Business Sharper Than Your Shears: Sola Takeaways From Paul Mitchell’s Business rEvolution

Posted on August 8, 2015
Jennie Wolff

When it comes to education and inspiration, John Paul Mitchell Systems has undoubtedly become an industry leader. With a focus on leadership, business building and finding one’s own path to success, the Business rEvolution 2-day event featured speakers from all aspects of the professional beauty industry. The Sola team feels incredibly fortunate that we had the opportunity to attend this event and wanted to share a few of our favorite takeaways with you:

John Paul DeJoria (Co-Founder + Chairman of the Board, John Paul Mitchell Systems) encouraged stylists to focus on being a leader rather than a boss. Although in a salon studio, your focus is not on your staff, you are your own boss, so think about how you inspire yourself everyday. “A leader is someone that says ‘Hey, let’s do this together. And here’s what I want you to do and here’s why we should do it, and do you have any better ideas?”

Michaeline Dejoria (Vice Chairman and Director of Future Development, John Paul Mitchell Systems) taught us to look at everything with fresh eyes. “I always look at everything we’ve done, whether we’ve done it for 35 years or 35 minutes, and I come to it with complete openness, and look at how we can maybe improve.”

Much of the event focused on the “6 Economies of the Salon,” a logical way of organizing your salon to maximize your revenue:

Reservation Experience: this is where your client’s experience begins and ends. At Sola, this is especially important since you are your own reservationist! Consider the ways you can use salon software or create your own systems to make the experience as smooth as possible, and remember to always go for the pre-book!
Stylist Station: This is not just a place for cutting and styling. It’s the best place to educate your guest on the steps you are taking and how they can maintain their look with the proper techniques and product use.
Wash House: “The Wash House is an important driver to increase your service revenue. Provide your guests with a salon tour and, while in the Wash House, talk about the right treatment for their hair.” – Stephanie Kocielski (Vice President of Education and Artistic Director, John Paul Mitchell Systems)
Color Bar: “Installing a Color Bar ensures that your guests can be a part of the formulation process. They’ll see it not as easy as going down aisle 3 and selecting a color from a box.” – Colin Caruso (Platform Artist, John Paul Mitchell Systems)
Tool Bar: Let guests see and touch the tools that you offer. Tools are big-ticket items and educating clients on how to use them will definitely help increase sales.
Take Home: Go beyond retail and invite your guests to bottle up their salon experience for continued beauty at home!

photo props: Estetica Magazine

Robert Cromeans (Global Artistic Director, John Paul Mitchell Systems) inspired stylists to grow their salon business by looking at numbers in a different way. “Salons should aim to generate about 20% of their revenue from product sales and 80% from services. That 20% is as profitable as the 80% coming in from services.”

Mary Rector Gable (founder and CEO of behindthechair.com) talked about the importance of branding. She asked the audience, “When you create your brand, do you want to have your customer buy your brand for the day, or join your brand for life?” She talked about creating a vision for your salon and a developing a culture and a brand that represents you.

Terri Cowan (Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Professional Salon Concepts) encouraged stylists to dedicate time to continuing education, perhaps by taking a day out of the week to focus on your business. She encouraged salon owners to consider reducing time in salon to “Prime Time Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Noon-8pm and Fridays-Saturdays 8am-4pm.” Make the hours you spend in your salon count, and make sure to give yourself time to focus on your business growth!

Antony Whitaker (Hairdresser, Educator, Author and Motivational Speaker) gifted his fantastic book GROW and offered great tips on looking at your business dollars in a simple way to minimize costs and maximize your profits. “Your job is not to run your business, it’s to grow your business. To do that, you have to create an organizational structure and put systems in place."

John Harms (Founder and CEO of Millennium Software) shared the “Industry by the Numbers:"

Rebook: 20%
Average Take Home Ticket (All Tickets): $10.25
Average Take Home Ticket: $40
% Guests Buying Take Home: 22%
Services Per Guest: 1.56
Repeat Guest Retention: 68%

Jason Yates (VP of Sales + Marketing, John Paul Mitchell Systems) offered a plethora of marketing and social media tips, reminding us that on Facebook, “your wall is a conversation with current and future clients, so make it engaging!" Here are a few of the Facebook best practices he shared: