THE CEO's Blog

I know our industry isn’t loaded with sports enthusiasts, but I love to you use sports for business analogies so what better time to talk about sports than opening football weekend.

First, I went to the home opener in East Lansing to watch the Spartans pummel the Eastern Eagles. Spartan Stadium glowed in the sun and the 71,000 fans were baking in glory and enjoying the 700 calorie Melting Moments ice cream sandwiches (they are the best but I gave them up years ago).

The marching band was brilliant as always. But here’s the thing, it’s about the Spartans who have proven to lose the games they should win and win the games they should lose. So even in victory, there were too many moments of disgust especially when Ringer fumbled in the end zone in the first quarter.

At the end, everyone was happy and leaving the stadium in a good mood. The drive home was fun listening to the commentary of the game.

I can’t say the same about the Lions. After coming off a 4-0 Exhibition season, they looked like the  Eagles. Just like the Big Ten plays MAC teams the first two games of the season, my thinking is that the Lions should play MAC teams too. But wait, they played the worst team in football-the Falcons! The rookie QB looked by Brett Favre and the running game set a record.

I wasn’t even born the last time the Lions won anything. William Clay Ford, the owner of the Lions, is a strange creature. Losing doesn’t bother him. Why? The Lions are the third most profitable football franchise in the NFL. But that’s another blog.

Today, Marinelli and Millen should quit or be fired. They had their chance and we should not endure another season of embarrassment. But as one of the players stated, "It’s only the first game…"

Question: Is it the owner, coaches or the players that determine victory? Brady is out for the season after a horrible injury in the first quarter, yet the Patriots still won. Sure, all three are responsible for winning, but who is most responsible for losing?

Happy Monday!

Based on your feedback yesterday, looks like I’m stuck at the keyboard for another few weeks. On topics to write about, one person suggested topics outside the beauty industry. Truth is, I’m doing this to connect to the psyche of those involved in our industry. So I am hoping more salon professionals give feedback.

This morning the government reported a huge increase in people seeking unemployment benefits while stating the unemployment rate moved to 6.1%. The stock market tanked over 300 points and continues its decline today.

More interesting is that the price of crude oil keeps making new lows and is down from $140 a barrel to $105 or 25%. However the price of gas has only decreased about 15%. But wait. I hardly hear people talking about the price of gas since it went below $4 a gallon. Even the auto companies are stating that buyer interest in SUV’s and pick-ups have "picked up."

What does anything mean these days? Are we so involved in the moment that when the moment passes we move to another moment and don’t care about the previous ones? We do annual surveys for our talent and after 9/11, Terrorism ranked #1. The following year in 2002 it ranked #3. Last year it wasn’t even listed as a concern (last year the economy was #1).

I am asking all hairdressers and nail techs: What are your client’s talking about these days? OK TNG talent, what’s on your mind; after all, it is Open Mic Friday.

Happy Friday and congratulations to Lisa & Howard on their marriage tomorrow!

According to Wikipedia, "a blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual ^[1], with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

It is estimated that there are up to 200 million former blogger’s (they got bored) and 100 million active blogger’s. The site also claims that blogging has peaked as people get tired of writing stuff and the relevance of reading other blogs drops off.

So that got me to thinking. I have been doing this for a few months now and have received pretty steady results in page views and number of viewers.

Truth is, this does take a lot of time each day and if you were doing it you would want to know if it is worthwhile.

Is my blog about education, entertainment, editorial or a combo of all? Some like to read, some like to post. There are daily "posters", weekly "posters" and anonymous "posters." When I ask questions, I only get a few percentage of readers responding.

Regardless of what kind of "poster" you are today, please let it all out, step out of the box, and let the blog world know what topics interest you most and what you want to see more of and what you want to see less of. After all, the great thing about blogging is that is gives you freedom of expression with no ramifications. Blog away!

Happy Thursday!

I never subscribed to People, The National Enquirer, or any other celebrity magazine. I don’t watch E!, Oprah, music videos or attend concerts (except for Buffet). I don’t buy CD’s and although I do downloads from i-Tunes, it certainly isn’t for pop music.

Celebrities have a way of getting their name out even if you live in a cave. I can see it now: one caveman walks in to a cave with a club in one hand and its prey in the other and tells the other caveman, "Did you hear about the latest Jessica Simpson song?"

Forget about Simpson the music star. Sure she debuts at the Grand Ole Opry later this week and launches her latest album with a country flair. Big deal. I’m talking about Simpson the business woman.

We have sold her hair extensions going on 3 years and although sales have slowed, we have sold more than $1 Million of the stuff. Simpson’s first fragrance launched recently and she already has her own handbag, shoe, and accessory line. Bras are next. Then dresses. And perhaps the world.

The question I have is "what makes a celebrity a celebrity and why do we bow to them?" We are gossip-driven and love the lust, the slime, the gritty. is it about fantasy? One thing is for certain, celebrity-driven business is great for many industries.

Which brings me to the obvious question: What can a celebrity do for our business? Tammy Taylor in the day was the celebrity for nails but she had her own company and pitched her own products. Simpson doesn’t sell a single product on her website except for some ring tones and wallpaper (can you believe?).

In hair care, we mostly have seen hairdressers who do celebrities come out with their own product line which is hot for a brief moment and then dies off. Fekkai was the most "celebrated" of them all but then sold to Proctor & Gamble (you can now buy his hair color for home for $30). Jonathon on Bravo was fun until he got into products and I think both his locations closed.

Which celebrity would you love to see for the nails? For hair? For spa? How cool would that be?

Happy Wednesday and Come on Over!

In the final part of my 3-part series on spas and in thanks to Dr. Boger who engineered this study, today I am writing about weaknesses that many see in the spa industry that if overcome, will generate more revenue and happier campers.

But first, the results from my last blog.

The services used most often from top to bottom:

1. Massage
2. Facial
3. Hands & Feet
4. Hair
5. Waxing/Body Treatment
6. Make-up

Expenditures by the average spa-goer:

1. Below $100: 14%
2. $100-$149:   49.5%
3. $150-$199:   19.4%
4. $200-$249:   10.8%

Here the top weaknesses exposed. See if any of these have happened to you:

1. Inconsistent treatment among technicians. More communication is needed in terms of the type of service requested by the spa-goers and the type of service that is provided by each technician. For me, some massage therapists are right on with pressure, and areas that need it most. Others are clueless and who likes a lousy massage?
2. Felt rushed for treatment. In some cases, the spa-goers felt their service started late and finished early. For me, there are incidents that the therapist arrives late to pick me up and then I look at the clock when I am done and the extra minutes are not added on. Besides, I already dislike paying for 50 minutes when I think I should be getting 60.
3. Quiet areas. This is when others are not maintaining quietness in the quiet area. I see this is an issue in Vegas spas where groups tend to visit and they talk, talk, talk.

The study concludes with top strengths and these are evident in nature. Keep focused on these and you will be OK: Professionalism of staff; relaxing ambience; facility and cleanliness and overall service from start to end.

Hopefully you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend as much as I did. I now have a daughter-in-law!

Happy Tuesday!

So far we have learned about the spa experience, what types of variables people get from going to a spa and what kind of people attend a spa.

Today I’m going to write about which services are the most popular and how much money the average person spends at the spa.

Tomorrow I’ll write about the pro’s and con’s people witness attending a spa. Based on the responses yesterday, there are more Escapists than Hedonists and us Escapists want our peace and quiet!

Below are the most popular services in no particular order. See if you can guess them in order from most popular to least popular:

1. Facial
2. Massage (all types)
3. Hair
4. Make-up
5. Hands & Feet
6. Waxing
7. Body

Below are the average expenditures the average person spends at the spa. See if you can match up the percentage with the dollar amount:

A. Below $100       

B. $100-$149        

C. $150-$199

D. $200-$249

Percentages in no particular order: 19.4%; 49.5%; 14% and 10.8%.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors involved in running a successful spa. Let’s see how close you on these simple questions!

Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday I listed the 21 variables on why a person visits a spa and asked you to list the top 3 and bottom 3. According to Boger, the top 3 are:

8 (to relieve stress)

4 (to feel relaxed)

14 (to escape from daily life)

The bottom 3 starting with #21:

11 (to feel young)

12 (to enjoy)

5 (to feel refreshed)

Interestingly, for those that posted none got all 3 top or bottom.

The study goes on to identify two groups of people that visit spas- Escapists and Hedonists.

Escapists love quiet areas, private reading areas, no cell phones and a place for "cocooning."

Hedonists are searching for excitement and interaction among family and friends. This group tends to be noisy and may disturb the Escapists’ spa-goers. Escapists and Hedonists don’t mix.

I’m an Escapist. I want to be alone, relax, nap and the only thing I want to hear is the sound of spa music. Sometimes however I’m at the spa at a bunch of Hedonists (brewski’s) show up and all they do is talk and make noise like they are at a baseball game. They completely ruin the experience but they claim since they pay the same entrance fee, they can do what they want.

The lesson here is for spas to cater to one group or the other to be truly successful. Larger spas may figure out a way to cater to both with different rooms and restrictions.

Tomorrow I’ll write about services used in the spa followed by demographics and then we can see where we all fit in.

Here is a closing question for you: Do you view a spa as a luxury (once-a-year treat for birthday or special occasion) or necessity (once-a-month) to recharge?

Happy Tuesday!

With the end of the Olympics, ending of summer coming and a grueling week of politics on TV, I thought this would be the perfect week to focus on spas and spa treatments.

Carl Boger, PhD, spent four months developing the Benchmarking Study of a Spa. The study was based on questions asked to spa customers and the results although predictable shed some light into our industry that can be used to better grow the business.

Boger came up with 21 variables for visiting a spa and used several references such as ISPA, Spa Finder, and Tabacchi.

To test your spa acumen, I am going to list the 21 variables in no particular order. I want you to blog back what you think the top 3 and bottom 3 are. This should be fun!

1. To feel healthier
2. To enjoy with friends
3. To enjoy with family
4. To feel relaxed
5. To feel refreshed
6. To experience adventure
7. To experience solitude
8. To relieve stress
9. To be calm
10. To be pampered
11. To feel young
12. To enjoy
13. To live a health/wellness life style
14. To escape from daily life
15. For self-indulgence
16. To improve mental health
17. To improve physical health
18. To feel healthier
19. To improve appearance
20. To have fun
21. To meet other health conscious people

When responding, simply use the numbers. Bottom line: who have thought there so many variables? I don’t know about you, but I’m booking a massage today!

Happy Monday!

Yet another reason why I am happy not to be a woman involves shoes. I went to Zappo’s after reading about the company in Business Week and decided to explore their selection of shoes.

I was disappointed. They only had 437 different types of shoes, 236,790 styles and colors to select from and 2,566,988 sizes within the different types. Oh, that was for open toe shoes only.

Now let’s face it. Guys have 6-8 pair of shoes and wear a couple of them until either the soles wear out or the wife throws them out. Girls on the other hand have 6-8 pair of each style and last I counted, there were more than 20 styles that were "must haves."

The most popular style remains the open toe or anything that exposes all ten toes. Naturally summertime is the peak season for these shoes and thank God for them because no woman would be caught dead wearing them without having their toes done.

The pedicure has become one of the most popular salon services of all time. Home pedicures are also as popular as ever and will remain so. Personally, I think someone’s toes reflects on the person’s overall image of themselves so I am always keen to engage in market research. I have seen natural toes, buffed toes, neon toes, polished toes, french manicure toes and everything else in-between.

Actually getting a pedicure is a good thing. It helps to prevent fungus and nail disorders and if one has diabetes, the elimination of cutting oneself. But let’s not downplay the true reason: it makes those shoes look better!

In case you were wondering, I enjoy a monthly pedicure and getting my nails buffed (the foot massage is the best part of it).

How about you? How time do you spend on your feet? And remember, pedicures are just one more reason that our industry is so great.

Happy Friday!

One of life’s great little luxuries is a weekly manicure. I know because I have been getting one for the past 12 years (that was when I was told as the CEO of a nail company you should get your nails done).

Truth is, you look at your hands way more than your hair, yet hand care costs significantly less than hair care so good looking hands should be a priority.

When you get a weekly manicure, you notice other peoples hands and nails. Let’s face it; with all the talk about metrosexuals, there still aren’t a whole lot of guys that would even consider getting a manicure. I can see the Miller Lite ad now with a guy at a salon drinking a brewski with one perfectly manicured hand wrapped around the bottle. Not!

Once you get into the routine, it’s tough to get out. When I miss a week, my nails start talking to me. The pterygium starts growing like a weed with no relief in sight.

After years of getting a manicure, I will share with you a couple of secrets for keeping nails looking good for an entire week compliments of my nail tech, Tish.

After filing the nail, lightly buff the nail with a fine sanding block. This allows the treatment products to adhere to the nail plate.

Use a nail dehydrator (I use Pinnacle Adhere) which removes all oils and contaminants. I then use Pinnacle Peak, a perfectly remarkable nail strengthener and then top it off with Pinnacle Glacier quick dry top coat.

The final secret is the dab of Avoplex oil (I love the new Cuticle Oil to Go applicator) on each cuticle.

So let’s make next week "Support the Nail Industry" week by getting a manicure. It will make your holiday weekend that much better.

Happy Thursday!