Why Every Salon Needs a Membership (Ex-Salon Owner Explains)

In good times, a stream of steady membership income can be a game-changer for salons. In uncertain times, that stream of income isn't just a nice-to-have, it's absolutely essential. Let me unpack the reasons why I think every salon should have a membership. Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons. Coming in your eyes and ears again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom, and we are returning to my favourite topic on earth. We're talking about salon memberships today, because not only am I your queen of salons, I'm the undisputed, self-titled queen of memberships. Memberships are something that I put in my own salon way back in 2014, I think it was. It's what got me into coaching in the first place, and it's still something that I have a huge amount of belief in. And year after year, I'm kind of proven right. As time goes on, and I see more successful memberships in more salon businesses, I just get more ticks in boxes saying, yes, this is the direction that all salons should be going. And I've changed my advice over the years. I used to think it was something that could only work in bigger salons and salons that had a team. No longer true. I now think even if you are a solopreneur, especially if you're a solopreneur, a salon membership can be really useful for you. But why? What's the point, Uncle Phil? Why should I even think about putting a membership in place in my salon? Well, the reason, the number one reason right now, I think, is for some stability. Those traditional patterns of spend have been disrupted. For the last four years, since COVID and since we all came out of lockdown, things have been very unsteady. But last Christmas was when things came to an absolute head for me, because the Christmas season for lots of salons here in the UK and actually around the world is traditionally a time when we do really well. It's the time when, in fact, a lot of salons start to turn a profit after a year of either making a loss or scraping by. It's the bit that kept us going. It's the shot in the arm we needed before we faced an uncertain January and February. And last December, for a lot of salons, that bump in their takings, that increase in profits didn't materialise. And that was kind of the final nail in the coffin. So those traditional patterns of spend have been so disrupted now that it's becoming less and less likely that you're going to be able to predict with certainty what you're going to need staffing-wise and what you're going to generate profit-wise.

What does that do, though, to a business? Well, of course, it brings some uncertainty. It brings some instability. And that instability brings with it some anxiety as the business owner. It means that we can't rely on those traditional busy times. It means that we can't predict what's going to happen in the business. And it means that it makes it very hard for us to know when we're OK to take money out of the business, when we're OK to reinvest, when it's safe to grow the team, when it's safe to invest in training, when it's OK to just refurb the salon even, just to know that we've got a bit of income available to us. But what troubles me more is that that insecurity is translated through to our personal opinions of ourselves and our personal opinions of our businesses. It makes us feel like we're not doing a good job. It makes us feel that we're not the best salon business owners. And that's really dangerous. That's when our marketing starts to smell of desperation. It's when we become much more reactive. It's when we become much more last minute. It's when we're much less likely to charge what we're worth. It's when we're much more likely to get seduced by the idea of discounting to get us busy in the short term. So that instability in the business can be very, very dangerous. What about some good news, Uncle Phil, after all this bad news? Well, the good news is that salon memberships help bring some of that stability back by taking a portion of your clientele and moving them onto a monthly retainer model. We can start the month knowing that there's a certain amount of income coming in. So those peaks and troughs that are happening to our business suddenly were starting to take away a few of the peaks, but were swapping that for not seeing quite such deep troughs either. It's a bit like when you go 10-pin bowling. If you're really rubbish at 10-pin bowling like me, and they always hurt my nails, those bowling balls, and I don't even have very particularly long nails, but I always struggle. I always struggle. And I get one gutter ball after the next, after the next. So what do they do after they've seen me struggle for three or four times? My competitors very kindly let me put those little barriers up that run either side of the lane. They're called bumpers. I had to Google it to find out what they're called. That's how much of a sportsman I am.

But it's like putting bumpers on your business. It means that your income isn't going to fluctuate so wildly on the high side or on the low side. So it starts to bring some stability. We start to know when it's OK to reinvest in the business. We start to know when it's OK to take money out of the business too. More than that, we are operating in a much more competitive market than we were five years or 10 years ago. Every year, even just here in the UK, we're adding about 2,500 salon businesses to our ranks. And I'm not talking about 2,500 salon businesses opening to replace those that have closed. I'm talking about 2,500 extra salon businesses. So if you're feeling that competition is getting more and more fierce, you are absolutely right. Your market is shrinking. Your potential market is shrinking if we share it evenly amongst your competitors. How can memberships help? Well, of course, at the moment, memberships are not the norm. Even after me banging my head against a brick wall, even after me shouting and raging, telling you to get salon memberships for the last 10 years, it's still relatively unusual to see a membership in place in the salon. So it gives you a way to stand out in a very crowded marketplace. And I think it demonstrates a huge level of understanding for what's going on with your clients. Because your clients are feeling those uncertain feelings too. Even if you're operating with a particularly affluent clientele, they're feeling a little bit shaky at the moment. And as much as we're bringing in predictable income for your salon business, we're also smoothing and making the outgoings for your clients more predictable too. So predictability from you, but predictability for them as well. Well, and I think it demonstrates an understanding of what's going on with your clients. And that's so important at the moment because in that fiercely competitive marketplace, loyalty becomes paramount. We've got to look after the clients that we've got. And I think that salon memberships can be a really powerful way of doing that. And apart from anything, and this isn't a great way of maintaining loyalty, I admit, but having somebody signed up for an agreement for the next 12 months does mean that they're unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon. Also, that loyalty, by the way, starts to bypass particular team members. So if you're running a team and somebody leaves, what we tend to find is their membership clients will stay until the end of their membership term. That gives you an opportunity to get them loyal to somebody else, for them to start building a relationship with a different team member.

So essentially what I think memberships are doing is building a brand loyalty, a salon loyalty over and above the loyalty that your individual stylists or beauty therapists or estheticians are building on their own. So lots of reasons why I think salon membership should be a part of your business. What have I missed out on? Is there something else that you think salon memberships could be bringing to your business? I've put together a little cheat sheet to help you on your way with salon memberships. You need to head over to buildyoursalonpodcast.com forward slash memberships and you can download my cheat sheet. This is what I know better than anybody is what I know best. It's what I've been doing for years and years now. And I have been midwife at the birth of hundreds, maybe even thousands of memberships over the years now. I've seen this work in all businesses, all shapes and sizes, from solopreneurs right up to big team multi-site salons. I've seen it work in hair, beauty, aesthetics. Heck, even outside our industry too, I've helped bring memberships into business. So please, please get hold of that cheat sheet, get memberships to play, even if you're only going to put 5% of your takings on memberships. I promise that little bit of stability, that reliable income in your business can make all the difference to the way that you feel about your finances. So any questions on that, please reach out, let me know. You know I love hearing from my salon owner friends anyway. Also reach out if you have any questions for my upcoming question and answer session. I do one of those every month. They only work if I've got your questions. I've actually got a good host of questions for this month, so I'm very excited about that episode coming up in a couple of weeks' time. Just seven short days until my next episode with you. And until then, 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.