5 tips on immersing your salon in its local community from sesh hairdressing

When your salon is located in a more rural town it's crucial to build a good relationship with the local community to create a strong and loyal client base. Here, founder and head stylist of SESH Hairdressing Simon Hill talks about how he has done so with his Edinburgh salon. Introduce yourself When opening a salon, it is important to consider your environment and work hard to really immerse your business within the local community, at SESH we were fortunate in terms of location as there is such a strong sense of community in the Leith area of Edinburgh already and we slotted in well. One of the most important first steps is to introduce your business to other businesses in the area from hotels and restaurants to bakeries, bars and local shops. Make each business aware of your services and our all-inclusive attitude and approachable nature. This is crucial as it adds a friendly and welcoming feel to your business, people like people and by physically popping in on a regular basis you are more likely to be remembered. We still work with many of these businesses now and many of the staff have gone on to become loyal clients of ours. Collaborate Collaborating with other businesses can be very lucrative and will help you reach a wider audience, the opportunity to do this will also be much easier if you have followed the first tip and visited local businesses in person. Word of mouth is priceless and by teaming up with other businesses in your area you can capitalise on this to make it a lucrative exercise. We have partnered up with local luxury hotel, Malmaison and offered their staff members an exclusive discount in the salon in exchange for recommendations something which benefits both businesses. Forming working relationships with others in your local area is always worthwhile and something you should make a conscious effort to work on. Promote yourself Don’t presume that people will come in to the salon or check you out online or on social media, promoting your work and your services in the window of your salon and outside is still worthwhile. We ran a simple yet effective marketing exercise previously in which we had an A Board outside the salon which read ‘Need a Haircut?’ and this proved to be a very lucrative exercise for us. Something simple like this reminds people in your local area that you are there and encourages them to find out more and proceed to book an appointment so don’t overlook this aspect of marketing even if it will only reach your local audience. Attend Events Attending local events is a brilliant way to spread the word about your salon and it gives your team members the chance to meet potential new clients face to face. We have worked with the Malmaison Hotel at their Wedding Fair a number of times and not only is it a great exercise for your team to learn and develop it can prove to be very profitable from a business aspect too.  You have the chance to showcase your work to a targeted audience that are likely to be interested in your field. Our team also recently attended the opening of a delicious new bagel shop close to the salon to show our support and again introduce ourselves to them. Supporting other businesses in this way and taking time out of your day to find out what they are doing is crucial when attempting to immerse your salon in its local community. Give Back Giving back is something I believe to be really important and you can take a great sense of pride in giving back locally. Not only does this of course benefit the charity you choose to support, it may also benefit your business in the long run as your clients and potential clients will view you as a salon that cares. We support MND Scotland and have raised a total of £3,500 over the years which we are very proud of and find that it is a great point of conversation with many of our clients.