5 Habits to Start in Your Beauty or Wellness Business
I'm Tiffny Nadolny, your host of the Spa Business Building Podcast. I'm a licensed esthetician, massage therapist, and solopreneur in my day spa. With nearly two decades of experience in the beauty and wellness industry, I've learned a few things about building a career and maintaining longevity.
Outside of the treatment room, I'm a wife, mom, to the human and fluffy kind, plant enthusiast, and book lover. Join me while I share my experiences and insight on attracting clients, maintaining and building a thriving business while achieving work-life balance. So whether you're a new solo spa boss or seasoned, this podcast is for you.
Hello, spa bosses. Welcome back to another episode of the Spa Business Building Podcast. Today, I wanted to share with you five habits that all solo spa bosses need in their business to help them grow their business, attract clients, and go from surviving to thriving.
So I've been in the industry for nearly 20 years now, and I have been a business owner for nine years. And these are five must-have habits that I have compiled together, that I have implemented in my business, and that I am seeing other solo spa bosses doing in their business. And that is what is making them very successful.
So without further ado, let's get started. My number one habit that all solo spa bosses need in their business is a wow-worthy service. Start implementing services that give that real wow factor to your clients.
You just want to knock the socks off of them when it comes to your services. You want to stand out in your area, in the market, in your industry. Whatever you can do or start implementing that make those little touches that really go above and beyond to all of your clients.
Because if you are offering cookie cutter services, whatever it is, whether it's skin care, massage, whatever, if you're doing the same exact things that everyone else in your area is doing, that doesn't make you stand out. It's not going to make other people want to come and see you more than someone else. If you can differentiate your services, your self, your vibe, whatever it is, from everyone else in your area, you're going to attract the right kind of clients.
So if you can start offering services, one, that are just the customer service is amazing, the service is amazing, everything about it from the time they book to after the service is just top-notch, and people are talking about it and they get off your table, they get out of your chair and they say, wow, that was amazing. I want to come back. I feel so relaxed.
You are so awesome. When can I rebook? That's what you want.
That is exactly what your clients should be saying. And you want them to ask you when to return. So if you feel like your clients aren't really giving that vibe that they really want to come back or maybe they're making excuses and not returning, then it could be that you're just now offering a wow worthy service.
So what can you do to level up your services, to bring that in? So number two, confidence in your skills. Make it a daily habit to tell yourself how amazing you are, how amazing your services are, your clients want to come back.
Because when you feel more confident in what you're doing, you're going to exude confidence and your clients are going to feel it. And they're going to trust you as the expert. They're going to want to come back.
Now, if you are stumbling all over your words and feeling really unsure of yourself and not really sure how to lead the conversation or make treatment plans or whatever it may be, your clients are going to feel that. And they're likely not going to want to come back to receive services from you. So when you are more confident, you feel good about what you're doing, you know that you are giving your clients relaxation, that you have this wow-worthy amazing service, clients can feel that confidence.
They trust you as an expert, and they're going to want to come back. Now, you don't have to know everything and be everything, and that's okay. And when you don't know those answers, then you just tell them, I don't know that answer right now, but I will find it and I will get back to you.
And then you're still the expert, because people don't expect you to know everything. But if you can confidently tell them, I'm sorry, I don't know that, but I will find it out. That makes you look so professional.
And your clients are going to still see you as the expert and they're still going to trust your skills, and they're going to want to come back and receive those wow-worthy services from you. So number three, making this a daily habit when you are working is to follow up with your past clients, if they just had a service the day before, a few days before, but doing the follow up, making this a habit, following up with all of your clients. If you are stopping at the service after they've paid, and that's the last time you see them, and maybe you're not really following up until they come back in, you're missing out on building connections.
So if you are following up with your clients, checking in with them within a few days, 24 hours, asking how they feel, if they have any questions, maybe you've given them some samples, and asking if they have any questions on the samples, it's a good way to build that trust, build connection with your clients, let them know that you genuinely care, and that you want to help them in their beauty and wellness journey, whatever that may be. But following up, and you can send them a text message, just a quick little message, or send them an email. Now, I have automated emails that go out to all of my clients after their services, and they are split into service.
So whether they've gotten a massage and they will receive a certain email, or whether they are skincare client, they will receive a different email for the follow up. But I do follow up with all of my clients in a text message. It's a little bit more personalized.
You can really ask them questions and quickly respond, and I think that they appreciate that. Now, that goes in to the next habit, is reminding your clients of your referral program. Now, I do this in my follow up text messages.
I will ask them how they're feeling, if they have any questions, and then I will ask them if they wouldn't mind giving me their feedback or leaving a testimonial on Google, and that is how I grow my business and that it is very appreciated. Then I send them the link. Nine out of ten times, they will leave a review.
I will also remind them of my referral program. Now, you need to be reminding your clients. So if you have a first time client, you should be telling them every time, I have a business card that I like to give my clients on the back, it has my referral code on it, so that they can give it to their friends and they will each receive 15% off.
The referer and the referee receives a 15% discount their first time service. But I am telling every single new client and every past client, and I also have it posted next to the seating area, there's a QR code, I'm putting it in my e-mails and sending it in text messages. Because if you're just telling them one time, maybe you just decided to roll out a new referral program or a testimonial program, whatever that may be, and you've only sent one e-mail and you've only posted it on your timeline once, they're going to forget.
You have to keep reminding them because life gets busy and we forget things. So you have to keep reminding them. And usually, they are so happy to accommodate that, to help you out, to help your business grow, to talk about how amusing you are.
But you just have to make it easy for them. Provide a link, remind them to do it, and most likely that they will follow through. So that is number four.
Number five is asking for the rebook. Never let your client leave without asking if they would like to schedule their next appointment or two to three appointments. Now, when I first started out, how I went from zero to fully booked within months, I asked every single person to book out their next two appointments.
So then when they would come in, they already had another appointment scheduled, and then we would schedule one more. So they were always two months ahead. Now, my clients book 90 days out.
They would probably book farther out if I would allow it, but I have a family and my schedule does change. So I don't like to book out too far in case I need to make some changes. But I do have full books for 90 days, and I can look ahead and say, I know that this income is there.
Now, people do cancel and reschedule, and I do have cancellation rescheduling policies, and my clients are really great about rescheduling within that time frame. And if they aren't, I have a cancellation list that I have on my website, and I let all of my clients know that if I can't find them an appointment, let's schedule as soon as we can, and I will put you on my cancellation list. And they really, really appreciate that.
And I will directly text. It's not like a mass texting. I will send out an email, but first I will directly text someone who I know is waiting to get on my books for a specific day, or maybe they've been a loyal client.
If they can't get it booked, then I will send an email and I will put it out on social. But I do get my appointments booked pretty quickly because of the systems that I have in place. So making sure that you are asking every single client to rebook their appointments and challenge yourself to ask for that 60 and 90 days.
So once you get in the habit. Now here's the thing. And I was guilty of this in the beginning.
I was so fearful of rejection. And I know that that tends to be the case when we are just building our business. We're new to being business owners.
We are fearful of someone saying no to our face when we ask them if they'd like to rebook. And it's okay if they say no. People tell me no sometimes too because they don't always know their schedule.
And if that's the case, I say no problem. I do have online scheduling for your convenience. So when you do know your schedule, you can go online.
I give them my card with my web address. And then I let them know that they can also text me if they would like to reschedule. And a lot of people reach out for texting to reschedule.
But you have to be okay with no. But if you feel like you're stumbling over your words and you're not really sure how to ask for those referrals, ask for reviews, and ask for the rebook, my suggestion is to sit down and write out what you want to say or type it up, put it in your phone, read it, recite it, record yourself saying it, just do it over and over and over it so that it flows naturally. When you need to say it to a client, make it part of your brain ingrained into your memory so that it flows easier for you.
But the more that you make these five habits part of your daily work experience, the better you get at it. And these are called systems. You want to put these systems in place, figuring out what makes you stand out so that you have a while worthy service.
Now, going back to that while worthy service, sometimes it takes a little bit of market research, figuring out what makes you stand out amongst every other service provider in your industry. Market research means that you have to get out there and look at the other businesses around you. So that means that you may need to schedule some services.
You may need to go on social media and look at what other people are providing, so that you can not copy, but do something better, something different, something unique, uniquely yours, not what they're doing. You don't want to be cookie cutter. You want to be unique and you want to stand out.
So making that while worthy service that they're coming back to over and over again. Now, in my services, I offer hot stones, complimentary, not full body, but even in my facials, neck and shoulder massages, I have extra hot towels, aromatherapy, eye masks, LED is complimentary, high frequency is complimentary. I have a whole list of things that I do that are included in the service, and it's not like anything else that anyone in my area is doing.
If you would like to know more about that, you can message me over on Instagram. I'm at solo.spa.bosses. I would love to talk about how you can make your services stand out amongst others in your area.
Number two, finding confidence in yourself so that you can exude that confidence to your clients and they trust you as the expert. Number three, the follow up. Make sure that you are building that habit every day.
If you had a client the day before, message them in 24 hours or within a good time frame, so you're not going to message them. Outside of the treatment room, I'm a wife, mom to the human and fluffy kind, plant enthusiast and book lover. Join me while I share my experiences and insight on attracting clients, maintaining and building a thriving business while achieving work-life balance.
So whether you're a new spa boss or seasoned, this podcast is for you. When you're comfortable with that, challenge yourself to go 60 days, 90 days, as far out as you can that you're comfortable with booking. If you could get your whole year booked, and you know what time you're taking off when you need to plan those vacations, do it.
But don't overbook yourself so much that you can't fit people in and you're just burnt out. There is a little bit of an art to that. So if you would like some conversation on how to rebook your clients, how far to rebook your clients, reach out and I am happy to help you.
So that is it for today, my friend. I hope that you found these five habits to be helpful and I hope that you start implementing them into your solo spa business soon. Do it today.
Do not wait. Take your business from surviving to thriving. Start implementing these essentials, these must have habits into your business and start seeing the difference that it makes.
Because I promise you, when you start doing these systems, you will start seeing the change in your business. Until next time, my friends, stay fabulous, stay inspired, and happy business building. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Spa Business Building Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's show and don't want to miss another episode, you can follow on Spotify or subscribe wherever you usually listen. If you haven't done so already, I would really appreciate it if you leave a rating and review to let me know what you think and to help others find the Spa Business Building Podcast. If you have a specific question that you would like answered on the next episode, send an email to thrive.
That's thrivee at spabusinessbuilding.com. And if you want to learn more about my offerings, head to my website at spabusinessbuilding.com, or check me out on Instagram at solo.spa.bosses. Until next time, friend.
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