With all the upheaval of the past 2 years we knew that the theme for Business Counts 2022 had to be big, we began brainstorming. It was important that we explored things current and future – pre-pandemic dinosaur ideas have no place in a forward-thinking business. We knew we needed to address the issues people are facing NOW.
Interchanging workplace cultures, moving to the future, mental strength and resilience, the great resignation, innovation in business, writing your retail story, new business models and creating a digital checklist for marketing success…we spoke about it all!
Our resounding theme for this year was “Super Mundi”, translating to On Top of the World, did you feel it when experiencing the Sky Bar? We wanted the theme to reflect the way our partnered salons would feel after attending… strong, confident, and invigorated – exactly how building a successful business should feel, with a sprinkling of anticipation and “What am I doing?” (But that’s all normal!).
We kicked off the day with ‘Futureshock’ by Debbie where she detailed the diversity and enormity of current change and the need for leaders to step forward and make some big decisions. There must be a shift from now to the future and without having a crystal ball, how do you know what the right move is? Cultural diversity and an ever-changing world which used to go gradually and then suddenly now goes suddenly and all at once.
So much has changed in the world and this has had a profound effect on the workplace – the great resignation, a hyperawareness of work life balance where people make a career change, choose to cut back, or feel like there are other things out there that they can be doing – play now, work later. It’s going to take time, strong leadership, and secure guidance to fix what is clearly a hangover from the pandemic and a bizarre set of complex circumstances that no-one really understands. We can begin doing this by getting people excited about the industry again and the way that can happen is through strong leadership.
Daniel presented an excellent working model to find ways to create innovation within your business. By breaking down our businesses into three categories and looking at these individually, we can determine what is working, what we have but not utilising and then get creative with some big ideas. With a drastic shift to the digital age, innovation is imperative when looking to embrace sales increases and customer retention percentages. Many companies post pandemic performed a complete 180 in their business models to account for technology…Are you doing the same? Have you thought about the customers automation experience? What about your e-commerce store, #Salonlove? And we advise watching the futurist video from Gerd Leonhard once more – ‘Digital Transformation: are you ready for exponential change?’. Our favourite statement is ‘Anything that cannot become digitised or automated will become extremely valuable’ – Hairstylists?
Speaking of the digital age…Have you downloaded your digital checklist for marketing success as presented by Declan? A useful tool for any salon that thinks they could be doing more with their digital marketing. A scary concept when you’re putting your business out there, but digital marketing is the way forward. A strong website with brand presence and knowledge is the way people shop now, Declan suggested your website replaces the traditional shop window and word of mouth x 10! …Think about it. What is the first thing you do when someone recommends something to you? You google it. How many people are out there recommending your salon to their friends? What are they seeing?
Our special guest, Brittany Newby, five times winning Eufora Salon Retail Stylist of the Year (North America) provided excellent insight on her tips and tricks to increasing and improving the customer experience and homecare journey. With an average 1.8 bottles of shampoo per customer sold, who wouldn’t take her advice?
We don’t want to give it all away…next year will be bigger and better than before and we look forward to seeing you there!
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Read our recap of Business Counts 2021 here:
