Expert Tips on Client Acquisition [EP:158]

Mastering Client Acquisition and Business Growth Strategies

In this episode, Jen and Todd delve into the critical topic of client acquisition and understanding what it truly means to need more clients.

With a light-hearted recount of a weekend bouncy house mishap, they transition into practical advice for business owners looking to attract and retain clients.

Key discussions include the significance of correctly pricing services, building a client avatar, leveraging social media and reviews, and the power of local collaboration and community support.

They also touch on the pitfalls of discount marketing and emphasize patience and consistency in business growth strategies.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:08 Client Acquisition: An Overview
00:36 Opening Takes: Birthday Party Lessons
03:14 The Real Problem: Pricing and Profit
10:17 Understanding Your Ideal Client
12:27 Effective Social Media Strategies
21:12 The Importance of Online Presence
22:33 Driving Traffic to Your Website
22:45 Professionalizing Your Online Presence
22:56 Creating Engaging Content
23:14 The Importance of Value on Your Website
23:44 Referral Programs and Collaborations
24:02 Building Community Connections
25:24 The Power of Word of Mouth
32:53 Leveraging Reviews and Testimonials
36:12 Client Experience and Retention
37:53 Challenges and Strategies
43:22 Closing Thoughts and Final Advice

Marketing Content

• Ways to Increase Business
• Attracting the Right Clients

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Find more of our things:
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Transcript

158
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Todd: [00:00:00] All right. What's up everyone today? I didn't say happy Monday. Happy Monday. Sorry. Geez. I'm rude. Anyway, we are going to talk about client acquisition. Seems to be

Jen: was a fancy way to say that.

Todd: something. What do you call it?

Jen: I don't know, I need more clients. That's what I keep saying. But I like client acquisition. Acquisition.

Todd: Client acquisition. It seems to be something that you've noticed a bunch of people are looking at online or looking into or looking for help with. And

Jen: See it often.

Todd: all right.

Jen: Daily.

Todd: So Before we get there, we're going to do opening takes. What

Jen: That was my deep breath.

I have to go first?

Todd: Yeah, why not? I always go first to bail you out.

Jen: Okay, opening takes.

Todd: unprepared

Jen: it.

Todd: to let the

Jen: It's good.

Todd: No,

Jen: I'm gonna help you all out. If [00:01:00] you didn't know this, and if a majority of you did know it, please let me know that I should have known it.

Todd: have

Good?

Jen: I don't know. When you're planning your child's birthday party, and you want a ridiculously ginormous bouncy house, find out if they will pick it up and pack it up for you.

Otherwise, your husband picks up the bouncy house, it weighs like 500 pounds, and he basically wants to spin kick you because how is he going to get this back into his truck?

Todd: So I

Jen: Learned that this weekend.

Todd: So, I picked up this bouncy house and this thing was not small by any stretch of the imagination. It was like something you'd see at like a carnival.

Jen: Yeah, we let the, our five year old turning six pick it out and it was ridiculously huge.

Todd: I had no clue. You were like, Hey, I got a bouncy house. Can you pick it up? And I was like, sure, pick it up on Friday. So I picked it up when I got to the place, they grabbed like this mini skid steer. And if you don't know what that is, it's, it's basically like a fork truck. And they use that to pick it up and put it in the truck.

And I'm just staring at them. [00:02:00] And then I was hungry. So I stopped at our local like pizza place to grab a sandwich and what I was just sitting there and I went to play on my phone, just killing a couple of minutes until they made my sandwich. And just couldn't, I couldn't get on my phone. I was just how the hell I was going to get this thing back in the truck. So I managed to it out. Like I could. Not pick it up off of the ground, but I could stand it on its end and then flip it out of my truck. But I was like, there's no way this I'm going to be able to get this back into my truck. Like it's that heavy. So luckily, like Jen, like you just said, when they came, they have a lift gate, which I was like, how are these guys going to lift this thing? Like I waited around. Cause I'm like three of us can maybe help, even though we're paying somebody to do it. I'm like, I don't, I don't know. They're not going to be able to lift this thing. And they just rolled it onto the lift gate and it

Jen: So

Todd: lifted up.

Jen: I called the company this morning when we were supposed to drop it off and I'm like, there is no way we can get this into production. Our truck and get it to [00:03:00] can you come pick it up for a fee? They'll pick it up. I didn't care. Like, please help us anyway. So when ordering a big bouncy house, see if they have pickup delivery and it makes your day way easier.

Todd: My opening take is going to be based on our chat today.

Jen: Okay.

Todd: So my opening take is that before you start solving a problem, you should make sure that that's your actual problem. So I see this client acquisition thing a lot too, where people are like, how do I get more clients? Any more clients? Do you offer discounts and all this stuff? If you have major issues in other places, say for example, you haven't priced your services correctly. And you're losing money on each service or not making what you should be making on each service. More clients is not the answer to solve that problem. If, for example, you have a retention issue because, say your salon is dirty.

Let's face it, there are [00:04:00] dirty salons out there. Say your salon is dirty and people come in and they're like, Yeah, no, not going back. Your issue isn't more clients. I used to see it a lot in the gym world too. People would be like, how do you get more clients? How do you get more clients? And they were charging like 50 a month. The answer for you is to necessarily get more clients in that case, but to get your pricing where it needs to be. And that will solve the majority of the issues you're having. I personally would rather. Have value clients, few, like fewer, higher value clients. So meaning what would you rather have?

Would you rather have somebody that comes in and pays you a thousand dollars and a visit is consistent is on time appreciates and values you. Or would you rather chase a hundred people that pay 10?

Jen: Yeah, no way.

Todd: I much would much rather deal with the one person. It's just easier. And then it's easier for you to provide a [00:05:00] service.

That's going to blow them away. hard when you're chasing the bottom that race to the bottom. So, you know, when you adjust your prices to try to get more people in, which is a common strategy, right? If you're like, I would never adjust my prices. Really? If you offer new clients a discount, you're adjusting your prices.

What do you call it? That's not the answer. You're telling me you need more clients because you need to make more money, but then you're adjusting the price to make less money.

Jen: Right. Can't afford to do that.

Todd: at all. Yeah. So that's my take. And I hope I don't sound like a jerk, but also I hope I kind of do because people probably need to hear it. Where do we want to start with client acquisition? So people need clients. What are you going to do?

Jen: So they think some do, some may not.

Todd: Yeah, every business, no one's arguing that salons don't need clients. That's not what I'm saying. Obviously we need

Jen: We need

Todd: not stupid. What [00:06:00] I'm saying though is that the majority of the people I've talked to, you've talked to, we've met over the years, no idea how they even price their services. figured out what it even costs them to open the door in the morning.

Jen: or cost them for service.

Todd: right? Cost per service They just have no clue about that stuff. So more clients is not the answer.

Jen: Right. You need, even if like, you should at least know what it is to operate daily, like how much money do you need to bring in, whether it's weekly, daily, monthly, however you look at that, then you can break down from there. If you don't even know that, and you're like, I just need more clients. Well, you don't even know how many clients you need or like what that will do for you and to what you just said, or what we were just talking about, if you don't have your services priced for profit.

And you're losing money for services, which for a lot of color services, salons lose money because they're not priced for profit. And you don't know how much the product's costing you versus how much you're charging. And then if you broke it, broke it down, you're losing money. So if you get more clients and you're not [00:07:00] priced for profit per service, you're actually going to be in the exact same position or more negative, because you're going to need more product and you can't afford it.

So. To what you just said. I think the first place you've started, if you need more clients, let's look at the prices of the services you offer and make sure you're priced accordingly for your square footage, for your rent, for your overhead. What does that look like? And then once you have that, how many clients do you actually need?

You'd be shocked if you were like, well, if I priced accordingly, I have enough clients. I have more than enough. What am I doing? If you took out discounts, Sally gets 20 haircuts. Susie gets 50 haircuts. And my new client gets 70 haircuts. Okay. Let's just charge them all one price for the haircut. Bring everybody up to your 70 haircut and you'll probably be profitable overnight, like within that month.

So looking at like that services for profit and making sure you understand what each one costs you, what you're charging, what that looks like if you're a commissions on what you're paying out and making sure all of those numbers work together.

Todd: Yeah, I think, Excuse me. [00:08:00] I think a lot of people look at it as almost like a lemonade stand. Like I'm going to open up and it cost me five dollars for these ingredients. I'll charge a dollar per cup after five cups. Everything is profit that. It's too simplified though. What you have to do is build the profit into each cup. have to build the profit into each service and that's what every

Jen: That's what if you don't sell five cups at your lemonade stand, right? Like,

Todd: Yeah, it's it's that's an oversimplified way to think about it and you can still think about it that way, but it's not gonna doesn't it doesn't make sense. It's not going to make sense when you look at it over time. You know what I mean? Because some days you might not even have five clients. So you definitely have to build your profit in. Like I was starting to say a second ago, every business does that. They look at it. How much money do we want to make if I'm [00:09:00] selling whatever pizza? I know the cost. It cost me to sell that one pizza and that includes your rent, your overhead, all that stuff has to be broken down into into your thought process before you worry about getting clients. So if you haven't done that, you need to do that. We're working with somebody this morning on that exact thing, actually. And so, Thank you. Once you have your pricing and stuff, and once you're structured correctly, and you're up and running, and things are good, and you now want to expand, sure, let's talk about getting new clients. I would say first to the people that are listening, if you're like, I could, I have, the pricing is down. I got it. Profit is built in. I got it. I'm charging what I'm worth. Even though that was like a

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: you're worth. It's just random

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: Yeah. If you're charging for profit and you're [00:10:00] heading in the right direction, you're like, I need more clients.

Let's go. First thing I would ask is what are you doing now?

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: doing? know, and I wish we had, I wish we had somebody to do like a case study. It would be fun to do. But we don't. I think the first thing I usually have people start with is understanding your ideal client. Like, who do you want to, who, who are you? I've written about this a

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: in blog posts and all sorts of different stuff, but who do you want to service? Who brings you joy? Who do you love? Who lights you up in the morning when you see their name in your book, when you check your day? Those are the type of clients you want to replicate. So what you should do is go ahead and build out a sort of a client avatar. And write down things about the client. We don't have to get into it but I can link the I can link some of the blog posts that I've written in the show notes, but I think I called it one time. I just trying to simplify it as simple as possible, like a who, what, where.

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: And so who do you want to service? [00:11:00] Who makes you happy? What is that person write down some stuff about them? Is it, females that are 30 to 50 years old and have kids and own a small business. Write that stuff down. So that's your who what I think was next. So what are the problems that you can

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: person? That person has problems. Maybe they have gray hair and they don't want gray hair. Perfect. How can you solve that problem for them? And write down all that stuff. So what problems do you serve for your average clients? Well, my average clients are, you know, 20 year old females who want lighter hair. Okay.

So how do you solve that problem for them? They can't figure it out on their own. They tried with some box from the store, they fried their hair off. They grew it back in and now they need your help,

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: So how do you solve that problem? And the last thing was where? the where is where are these people?

Where are they spending time? So they spend time at home, they spend time at work, and then generally people have a third place. Where is that? Right now it's online.

Jen: Mm [00:12:00] hmm. Mm hmm.

Todd: time online. And then you can get as specific as possible. Are they in like mom's groups on Facebook? Are they in business owner groups on Facebook? they on Instagram? Are they on TikTok? Just keep going. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? So that, that would be the first thing that I would recommend. And a lot of people, when I run through that exercise with them, are like, this is a lot of work.

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: do you want to be bitching about needing more clients?

Or do you want more clients?

Jen: And this really helps. I, you see all the time, like, I don't know what to post, I'm lost, whatever. So if you do, you go through and you do this model that Todd's talking about, run through this kind of skit thing. Now when you go to post, those are the people you're talking to. Those are majority of what you want to be posting for pictures of what you're trying to attract for that avatar, that client that you're looking for.

Your captions are going to be solving the problems for what that person wants. And you're really now. Like honing in on the people that you're speaking to, which means more people will stop on your posts and you should start seeing more clients out of that rather than just [00:13:00] posting arbitrarily.

Todd: Yeah. If you're posting stuff arbitrarily, word usage there,

Jen: Thank you.

Todd: not speaking to anybody. If you're the person that's like 9 a. m. Haircut opening. No. First of all, a very small percentage of your audience sees that and of those people, if I don't need a haircut, I'm not coming in. Say I, I don't wanna make this a social media episode, but

Jen: Well, it, it all ties together though. So, I mean,

Todd: it definitely does. So we can talk about it. But say for example, 'cause I see this as popular a lot, right? 10:00 AM color and highlight opening one at 1:00 PM haircut or glaze. Okay, those are very specific things. So here's what I tell our staff. Don't post stuff like that because if somebody looks and they're like, Oh, I don't need a color, but they want to get in with you, they're going to swipe.[00:14:00] 

Cause you, you can just say you have openings if you want, because once the people call and get on the phone, then we can plug them in wherever,

Jen: who cares if it's this week, next week, you just want to get them in your book.

Todd: Right. And so when you're like, I have a color opening at this time, well, if I don't, again, if I don't want a color, but I wanted a haircut, I can't have a haircut at that time.

I can only have a color. I get what

Jen: Those are your missed opportunities that you don't always realize you're creating because you think you're like helping them see what you do have, but you're, you're closing more doors and you're opening them where if you just are more loosely with like, I have openings this week or I have openings Hit me up, whatever that is, I don't hit me up with Mm-Hmm.

Todd: to what you said when you have your avatar and you have, say you have five problems that you can solve for people. Just focus on that. You're trying to recreate the wheel. This is why we see so much of this like cherry cola with a picture of red hair. And I'm like, what does that do for the client? You made up an art, you made up a random name for a hair color that you [00:15:00] created, which is fun. I'm not saying it's not fun. That's cool. That's cool. But how many clients are coming in because you wrote cherry Cola on a haircut? None. So what you should do is take your five problems. Say one of your specialties is blonding, right?

Let's just pick that. Talk about what you do, what sets you apart? Why would someone want to come to you for blonding? Do you value the integrity of the hair? Explain that give away as much free information as you can tell people exactly what you're going to do.

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: no secret. You are not the top of your field.

You don't have to worry about any proprietary information getting stolen. it out.

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: saying post formulas because that doesn't make sense either. If you tell people like, Hey, I use these products. I go through these steps. I do whatever treatment on the hair. I do this right. And let them know why. Don't try to make yourself the [00:16:00] hero though. In the story, they're the hero in the story. You're the muse. You're the person that connects them. You're the person that inspires them to take the action.

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: a result. They don't know how to get there. You show them how to get there, which is coming to see you,

Jen: And you have to do this consistently.

Todd: build,

Jen: one post

Todd: build trust and authority.

People have to like you. People have to also know you exist. So yeah, if you post once and don't post again, again, when you're confused and you're like, I don't know what to post or what should I caption this? You should have a million captions and not enough photos.

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: run out of stuff.

Like as far as when we go heavy on social media, like we go through phases where it's like, let's pound social media for a while and post every day and see what happens. And we usually will run out of videos and, and pictures. Before we run out of ideas for what we're posting. Cause that's the important part.

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: cares about the back of the head of the picture of the the haircut you just did on the woman, because. Everyone does[00:17:00] 

Jen: Right? So you're not setting yourself apart

Todd: photos out there, right? So, you're not really separating yourself. How you can separate yourself and establish authority is to constantly be going through those three to five, whatever, however many you have, things that you're really good at and tell the story of how it helps the

Jen: over and over and over again.

Todd: Over and over and over again, and you don't need new content. So you

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: and recreate, just recreate the same things. Use the same images, make them in black and white. That part does not matter. Your talent is not what's at question. Can you solve my problem? That's what's at question.

Jen: I think for like, if you're an established stylist and you're like, I don't need new clients or I could use a few, whatever you are probably getting referrals from clients. You already have, hopefully you've got your avatar clients actually sitting in your chair. And now if you need to build your business, you can go through literally the people that you see daily.

Like, Hey, trying to, you know, have some openings coming up. [00:18:00] Like I want more people like you to sit in my chair for those of you starting out. This is how. You start to get relationships with clients that you don't know yet. And what's really great about this is it becomes like a referral. So they've watched your Instagram or your social media platform, however long, and you've consistently posted and you're consistently speaking to them.

They feel that they know you. So now they're coming in, they book that appointment. They're literally sitting in your chair and they're saying, do whatever. And the reason why they're saying doing what do whatever is because they trust you as a professional because of what you put on that platform. It's the exact same thing as.

Myself as a seasoned stylist, I get that now because my clients refer their friends, like go see Jen, you're going to love her. So when they come in, they're like, Susie said, I'm going to love you. So, you know, we go through a consultation still, but I already have like a step up because they already trust me because somebody already validated that I'm good at what I do.

Newer stylists, you don't have that. So you have to create that. And social media is free for you. It's just your time, but you have to create that, what they feel like they [00:19:00] know you when they feel like they trust you. So when they come in, they're like. I'm so excited to be here. And they also now want to get to know you in person.

And if you can do that, that is like the sauce on top of everything that will really get you the most amount of clients very quickly.

Todd: One of the problems that you solve, Jen, for people is the time thing. So part of our avatar for when we laid out hello hair, of our ideal client is somebody that appreciates and values.

Jen: Mm-Hmm. . Mm-Hmm.

Todd: to work with young professionals, business owners. We have a lot of students that are on time constraints. We have people that just, they appreciate time and they value time. And so yesterday someone was at our house. Who's a client of yours

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: who said, I used to be at the salon for four to five hours and what I, came in to see Jen and now I'm home in like two hours, two and a half hours. I think she said two and a half hours. You're. Wildly [00:20:00] fast because you have, you, you've perfected your techniques and you worked on your foundations and blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. So that is something that separates Jen from a lot of people is that she's insanely fast. If you're someone that values time and don't, doesn't want to sit around in a hair salon for five hours at a whack every six weeks, then she's your girl,

Jen: These are the new clients I'm getting that have sat in chairs for way too long. They come to me for other reasons. They're coming to get their, like, I want to be more blonde. My stylist isn't listening. That's generally like where it comes or whatever. Or it's generally a non listenening situation or poor consultation and then poor delivery.

And then they're like, whoa, you did that quick. Like, I'm, I thought I'd be here all day long. This is amazing. Now I can do this in my workday because I can take a break and I can come get my hair done.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. You're giving them back part of their day, which is one of our like main things

Jen: Mm-Hmm.

Todd: hello on is we want to get people back part of their day. Everybody's busy. These women have kids and families and husbands and and dogs and grocery lists and [00:21:00] all the stuff that we all have. And they don't want to be sitting around for that long. And so we can solve that problem for them.

Jen: Yes,

Todd: think the next thing that you should, blue Jay. The next thing that you should think about is your online presence. You need an online presence. I was just looking

Jen: absolutely.

Todd: this morning and they don't have a website.

They don't have an Instagram and they haven't posted on Facebook since like,

Jen: 2017,

Todd: yeah,

Jen: I think it was.

Todd: years.

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: what are you doing? You got to have that stuff. I would have somebody if you have the time to do your own SEO and learn all that stuff. Good for you. Go for it. I would probably recommend if you're not having somebody do that to have someone at least take a look and see what they can do for you and make a plan

Jen: I would 100 percent recommend that just because I've seen what it's done for, for our business.

Todd: I would recommend a blog. I go through, again, phases with social media. I go [00:22:00] through phases with blogging. I have blogs coming. I have a whole bunch of stuff because it's fall now and there's just a different platform. Usage of time during the school year. I would consider blogging, even if it's super simple, just because it's going to help your website, it's going to help Google find you.

It's going to help people look. And if you think blogs don't really do anything or blogs are dead or they don't really have value, I have stuff that I've posted when we first opened that still get hits every single week, there's people on there. Reading it, opening it, clicking it. So it's helping drive people to our website. then from there, it's helping establish yourself more as

Jen: A professional. Yeah,

Todd: Yeah,

Jen: agree.

Todd: talks about professionalizing the industry. Learn how to write,

Jen: Right. Or

Todd: know.

Jen: you're talking like that, what are you doing to actually professionalize, like your part in it? Right. That that's how you start doing that.

Todd: and have fun. If your blog, say you want to do a daily blog that's like, Hey, it's [00:23:00] Tina's, Tina's, two minute hair tips, whatever, like you can put that in blog format, or maybe you do a vlog and you post it on YouTube and then drag it over into your website. Like just have content, have stuff that's out there online.

You can set up a website, but if you set up a website that's just. Your prices and a book here button. There's no, you're not establishing value. You're saying you already know you want to come to me. Here's the price list, right? It's like when you walk into a restaurant and grab a menu, you've already sat down.

You already know you're dining there. So they just hand you a menu. But in order for us to find the restaurant, that looks a little different. I might go check out their website. I might look at some pictures,

Jen: out their reviews.

Todd: Yeah, stuff like that. So you're going to want that referral program. You can get into that if you want. We don't have a referral program. So would one work? Sure. Yeah, it's a, it's definitely an idea. One that I like is [00:24:00] collaborating with other businesses. Just even if you're not doing anything other than meeting business owners and saying, Hey, how can I help you? know, I tell the story of the time I went to the coffee shop.

There was a coffee shop that opened. And I liked it. And so I emailed the owner and I said, Hey, would you have 15 minutes one day? I'd love to just meet and maybe we could have a coffee or whatever. And so she said, sure. And so I went in and I said, I really love your place. And she said, thanks. And I said, how can I help?

And she was like, with what?

Jen: What?

Todd: And I was like, I just told you, I really love your place, which means I want it to continue to be successful. means, I need you to do well,

Jen: So I can keep coming here

Todd: selfishly can keep coming here and grabbing the cinnamon bun and my coffee. so, she actually was like, in complete awe.

Like, I've never had anyone do this before. Ever ask what they can do for me. Typically what happens is people show up and they want to put their card on our community [00:25:00] board. So they want access to your clientele

Jen: with nothing.

Todd: re no reciprocation, which I don't understand. So approach is always like, Hey, how can I help you?

Or, Hey, how can we work on something together maybe? Or what event or pop up or whatever can we do? That's just fun. And. When you start having fun with other business owners, they're going to want to help you

Jen: Well, and that helps you leave the impression too. So if they're, if they have someone's like, Oh, I don't like what I'm going for my hair, like, Oh, I met these people. They own this. You should go check it out. Even if you don't go there, you left an impression, right? Like that's really important.

Todd: I will. Sometimes if somebody has hair that I like, or that I notice I'll be like, Hey, I'm a barber. I really like your hair. We're over here. If you ever get stuck or you ever need, want to check out someone new, that's how I leave it. So if I have a card, which I rarely, rarely do, I think I might need business cards, but I might hand them a card and I'm not pushy.

I'm just saying, Hey, like your hair. Come on in. You know, there's nothing wrong with stuff like that. [00:26:00] Yeah, collaborating with other businesses is also like you said, it's just making more people aware. And these people are, you know, your business owners, your small business owners, up and down your main streets of America are your community leaders. They're the people that people look at for stuff. So if I'm in, you know, even. our local pizza place. Like we tell the staff there that we like their hair. We do hair and we have clients that come out of there. And I'm sure if somebody is like, Oh, like you said a second ago, I need, I'm looking for a new salon.

I want to check out something new, or I'm looking for a new barbershop or whatever. We get that a lot. Hey, I heard about you from these guys. They told me about you, you know? So just connecting and making those bonds. It's not necessarily that I'm trying to get the owner to come sit in my chair.

Jen: No.

Todd: That's not what it's about.

I'm trying

Jen: It may lead to that, but that the, that's not the goal, right? It's just really to create the connection and make the impression.

Todd: That's it. And it's about helping people. You always want to constantly be helping people. Try to help, try to out help them. [00:27:00] If they offer you something, offer them something better. help out, help the hell out of

Jen: Yeah. And in your community, it just is great to, to, to feel like a community. It's always nice to feel part of something. Yeah.

Todd: we have Mel's Which is like a, it's called a fun way park. And so anybody that's local, anybody that's in New Hampshire will know Mel's if you're listening, but you don't, it's like they have laser tag and batting cages and go, go carts. And they have a driving range and water boats and all sorts of stuff.

Right. An arcade. There's a restaurant and they are launching like a, am I allowed to talk about this?

Jen: Oh yeah. Yeah. It's advertised now.

Todd: Okay. So the, this Christmas they're doing like a lighting display or something. I don't even know what it is, but we've

Jen: I think they call it like a festival of lights.

Todd: Festival of lights. Cool.

Jen: I think.

Todd: we've been telling everybody, [00:28:00] friends, family,

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: well, one of the owners is a client of yours.

Jen: Yeah. His wife's my client. Yes.

Todd: And so shared, shared that information with you. And it's now we look at it as our job. You gave us information. We want you to succeed.

Jen: Yeah. It's close for us. I want to be able to go. I want him to do it again. I generally, those things every year get better. And I think when she told me, she told it to me, not like, Hey, help me with this. She told it to me just like, Was excited because her husband, his favorite season is Christmas. Her son was working at the golf course this summer and they paired together to build this festival of lights.

And it was their summer bonding and our son's learning about the business and all that. And that was the story that resonated. And I was like, all right, this is cool. But to what you're saying, it's also local. I want it to do well for them, but also like, so it comes back next year. And I think there's something to be said about word of mouth and, and letting people know.

So hopefully all the people go that want to go.

Todd: Yeah, it's again, it just goes back to helping [00:29:00] you want to help small businesses. They didn't ask us, like you said, Jen, no one asked us to do this. We just are like, It's the right thing to do. I always will shout people out. I'll tell people it's, it's just about sharing information. You know, you have a,

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: small business.

It's kind of your role in the community.

Jen: I think too, when you've struggled with small business or, or anything in life, and you've come out of it either way, good, bad, you have a different like understanding for it. We, like I said, I see all the time people need more clients, whether it's, they need clients or they need help with their pricing, whatever it is, when any small business we meet, we, we talk to an owner ish this morning at a breakfast place.

That's been there for a year. Like, it's always like, how can we help you? Because we, we know the help we needed. We know what the struggles we had. And we understand that those are all relatable through all kinds of business. So it's. It's, it's fun in one way to help. And in the other, it's just because I hope people are doing the same for us.

Right? Like they're talking about how great Hello Hair Co is and you should go see it. I know they are. Cause we get tagged and stuff all the time, but like, so [00:30:00] it's doing that same thing and it's creating community and culture and just part of what you do and help these businesses.

Todd: Yeah, we tried and we went to town over today and tried a new breakfast place and I assume she was one of the owners came out and was talking to us. But if that doesn't happen to you, there's nothing wrong with saying like, hey, is there an owner or hey, is there a manager? And I don't want to interrupt you or stop you.

I just wanted to say hello, shake your hand and say, if there's anything you ever need, or if you have five minutes, like sit down, like tell me about your business. Like, why, why'd you guys start this? Like, what are you, what are your goals? Like As a small business owner, sometimes different for me because I have a business partner now, but when you're on your own, it's easy to feel alone.

Jen: yeah, for sure.

Todd: easy to feel like the world is against you. And I assure you, it is not against you. There's a whole lot of people that feel the same exact way you feel. You're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone. We've been through all the problems you're going through now. [00:31:00] And we're going to go through all the problems that people that are ahead of us are have already gone through, right?

It's the same stuff. So it doesn't matter, you know, if you're a single chair salon or some big conglomerate, it's, you still can rely on. Your community of other like minded small business owners to help you. Even if it's someone to just talk to, I had a couple of times had coffee and met up with that owns a local karate place in the area, and he does a ton with schools and I just, I thought he was a great guy because like he's always volunteering his

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: school. Always dropping stuff off for like, he. Knows that the teachers have a luncheon, like he drops off like snacks or whatever, and he does a lot with kids. Our, our son went there for a little bit at [00:32:00] granite state

Jen: he is. I think that's what it's called.

Todd: Great guy. Might as well just shout him out.

Right. If anybody's in the area, check them out. But he does a ton of stuff with kids and teaching them discipline and self respect and how to think creatively and integrity and all that stuff. So it's, it resonated with me because those are the. are the principles I want to instill in my child, right? 

Jen: Sort of networking does like,

Todd: Yeah,

Jen: like now you, in this case, shout out to Kevin cause he is amazing. It's great human. You know, when we, whenever I see people looking for karate places, I will tag them in it because we had a great experience. We know him and I know that they give a shout out to us locals when people are looking for hair stuff, but there's ways to get clients, not one way.

There's lots of ways and you need to use all of those ways to truly build that base. Again, pricing first, but

Todd: exactly. You want to leverage your reviews and testimonials and that stuff. And here's an awesome reason why. [00:33:00] So we actively pursue reviews from clients. We have not a ton, but we have a few hundred, a couple hundred. I don't remember off the top of my head. And here's the deal. You can use those. First of all, people are going to look.

So they're going to see them. And if they see a whole bunch of positive ones, they're going to be like, alright, this is a positive place.

Jen: checking it out

Todd: Or this is a place that I can trust. Also, Google really likes that stuff. Also reviews are really easy to share on something like Instagram. Put them in your stories.

Hey, my client, Tim came in, him a fade, super crispy, whatever.

Jen: crispy

Todd: five stars. You know what I mean? And you're establishing authority there. It also helps when you have a psychopath come through and leave a one star review. I think we talked about that last week. Was it last week?

Jen: because bad reviews happen

Todd: When, yeah, you're always going to have crazy people that come through and sometimes you're just going to have a failure. Sometimes you just fail and people get mad and they want their attention. And so they go to Google and they're like one [00:34:00] star because these people suck, like don't suck. Maybe you made a mistake or maybe you're just not a good fit for that person. Whatever, either way. So those one star reviews, they don't really carry a lot of weight

Jen: if you have a bunch of good ones. Yeah.

Todd: I think we have one four star review. know why it was someone that was like you cut my, this was years ago, but it was like something like you cut my husband's hair for our wedding and it looked awesome four stars.

And I was like, why not? Five stars. But anyways, like, so either way, but you have all this, you have all this positivity surrounding you and excitement builds and excitement creates excitement, right? What happens when,

Jen: And people do look at reviews on anything you do that is like you can even get referred and some people will just blindly be like, all right, I'm booking with that person. But they, I hear so many times. A new client that comes in, I would say probably 99 percent of the time, like I checked your reviews and I picked her because I saw like she had a bunch or I picked [00:35:00] all of you because you had a bunch, but the reviews really do help.

And again, you're seeing how do you get clients is such a broad question. Like there's so many different ways. And if you aren't doing any of them, you have to figure out which one, maybe which one seems the most fun to you at first. Focus on that. If it's, you need to be broader. I mean, SEO is the only way to really reach a lot of people.

It's a long game, but where you need to be, but it's figuring out kind of maybe which ones you take on first, and then you're going to need to. Expand and be using all of these different tools to get clients. It's not just a one way.

Todd: Yeah, I would really, really pick, I would start with building out your avatar and then I would go into, your social media because it's free. And then I would start something else, whether it's a blog or a vlog or something like that. And then I would also do some community stuff or whatever, and I would push those for a while.

And if one works better, ditch one and pick something else up.

Jen: Yeah. [00:36:00] We're focused can be,

Todd: then push that

Jen: and during all that you can be getting reviews. So now you're kind of like multitasking on, on the front of that. Like everybody that sits in your chair, ask them to leave you a review, make it a contest if you want, whatever you need to do.

Todd: another thing I would point out too, is your retention needs to be there. So you're going to have to take a look at your client experience. What does it look like if you walk through the door, if it was possible for you to walk through the door as not the owner of the business or not the stylist that works behind the chair and sit in your business as a client, What would you see? I'm, I'm talking from the jump. The moment I swing the door open because we get a lot of people that will say I was greeted right away. I walked in and was greeted. I've been to salons and shops that you will sit there and it's wicked awkward. Nobody comes up to you. Nobody says anything or you're expected to walk to the front desk where the girls has their head down in a magazine or on the phone like your last salon. Just kidding,

Jen: It's true.

Todd: I like to back on you. [00:37:00] Sometimes it was true. And so they wouldn't acknowledge your presence until you walked up to the desk. That's not hospitality. That's not service. That's you trying to do you. Like they're, they feel like they're interrupting you at that point. So it's important, those little things like saying hello, jumping up.

I, We'll always run over. If somebody walks in, can I take your coat? We're heading into the fall here. It's beautiful out today. Let's wrap this up so we can get outside. I'm just kidding. But like take their coat, offer them water, whatever, whatever it is. Like all that stuff.

Jen: Make sure you're doing it every single time for every single person.

Todd: it needs to be consistent and don't just change stuff for your friends and family. Like do, do it the same for everybody. Nobody should know that that's your sister sitting in the chair, right? Treat them exactly how you would treat everybody else. Do we want to talk about any challenges that we face? What's worked for us? What's

Jen: I mean,

Todd: do it [00:38:00] quick.

Jen: All the stuff you listed is what we've pretty much been doing.

Todd: We tried the discount thing.

Jen: Yes.

Todd: have tried that. I wasn't a hundred percent into it. I've never been, to be honest with you. I don't understand why you would discount services. had companies try to help and they explain it as don't look at it as a

Jen: No.

Todd: Look at it as you're investing in, you know, your client acquisition or the cost of acquisition.

And I understand, but those people that are coupon chasers are generally coupon

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: so

Jen: The retention is not going to be there. It's a fake, it's, it's fake numbers.

Todd: Yeah. And so, you know, if you're in a position where you're like, I don't know how long I can hold on, maybe something like that might get people in the door

Jen: I get your push. Yeah.

Todd: you're going to have to fix stuff or you're going to be chasing coupon chasers

Jen: Yeah. That should be a short game if you're trying to do that. And I also think what happens there is just from personal experience, if I am giving [00:39:00] someone a discount, which we don't do, but let's say I was, I feel like my level of experience would be lower. Because I'm giving you a discount, like I'm doing you a favorite.

That's how I look at that. So like, I'm not showing up to the party a hundred percent. I feel like I'm giving you 80 or 70. And what I find from the person who's using the coupon, they expect 150%. So somewhere, I think there's just like, it never matches up. And they've got it now at a discounted price.

If they come in at your full rate, they're kind of like, if the service now doesn't get perceived at a higher value, because. Now they're paying more, they're feeling salty. And then you're like, it just, it just doesn't work. And I don't feel like you said, people who are looking for a discount are always looking for a discount.

So they're going to go to the next business that's offering the next discount. So you're not going to build a foundation. You may get one out of like, however many, but I think the percent is really low for the people that stay. At least that's how we found it.

Todd: Yeah, I have one. I have one gentleman that stayed from those

Jen: Impressive.

Todd: literally one. We don't even use the language discounts. So I actually have a problem with our staff when they write [00:40:00] stuff and they don't do it maliciously. So I don't, we're not, I'm not mad or anything, but the language that you use matters. So like when we have newer people that are looking for models, they'll post stuff that's like discount to this.

And I'm like, no, it's not a discount. It's the price. That's the price.

Jen: Yes.

Todd: It's not, they didn't get money off.

Jen: This is how our model pricing works. Yes.

Todd: we calculate it. Here's how our structure works and here's what it costs to them. Because when you start saying words like discount, then people expect to discount. People get used

Jen: And it sounds cheesy.

Todd: Yeah. You don't want to discount your services. I guess that's probably good. I think we touched on a lot of stuff.

Jen: I think all the stuff we touched on is the things that we do. We do consistently. We've done since we got rid of the kind of little like mail outs we did in the beginning. And all of it works, but it all works because we're doing all of the things all the time. Not one do I feel as even, well, the SEO I think has really helped us get into surrounding towns and kind of has [00:41:00] now Transcribed Created a great name for our brand.

So that has helped in a way that just some of the other things may not have as quickly, but without the other stuff, I mean, we wouldn't have kind of who we are. So it's really doing a lot of this stuff and starting, like Todd said, like where the avatar is. And I think you grow off that

Todd: I remember what I was going to say a second ago, so if you are going to run a discount, what I want you to do is go back to the avatar that you created. And check that. Does it say this person's looking for a discount? Cause those aren't necessarily the clients you want, but if your clientele is looking for a discount, then maybe you should run discounts.

I guess

Jen: that works.

Todd: it will, that would work, right? Those are usually your box sort of cookie cutter, hair cutting places, right? there's absolutely nothing wrong with those places. time and a place there's a, there's, it's just like when you need an oil change and you just stop at the quickie oil lube shop, right? not, I like to bring my [00:42:00] truck to the dealership,

Jen: Same seats.

Todd: if I can't get there and it needs an oil change, there's been like maybe two times that that's happened, know, I'll just stop somewhere because I know I need the oil change and I know that I, I, I know I expect the level of service to be, to, to match and reflect, right? As far as any challenges that we face too, I think just learning patience when it comes to this stuff, this is not an overnight thing. You are probably going to, like I had a past mentor say, when I was in this phase, when I had my gym, and I was like, I just need more clients, I just need more clients.

He was like, would you, if a hundred people walked in the door right now, what would you do? And I was like, I'd be screwed. So you're not even set up to handle the people, you, but you need them. Cause you think that's, we all think the same things, right? At different, we're just at a different stage than some other people out there. So I would say patience is, is your friend here and sticking to your guns. We always talk about like putting in an

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: like [00:43:00] you're going to have to do this stuff for six months, 18 months, two

Jen: Consistently. Daily.

Todd: we're year five. We're coming up on year five after this winter. So yeah, five years of being patient

Jen: hmm.

Todd: trying new stuff and looking at it and being like, Jen, what's working?

What's not working? What should we do? How do we adjust this? And nudging

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: and there. Anyways, go ahead and hit us with your closing thought, Jen. Can be

Jen: My closing thought is be real with have you created your pricing structure from actual substance and not just from what you used to do or from what you think the salon down the street is. Do you understand what your prices mean and what profit you need to make on each service you're doing? And if not, we should sit.

Todd: Mine is to unplug for a second. It's to jump in your car. It's to put on your headphones. It's to [00:44:00] take a walk through the woods. It's to listen to some music really loud that you haven't heard since high school. It's to call a friend and vent not work stuff. But it's to just clear your head. And I find for me when I do that sort of stuff and take care of myself, when I just even I'll listen to a book, an audio book, and I will take a walk. when I come back, it's just easier to focus on stuff. You got fresh air, clear your head, and you can have a much better day. And it's much easier to deal with all the bullshit that's coming your way. Because when you own a business. It's coming eventually, maybe daily for a little bit, maybe yearly, whatever.

Jen: It'll be there.

Todd: sort of issue, some sort of fire to put out. It's just the way that it goes. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening. If you would leave us a review on a podcast platform that you're listening

Jen: That'd be great.

Todd: would be stellar for us. If you would reach out and leave us a fan mail, or I think it [00:45:00] says, send us a text message and just say hello and tell us what you think

Jen: That'd be cool.

Todd: you want to hear that would help a ton too.

We'd really appreciate it. Bye everyone.