Innovate and Stand Out: Why Ignoring Competitors Can Benefit Your Salon

Sit down and see what's going on with the Queen of Salons. Hair, beauty, and more successful tips for business owners. All on Build Your Salon. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. Phil Jackson here, your Queen of Salons, here to help you through your journey to salon business success. How on earth are you? I hope you're enjoying May. I'm sure I'm going to be enjoying myself. I'm recording this before I head off for my Build Your Salon retreat, my Salon Owners retreat, which we're holding this year in beautiful Lanzarote. So this episode is scheduled and ready to go before I jump on my plane and fly business class off to Lanzarote. And I have to go business class because I need so much luggage, you see, because I've got to take flip charts and books and notebooks and journals and all sorts of wonderful things with me. So my luggage weighs an absolute ton. Anyway, I hope May is treating you well. I had a bit of feedback from my last podcast, which is lovely. I love hearing from you. Phil at buildyoursalon.com, by the way. Should you feel the need to reach out and let me know what you think of the podcast, any topics that you've got that you would like me to cover in future, anything you agree with, disagree with, anything you found helpful. I just love those conversations. So please reach out if you get a minute. If you get two minutes, of course, then please give my podcast a nice five star review. That would be awesome, too. Anyway, one of the things that we covered last time when we were talking about niching down was that there are too many salon businesses around. The competition is too fierce. And that seemed to hit a note and resonate with some of you. So I thought we would do a little episode today on competition. Well, more specifically, why it's OK to ignore your competitors. And I want you to stop worrying about what other people are doing. Now, I wish in our industry we were better at collaborating. I wish we were better at working together to grow our businesses and create new opportunities. And instead of seeing our competitors as a problem, as our enemies, that we could find ways to collaborate and build relationships. But that seems to be something that's perhaps a bridge too far. At least it was in my town. So my salon was in Newbury in Berkshire in the south of England. And to be honest with you, most salon owners would rather cross the road than walk past me on the pavement and walk past me on the sidewalk.

The sense of competition between salon owners was absolutely fierce. Cutthroat, in fact, which was daft. I mean, Newbury is a very wealthy town. And certainly when we opened our salon, it was a very quickly growing town as well. There were plenty of customers to go round and there was really no need for us to be competing at that kind of level. And I realized just how bad things had gotten when I tried to give somebody some products. So we entered the competition. It was the L'Oreal Colour Trophy. And one of the conditions of the L'Oreal Colour Trophy was you had to use L'Oreal products to style the hair at the finals. And we got through to the finals, but we weren't a L'Oreal salon, so we didn't have any products to use. So we had to buy a load of products in. That meant after the competition, which we didn't win, by the way. It'd be a lovely story if we did. But we didn't win the competition. But we had all these products and I didn't want to put them on my shelf. It would look ridiculous. So I went down to the salon at the end of our street and said, I've got this box of products for you. And the suspicion, it was almost like I'd filled each pot with little razor blades. And I was trying to sabotage their business completely. And I said, I'm trying to give you these products. I'm not even asking anything for them. I just would rather you have them than they got thrown away. And in the end, just sort of dumped the box unceremoniously on their reception desk and walked out with my head in the air. And I thought, my goodness, that shows a lot. When you can't even give people something because of the level of suspicion, you know, things have got terribly, terribly bad. But there are things that I think we should be collaborating on. I could never understand, for example, why hair businesses in a certain area don't club together and look at recycling together, given that we get through so much foil and so many cardboard boxes of tint and all the rest of it. We could be collaborating, keeping our costs down. We could be collaborating on marketing. And particularly when it comes to things like laser hair removal, I could never understand why everyone who's got a laser doesn't get together and market their businesses together. But that level of collaboration seems to be too much for our businesses, which is a real shame. Having said that, I do think that we obsess a little about our competition. So I'm here to shift your mindset a bit, darling. So grab yourself a cup of tea, grab yourself a bicky for dunking, and let's see if we can't shift your attitude to competition. Because competition is a good thing. We need competition. The alternative, of course, is a monopoly. And nobody wants to operate in a monopoly. Because competition is healthy. It's good for the market. Keeps you on your toes. Keeps you innovating.

Because while we're trying to stand out of the crowd a little bit, it means we can't get too caught up with copying our competitors. We need to be focusing on our strengths, finding new ways to serve our customers. So competition is a good thing. And what I really want you to do is, instead of trying to copy what your competitors are doing, find ways to innovate. Find ways to be creative. Find something new and unique that your competitors haven't thought of yet. So that we can stay one step ahead of the game. Because part of that innovation is serving our customers better. But part of it will also be around reducing our costs, or being more efficient, or finding better ways to achieve the same result. And that's good for you, and good for the business. And sometimes even good for the economy. Heck, even the environment at large. So let's keep innovating. Keep pushing forward. But without your competitors nipping at your heels, darling, I bet you wouldn't bother. People get lazy. They get complacent. They stop trying. So instead of looking at your competition, let's keep your eye on the prize. Because my theory, and it's only a theory, though what's interesting, what I love, is that this theory has become kind of established fact. Which is absolute nonsense. So it's my estimate that about 75% of salon businesses, hair businesses, beauty therapy businesses, aesthetics businesses, about 75% break-even or worse. Okay? So most of them aren't making a profit, aren't making any money. Now that's become, someone's got hold of that statistic, started touting it as a researched fact. And it really isn't. It's just my opinion. Just my finger in the wind. And I think what's interesting is when we're obsessing about our competition, we're allowing our competition to dictate how we run our business. Because we're altering our behaviour. We're altering the things that we do in our business because of what our competitors are doing. So what you're doing, what you're allowing, oh my goodness, I'm ranting. See what you do to me each week, darling. Terrible for my blood pressure, this podcast, you know. But what you're allowing is for your competitors who may not be making any money to dictate how you run your business, which is absolute nonsense. In fact, if my statistic is correct, you'd actually have a better chance at success looking at what your competition is doing and then doing the complete opposite, doing something completely different. So let's not focus on what our competition are doing.

Instead of spending time monitoring your competition, focus on your goals, your objectives. Keep your eye on the prize. Work hard to achieve your goals and kind of ignore what your competitors are doing. Because if we can ignore what the competitors are doing, we get to focus on our customers. And of course, the customers are the lifeblood of your business. And we need to put them first, not your competition. So let's focus on creating that positive customer experience, providing exceptional service. Now, of course, we need to keep one eye on what our competitors are doing, because we do need to kind of be aware of what's going on in the marketplace. But let's actually focus on what our customers need, put them first, make sure that we're running a competitive business by offering exceptional service. And I'll bet that's going to serve you better in the longer term. My Salon Owners Retreat is a unique event where you get to create the agenda. This isn't a retreat of boring presentations in conference rooms without windows. The entire program is a mix of group coaching, mastermind sessions and one-to-one coaching with me, your favorite salon coach. There's also time built in for implementation. Yes, you're going to leave the retreat having actually got some important work done on your business with our support. Our spring 2023 retreat is now sold out, but you can be the first to hear about the next Salon Owners Retreat and get the very best early bird pricing by heading to buildyoursalon.com and joining our wait list. I can't wait to see you on Salon Owners Retreat. Don't forget your speedos. By obsessing on what your customers are doing, not only is there a danger that we're copying an ineffective and unprofitable business strategy. Heck, let's face it, most salon and aesthetic businesses don't even have a bloody strategy, let alone one to copy. But if we're trying to copy what they're doing, it's probably not going to work for you anyway. And that's because they're going to have a slightly different target audience. Or they may have different business goals. So we need to really focus on what's making you unique and find ways to make your business different in the marketplace rather than your competition.

And we had this as far as pricing was concerned. So let's be really honest. What most salon and aesthetic businesses do when they're opening for the first time is the pricing is the last part of the equation. It's the last thing they think of after they've figured out where they're going to put their salon, they've figured out where the customers are going to be parking, they've figured out how the business is going to run, who's going to staff it. The last thing they think of is actually what they're going to charge, which of course is an ineffective strategy. But, you know, hindsight's always 20-20. And then most salon owners, what they're doing about two weeks before they open is they'll be in the salon decorating furiously and making sure everything's pristine for that first day of business. And they'll take a break and they'll lean against the window of their brand new shiny salon. And they will look to one end of the street and they'll look at Sweaty Betty, who never cleans her windows, doesn't invest in training, hasn't added a new service to her price card for years, does no marketing. We always used to call her Sweaty Betty. Apologies if your name is Betty and you run a salon. I'm sure you're not sweaty at all. But there used to be a salon on the other side of the road from us. And when we first opened and they had net curtains and they were all stained and yellow from years and years of people smoking in the salon, even though it's a foul habit in anywhere, let alone in a salon or aesthetics business. So that was always my picture of Sweaty Betty. So we look at her and we say, well, we want to be charging more than she does. You know, we're going to do a much better job. The salon's a much nicer environment. We're much more modern, much more hip, much more in tune with what our customers want. We can definitely charge more than she does. And then we turn to the other end of the street and we look at the, what I used to call the chrome and glass salon at the other end of the street, which was normally part of a franchise. And we'd be a bit intimidated because it was a big team, lots of marketing, very, very busy, big vibe to it. And we'd say, well, we don't want to charge quite as much as them. We want to make sure we're competitive. We want to make sure that we're just a few pounds short of what they're charging. And we'd pick a number in between. And that was as far as pricing strategy went for most salons. Now, the problem is that you don't know what the cost structure is for that other salon. And we had this in my town because there were lots of salons, to be honest with you, that didn't need to make any money. And I know that sounds a bit counterintuitive, but basically they were hobby businesses. It was because daddy had a proper job, and I'm using inverted commas, a proper job in

the city. He would jump on the train from Newbury and head up to make a fortune in the city every day. And this was just to keep mummy happy. Sometimes she didn't need to make a profit. Sometimes they owned the building, so they weren't paying rent on it. And we had a lot of salons that could not have been turning a profit, given the amount of work they were doing, the number of customers who were going through the door, and the very low prices they were charging. They could not have been making a profit. It just wasn't possible, unless it was a front, of course, for a drug den. But I doubt it. Though these things do happen. So we had lots of people in that situation when they didn't need to make any money. So you're allowing someone who doesn't need to make a profit to inform your pricing strategy. Absolute insanity. So we've got to stop worrying about what our competition is doing. So by focusing on what our competitors are doing, with their different target audience, different goals, what we're allowing them to do is actually harm our business strategy. We need to know our customers and focus on what makes us unique and can differentiate us in our marketplace. That means that we get a chance then to leverage our strengths. We've all got our own strengths. We've all got our own weaknesses. By trying to do what your competitors are doing, we're actually focusing on their strengths, which may actually be your weaknesses. So you're trying to build your business on shaky ground. So focus on your strengths. Find ways to leverage them to a competitive advantage. But here's the big one for me. I think that more than ever, our teams and our customers are craving an authentic experience. I think they are craving a relationship with a business which acts with integrity, which has values that they can buy into. I think social media has made the entire world so aware of fakeness and inauthenticity that actually standing out as something authentic is a huge competitive advantage. And I think by copying somebody else's strategy or allowing your competitors to inform your decisions and inform your strategy means you're operating in a way which is not with integrity. It isn't aligned with your values at all. It's an inauthentic experience.

So I want you to be authentic and allow your customers to come to you because of who you are and the unique value that you bring to the market, the unique things that you bring to the table. Don't try and be like your competitors. Be yourself. Let your brand reflect your personality and your values because your brand is your identity and you have to stay true to it because people are too savvy. They will see through inauthenticity immediately. So don't try and change what you're doing. Don't try and change your branding for God's sake to match theirs. Stay true to your brand. Focus on building a strong, loyal customer base. And finally, my final words on competition are to stay positive. Instead of feeling intimidated or threatened by competitors, let's stay positive. Focus on your own strengths. Focus on your own goals. Remember that competition is healthy and use it as motivation to push yourself to be better and to achieve more. I'm sure you're doing a magnificent job with your customers. I'm sure you're achieving amazing things for their hair or their skin or their bodies day after day after day. Let's buy into that. Let's push that forward. Let's push ourselves to achieve even more in that arena rather than trying to fight the competitors on home turf. So I hope that's been useful to you. I hope it's changed your attitude to competition a little bit. I hope it's given you a bit of confidence to get out there. And you do you, darling. You do you. Because let's face it, trying to keep up with competitors or trying to be anybody apart from yourself is bloody exhausting, isn't it? So enjoy your business. Enjoy yourselves. If anything I've said today has resonated with you, has it helped you, anything that I've shared with you, if it's moved your business forward in any kind of way, please reach out. Phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know, I adore hearing from my salon and beauty therapy friends. And until we speak again in just seven short days, take care. Sit down and see what's going on with the queen of salons. Hair, beauty and more successful tips for business owners. All on build your salon.