Asked and Answered: 6 Owners Make Business Resolutions

Six salon and spa owners tackle SALON TODAY's Question of the Month, which asks them to focus their business priorities for 2013:

If you could only focus on one area of your salon or spa business for 2013, what would it be and why?

"Without a doubt, we are going to be focusing on education, education, education!! I believe that in order to maintain continuous growth in our salon, I have to maintain a committed structure of training the young stylists who are the future of our industry. Youth brings passion, passion breeds creativity, and both will bring and keep new clients.” –Richard Daly, Richard Salon, Smithtown, New York

“The #1 thing we will focus on is education.  At Randolph Salon, it’s our belief Randolph's Salon that education is the wheel that drives the business.  Education is not only about keeping stylists on-trend, it's about a new talent that needs to learn some basic principles, the front desk team learning to make retail offerings, and it's about owners stretching out of their comfort zone to grow their business.  Bottom line, education helps us learn better, earn better, and live better.”—Mary and Scott Randolph, Randolph Salon, White Lake, Michigan

“For my salon, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, I am completely focused on keeping my business sustained.  I have learned that remaining viable as you climb the mountain-- or reach the top--can actually be harder than getting there.  While building a team and building a business are not easy feats--keeping both sustained is a huge challenge because you have to constantly reinvent, reinvigorate, and repackage to keep your team motivated and clients intrigued. So, for 2013, every single thing I do to invest ... in my team's education, in my facility, in marketing, in technology ... will be with a mindset to keep my business viable and sustained for the future.”—Ginny Eramo, Interlocks Salon Spa Cosmetics, Newburyport, Massachusetts

“Education, because it motivates staff, energizes them and helps them grow. This in turn energizes clients and creates buzz about our devotion to our craft.”—Deb Sayles, Rituals Salon & Spa, Leominster, Massachusetts

“We will be working on each staff member’s productivity, referrals and retention for this year. We have 2012 reviews and 2013 planning sessions with each staff member this week. We have a terrific base of business and great retention, now we will refine how we gain as much business by concentrating on those objectives.”—Larry Kane, Jonathan Kane Salon & Spa, Flossmoor, Illinois