The 2nd day at India Salon Pro and Beauty Market India conference at the Renaissance, Powai saw spa and salon owners speaking on unique ways to reap good business. With panelists like CK Kumaravel, Founder and CEO of Naturals; Michael Robertson, CEO of Best Western Premier Vedic Village Spa Resort; and Rahul Bhalchandra, CEO and Founder of YLG Salon and Spa telling the tale of their success, they pointed out on the key essentials required for building a successful spa.
“One cannot expect business to run well from the very first day. When I started Naturals, I had to go through a loss of Rs. 20 lakhs. But within a span of three years, the company started experiencing profits slowly,” said Kumarwarvel. He further added that even though working in this industry has not received much appreciation by people, with the opening up of institutes providing certificate courses for this sector, people have started trusting this industry. He also stressed on the importance of brand building and the concept of franchising as it gives a better chance for the business to grow.
Throwing light on business strategies that need to be followed for making a spa or salon business a hit, Bhalchandra said: “The customer is the hero. If one places them at the heart of their business, he or she is surely going to reap profits.” He also advised aspiring entrepreneurs who want to enter the business of spas and salons to create processes and incentives that are linked to customer indices, take decisions that results in customer satisfaction and also provide personalized services to the customers.
However, there are ups and downs associated with every business. Speaking about some common mistakes that businessmen often make, Robertson said: “One shouldn’t use too much international designs in to their salons or spas. Try using more of local expertise to which your customers can relate to. In a spa or salon business, awareness is very much required and your customers are the ones who helps the business grow.” Adding more to this, Bhalchandra, who owns 19 salons in Bangalore and one in Pune, said that every salon or spa should provide a refresher course for the newly employed, so that services provided remain the same throughout all the branches.
Tista Sengupta, Mumbai Bureau
