‘Tis the season to boost your bottom line (and help your clients get their shopping done)

The holiday season is here, whether we’re all ready for it or not. 2021 has passed in a blur, but Christmas and New Year's are rearing their heads, and people are going to want to get their glam on for both. With bookings filling fast, now’s a great opportunity to offer holiday promotions that’ll grab attention and plump up your profits.

The Christmas/New Year’s Eve party glam-up

People are hanging out in person again, which means after a muted 2020, the parties to cap off 2021 are going to be blowouts. Work Christmas parties, dinner parties with friends, and the all-important, glam night of the year...New Year’s. Your clientele is going to want to go to those parties in full sparkle mode. This is a perfect opportunity to put together bundled packages to get people looking their best before donning their gay apparel. Combine some basic services into one nice little package: a blowout, mani/pedi, brows, lashes, and a skin treatment. Custom nail art packages are another fun option for anyone looking to turn their accessory game up to 11.

New year, new you

It’s debatable how well people actually stick to New Year’s resolutions (or even how healthy they are as an idea), but you’re going to get more than a few January 1 hangovers deciding to overhaul their look for 2022. A “New Year, New You” package could help people who want to go for something big and daring to face another year on this planet. Focus on asymmetrical and pixie cuts, as well as impressive dyes — the traditional ways folks want to make a statement. But make sure you have stylists ready to go who are comfortable with these processes; it takes a deft hand to ensure your client has a positive experience with such a significant shift.

Who doesn’t love a little zhuzh?

On the flip side, with your beauty business potentially heavily booked through December, see if you can’t integrate some quick turnaround treatments that you can squeeze in-between full length bookings. Straighten up some necklines, trim some split ends, give the brows a bit of a shape. Nothing huge or expensive, just a little something to put a bounce in your client’s step, and keep them coming back for more.

It’s the season of giving (and receiving!)

The entire supply chain is a mess right now, and trying to buy holiday gifts is a full-on trash fire. Products aren’t on the shelves, and shipping times have slowed to a crawl — which means more and more people will be giving experience-based gifts. And that’s you! Chances are you already have a way of handling gift cards at your location, but consider ways to fancify them. Pick up some nice greeting cards to sell alongside the voucher, and put them both in a beautiful envelope, tied off with ribbon or twine, just to give some visual pizazz. Consider selling fixed service gift cards, too, so that someone can pay for a specific spa service rather than just giving money, and making the recipient choose.

Show off the local talent

Given how difficult gift-giving will be this year, this is also a great opportunity to support your local maker movement. If you have the space, dedicate an area of your salon to local artists and crafters who are selling their goods. It’ll give people who are waiting for their appointment something interesting to do, and hopefully get some of their gift shopping done at the same time. There are plenty of local artists who would be extremely excited to show off their goods to a captive audience. Try searching on Etsy for local sellers to get a feel for who might be in your neck of the woods.

Give the gift of goodwill

Not all promotions that benefit your beauty business are about turning a profit. The holiday season is the perfect time of year to partner with a local charity to do some good in this world. At its simplest level, you could accept donations at your salon, but there’s so much room than that to do something more. You can do toy or food drives, raffle gift cards, host a fundraising party, or offer free services for a local shelter. The holidays are a hard time of year for a lot of people, so take this opportunity to lean into the real meaning of the season, and support your fellow humans.