How To Foster Innovation By Adding Value In Your Beauty Business

What can you do to inject more innovation, value,  and creativity into your beauty business?

To start, we need to first define what innovation means for us as beauty professionals and then muster up an innovative attitude within ourselves!

You don’t have to come up with some groundbreaking technology to be “innovative.” For many service businesses, being innovative simply means adding more value and finding creative ways to meet your clients’ needs to serve them better.

How Innovation Can Benefit Your Beauty Business

The secret to having a successful business is to cultivate raving fans that are loyal clients who will tell others about your services.

Adding value is one of the best ways to augment your client experience, increase client retention, build loyalty, and encourage referrals.

When you find innovative and creative ways to add value every time a client walks through your door, you’d probably be delivering a better client experience than 99% of your competitors and guess what – a profitable and sustainable business will naturally unfold!

How To Add More Value In Your Spa Business

Now you may be thinking, “I’m already serving my clients’ needs!”

Well, that’s all well and good. But if you want to stand out and excel, you need to be adding a ridiculous amount of value.

So my question to you is, “What can you do better to go above and beyond?”

How can you consistently add value in new ways to keep your business fresh and your clients coming back?

Is there a way to anticipate what your clients want (or what they didn’t even know they want) to be one step ahead in delivering that experience?

As estheticians, many of us like to geek out on equipment. However, it’s a mistake to think that if we just add a new gadget or modality will do the trick…

Instead of buying more bright shiny objects, think about how you can add value by designing the spa experience from your clients’ perspective. More often than not, you’d realize that it’s not about adding a new treatment or a new product.

Consider these questions:

• How can you improve upon what you already have?
• Do you really need to create another product for your private label or would it be better to refine the product line?
• How can you make your top retail sellers even better?

You don’t have to do anything overly expensive or elaborate either.

When I owned my spa, we’d offer a nice footbath when clients were waiting for their treatment.

We’d serve orange water or hot tea in the lounge. We also put essential oils and colored stones in the footbath so the clients can roll their feet around.

Then, I discovered some amazing magnesium bath salts, which I incorporated into their treatment. This added a detoxing and calming benefit to their spa experience.

As you can see, just by making some simple tweaks once in a while, you will have the ability to deliver enormous added value to our clients!

How To Keep Innovation Alive In Your Beauty Business

Here’s what you can do to incorporate innovation into your beauty business:

• Build an open culture that encourages creative and innovative thinking. When a team member proposes an idea, don’t be too quick to shoot it down. Ask questions and encourage discussion (e.g., “tell me more” or “how do you see this working in our spa?”)
• Set an example as the leader in your business and your team members will follow suit. Encourage conversations, question your assumptions, and suspend your judgments. Listen to your team actively to foster an innovative climate.
• Assemble your “circle of genius” – a small group of people that you can trust with your business decisions. Meet with this group on a regular basis to brainstorm and collaborate.
• Listen to your clients and ask open-ended questions to find out what kind of experience they’d like to get out of visiting your spa.
• Make time for your own self-reflection. Translate your creativity and new ideas into actual service offerings that deliver value to your clients.
• Stay current with the latest industry trends by attending business conferences and training regularly.

Innovation should be incorporated into every aspect of your beauty business.

Besides keeping your service offerings fresh, you can also build relationships with your clients creatively through your marketing.

In the Esthetician Inner Circle, I’ll show you how you can market your business to build trust, get more clients, and turn all of your clients into raving fans.