I started thinking outside the box on salon and spa packages after receiving an eblast from Ritz-Carlton on their new Professional Pursuits package. Targeted at the business traveler, the package includes accommodations, breakfast, garment pressing, high-speed internet and valet parking.

So what else can you add to your product and service mix to enhance your package? Your expertise! By focusing on wellness, beauty and fashion in your career, you've developed a level of expertise that your clients respect and trust. Your training, attendance at industry shows and advanced education have continued to build your knowledge.

Look for fun and creative ways you can combine your products, services and your information to create promotional packages that are fun gifts to give and receive. To get started, grab your service menu and your inventory list and find a quiet corner to think. Once you've worked out what products and services you want to package together, enlist your team to help develop the informational component. 

By no means am I an expert, but I took a stab at it to get you rolling:

• For Your Eyes Only: Partner a brow waxing service with a palette of the season's hottest eyeshadows. Offer it with step-by-step directions on how to create the perfect smokey eye for party-hopping. 

• Seeing Red: Offer up the hottest red color services with a few color-protecting products. Help clients protect their investment by throwing in a list of strategies to avoid color fade.

• The Perfect Finish: A great blowout is key for helping most clients maintain their salon look, but it's also one of their biggest frustrations. Create a How-To Blowout DVD featuring your staff walking clients through the perfect blowout, then package it with a makeover haircut and styling products and tools.

• Time to Relax: Marry a massage service with a body lotion and send it home with 10 tips for establishing a relaxing space at home.

Offering up your expertise positions your as a professional and sets you apart from the competition. Before you know it you'll become the go-to beauty expert in your own backyard. And, there's no better marketing than that!

Stacey Soble has been involved in the conversation of salon business for 14 years-as a reporter, a consultant and as the editor in chief of SALON TODAY.

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