#BETTERYOURBEST
Our weekly blog features insights from industry experts on how you and your team can better your best, and slay your goals.
Negotiate Like A Boss
Lynn Chisholm, Salon Leasing Consultant
Lynn Chisholm has dedicated the past thirty years to the commercial real estate industry. She is an authority in lease negotiation, with experience ranging from national, regional, and small, independent clients. In the professional beauty industry, reducing overhead costs is critical. As a leasing consultant with Summit Salon Business Center, Lynn walks through the process step by step with salon owners. Read on to...
moreFrom Stylist to Salon Owner: Top 5 Tips for Success
Michael Nikolas, Summit Coach + Shareholder
The majority of salon owners come into the industry as stylist - stylists who are passionate about serving guests and making people feel beautiful and confident. As a stylist, your career is focused on you and your goals and on the customer service that you deliver to your guests. It is incredibly...
moreOnline Reviews and Managing Your Reputation
Reviews play a big part in your salon marketing- and can feel, essentially, out of your control. Better understanding of the consumer psychology behind the "kiss and tell" can help you develop smart strategies to regain control of your reviews.
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more5 Ways You Never Thought to Market Your Salon (But Should)
Tim Fisk, Director of Brand Development
I have been talking about the "digital quantum leap" for almost 3 years now. I can't believe we are coming up on three years... time is so strange nowadays. Of course 2020 disrupted our industry in countless ways. From...
moreTop 10 Qualities of a Strong Leader
Summit Salon Business Center’s vision is to improve the professional beauty industry “one person at a time.” Part of growing people for a living includes providing mentoring in leadership development. Leadership is key to building a team that trusts, respects, and is dedicated to you and your company’s mission.
The age-old question is,...
moreWhat Keep Us from Setting Goals?
Very few of us ever set any goals and even fewer of us commit them to paper even though we know that people who DO set goals actually achieve them. If it really works that well, then why don’t more people do it?
To unpack this, it is important that we understand a little bit of our brain's physiology. It’s...
more2022 SSBC Randy Kunkel Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to our 2022 SSBC Randy Kunkel Scholarship Winners! Each recipient has earned $1500 to apply towards tuition.
Shily Peck - Kansas City
Hoang (Tom) Nguyen - Tampa
Kelsey Frederick - Perrysburg
Elizabeth Burt - Tacoma
Morgan Powers - Gainesville
Olivia Schnoebelen - Kansas City
Ariel Huffman - Kansas City
moreWhat Is Innovation?
Kim Light, Coach and Social Digital Trainer, SSBC
So, what is Summit Salon Business Center doing to elevate our industry? When people talk about innovation it’s always about the latest and greatest. Most people think that innovation is doing things differently, “new technology” or a new product that will change the industry. But innovation at its core is about “added value” and in our industry that means creating a difference in people’s lives.
We are not just innovators at Summit, we...
moreThoughts On Recession
Dave Kirby, Senior Director of Training
Since March 2020, I’ve made the observation that in the face of the pandemic and the ensuing shut down, salon owners exercised a completely different set of “muscles” with regard to their businesses. Whether it was the shock, the suddenness, the unknown nature and potential duration of the threat, it seemed that salon owners went to a whole new level of fiscal discipline as well as creativity about how to keep their businesses afloat. This...
moreThe Science of Happiness
Heather Bagby
The science of happiness is the most popular class in Yale's 300+ year history. Dr. Laurie Santos created the course and beautifully points out that "if you are in a better mood, you will find a better solution." Santos maintains that happiness can be a key to your health and positive performance and improve your immune functions. She highlights that many people wait to focus on happiness as they attempt to sort out other factors when...
moreTips For A Happier Front Desk Team
with Front Desk Trainer Tiffany Boccia
We all know that it’s IMPOSSIBLE at the front desk to keep everyone we love. We cannot afford to pay them millions of dollars for all of the hard work that we ask out of them. So how are you supposed to increase loyalty and motivate your front desk team to do a great job for your company?
We have worked with thousands of salon companies across the country and what we have discovered is that performance-based rewards work! When we...
moreThe Isolation Trap
featuring Coach + SSBC Shareholder Britta Larson
You don’t have to run your salon company alone.
Would you rather feel isolated OR have a partner with you, a community to share with, and a pathway that can help you grow to the next level?
As salon owners, we opened our companies with the mission to do it better, bigger, faster than who we worked with before or who we graduated school with. Many of us opened our companies out of an emotional reaction to our surroundings and with...
moreIs Your Work / Life Balanced?
featuring Peter Mahoney, President of SSBC
Studies suggest that our mental health is linked to successful work/life balance, but many believe that this delicate weight of scales is an unachievable dream. As the owner of nineteen salons, and two medi-spas, Peter Mahoney understands the multiple stresses and pressures that owning a business brings to the table.
Here are Peter's Top 5 Tips for Achieving Work / Life Balance:
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moreCustom Promotions & Buyer Types
Strong promotions are CUSTOM promotions. Promotions that someone sees and thinks – that’s EXACTLY what I want and need.
At SSBC we train our retail Rockstars to understand 12 different buyer types. Have you ever stopped to think about what “BUYERS” are most common in your salon company?
The majority of the promotions are often focused on the SPECIALS buyer who likes to take advantage of promotions when they receive a discount or...
moreInterview 9, Hire 3, Keep 1
Finding the right team members is a process. Do not be afraid of interviewing and do not be afraid of uninviting people. The most important goal is to bring in team members that thrive within your company and enrich your salon culture.
That being said, our best practices for recruiting, interviewing and hiring start with one very important acknowledgment. ...
moreIs Your Team Afraid to Sound "Salesy"?
HAVE YOU EVER… known what a client needs to be using at home to get the results she is looking for, but you’ve stayed quiet? Have you ever noticed that there was time to add foils or a shine gloss to a haircut guests appointment, but you didn’t speak up?
Have you ever known that a salon guest has the opportunity to get a manicure during her processing time –...
moreInstagram As A Recruitment Tool
Finding and enticing the best new talent in your market can often feel like a full-time job. As market leader salons, we always want to be hiring and on-boarding Associates - so how do we keep the pipeline flowing with career-minded service providers?
One of the most overlooked channels for recruiting New Talent is Instagram. The reason is because most companies see Instagram as an algorithm that needs to be mastered so that content...
moreInvesting in Your Company Culture
There are challenging days in any small business, particularly in the beauty industry (deep breaths....). The culture within your company can either reduce the impact of those days or fan the flames until you are faced with a virtual bonfire! Many leaders struggle to even identify the pulse of the culture within their company let alone shape it.
This can lead to staff retention issues, loss of potential income and even leadership...
moreWhat Do You Do With Excess Cash?
If you were able to take advantage of the multiple loan and tax credit initiatives available to small businesses during the pandemic, you may have found yourself with excess cash. For many salons, spas, barbershops and schools, PPP Loans and ERC Tax Credits left Cash Reserve accounts with more money than they have ever had. Minerva Beauty and Summit Salon...
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