By Grant Miller

Most businesses either don’t realize that they have lost clients or don’t know what to do about them.

Lost and inactive clients are a fact of life in every business and in your salon. Part of the reason for clients being inactive in the first place is because most salon owners think that clients will automatically remember them when they need to tan again.

Unfortunately for you, your clients have lots of other things happening in their lives. They have families, kids, jobs, hobbies, and other activities that keep them pretty busy. Despite your best efforts to keep your clients corralled, some still wander off or do forget about you from time to time.

The very good news is that you can get many of them back spending their money with you. At this very moment you are sitting on an untapped diamond mine of lost, old and inactive clients!

There is a famous story called Acres of Diamonds, which became a book by Russell H. Conwell. Mr. Conwell was the founder of Temple University in Philadelphia and was described by the great John Wanamaker as a student, schoolmaster, lawyer, preacher, organizer, thinker, writer, lecturer, educator, diplomat, and leader of men. Conwell was also the founder and pastor of Baptist Temple, one of the largest Protestant churches in America during his day. He also founded two hospitals in Philadelphia.

According to the story, as told by the guide, while Conwell was travelling down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with a party of English travelers, there was a farmer named Ali Hafed from ancient Persia, now known as Iran. Hafed was already wealthy and owned a very large farm with orchards, grain-fields, and gardens.

One day, a Buddhist priest visited Ali Hafed. During the conversation, this wise priest from the East told Hafed about the value of diamonds and that they could be found in various parts of the world. Upon hearing of how valuable diamonds were, Hafed was obsessed with finding his own diamond mine.

Hafed sold his farm, collected the money, had his neighbor take care of his family and went off in search of diamonds. Hafed wandered around Palestine and Europe until he ran out of money. He was in rags, feeling wretched and now truly poor. He stood on the shore of a bay in Barcelona, Spain, and when a great tidal wave came rolling in, he threw himself in and was never seen again.

Meanwhile back at the farm, one day the new owner picked up an unusual rock about the size of an egg and placed it on his mantle. A few days later, the same old priest visited the farm and immediately realized that the unusual rock was indeed a diamond. The priest and the new owner rushed outside to the place where the owner found the unusual rock. That day, they discovered the diamond mines of Golconda.

Ali Hafed had been standing on his own “Acres of Diamonds” until he sold his farm.

The lesson to be learned here is that you have large amounts of untapped revenue just sitting in your existing customer lists. Send them a special offer via email, a postcard or a phone call to get them back into your store.