “Silver Platter” Marketing Systems will do for YOU!

And so the countdown begins… we are so excited about what we’ve got for you for our birthday next week we can hardly contain ourselves. What we’re rolling out for you is something we’ve been tweaking and refining for the last half decade, and something all of you have been asking about for the last 2 years!!!

Let me allow you a sneak-peek behind the curtain. As you know from the survey a couple weeks ago (actually, every survey points in the same direction these last few years) everyone’s concern is getting more clients, i.e. MARKETING. But it goes a wee bit deeper than that, it’s not just a simple ad or “what special works best” that is needed.

…let me explain, everyone online is sharing ideas and comparing notes on what special to run this month, what type of promotion worked best, and so on. But NO ONE has money to waste experimenting with new forms of advertising. It’s basically a catch 22. We need more clients, we want more clients, but don’t have money to waste guessing what works to get new clients… even with all the free ideas being shared online, the Medium to get the idea out there is where the risk (and expense) lies.

Now, with every business I’ve worked with one on one, the BIG differences really come from setting up SYSTEMS. Let me say that again, Systems are what makes the difference. This is the goal of our VIP program. But people are so busy working in their business they have little time to implement the systems they know they should… so we went ahead and did if FOR YOU.

Yes, we have setup “Silver Platter” (done with you) marketing systems for your salon & spa. No business should be without these (but most are!) and not only have we explained the “how & why” but also did all the leg-work for you, making sure you can quickly and easily get these salon (& spa) marketing systems implemented asap. We figured if we can help out by giving you our expertise and experience to help you leap above and beyond the competition by providing you with proven systems, it was our obligation to help out..

So get on our priority notification list (we’ll only have so many available with our first printing) and please, share your comments below.

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya

P.S. Here’s the latest update, your questions answered!

The 4th of July is our birthday and we’ll be pulling out all the stops for you that week!

SalonSpaOwner.com (DaySpaOwner) is coming up on 2 years old, but do you know our whole story? Let me tell you how we began… After spending a few years working for others (Zhenya was working part time for 6 spas at once I believe!), we moved from WI to CO and opened up our own spa… in a mall! Here we are, newlyweds, and working 80 hours/week in a new home, in a new state, with a new business. That was May of ‘01, and just 4 short months into our venture, 9-11 happened. We were just barely off the ground and we were dealt our first big blow. We still grew (things didn’t really get bad until ‘02 for those who recall), adding on services and staff, working our butts off from 9am to 9pm daily (and eating out often! It was quicker than cooking). It was a truly hectic time as it is for anyone staring a new day spa business.

Well, over a year later, with record sales (but not having any money for ourselves) we decided we needed some help with our day spa business (why struggle when you can copy other successful people? After all, shouldn’t you be making something for yourselves with a few hundred thousand in gross sales???). So the following March we headed off to the salon and spa conference in Vegas. At this time we were also preggies (well, Zhenya was) and we were getting ready to buy and build out our new building (the mall had moved us 3 times, so we were done building out spaces for them!).

We hired Day Spa consultant Douglas Preston, got his top $10,000 spa consulting package and were on the way to big changes. ALL the nuances of running a profitable business, systems, skincare, etc. all were falling into place. Compensation for salon and spa staff was covered, profitable retail, front desk and rescheduling systems, consultation methods… we had it down pretty well (we were sick of working for free so took action and put everything into play right away).

What happened next was a bit tough. We had our dream building in a beautiful location, the best business model in the planet… but there was no traffic. Getting more salon and spa clients (marketing and advertising) was becoming pretty important. Not only the typical stuff, but also client relations, customer service, getting missing clients back in, vip memberships and other strategies we were creating and implementing on our own to further maximize each client opportunity.

After having a couple years of “typical” (i.e. VERY poor) traditional advertising results, we decided we were done with the horrifically expensive radio, phone book, newspaper and print ads for good. But what else was there? (this was still a few years before social media)… so I looked into internet marketing. What you can do with a website, email list, online marketing, ppc, seo, relationship marketing (the base of social media marketing), referrals and so on.

The last half decade has been VERY exciting and jam-packed filled with knowledge. First off, finding cheap, effective and unique marketing strategies has become an obsession for me :).
Secondly, we’ve gotten to share our experience and teach our lessons via our site for the benefit of other salon and spa owners. After dealing with staff for years and being isolated from other salon and spa owners, it was such a pleasure to go online and have a community… a family, and be with.

What has SalonSpaOwner.com accomplished? Well, we have literally saved more than its share of salons, spas and medspas from closing up shop. Many were on a downward spiral towards bankruptcy and by simply implementing a couple ideas are now on the path to profits. Others have been well off and have made a change or two that has added over $100,000.00 to their bottom line. But it’s SO much more than just about Profits…

SalonSpaOwner.com is about a support group. Need to let go of some stress and blow off some steam? Don’t let your staff see that! Share it here online with us, we’ll understand.

We’re a sounding board. There are ideas being shared left and right on our forum and monthly mastermind calls. You can tweak something you’ve got, ask for help, offer suggestions, and copy what is working instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

…speaking of NOT having to reinvent the wheel, let me get back to our birthday plans (existing members even get extra bonuses!).

In our survey a few weeks ago, everyone said that they needed more profit in their salon and spas, wanted more clients and would LOVE some systems to implement in their spas (especially marketing systems!). So we’re doing just that, putting together monthly marketing modules for you.

We’re laying out all of our best business systems…

All of our best marketing systems…

And it’s being handed to you on a silver platter, pre-done systems ready to be implemented (get on the priority notification list here if you haven’t yet).

So, you are going to love these new modules (dvds). You are going to have to wait a couple weeks though for our big birthday announcement about them (perhaps we’ll have a webinar). Until then…

“Who loves ya?”
-Christopher & Zhenya
www.SalonSpaOwner.com

P.S. Please leave a comment!

P.P.S. Here’s the priority notification link again.