Social Networking & Your Salon Business

Are you taking full advantage of all the FREE social networking opportunities available to your salon? What does social networking have to do with doing hair, nails, tanning, etc?

If you're reading this right now, chances are you've got an email address. And if you've got an email address, then you've got access to some of the best FREE local advertising ever- very little experience required! Lack of computer knowledge is no excuse anymore, because heaven knows there are plenty of people without a single clue what they're talking about, making money using Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The best way to start advertising your salon using social networking is via Facebook. You must have a Facebook account- if you're like most people, you already have one; now all you've got to do is set up a separate page for your salon. Use the info page to put down the name, phone #, physical address, hours, etc of your salon. Then, upload a good profile picture that represents your salon. A good source for your profile picture is your business card. If you don't have a nice, professionally designed business card, BusinessCardsThatWork.com is a great place to get one. They have some amazing designs and good prices.)

Once you've got your Salon's FB page all set up, it's time to invite people. Send an invitation to everyone on your list to "Like" your salon FB page. Most folks want to support local businesses, and it doesn't cost them any time or money to "Like" anything on FB- so you're guaranteed exposure. And if you know them personally, they are likely to suggest to THEIR friends to like your salon. If your employees are on FB, you might invite them to become co-admins of the page.

After that, it's up to you to maintain your salon FB page. No, it's not hard, only takes a few minutes a week, and is totally worth your time. Do 2 things: From your SALON page, once a week, like on a Saturday, do a status update- something simple like "It's a great day to update your 'do at (insert name here) Salon! We're open till 7pm tonight!" Every one who "Liked" your page will see this status in their news feed. Don't forget to do updates for sales, specials, etc.

From your own profile page, once a week or so, update your status to something like "Headed to work at (insert name with link to salon FB page here) Salon... come tan with us!" Or, as a stylist friend of mine likes to say on her FB posts, "Got my coffee and headed out the door to *** salon... come see me and get your hair did!" You'd be amazed the responses she gets.

Twitter is also a good tool for advertising, but will require more attention and time on your part.

Ready for the New Year?

It's 2011, time for new beginnings and new designs. Bold and colorful is the way to go this year. Unfortunately, the economy is still struggling along, making it necessary for us all to put forth an extra amount of  "oomph" when it comes to advertising and design. Time to get aggressive and "in your face" and leave all that subtle stuff behind.

Let's take a look at some real attention getting designs that you might consider for your business cards this year.

Above is a nice and clean design that also happens to be super bright and eye-catching. There's lots of room for any slogans or text you'd like, and it's a design that's just generic enough to match anything.

To the right is a template that has one of the most popular style elements of the past few years and is still going strong: the ever present polka-dots! More bright blue and some minty green really make this design pop. You've got some scissors in the midground to help make your statement.

Next post we will be reviewing more hot designs that are sure to catch your potential client's attention and assure them that you're the stylist that is ALWAYS on trend!

It's The Holidays Again...

Do you have your holiday ducks in a row? Be sure to have some great holiday specials to offer your clientele- after all, tis' the season for stepping out to those snazzy holiday parties in those stylish new threads and sparkly jewels. They'll need a great hairstyle to match. Thing is, they've already spend a big chunk on those clothes and accessories, not to mention gifts- so it's a great gift to your customers to offer some deep discounts.

For the new years, it might just be time to renew and refresh your salon's image with some quality hair stylist's business cards. Don't stop at the business cards- it might be time for you to create a whole new image. Posters, flyers, and a website overhaul might be just the ticket to banish those winter blahs to help you get through to the spring.

Happy Holidays!

Day Spa Business Cards

One of the most popular indulgences for ladies (and some gents) these days is a day out at the spa. Some salons have gotten smart and merged their hair, makeup and nail styling with spa type elements to come up with a whole new kind of experience.

Now there are places where you can get a mani-pedi, body wrap, hairstyle and massage all in one trip. You go in feeling drab and looking dull, and come out looking and feeling like a million bucks. If you own a salon, even if you can't quite come up with the equipment and staff to create an entire separate spa side of your business, add some elements and start advertising your services.

Seriously people, would it kill ya to start offering a few spa services? For instance, aromatherapy is an inexpensive, rather esoteric way to introduce some of these elements into your salon. How about having at least one of your staff skilled in simple massage techniques? There are cheap classes for that.

Salons are often rather clinical looking places- why not soften up the atmosphere with some calming music and greenery?

If you don't have a business card that capitalizes on any spa type features, now's the time to get that ball rolling.

How to Design a Great Salon Business Card

Before ordering your salon or spa business cards, give some thought to how you want your end result to appear.

The first thing to consider is your "audience". Whose attention are you trying to get? Is it middle aged ladies, trendy young men, or teenage girls headed for prom? Or do you need to appeal to everyone?
For instance, if you're trying to have a young crowd or families attracted to your salon, cartoony graphics, and maybe rounded corners are in order.

Secondly, make sure your colors actually match and don't clash. Be sure the font colors you choose are strong enough to be seen over all the other elements on the card. An example: If you are using a template that has a greyscale background, white is probably not going to show up well enough. The exception is if the card designer you are using (like the one on BusinessCardsThatWork.com ) has a drop shadow option- this makes the letters pop out from the background.

Then you want to think about your font type- that is, how the letters actually look. There are a gajillion fonts to use but you only need 2, maybe 3 max. Don't overdo it or it will end up looking very unorganized. Choose a font that suits your salon- for men, the very sporty looking bullpen 3d font is great- sort of reminds you of baseball. For kids, the font "comic sans" is always perfect. You can also never go wrong with a classic like Times-Roman, or Georgia.  Use italics, bold, and shadows for highlights, but don't go overboard.

Pictures- do you need to add any graphics of you own to the card, or leave it as is? A good addition might be a picture of the salon itself (it if looks good), or inside the salon; maybe a group pic of your stylists of a head shot of the stylist whose card it is. Have a logo? If not, why? Come up with something simple yet memorable. There are a few business card sites that let you build a gallery of your own pics, to upload and tweak as you'd like. BusinessCardsThatWork.com is one of them.

Double sided business cards are great- you can put a little fill-in form to write in their next appointment info. If your business does almost exclusively walk ins, there's not much need for this. This is also a good place for a map, a list of specialties, bio of a hairdresser, company history, etc.

There are 3 types of business card finishes you can get from most business card companies- matte, c2v, and UV coated. The matte coating isn't really a good choice in any case. They get dirty, bent up, and look just plain unprofessional. You may as well just print them out on your printer if you're gonna get those. C2V coating is the right choice for most cards. It's not too glossy but not at all matte either. It provides your card with enough protection to withstand use.

UV coating is a shiny, glossy coating that's a little more expensive but often worth it. I wouldn't go dipping them in water or running over them with a car, but they will darn sure last WAY longer than any other biz cards. If you're going to spend a significant amount of money on business cards, go the extra mile and give them a little insurance.

Experiment- get 2 different sets of 250 each, and see which one seems to get the best response.

In conclusion, approach your business cards design with thought beforehand. Don't wait until you've started designing to come up with your colors, fonts and graphics.

5 More Reasons You Need Business Cards for Your Salon or Spa

If you think you don't need to have good, quality business cards in your salon / spa / barbershop advertising arsenal, think again.

1) Not everybody hangs out on your side of town. So you can't really depend on folks noticing your salon and remembering where it is, even if it's near a major landmark. But, you can bet they will deviate from their usual routine once they get word or idea that you do a great job.

2) The topic of what you do for a living comes up more often than you think. A casual conversation is a good opportunity for handing over your impressive business card. Keep it handy so there's no awkward digging around for it when the opportunity strikes.

3) Not everyone looks in the yellow pages - internet or paper. Personally, I haven't broken out the old paper YP in about 5 years. It would be my last resort. On the other hand, there are more people that you imagine who would not think to look up something like a salon online. Unless that is your customer base is nothing but hip 20-somethings.

4) Business cards (ahem- the right ones) give you an extra professional edge- but not just to others, but for yourself. Simply put, it's a confidence booster, and an ice breaker.

5) Your competition has business cards- count on that. If you see a trendy looking salon in town and they're doing lots of business, they've got a card and it's probably a good one. Find out what their card looks like and make yours better. You don't have to order lots of them to begin with- just make them reaallly good.

Business Cards for Barbers or Salons that Cater to Men

Unisex salon business cards

There are plenty of business card designs available that would be perfect for salons who also cater to male clientele, as well as barber shops both classic and modern. Obviously if you run a salon for both men and women, you could have 2 different, but complimentary card designs and hand them out as the situation dictates.

Either way, we don't want anything too frilly or frou-frou. Tone on tone, black and white, greyscale, or primary colors are your best bet. Rounded corners are probably best avoided, but depending on the design, a UV coating might be in order.


The card shown above is a great example of a gender-neutral card that can be tweaked either way. Use dark colors and a plainer font such as Arial or Verdana. To make is more girly, use a font like Georgia or Fashion Victim. Make the font color a pink or purple, or maybe aqua.

Here we have a VERY basic card that features some thinning shears on a white background.

Unisex salon or barber shop business cards

The scissors design is echoed in the background with a kind of shadowed image repeat. This design is very popular because if you have a smaller shop you can pretty much hand them out to all the stylist, because it covers everyone. Not exactly the most exiting template in the world, but ultra-useful.