Operations

Moderating a breakout session at the 2018 conference in Scottsdale, AZ gave the audience and myself an opportunity to discuss marketing with some real experts. Ann Latendresse, Director of Brand Marketing at Great Clips, brought all the gravitas of someone who runs marketing for a company with hundreds of thousands …

Great Clips, Inc. will do anything within reason to avoid litigation. However, if all other efforts to resolve a dispute are exhausted and litigation becomes the only option, Great Clips’ strategy is to win. In the company’s 37-year history, it has litigated with franchisees just nine times and has been …

A business that actively supports charitable organizations gets payback way beyond any funds raised or time given. It creates customer goodwill, engagement and loyalty. But to consider it simply a PR exercise to make the company look good to customers, and possibly the press, means missing out on the true …

Taylor Romero has a dream of how technology is going to organize his time in the near future, and he shared that dream at this year’s conference. It goes something like this: his wife, Beccy, who co-owns Spruce Barbers with Taylor in Denver, Co, will get a notification from their …

The relocation of the Gene Juarez Bellevue salon in 2017 was the opportunity the company had been waiting for to update and re-energize our long-established brand. Bellevue, sitting across the lake from Seattle, has become a magnet for Millennials, and that’s a demographic our group needed to attract if it …

PENZONE Salon + Spa. It’s safe to say that our new concept salon has been a key focus for us. Our new salon opened on May 9, 2018 and every element of the concept, the guest experience, and our communication was intentional. Before we get into the specifics, view a …

Two years ago our 100-salon group switched ad agencies, moving from a small boutique firm we’d been with for six years to a larger enterprise with offices in three Canadian cities. The new firm had all the polish and razzmatazz that can’t help but impress, and it has delivered, in …

We are witnessing a seismic shift in attitudes, leading to a new paradigm, according to a huge survey carried out by whom and when in Europe and North America. It questioned 5,000 participants and found the number one way to happiness was to buy back some time. We are all …

At Birds Barbershop, our mantra is to offer high quality at an affordable cost. We do that by seeking out real estate bargains, so we can push savings onto the customer. Without that balance, our model doesn’t work. And like many small operators who open one store at a time …

The impact of having a successful stylist or therapist abruptly announce her departure for greener pastures can be catastrophic. In the best-case scenario, there is suddenly a gaping hole in the team and clients are queuing up for services; worst case, she takes her clients and even tempts others on …