[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Insync Insurance Podcast. I'm your host Dawn Cross and today I'll be chatting about salonpreneur with Sue Davies, industry veteran and magazine director.
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[00:00:21] Speaker B: So if I could get you to start off and introduce yourself what you get up to and you know what your business is all about.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Okay, so hello, I'm Sue Davies and I am what has been more commonly referred to over the more recent years as an industry veteran.
And it's term that kind of does explain it a little bit. I didn't like it when I first was told that I was an industry veteran but my son tells me it just shows my years of experience and knowledge. So I've kind of had to live with it a little bit and I do kind of take it on board. I've been in the industry since 2002 and I came into the industry as a nail tech and then developed the passion for holistic therapies and I ended up, I've worked as a self employed person within someone else's business. I've then managed that business for them. I've worked as a trade association like membership manager.
I then have worked as a home salon. Then I had my own salon that became award winning and won lots and lots of different awards national and local.
And through that I've also done national nail competitions and been a director and a judge for that judge for Scratch Stars. I've judged for professional beauty.
I have done an awful lot of stuff. There's not many things. I was the co founder and one of the.
What was I? Deputy chair of the Federation of Now Professionals. So I've kind of, I've had a lot of hats, an awful lot of hats. I also now have my own podcast called Inspiring Selling Professionals and where I talk about growing business and careers in the industry.
And I am the salon inspector. So I do like client care or client experience experience audits and stuff like that and online visibility audits.
And then we're here to talk about today is and I have also previously been a publishing person as well with a different magazine. But this time I'm bringing back a new magazine called Salon Preneur Magazine and I'm also going into event management within the industry with a business partner as well. And we've got Salon Business Connect coming up in October. So yeah, quite a lot of hats and I'm sure there's always something I forget but I think and I've also been an educator for Many brands as well. So yeah, there isn't many things. I think the only thing I haven't done in industry is session work. That's the only thing I've not done, I think.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Do you like cramming a holiday at some point?
[00:02:33] Speaker C: I have done over the years.
I know it's, I get, I do get really busy and like. And people quite often say I don't know how you do all this stuff. And the thing is, and you know, to be completely honest is I always earn lots of money doing all this stuff I do. There's a lot of like for the good of the industry stuff that I do which I don't mind doing but sometimes it's actually nice to spend the money. So it's like this is one of the reasons I'm kind of going to do the magazine because I know that the industry needs something different and, and it's a way. Yeah. And basically it's just, it's a. Being completely honest is an income stream and it means I can actually give something back and also the industry can give me something back for. Just for a change.
Yeah, but it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's. I've had an interesting career and I think it's just, I do like the whole thing of sharing knowledge and just, yeah. Being collaborative and working with people and helping them to help other people too.
Someone actually called me a facilitator a couple of years ago and I do think that's kind of one of my key skills is, is just is facilitating people and how, and helping them grow.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: That definitely sounds brilliant. So I was here, it's all about, you've got your event coming up and then obviously this magazine. So tell me a bit more about the magazine. What is it going to have, how is it going to help? You know, what makes it different from other magazines either.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: So the magazine, my previous magazine was called Southern Education Journal and due to a few different circumstances I had to put that to bed for a little while. And but this go, if you, if you were reading that magazine, this is going to be very, very similar to it. Slightly different stance but the fundamentals of it would be very similar. And I head up the editorial team. I've got Phil Jackson who people might know who's build your salon and he's also the queen of memberships. He's actually going to be helping me. He's going to be my right hand editorial person. So I really know each other for a really long time and when I was doing this he was like, let me help because you're like, about to take on this mammoth task on your own. Like, what are you doing?
So he's going to be there helping me. And I've got my daughter, who is a linguistic specialist, so she's going to be helping with editorial as well. But there's the three of us that are going to be on the editorial team and then the rest of the.
The articles will be made up is we have something called collaborative columnists, and we have about 15 of them that are all industry experts. They all come. I think there's one or two of them that come from outside of industry.
But the magazine is all about business skills, business development. It's aimed at people that are decision makers within the industry. Whether you're a solo pro, whether you're a salon owner, an academy owner, but a brand supplier, whatever you are in the industry, you are trying to run a business that is either selling business to consumer or business to business. And whatever way you're trying to do business, quite often we're like the blind leading the blind. Like, unless you've actually gone and done a business degree, quite often you don't understand necessarily everything until you're in it and then they're in fight or flight and you've got to make decisions and it all gets a bit scary and a bit overwhelming.
We don't get trained in this area at all.
Well, we do. We kind of go through like reception management and stuff like that and a little bit of operations when we do it. If you do, if you do like a formal, like level two or level three, you get a little bit of like salon manager thrown in, but it's a bit of a nod to it and it isn't really that formal.
And then you become a therapist or a hair stylist and all of a sudden you go, I want a salon. And one of my. One of the columnists, Carl Hinder, he said this phrase to me years ago. It's like you become a therapist with a set of keys and you have to learn on the job and whether that's about, you know, what in sync do, providing insurance and understanding the legislation behind. Why do you need insurance? I mean, obviously it's not a legal requirement, but there's a. There's a definite advantage to having insurance, but people don't always understand those things. So the magazine kind of comes from a place of like, business development and skills.
So we'll have coaches and experts from HR and finance and we are just. I'm just getting Waiting for someone to come back to me for legal. So we get all of that kind of side of the, of the operations of a business that you kind of put to the back because it's not really your thing and you don't really understand it. So we'll cover all of that kind of stuff.
And then alongside that there is also the other side of being an entrepreneurial spirit of like the overwhelm, the burnout, the anxiety, the stress, how to manage that. So there'll also be a lot of elements of personal development. One of the things I've done in the last year is I studied hypnotherapy. So it's always been a fascination of mine. And, and so I've learned the benefits of how that can really, really help you. And so we have people talking about that kind of stuff. So about how hypnotherapy can, sorry, you know, we're going to have hypnotherapy column. But I know one of the other, one of the collaborative columnists also does the same technique as me because she got me into it and she's a great mindset specialist. And so we'd be talking about mindset about, yeah, just managing your well being because we kind of all forget. And Sam Blake, who I know has been on your podcast, you know, she's, she's a great advocate for, for solos and for helping people understand the difficulty that comes when you are a solo pro, which our industry is now.
So, so many people are solos, working from home, working mobile, with no peer support, with no management support, with no apprentice support. And it's really, it's a hard place to be. So the magazine kind of works across those two areas, just sort of like business support and for the owner, support for their personal well being as well. So there'll be lots of different elements to it, but it's very, very different. And we work with the brands that we want to advertise and stuff like that in the magazine are all smaller brands.
It is my philosophy and everything is like, leave the ladder down. And I was saying to you before, it's like, you know, if we all row together, the boat rows faster, we get where we want to go quicker. And it's about that kind of space of helping people just develop themselves and their businesses.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Definitely. I think, as well as something that still needs to be worked on probably with every industry, but especially in the beauty and aesthetics industries, is having that synergy and working together more because, you know, obviously, yes, you know, everyone is. Maybe there'll be people that offer the same treatment as one another. But you can't treat like everybody in your local area. And there's nothing wrong with working in tandem or like just giving each other help in hand, whether it be advice or just like, you know, actually, I can't fit you into a client, but you can refer the client on someone else and you scratch each other's backs when someone's on holiday and you don't have to be like fighting each other for business all the time.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: No, indeed. And when I, when I have. It's a great phrase of mine. I say a lot on my podcast when I have my salon. But I love. When I did have my salon, I had a lot of local salons that I knew and, and we would. And because I've always been a person that is open to talking to people and, and as you're working out already, I talk a lot. So I've got. But, you know, and Susie is still talking about it. I had a salon, she was a couple miles away from me. She'd been to me for training for different things. So we built a relationship through that. And she opened her salon probably about three miles, four miles from my business. So we, we weren't direct competition, but we would, we. If we. People Google searched waxing in our area, we'd both come up.
But, you know, the times, like, we'd have an issue with our supplier and one of us would be on the phone to the other one, like, you know, please, can you help me out? I've got no wax. Like, I can't get my wax delivery for another three days. So it's like, you know, times that you've got those simple collaborative things like that. But also that, you know, when you, if you're a business owner that's been in business for 20 years and there's someone starting up and, you know, they're struggling, you know, you've got a safe and loyal client base. You know, they're not, they're probably. It's going to be. They're going to be hard pushed to take your client base away from you to, you know, offer support, you know, maybe set up, you know, like, for me, I go to like a local networking group where there's probably three, maybe four of us that do very, very similar things.
But I'm at a different stage of what I do. And obviously I do all this stuff as well as I do. I do actually still provide a clinic service as well. I was working last night doing around therapy.
It's the only Thing I now do is hypnotherapy and holistics, and that's it. So I've got a very, very small client base that I just like to kind of still like to keep my face at the cold face just a little bit. I can't, I can't quite leave it behind.
But, you know, but, and we are, we're, we'll be looking at clients and, you know, clients are going to find all of us on Google Business profile, because I've talked more about Google Business Profile, but they're going to find us on there and then they make a choice. But it doesn't mean we can't be friendly to each other. It doesn't mean that we can't support each other. And it's the same whether you, whatever, whichever you are, in the industry.
And all of the people that work with me as a collaborative columnist, you know, a lot of them I've known for a long time, some people I've known for less time.
But I know like and trust all of them. And I hope that that means that the readership will know, like, and trust them too, because hopefully I've. I've got some good people there.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: That's brilliant. So my next question following on from that brilliant explanation is, you know, obviously you said with the magazine, everything else, how can people benefit from either, you know, reading the magazine or obviously you mentioned as well, you've got this amazing event coming up in October.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: So with the magazine, there'll benefit they. Because it, there's an element of it that is just. You will have probably 15 to 22 articles because we will have guest writers as well. So I've already lining up some of the guest writers for the launch edition.
So there'll be guest writers in there as well. A lot of those will come from outside of industry. And I think sometimes in the industry we get so blinkered into, this is how we do things in beauty, this is how we do things in hair, this is how we do things in aesthetics. And we get so blinkered and we, we kind of live in a bit of an echo chamber in this industry. I have come to the conclusion over the years and we all sort of sit there going, oh, we're doing this, we're doing that.
And, and half the time people are listening. We quite often are just talking to brick walls. And that's whether you're a beauty therapist trying to get new clients or whether you're a coach trying to get new salon owners to come to you. It doesn't really matter what it is. I think, you know, we all, we all tend to sit in social media so much and with now just doom scroll and doom scroll and doom scroll. And so we don't, we don't, we don't really take time to actually really educate ourselves and through and with the magazine. Each article that you get is going to give you something that's informational, actionable and is something that you're going to learn from.
It may be that you already know that, but you know, you think you know how to set up your retail and how to do retail, but it may be that, you know, one of the people that's writing in a magazine might give you a slightly different view on it that you never thought. And so for me, the magazine, and I really do, I do love print editions of everything. It is available in digital as well.
But I'm, I find sometimes we just need to be away from those screens and actually sitting down with a cup of tea or coffee or glass of wine, whatever, your, whatever floats your boat. But sitting down had taken a lunch break and having a moment to just sit and read gives you, just in itself gives you a period of mindfulness and concentration and refocus on something different.
And there will be some, there is going to be elements in there that are a little bit kind of coffee break kind of thing, a little bit more light hearted.
And so it just gives you a bit of an opportunity just to decompress and just unwind from the stress that we all feel as salon owners and business owners in this industry. Because it is really, it can be really intense. And I think sometimes we just need to recognize that it's okay to stop and to refresh our minds in a different way other than sitting, looking at a tablet.
But, and that's just, I think everyone.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Feels that on a certain level. And you know, obviously the phones are brilliant so you can find some information, you can read loads of blogs and stuff like that. But I think also like sometimes our eyes literally need the rest from a screen because it is very different from when you're just looking at a piece of paper.
And as well as that, when you're trying to get away from the phone as well to have that physical, you know, learning resource. I think it's still something that's very underappreciated.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: So it will be. Everything is like, as I say, it's informational, educational and actionable. And all of the collaborative columnists are instructed that that's what people should get from what they're writing and I really. And also there will be elements in there but we will have people coming from outside of industry writing. But also there'll be like a sort of like a spotlight feature where we're and people more than welcome to DM me if they want to be in.
We have a lot of spotlight feature. Every issue that will be a spotlight on a solo business owner, on a salon owner and on an academy owner as well. Just so they can share whether, you know, it might be that they've got the most amazing award winning salon. It might be that they've actually been in business for 10 years and they're really struggling and they, they really don't know if it's for them anymore because there's an awful lot of that going on at the moment and it may just be, you know, they want to share that actually they've gone through adversity and come out the other side and done amazing things or they've gone through adversity and decided actually I'm going to pivot and do something different. But whatever their story is, if they come from a solo background, a salon owner background or an academy background, I want their stories. So. And it is. And I think it's that sort of resonance of like you. The people that are going to be featuring in the magazine are people that are like you. And I think that's the important thing.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Definitely. So is there anything you'd like to add before we wrap up the episode?
You know, when is the magazine coming out?
[00:16:11] Speaker C: So the magazine comes out first of July, subscriptions are open. You can find us on salonpreneur magazine, on Facebook and Instagram and then the event in October. Salon Business Connect is a two day event which really follows very similar themes. It's about business and personal development.
A whole day of business, a whole day of personal development, mindset and just like dealing with the more challenging side of the being a business owner. It's a beautiful Coombe Park.
Sorry, not Coombe Park. Abbey Hotel in Coventry. I should know. I've not stopped thinking about it for weeks.
5th and 6th of October and you can. We have everything from sort of like day delegate tickets through to VIP experiences.
There'll be.
We're looking to fill 180.
I think we've got 180. It might be slightly less but that's our target currently. But we're looking to. Yeah, to try and fill 180 seats.
We have got around 25 to 30 exhibitors that are going to be with us. We're just signing our first sponsors at the moment, so we can't. Early bird tickets are available. You can find
[email protected] and yeah, it's gonna be a great event. We've got some great keynote speakers and everything's about to start coming out about that. But we are. We've already sold our first few tickets, we've got our first few showcases signed up and we can't wait. It's going to be amazing. Big gala dinner on the Sunday night, cocktail, networking. It's. Yeah, it's going to be a place. Place to be. There is nothing else like it in the industry and I'm doing this with Nina Atfield who owns Lashporia and Luster Lash. And we've known each other for a long time Since I think 2015 when we were educators at Louisville together and. And we've both been sort of like looking at somewhere to do something like this for a while and. Yeah, so that's great. So Salon Business Connect is going to be a fantastic event. Wonderful.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on today and discussing all of that.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: Okay, that's fine. Thanks ever so much for having me.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Thank you to my guest today, sue, for chatting about her experience in her exciting new industry magazine Salonpreneur, which is launching on June 1st. If you're interested in reading a copy, please click the link in the description.
I have been your host, Dawn Cross and tune in next week for another episode.
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