As a salon owner, have you ever looked at your business and wondered whether the way you have always operated is still the right approach?
Have you considered whether there might be an opportunity in doing something fundamentally different?
After more than two decades in the beauty industry, Valerie Reynaert, founder of VR Beauty Consulting, believes there are opportunities for salon owners to rethink how they operate, who they serve and how they deliver value.
In the previous two blogs, Valerie explored Adaptation and Optimisation. Adaptation is about recalibrating your existing approach. Optimisation is about making the business run better through more disciplined management.
A Full Pivot is different. It asks you to reconsider what your salon does, who it serves, how it operates or where it creates value.
“A pivot is a deliberate, significant change in business strategy, service focus, target market or operating model, while still preserving the core strengths of the business,” explains Valerie.
It is the most disruptive of the three strategies. It also has the potential to open up opportunities that your current model cannot reach.
A pivot is not the answer to every business challenge.
If your salon is struggling because of poor scheduling, uncontrolled costs or an underperforming team, those issues may be better addressed through Optimisation. Changing the business model before understanding the problem could create more complexity.
But sometimes the underlying issue is bigger.
The market may have changed. Client expectations may have shifted. Your current offering may no longer be commercially viable. Or you may have identified a stronger opportunity that your existing model cannot accommodate.
The question is not simply, “How do I make this salon work better?”
It becomes, “Is this still the right salon business to be running?”
A Full Pivot can take different forms. It does not necessarily mean closing your salon and starting again. It means making a significant change to the way the business creates value.
Here are seven possibilities.
1. Move from full-service to specialist
A salon does not have to offer everything.
You could move away from a broad service menu and focus on the services clients value most, particularly those that generate stronger margins. This may mean dropping low-frequency or low-revenue treatments and building a more specialist proposition.
A more focused salon can often operate in a smaller format, with lower overheads and the opportunity to position itself differently on price.
“The trade-off is that you may lose clients who rely on the services you remove. A specialist model also needs clear positioning and stronger marketing to attract the right audience,” Valerie explains.
2. Expand into a new location
Taking an established salon into a new city, emirate or country can create another revenue stream and spread exposure across different markets.
But opening another location is not simply a matter of replicating the first. It requires the ability to manage multiple teams, maintain standards and understand the new market.
It can also reveal how dependent the original business is on its owner. If everything still relies on you, expansion may expose that weakness rather than solve it.
3. Bring wellness into the salon
Beauty and wellness can be complementary. A salon could develop a stronger wellness offering around its existing services, for example by introducing spa treatments or a more integrated client experience.
The opportunity is to build on an existing client relationship rather than create an entirely new one.
However, wellness is not just another service to add to the menu. It may require different skills, equipment, space and investment. The demand needs to be there, and the numbers need to work.
4. Introduce a complementary business model
You could develop a business that sits alongside your existing salon but serves a different need.
This might mean launching a men’s grooming concept, specialising in a particular product range or building a business around a specific service type.
The advantage is that you may be able to draw on existing expertise, relationships or resources.
“The important distinction is that a complementary business still needs its own strategy. It should not become another offer that stretches your team and resources without a clear commercial purpose,” Valerie shares.
5. Change how services are delivered
The salon does not have to be the only place where your services happen.
Home services, pop-ups or other flexible delivery formats can take the business to clients who may not visit your premises.
This changes more than the location. It affects scheduling, travel time, equipment, service standards and the way the team works. The model needs to be designed around those realities.
6. Turn your expertise into education
Could your salon offer masterclasses or training experiences for clients?
This creates a different way to use your expertise and build relationships beyond the treatment itself. It may also open up a new revenue stream.
But teaching is a different skill from delivering a service. The format needs to be relevant to your clients, and the experience needs to offer something they are willing to pay for.
7. Take the business beyond the salon
Your services could be delivered through collaborations with events, brands or high-value clients.
This might involve taking a service into a new environment or developing a partnership that gives you access to a different audience.
The opportunity is to reach clients in places and ways your salon currently does not. The challenge is to make sure the partnership is commercially worthwhile and aligned with the business you want to build.
These are not small adjustments. Each changes an important part of the business. That is what makes them pivots.
Salon business models tend not to change much.
We tend to remain full-service, fully staffed and with relatively little variation. We reserve our creativity for the hairdresser’s chair or the treatment room.
But what happens when we bring that same creativity into the business itself?
As Valerie puts it: “A true pivot asks you to bring that same creativity into every aspect of the business.”
That could mean reconsidering your target client, the type of salon you operate, the services you offer or the way you reach people.
And that can feel uncomfortable.
You have invested time, money and energy in building your salon. Your team understands the current model. Your clients know what to expect. Changing direction can feel as though you are putting all of that at risk.
But a pivot does not mean abandoning everything you have built. It means identifying the strengths worth preserving and being willing to change the parts that no longer serve the business.
“The key is to avoid making a significant change simply because it feels exciting or different. A pivot needs a clear commercial reason, a realistic plan and an understanding of what it will demand from you and your team,” says Valerie.
There is no single right answer for every salon. The decision depends on your current reality, your risk appetite and the opportunity you see in front of you.
Adapt when the business model still works, but needs small adjustments to respond to changing conditions.
Optimise when the model is right, but the business is not performing as effectively as it could. This is where you look at your people, pricing, operations, marketing and financial management.
Pivot when the business model itself needs a significant rethink, or when a stronger opportunity sits beyond your current boundaries.
These approaches are not mutually exclusive. You may need to optimise your existing salon before you are ready to pivot. You may also adapt parts of the business while developing a new model.
The important thing is to understand what you are trying to solve before deciding what needs to change.
As salon owners, we cannot simply wait for conditions to improve. Nor can we keep doing the same things and expect a different result.
Sometimes the answer is to make the existing business fitter. Sometimes it is to run it more effectively.
And sometimes, the next stage of growth requires us to think differently about the business we are building.
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