If you work with clients in the beauty and wellness industry, you’re probably aware that any salons, barbershops, and other beauty and wellness professionals have been forced to close for COVID-19. State-mandated closures have reduced revenue for these small businesses and industry professionals have needed to get creative to find additional sources of income. We wanted to share insights from GlossGenius that we’re seeing on how the industry is adapting. If you work with clients in these industries that are not adapting in the following ways, it may be helpful to share:
1. Getting creative with alternative ways to make money.
Beauty and wellness businesses have been increasing revenue in creative ways. A few examples:
- Providing virtual consults to existing (and new) customers
- Selling gift cards as a way to increase cash flow now and maintain customer loyalty
- Offering “buying time” promotions on gift cards, with the value of the gift card increasing as the outbreak continues but set to decrease if clients don’t redeem it once businesses open back up
- Selling custom color/dye kits, press-on nail sets, and other beauty products to clients
- Run a raffle on services or products to generate excitement and client involvement
- Create value-added content and video how-to’s that can be purchased regularly by clients and other businesses seeking training
2. Applying for government funding.
Even though the CARES Act’s initial rounds of funding for the PPP and COVID-19 EIDL loans have both run out, some banks are still accepting applications and the federal government is making swift progress on additional funding. While the PPP program unquestionably has flaws like a lending process that's been plagued by confusion and delays, banks that chose to give priority to larger business accounts and last-minute changes to documentation requirements (ex. the SBA issued documentation changes for sole proprietors and self-employed in a revised 'Interim Final Rule'), it's still the best option available from the federal aid package. At GlossGenius, we’ve partnered directly with Cross River Bank to facilitate PPP loans for the beauty and wellness community and other small businesses. We’ve seen many beauty and wellness businesses quickly gather materials to put their best foot forward on government relief.
We’re also seeing a number of companies and organizations in the beauty industry come out with grant programs to help industry professionals.
3. Educating others and learning.
We’re seeing a big trend toward education in the industry. Beauty and wellness business owners are running webinars on how to work from home, how to budget, and how to improve styling techniques-- that are useful for other professionals in the industry. We’re also seeing a number of webinars helping industry professionals make sense of the CARES Act and other financial options by cutting through technical verbiage and jargon to get to the heart of what the programs mean, who is eligible, and how they can apply. And of course, stylists are providing education for their clients who are now turning to DIY care routines!
Beauty and wellness business owners are always eager to soak up new information that will help them in their craft with clients, and we’ve seen the industry adapt to COVID-19 in part by investing more in their education and craft at a time when they have more time available to do so.
4. Improving how they do budgeting and expense management tracking
Beauty and wellness business owners that were not air tight about expenses and tracking are now seeing themselves become so. At GlossGenius, we’ve noticed an uptick in usage of expense management and tracking right through our own product. If you work with small business owners in the beauty and wellness space, now might be a good time to encourage better expense management policies and tracking.
5. Petitioning for change.
There are hundreds of thousands of salons, barbershops, and other beauty and wellness establishments in the United States. We’re seeing the industry increasingly use its voice to push for better government aid to beleaguered businesses. Hair artist and business owner Kristin Snyder recently started a petition on change.org asking the government to step in and help salons, and she’s already garnered over 1.2 million signatures. At GlossGenius, we have been leading a petition to increase PPP funding given the number of very small businesses and sole proprietors, including many in the industry, who have been shut out. We’re also encouraging beauty professionals to contact their local representatives and continue to push for greater aid to small businesses.
Ultimately, businesses in the beauty and wellness space are community-oriented. While it’s a tough time for the industry, we’re inspired by the creativity and ingenuity we’re seeing from professionals right now. We’re certainly looking forward to seeing everyone back in the chairs.
GlossGenius is a leading business management and payment solution platform for tens of thousands of small businesses and sole proprietors across the beauty and wellness industry in the US. GlossGenius offers an affordable, end-to-end platform for scheduling, payments, marketing, expense management and more.