By Scott Nichols

Right now is the time to get clever. Well, maybe not clever, but to outsmart yourself from last year. Really dig into your business and see where you can look for improvement. As an entrepreneur, this is the time where you shine!

Some of the changes that I am talking about need to be nursed a bit. Most employees and customers don’t like change. To them, the system might not need changing or improving. You need to understand this and find a way to explain and encourage them.

The first and foremost is EFTs. You need to know everything about them before you can expect to make any changes. What is your average EFT right now?  Is it $20, $30 or $40? Is it more or is it less?  No matter the case, you must figure that out. Knowing will help you increase your EFT revenue. Let’s set up a scenario: Say your average EFT is $22 and you average 50 new memberships a month. $22 x 50 new memberships = $1,100. But, what if you could change your marketing and pricing around to increase your average EFT sale to $32? So next month you sell another 50 memberships but this time it’s at $32.  Your new month total is $1,600. You just added $500 to your revenue without having any additional customers come in.

So how do you “just change” your EFT pricing? It can be pretty simple.  First of all, simplify your memberships. Don’t make it confusing to customers. Second, add value to each membership. What can you add to the memberships that the customers will like and is easy on you? Free upgrades, discounts on lotion and other items work really well.

Once you have done this, work with your staff on upgrading customers to your new EFT memberships.  Incentivize them and explain to them the importance of upgrading. Each upgrade that is converted is an additional $10 per month you are receiving.

The second item you need to really be digging at is your sales average, lotion average and sunless average. Ultimately, the most important is your sales average! If you are seeing less customers than last year or the year before, you need to figure out where your new sales average needs to be at. If you are down a few hundred customers a month and that reflects on your sales report, then you need to figure out what an extra $1 to your sales average would do. If that isn’t enough, then what would an extra $1.50 do? Once you figure out the number, it will give you a whole new outlook on what you are selling and promoting.

Keep digging into your numbers and look for the improvement. Can you give “Bonus Bucks” (for upgrades) on lotion purchase vs. giving a discount? If you are giving a $20 discount on a lotion and you are doing that to 100 bottles, you just gave away $2,000. If you decide to give them the Bonus Bucks, you are making $20 more and introducing them to a different level of tanning. Eventually they will run out of lotion and will need to purchase more. But this time, are they purchasing the lotion for the lotion or the upgrade? What a great problem to have!

The third thing is something I am trying to still believe. I never thought this was a big deal until my management team told me on three separate occasions. Move your lotion around and put it in different places on the shelf. Rearrange the items on the front desk to give a look of something new. This is pretty simple to do and something that can be done on a weekly basis.

Lastly, get your staff involved with your social media. Most employees won’t post about where they work but if you can find a way to incentivize them, they just might! Having your staff promote your salon can have incredible reach. You might have a few hundred or a few thousand followers but now with your staff promoting your business, you could be reaching tens of thousands of people. It’s important that you still control the message they are sending, but it’s an outstanding opportunity for your salon.

These are just a few items you can consider to improve your store numbers. There are many more options available and you can find them if you start digging. Get busy with your numbers and find ways to increase your sales. The answers are staring at you, so open your eyes, get busy and keep digging.  You got this!