The Salon and The 'S' word

SalonStudies latest title:

The Salon & the 'S' Word
The Salon & the ‘S’ Word is the latest addition to the ‘Hair Stylist’s Guide’ series, published by Salonstudies in paperback and available from www.amazon.co.uk priced at £12.99. also available www.amazon.com priced at $19.95

The 'Hair Stylist's Guide' series of books is aimed at the professional stylist who wants to develop their business skills in a variety of different ways and make the most from their communication with clients and other hair professionals.

This particular book written by Mike Vallance, focuses upon all the essential ‘S’ words that underpin our salon procedures and creates a new ‘benchmark’ for excellence in our global hair industry.  

The 'S' Word Topics Service – The word that everyone talks about and is fundamental to everything we do. We know what bad service is, but how do you measure good service? What do our customers want, what do they expect? What are your standards like, could you improve?

Sales & selling – If you can sell; you are likely to do well if you cannot, you won’t go far. Who are our customers, where do they come from? How do we identify our own target market and capitalize on the relationship? Do you know the principles of merchandising and want to set-up your own retail ‘one-stop-shop’?

Suppliers – Your purchases affect your profits, so the less you spend, the more you earn. How do you maximize the relationship with your supplier? How do you achieve better deals and discounts with your suppliers? How do you compete against the big shops and stores?

Staff – As an employer, the people that work with you, should work for you; but how often do they seem to be doing their ‘own thing’? Are you getting the best from them, could they be more efficient, effective and productive?

Would you like to see a 'sneak preview' now? Salon studies are showing a series of excerpts from this, and previous publications online now. Click Here To View The salon and The S Word   Review: posted by Pam Decharo Owner of Hair International, Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto, Ca I wanted to not comment on Michael's book until I had fully read it, but it came quickly [even from the UK!] and I read fast, so here goes.

The Salon and the S word is probably the highest level book you're going to be able to but for such a low price. It covers many VERY advanced topics - who are your customers? [demographics] how do your customers think? [psychodemographics] salon locations, stylist development, salon development...

Specific chapters address profit-center areas [retail sales, customer service, color sales, customer retention, increasing customer count] in a way that the reader can absorb and make use of, which is not too surprising considering the author. Mike is a very hands-on, boots-on-the-ground kind of hairdresser. I have a million books which I had purchased in hope of getting help increasing sales, and I'm embarrassed how much money I spent on them. This book costs next to nothing and gets right to the heart of what we all are wanting to do, or at least salon owners, managers and success-minded stylists.

The book even touches on pit-falls for new salon owners - negotiating leases, hiring and retaining stylists, mentoring and training stylists- in a manner that can be thought about, re-creating and accomplished.

This book was more than I expected and I expected a lot. I learn so much from these message feeds, and much of the content is a combination of Michael's experience and expertise plus responding to questions posed, in a digestible, useful format.

I'll be using this book regularly. It's easy to read, interesting, doesn't talk down to me as so many other books of this type do, it's to the point and wastes no time on useless topics.

It's the hair industry best-buy of the year, ha ha, if any one ever has the good fortune to find out about it.

My hat's off to you, Michael. I would love to have the knowledge and judgement to write such a book, but since I don't, I'm grateful I can buy it for less than 15.00!

Good luck with it.