Day Spa Expo <strong>and</strong> Business Forum The Day Spa Association <strong>and</strong> the International Medical Spa Association will provide the educational component for the Day Spa Expo & Business Forum at the Las Vegas Convention Center on March 13 to 15, 2010 for spa, salon <strong>and</strong> wellness center owners, managers <strong>and</strong> professionals. The Day Spa Expo is all about serious business where you will be updated on all of the latest spa trends, techniques, equipment, business <strong>and</strong> marketing strategies. Guest Speakers this year will lecture simultaneously in two large classroom venues. John C. Gray will be the keynote speaker. The Day Spa Business Expo Forum will include: Patti Biro, Mark Romero, Dan Ch<strong>and</strong>re, Celeste Hilling, Skip Williams, Brian Cunningham, Rebecca Jones, Eric Light, Felicia Brown, Ken Cassidy, Suzanne Garcia, Audry Brown, Larry H. Oskin, Kim Collier, Heather Lemere, Ana Loiselle <strong>and</strong> Stacey Hall, DSA <strong>and</strong> IMSA members receive a special discount of 20% off the registration. During a special DSA Meet <strong>and</strong> Greet networking event on Sunday evening March 14, the new ‘2010 Spa Person of the Year Award’ <strong>and</strong> the new 2010 “Distinguished Day Spa of the Year Award” will be presented. There is still time to enter your day spa. Nominations are also being invited for the annual DSA Leadership, IMSA Leadership, Healing Hearts <strong>and</strong> the Spa Philanthropist Awards. For information <strong>and</strong> to register for the 2010 Day Spa Expo, go to www.dayspaexpo.com. Introducing <strong>Salon</strong>Fit® Free, the first glove that doesn’t contain harmful phthalates. What are harmful phthalates? Good question. Phthalates are chemicals used in the manufacturing of many products, including vinyl gloves. Harmful phthalates are those identified on California’s Proposition 65 as having negative health effects on adults <strong>and</strong> children. Those phthalates can cause health issues such as cancer <strong>and</strong> birth defects. <strong>Salon</strong>Fit Free was developed as a safe alternative to vinyl gloves that contain those harmful phthalates. <strong>Salon</strong>Fit Free is an innovative, new glove that delivers performance <strong>and</strong> peace of mind. For more information visit GrahamBeauty.com Leverage Social Media to Build Your Business The Mane Objective Marco Pelusi Are you hearing about Facebook from your clients or staff? Are people texting you <strong>and</strong>/or emailing you about hair appointments? Are you getting calls from potential clients who found your name through a Google search? Hopefully your answer to all of the above questions is a big fat YES. If you answered no, or even a maybe, to any of the questions, you might have some work to do with social media this year. We all do, actually. Welcome to the new online world of salon business. Social media is beyond a necessity <strong>and</strong>/or a requirement anymore. We’re so far into it that we can hardly catch up. For example, salons all over the world are profiting at this very moment as a result of leveraging social media tools like Facebook. It’s time for you <strong>and</strong> your salon to get involved with this fabulous <strong>and</strong> exciting craze. Allow me to give you some tidbits that work for my salon. I just “Googled’ my salon, <strong>and</strong> a lot of hits came up. I also Googled “Haircolor West Hollywood,” <strong>and</strong> my salon name comes up. There’s no reason your salon can’t experience a similar response to a Google search. The simplest <strong>and</strong> most powerful way is for you to start increasing your search engine optimization (SEO) visibility is to create your salon fanpage on Facebook. You’ll need to post some beautiful photos of you, your salon, your work <strong>and</strong>/or your staff on the fanpage. How do you get fans on your fanpage? Well, you have an entire salon full of clients to start. Hopefully you keep a current list of your client’s emails – if you don’t – do it now. Then send an email to that list asking everyone to join your fanpage. Now you have a place to keep everyone informed about what’s going on at your salon including promotions, events <strong>and</strong> hairstyle trends. Once your fanpage is up, “Google” your salon, <strong>and</strong> you’ll see your The simplest <strong>and</strong> most powerful way is for you to start increasing your search engine optimization (SEO) visibility is to create your salon fanpage on Facebook. salon name come up. When you have some down time, search for <strong>and</strong> reconnect with your old friends. It’s time to let everyone in your life (from childhood ‘til now) in on your successful business as a hairdresser <strong>and</strong>/or salon owner. You’ll find your old friends are probably on Facebook <strong>and</strong> are happy to support your business. Your biggest problem should be that you become overloaded with old <strong>and</strong> new friends sending you messages on Facebook asking you for hair appointments. Wouldn’t that be a nice problem to have? In addition to Facebook, there are other online opportunities to increase your visibility such as blogs <strong>and</strong> reviews. If you have clients who are bloggers, have them write about you or ask if they’d like you to write a guest article. Any blog post that includes your website will also help increase your SEO visibility. Additionally, online reviews are a great way to get exposure, as long as you’re doing great work <strong>and</strong> taking care of your clients. You’ll need to research the key sites that review <strong>and</strong> include reviews about businesses in your area <strong>and</strong> then ask your clients to submit reviews. However, as you know, it only takes one bad review of you to negatively impact your reputation. So remember to always take care of your clients, put the work in, <strong>and</strong> your hard work will come back to you always – even online. Hopefully I’ve provided some immediate action steps for you to leverage social media <strong>and</strong> online tools to build your business. I personally find that emailing <strong>and</strong> Facebook together make for a brilliant online networking combination. You <strong>Stylist</strong> readers are truly my peers – my most important people – my ‘peeps.’ I’d love to be able to stay in closer touch with you, so please join my Facebook fanpage (just search for Marco Pelusi Hair Studio Inc.). Then send me an invite to join your salon’s fanpage. See you soon on FB! Marco Pelusi is globally recognized as a haircolor trainer <strong>and</strong> platform artist. Marco Pelusi Hair Studio, Inc. was named Best Hair Color in Los Angeles 2007 by KTTV Fox11’s “myfoxla Hot List” competition. Pelusi created the Marco Collagen Color Guard HairCare System, the collagen system developed for color <strong>and</strong> chemically treated hair. For more information, visit www.marcopelusi.com. READ IT! SAVE IT! PRINT IT! NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE! View this article <strong>and</strong> more at www.stylistnewspapers.com 10 | FEBRUARY 010 | CALIFORNIA STYLIST & SALON
Exclusive Distributors: Northern California <strong>and</strong> Nevada: INDEPENDENT SALON SERVICES San Jose, CA 888.478.4481 info@independentss.com SWEIS, INC. Southern California: SWEIS, INC. Torrance, CA 877.633.1717 www.sweisinc.com