Hey everyone!!!!! I hope you all are avoiding the colds and flu as I am NOT!!! The joys of having your child in a day home is you bring things home including BUGS....oh well, building the system. Enough of my complaining...that's not why you clicked on this blog post...you want to know what makes YOU so special?

First and foremost, we ALL are special, and this blog is NOT in any way shape or form a call out, it is just what I know, and feel. Take it or leave it.

I have learned so much in my life and in my career in this beautiful industry. The BIGGEST thing I have learned is some BIG heads need to be popped!!!! HAHA....I bet I have your attention now...OR you have just stopped reading. Let's be realistic here, I have had a big head myself(and not just because I have a cold)and it needed to be popped!!! I am here to inform each and every one of you that as human beings you are NO different!!! "THAT is harsh Lisa!!!!" I know it is, but the truth hurts!!!! I want everyone to take this seriously because once the head is deflated we become better nail technicians to our customers, better distributors to our customers, better educators to our students, better bosses to our employees and better employees to our bosses!!!

What makes YOU so special has many meanings....and I will break it down for you so that you can understand the TRUE intention of this post.

1) ONLY "EXPERIENCE" APPLY
Are you doing ALL you can to make each your customers happy and satisfied with their "experience" in your business? Are you offering something that NO ONE else is? What makes YOU so special? Why should someone be on a waiting list to see YOU when they can walk into a place and get in at THAT moment? "THE EXPERIENCE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Each and every ONE of you are unique beings so the experience you give to your paying customers should be as unique as you are!!!! This is what is missing in this industry...every one is trying to compare themselves to everyone else instead of just being themselves....I have been guilty of that BELIEVE ME.....and all it does is cripple your business....and cripple the love you have for the industry.

Here is an example- If you are a soft and giving person, you will have customers that want a soft and giving experience....does this mean you should do things for free? NO!! This means that you should be warm and inviting and create services that reflect that part of your personality that they love and adore. Have warm booties on their feet during a nail/hair service. While their feet are soaking or their color is developing, have warm mits on their hands.....if you create a feature pedicure/manicure scent, have a drink that matches. There are SO many things to think of, so all in all use YOUR imagination and YOUR clients will come back to you time and time again.

Another example - It's about the service "quality", NOT "quantity". Let's face it NO one wants to be rushed out AND they do NOT want sloppy work DONE!!! The world is changing and people are looking for quality products, quality food, AND quality service....look at the organic food market out there....let's be proactive! I know that when I go out to eat, I can actually go to a nice sit down meal made with quality food for around the same price as a "fast food place" made with(what is it made of?)  It is the same in beauty industry. If you take a little longer, but the service you are giving has lasting results or makes the client feel good about themselves, they have given that service more value than a fast non standard service.

2) KNOWLEDGE IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
Do you think you don't have to learn anymore, that what you know is all you NEED to know......what makes YOU so special? You are actually doing a GREAT dis-service to your customers, yourself AND the industry with that mindset! I have had the privilege to have training from some nail professionals with many awards under their belt and with ZERO swelling in their heads....they were their to teach and ACTUALLY learned something from the students in the process.....that is WHY, in my mind, that they are as good as they are.....NO SWELLING!!!!(swelling leads to brain damage you know....lol) This also applies to hairstylists as well! I'm talking to everyone here as I am a hairstylist and an esthetician 🙂

3) EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Now to any of you educators out their. I am sorry, but we ALL need to hear this!!!! I am an educator that has learned a lot as a student...as a student I am spending my hard earned money to LEARN!!! Not to see your pretty face!!!! I am NOT sorry to say, but when you are given the privilege and the responsibility of being an educator, TAKE it seriously or don't do it at ALL!!!! If you are not willing to share, then you are in the wrong department, my friend. There are many beautiful and giving educators that will take your place and distributors that will only hire and rehire the giving kind. "WOW Lisa.....you are going to make a lot of people mad!!!" No, no I am not, because I am saying what most of you are thinking. I am trying to make changes in this industry for the benefit of us ALL.....and I want everyone to make money, NOT waste it!!!! And student's, it's NOT just about how many certificates you have, it matters what you know and what you USE!
Speaking as an educator...if you ever take one of my classes and don't learn something from me....TELL ME!!!! I appreciate your feedback and that is what will make ME better. If Impact Salon Sales is hosting an educator from near or far and you think you wasted your money? Let me know and I will do what I can to rectify it for you.....and then I can learn something from that experience to make the next one better!!!!

4) TAKING PART IN THE FUN AND GAMES
Do you come to the ABA? Or do you think that there is nothing there for you, so why spend the money on a ticket? If you come, then email me with "I love the ABA" in the subject, and give yourself a pat on the back....If you do not go because you think it's only hair orientated, then I have a question for you. If all the nail technicians/estheticians would feel the same way and not go, then all that is attending IS hairstylists!!!! If you want the Allied Beauty Association to cater to us AT ALL then we have to SHOW UP PEOPLE!!!!!! Do you, as hair salons/stylists come and visit the booths that "look" like they don't apply to you? Check them all out!!! You may find a diamond in the rough.

I have so much love for EVERYONE in this industry and I still have much to learn. ALL I want is the best for you, our customers AND BEYOND. Be forewarned to expect the unexpected from me, and know that I cherish each and every one of you for what you have to offer......and THAT is what makes YOU so special 🙂

Have a wonderful week
Lisa Ross

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Impact Salon Sales blog! You will notice that some blogs will be open to the public and some for registered professionals ONLY. There IS a method to our madness 🙂 We want to be able to talk business and pricing with all of you without our customers knowing our prices. I am truly excited to be able to talk business to all of you. The focus of this blog post is pretty basic....as with all of my future posts, I am going to use my years of experience and ALL of my research to help you understand how you can create some balance in your life and actually make MORE money and spending LESS time making it. I would like to give you all a little history about me, so that you know where I am coming from and why I think this knowledge is so important. I grew up on a farm in small town Saskatchewan. Nothing came easy, and if you didn't bust your butt, you probably were not working. We had to do EVERYTHING the hard and the time consuming way. This was my first lesson in life. When I started getting out into the world and watching people do things "efficiently", I had a tiny aha moment...I still did things the hard way, but I was starting to catch on....Now if we fast forward to what I know now, I have to say that working harder is NOT smarter and making money easily is NOT bad 🙂 Don't get me wrong...I still think we need to know the value of working, but there is no reason for anyone to spend twice as much time doing something that is worth half of it. Now, am I telling you to cut corners to get things done quickly? NO!!!! I will stand by this till the end of my days "super fast services either have mistakes or have missed something", I do believe that "efficient services make everyone happy." And "fast and efficient are not the same thing, but doing things efficiently will speed up time" Have I confused you yet????? 🙂 I have worked in Salons and I owned my very own Salon and Spa. In those years I slowly worked on being more efficient and trying to teach myself not to work so hard, but find ways to make money the smarter way.....the ONE thing that is guaranteed to make you money easily in this industry is.......drum roll please....................................................RETAIL!!! "But Lisa, I work out of my home, how can I sell retail?" or "Lisa, I am not a sales rep!" or "Lisa, I am not as confident as you!" "But Lisa I can't talk someone into using this? HAHAHAHA!!! I am no sales rep, I have a lack of confidence EVERY day, and I don't ACTUALLY believe in trying to talk someone into ANYTHING!!!!! If you find products that you love and believe in you will never have to "sell" a thing. Your customers come to you and your salon/home business because of something that connects them with you and/or your staff. If they believe in you, all you have to do is tell them what you love about it and they will love it to 🙂 TRUST ME!!!! We all have an option to sell products for double what we purchased it for. And this is not including when your distributor (Impact Salon Sales) has a sale...then the mark up is even higher!!!! Let's take the most resent items at the Calgary ABA, our Cuccio Butter Lytes. At the show you could purchase 2 of these lotions for $5.95. NOW.......Christmas is coming and people are ALREADY thinking about gifts!!! Ok, back to the lotions. They are regularly $5.95 and you will double this to $11.90...ok, but at the sale you were getting 2 at $5.95, does this mean you sell the set for $11.90? NO!!! You break it apart, you sell each for $11.90 and make a $17.85 PROFIT!!! Easy, right? "Right Lisa, you are right!!!!!"This goes the same for our butter baby carousel. You receive 36 1.5 oz. butters for $140.20...but WAIT!!! Right now we have a sale on for this carousel for $119.90. So, if you take the original price of $140.20 and divide into 36 and times it by 2, you would sell each butter for $7.90. "But Lisa, who is going to buy these small lotions for $7.90. Well, if you had a deal that had them buy 2 and get the 3rd half off, you would still be making a profit of $117.10. Even if you had a buy 2 get one free you would still make a profit of $69.70!!! And finally I am going to mention our Cuccio MatchMaker deal....this one I want to shout from the roof top cause this is a DEAL that shouldn't be missed!!!! You can buy 59 MatchMakers(which is 118 bottles of product), and you will receive your start to finish, the display spoons, and a poster for FREE!!! This deal will cost you $555.00, regular price for all these items is $1222.. Ok, I haven't even told you what is great about this deal. In each MatchMaker is a Veneer(pure gel polish) and a polish that matches. If you retail all of your polishes to your customers for $9.90x59 bottles of polish, you have already paid for and made a profit, and let's not forget that each bottle of Veneer is $14.95x59=$882.05. So, there it is....I have given you SOME of my thoughts and SOME advise on this topic, agree with it or not, that is your choice!! If you have read this send me a funny joke at edu@amoreinternational.com Have a wonderful day making money:) Lisa Ross

We have been working hard at getting the website ready for you so that you can have more information and easier access and ordering capabilities! We still have information coming, but we just couldn't WAIT to make the site LIVE! So, while you will see most categories have product information, keep checking back, as we will be UPLOADING new items every day/week!