Journal: zara elliot, essence

SPECIAL OFFERS TO BOOST SALON COFFERS

Zara Elliot is the owner of Essence, a three-treatment room salon in Sutton, Surrey. The business opened in November 2005 and she employs four other therapists (full- and part-time), offering Dermalogica, MD Formulations, Caci Chromaclear MDA, Bio Ultimate non-surgical facelift, Fake Bake self tan, Jessica nailcare, and Bare Escentuals mineral make-up.

While increased profits were expected, business at Essence is on a par with last year as a result of clients tightening their belts. So, to further promote her salon, Zara is re-working its website and embarking on e-marketing - collecting email addresses for her new, informative newsletters.

To encourage clients to register on the site, she is offering an introductory 50% first treatment discount during specified times.

Other salon offers include a free MD Formulations facial - a £25 booking fee is redeemable against further bookings or retail products to encourage clients to try the glycolic treatment.

Clients can also benefit from getting any third facial free

when they pay for two treatments. This helps boost business during office hours.

Approaching Mother's Day, gift vouchers proved popular, but these are usually used for facial treatments as Zara says people now consider skincare as a necessity, whereas body treatments are still regarded as a luxury and more associated with spas. However, she hopes new bodycare products from Dermalogica will help this area.

After training with LaStone's Jane Scrivner, Zara's team have been practising their hot stone massage techniques. This will be introduced in the next couple of months to tie-in with the new website launch. Zara experienced the treatment on a trip to LA with Dermalogica and couldn't wait to introduce it to the local area.

She met many other salon owners and therapists on the trip and has made some fantastic friends, of whom she can bounce ideas off and keep herself in "the know".

Looking to the future, she is investigating laser hair reduction, but her main aim is to rid the industry of its fluffy image. Her well-trained staff are respectful and help solve people's skincare problems. They really make a difference, she says.