Dayspa

NOV 2013

DAYSPA is the magazine of spa management. Spa owners and spa managers turn to DAYSPA for spa management trends, spa management tips and more.

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BUILDING BLOCKS PRO TOOLS The pro: Liliana Aranda, owner of SPArty! Spa Parties and FACES Mobile Spa, serving Northern California and the Greater Phoenix areas (styleseat.com/facesbyliliana) Her tools: 1. Be a sponge for information. I absorb everything I can from my favorite vendors. I attend their classes and read their newsletters and social media postings, because one LILIANA ARANDA product can make a huge difference in your treatment room if you learn from the vendors how you can maximize it. We call each other regularly to talk about what's working and what isn't. Also, samples are a great way to introduce a line to a new client or upgrade a client's current homecare kit. My vendors offer me the newest samples for personal use so that I can fully experience the line. Once you build a great relationship with your vendors, they usually give you advance notice of product additions, new or innovative ingredients, retail tips and so on, so I use that knowledge when preparing my marketing materials and when clients ask me about the products. 2. Stand out from the crowd. I believe in ditching the cookiecutter model. I developed my signature services based on a "no Retail Superstar The star: Lumafirm Repair Cream (pevoniapro.com) The spa: DayDreams Day Spa & Bath Shop, Brandon and Lakeland, Florida Why it flies off the shelves: "It's JAN JORDAN really humid here in Florida, but the cream's light texture feels great on the skin and absorbs quickly, so there's no sticky feeling," says owner Jan Jordan. "We also treat a lot of clients with sun-damaged skin. The Lumafirm Repair Cream is perfect for combating signs of aging, tightening the skin and diminishing hyperpigmentation." How it has been promoted: "We launched the Lumafirm Facial and products at a spa educational event, where guests watched a demo of the facial, received information on how the Lumafirm line works and were given free samples. We also ran an introductory special on the facial and offered even bigger discounts if customers purchased a series. We featured the Lumafirm cream and Intensifier as our free gift when clients signed up for our VIP membership, which built our membership and got a lot of guests hooked on the product. Since then we've sold out time and again. I'm constantly restocking the shelves!" 48 DAYSPA | NOVEMBER 2013 two are alike" ethos. I moved away from the standard colors and designs in my marketing materials. For example, SPArty! Spa Parties is very colorful, fun and lively in design. People comment that they love the look and feel of my SPArty! Spa menus. My treatment names are innovative and off-the-wall too, like the Bridezilla Buster Neck & Scalp Massage and the I.C.U. Eye Treat. As for the Peppermint Stick minty aromatic scalp treatment, it's almost three years since I started my business and my very first guests still love requesting it—and they love saying it! 3. Mobilize your retail. I never leave the house without my mobile pop-up boutique. It's laden with FarmHouse Fresh products, musthaves from the other two lines I carry (TecNiche and Le Mieux), local designer jewelry and other goodies that are priced perfectly for spur-of-the-moment gift giving. Even when I'm not actively working on a client, I still have the opportunity to make retail dollars by talking to clients, and from people who pass me on the street. Even random shoppers in line have purchased products just from smelling them on me: I once sold two tubes of my favorite hand cream to a band manager and his guitarist! Payment Power Though the mobile payments sector is growing, one group that tends to get overlooked is the small business that performs large transactions. Boston-based Punchey (punchey.com) is aiming to plug that gap by providing rates optimized for businesses with frequent orders of $50 or more— think spa and salon owners! Punchey bills itself as the only mobile payments company in its class to offer "pass-through pricing", in which the cost of processing is passed directly to businesses, as opposed to a flat fee. Instead of the typical 2.75% flat fee, Punchey charges just 0.75% plus Interchange (the basic underlying rate that most credit-card companies and banks charge merchants to process debit and credit cards). "The new guard of payments companies have empowered businesses to accept credit cards in a simple, seamless way, but their rates are designed with only a small subset of businesses in mind. Small businesses handling larger payments are getting squeezed," says Punchey CEO and founder Nathaniel Stevens. "We're giving the rate breaks to these small businesses so they can be competitive, and the tools to make use of that data so they can grow." Indeed: in addition to a mobile card reader, which comes in seven snazzy colors and plugs into an iPhone, Android or tablet, Punchey offers businesses free features such as 24-hour customer service and CRM tools including email marketing.

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