After a year of "What's Next?" we think it's time to recognize your business and your leadership for your flexibility, tenacity and determination. It's also the perfect time to thank and celebrate your staff, your clients and your community for getting your salon through its toughest period yet.

The SALON TODAY 200, which honors salon success and best practices, typically would be examining service and retail sales for the calendar year 2020 for this year's competition. But that's not practical, considering salons were shut down for weeks or months at a time because of the pandemic. 

So, this year we are pivoting the competition to make it a bit easier to enter, and we'll strive to celebrate the successful salons who survived, strengthened their businesses and their teams, and rebuilt in 2021 to poise themselves for growth in 2022. 

For that reason, our essays this year will focus on "Recovery and Rebuilding." 

That means we're continuing to table our best practice categories for this year. No worries though, we're still going to capture the great data and business-building ideas for which the ST200 has become famous. 

We also will only be allowing submissions through our online portal, because we're all still working remotely. 

The extended DEADLINE IS November 15!

CLICK HERE to access the application.

Here's an advanced look at this year's essay questions: 

RECOVERY ESSAY: Looking back over 2020, what particularly strategies did you take to recover your business after reopening from the pandemic? How long were social distancing requirements in place and how did they impact business? If you lost team members, how did you recruit and retain? If you lost clients, how did you gain new ones?  Maximum Word Count: 1000

REBUILDING ESSAY: Looking back over 2021, what specific actions did you and your team take to rebuild and grow your business? For example, share any cost management systems you put in place, any marketing programs to rebuild, any new services added, and efforts to recruit and retain employees. Talk about how you kept your culture and education systems strong, share any philanthropic activities you participated in or any strategies to keep your salon sustainable--either environmentally or financially. Did you take any actions to strengthen customer service? Maximum Word Count: 1000