Note: This post is sponsored by Mangomint, next-generation salon and spa software

Last week, I ran my event The Engine Room, and it was such an amazing time! It featured 12 speakers from all avenues of the beauty business, with one other special thing in common…they’re all experts in automating their businesses to increase profits and save your precious time!

One of the most popular talks of the week was about something that everyone in business thinks about at some point: starting a membership program.

Membership offerings come from almost every type of business these days…and we love ‘em! Whether it’s Netflix or Ipsy or a gym membership, most of us are part of a membership of some type.

Some bring a lot of joy, fulfillment, and entertainment to our lives, and others just sit unused while we pay for them each month.

Whether you run a hair salon or wax bar, or rent a booth as a spray tanner or nail artist, you can start a highly profitable membership program that will guarantee you consistent monthly revenue.

I know you've been thinking about it! Monthly facial programs, twice-a-month spray tan club - there are a ton of ways that beauty professionals can set up and profit from this business model.

Today's blog features someone very special that knows all there is to know about doing just that.

Marchelle Mckeirnan is an expert on memberships of all types.

Head of Sales at Mangomint, Marchelle is passionate about showing salon owners and other beauty business professionals how to think bigger and do better by using a business model that works amazingly well when done right: memberships!

Marchelle herself was a colorist, hair stylist, and technician who sold her salon and moved on to Mangomint. With her wealth of experience both behind the chair and in the office, she comes from a place of deep understanding when it comes to what beauty professionals struggle with, excel in, and need.

And her talk all about memberships during The Engine Room was so, so good.

Today’s blog post, a summary of her talk, is a priceless education on running profitable, enjoyable memberships for your clients.

Here’s why starting a membership program for your salon is a great idea

Stability and predictability in business are so important once you’ve got over the crazy first years of starting up as a beauty professional.

When you know how much money you will be bringing in every month, you can start to plan other parts of your life: furthering your education, starting a family, or making a big lifestyle change. After all, that’s what we all really want, right? For our careers to be avenues for living a high-quality life!

And given how popular membership services have become, it’s pretty obvious that being able to run a successful membership program for your beauty biz is a winning strategy because it has so many wins packed into one program:

• Recurring passive revenue

• Hands-off management (thank you, automation!)

• Increased client retention

• Transparency and ownership over the program details and perks

Marchelle knows from experience: that salon owners struggle with managing the KPIs of their staff and forecasting the financial future of their businesses. Due to the nature of the business, it can be hard to build a solid budget when sometimes you’re crazy busy, and other times hearing crickets.

A membership program for facials, hair treatments or colors, manis + pedis, spray tans (or whatever else you major in!) is a fantastic way to assure you’ll be bringing in a set income each month.

The Do's & Dont’s of running a profitable membership program as a beauty professional

Just like all of those subscriptions and memberships we pay for and don’t use, there is a model of membership for your beauty business that won’t work well - you’ll lose members or they won’t use your services as often as you’d like.

She shared with us a few things to steer clear of when it comes to setting up your membership program:

• Don’t start a membership program until you have the staff and the hours available to run it smoothly: Marchelle said that this is a common mistake that all types of businesses make. They know the huge money-making potential of running a membership program, but they haven’t calculated the time-and-resource cost of doing it - which leaves them overrun with too many clients and not enough hands on deck.

• Don’t start a membership program until you have the time and resources to market it properly: memberships can be very profitable when run right, but they come with a big upfront cost - apps to automate them, advertising campaigns, in-store posters, flyers, etc. You need to spend a good deal of time putting out the word to the right people at the right time…so make sure you’re prepared to put in the work!

Marchelle’s obviously also got the goods on what goes into a great membership model. Here are the key components you’ll want to consider including in yours!

• Do always provide options for your members: Whether it’s a 60-minute or 90-minute facial once a month or a few different levels of membership with different packages of services, potential members like to have choices available so they can feel like they’re getting the one that works best for their lifestyle.

• Do make it worth their while with perks: There are a ton of ways you can add perks to your membership offerings - 10% off additional services or merchandise, VIP access to events, or free giveaways to members. If it’s cost-effective and you know your members will love it, make it a perk!

• Do keep it really simple: Marchelle says that the easiest way to bill members is to choose the date they signed up and make that their billing date each following month. As well, it’s much less complicated for you and better for your business if unused services do not roll over each month.

• Do market it effectively: Marchelle points out that the best way to identify who you should market to is to answer this question: who among your current clients regularly books with you and could benefit from being a member? Send emails to those people. Talk up your membership at check-in and checkout in your salon. But don’t stop there! Marchelle makes it clear that it’s very rare that someone will randomly stumble upon your membership program while looking for beauty services and want to sign up. It’s important to take specific steps to get the word out there about your membership program. Send out an email blast to your whole list!

And finally, you know how much I love targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram for beauty professionals (I created an entire program - The Ad Lab - on how to do it in the most profitable, simple way out there!) Marchelle says that your ads shouldn’t be about your membership program, though! They should instead be educational and working to build brand awareness so that those viewers come visit your beauty business. Once you have them in the chair, you can start building trust and tell them about your membership program. They won’t see the benefit in joining until they’ve experienced the benefit of your beauty business, after all!

How to price your membership plans profitably to bring in recurring revenue for your beauty business

Marchelle advises keeping it simple: whatever your base hourly price is per hour, your hourly rate for membership should be the same. For example, if you charge $60 an hour for a facial, your hourly membership rate for a facial should also be $60 an hour.

However, from the point at which you activate your membership program, all non-members will have to pay a price increase of an extra 5-20% of your hourly charge. This will cover advertising costs for your program, and of course, make it more appealing for all of your clients to become members.

…Did you catch that?

Membership programs are also a really great way to RAISE YOUR PRICES!

So with this in mind, sending out an email to your list explaining that joining your membership program “locks in” your current price instead of clients paying your new rates is very important to do.

And finally - since The Engine Room event was all about automating your beauty business - we come to the question: what’s the best way to keep your membership program running smooth as silk once you’ve got it up and chugging along?

How to track your revenue and progress for your membership program

Marchelle points out that if you’re a single service provider, like a solo esthetician, spray tan expert working out of your home, or a hairstylist renting a booth, an app like Mangomint might not be the best fit for you at this time, because Mangomint is priced with dual-service, multi-staffed beauty businesses in mind.

If that’s you, don’t stress…there are a ton of great apps and platforms available to help you ‘set it and forget it’ when it comes to managing your membership program.

However, if you’re in the position to pay for an intuitive, super-simple platform that will help you keep track of your members, Mangomint was built for you!

Mangomint allows you to do do more and think less with a beautifully designed interface, easy-to-use workflows, and super smart automations.

Everything from scheduling to billing to budgets can be managed in one place with Mangomint - check them out here!