How to build a Clientele in a Suite

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Building a clientele in a Salon Suite can be one of the most difficult parts of renting a Suite.

The majority of stylist may start in a traditional salon that feeds them clients from the moment they become an employee there. Honestly, that is massive benefit to working in a traditional salon enviroment.

Let's take a moment to think about where your clientel currently stands. Questions you want to know the answers to are,

1. How has your current clientele found you?

   Did they find you on social media (facebook, instagram, tik tok, etc)?

   Did they find you through word of mouth or personal recommendation of another client?

This information is important to keep track of so that you know where you should put more of your marketing efforts when trying to gain more clients!

2. How many clients do I see on a weekly and monthly basis?

3. How frequent are my clients visiting the salon? (every 4 -6 weeks, 8-12 weeks, or less frequent)

4. What is the average age of my current clientele and do I enjoy the services they are booking for?

Now that you have the answer to these questions, you can begin to formulate if you wish to gain more of these clients or if you would like to gain a different type of clientele. This could mean you wish to pivot to different types of services, have a different age group of clients that you connect with better, and how many clients you may need if they are clients that don't frequent the salon as often.

If you can get very clear on what it is you want moving forward it will be much easier to build a clientele that you love!

I also mentinoed before that it is important to know what type of clientele you desire so that you know where to put your marketing efforts. For example, in the Charlotte County Florida area the demographic is largely retirement age. If you are desiring to build a clientel of retirees you most likely will not be finding them on instagram or tik tok. Therefore posting on those platforms is not where you want to focus your efforts.

Now, think of your clientele and the clients you want to find you. Ask yourself, where does my ideal client go to find new services or places they wish to visit? This may take a bit of research and time to figure out.

Let me give you an example. I want to use our town for this. The age group I want to work with is 60-65. I know they don't use instagram or tik tok. But I know for a fact they use Google and the Nextdoor App. They also tend to be very big on word of mouth referrals.

Now I know I would make myself a Google Business Account if I don't already have one, and I would post on nextdoor a couple times a week inviting neighbors to come into my salon.

If you are going to post on nextdoor, you should be posting in the area that your salon is located, not in the area your personal residence is located.

I would also concider offering my guest a referral incentive since we know they are big on word of mouth recommendations. For example, "Each guest receives $15 or $20 off of their service when the new guest they sent you completes their appointment, and the new guest also receives $15 or $20 off their first service."

My recommendation Don't do % off, only do dollar amount!

Now that you know where your marketing efforts are going, you should stay consistant with posting. Even when you don't have any appointments available. This will increase your demand and lead to being able to increase your prices over time!

If you find this helpful leave me a comment and let me know how it worked for you!

-Paige Leah at Suite Evolution Salon