Beauty Store Business

AUG 2016

Beauty Store Business provides solutions for better retailing! New products, industry news, savvy business moves and important trends affecting both brick-and-mortar and online retailers are included in each issue.

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130 August 2016 | beautystorebusiness.com 28 Dust heating, ventalation, air conditioners, registers and diffusers. Those vents on the ceiling probably haven't received a good cleaning in some time. Have an associate carefully climb a ladder and get those intake and blowing vents cleaned. Registers and the check-out area are the last things your customers see, so keeping them clean and orderly is of much importance. 29 Clean smudges and marks off walls. Using a Magic Eraser, or similar product, have employees walk around the store and remove those small marks from the walls. Each of you have seen them for months, but actually wip- ing them away always seems to be on the back burner. When employees are idle, that's when you can move this project to the front burner. 30 Train! The best use of down- time is associate training. You've probably been meaning to pull everyone together for a store meeting, but sched- ules, labor costs and just finding the right time seems to be a constant barrier to an all-associates meeting. Instead, use this idle time to train your team members one-on-one. Get them up-to-date on new store policies, products, or upcoming changes or initiatives. And there you have it—30 steps you can take right now with employees who seem to have nothing to do. Doing these on a regular basis sends a message to your team members. It tells them that they should be on the lookout for anything that makes the store better, faster, cheaper or safer. After a few instances of you saying, "Hey guys, I have a project for you …," they'll begin to realize that if they're standing around, you're probably going to assign them a task. Soon, you may not have to remind them at all. They'll stay busy even when things are slow. ■ Dr. Steven Austin Stovall is a professor of management at Wilmington College in Ohio and is the president and owner of two companies. He consults with businesses in the areas of marketing, social media and training, and can be reached at steven_stovall@wilmington.edu. Continued from page 70 Continued from page 38 Continued from page 102 and popular products. Today, there is sim- ply no excuse for not being able to learn how to do something you're weak in. V Visit other stores. Speaking of resources, the competition can be one of your best. Why invent the wheel if someone else is already doing something well? And don't limit yourself to the competition down the street. When you're traveling, drop in to other beauty-supply stores and see what trends they're capitalizing on. W Watch your social-media interactions. Know your rank- ings on yelp.com and other sites. If you have a twitter or facebook account for your store (and you should!), develop a campaign for postings. You should have a posting several times a week. If you don't know what to post, check out others' and see what they do. X X-ray your expenses. Really zero in on what you spend. Blindly pay- ing every bill without a thought will get you in trouble very quickly. For example, if your electric bill spikes, find out why. Perhaps closers are leav- ing lights on or your have a power drain somewhere else in the store. Also, once a quarter, review your statements to see what expenses can be cut. Y Yearn for being better. Accept- ing mediocrity is no way to run a store. Always seeking a better— more effective, less expensive, super effi- cient—way is, however. Truly wanting to improve is something you can foster in your staff. Z Zoom in on opportunities. They're out there. There are ripe opportu- nities just waiting to be plucked from the tree of fortune. Be able to not only recognize these, but pounce on them as well. Whether it's new software, a joint marketing campaign, a second location, or even a new employee, seek these opportunities and grasp them tightly before the competition does! ■ Dr. Steven Austin Stovall is professor of management at Wilmington College in Wilmington, OH. Harvard Business grad and skincare enthu- siast who has meshed her love for business and beauty and started a K Beauty empire online and now with her first brick and mortar in Macy's who knows what will happen next! As a makeup artist, woman and creative role in the professional beauty industry I am inspired by the ingredients, pack- aging and ethics behind Korean Beauty and skin care, I get lost in the pharma- cies and beauty supply stores in Asia being blinded by colorful (and confusing) packaging and interesting ingredients. Of course, I strongly believe in products made in the USA, however there is nothing wrong with a little Eastern influence to bring uniqueness into our products. Because Korean beauty stresses so much on skincare and skin health, I feel everyone can benefit from the way they care for their skin and the time and effort put into finding a customized skincare routine that works for you! Korean Beauty is about building a strong foundation and doing the best you can to achieve the perfect skin for you, while using makeup to create an illusion of youth and health. To round back to the overdone and over-glam looks that flood our social media channels, we should all take a page out of the Korean Beauty handbook and embrace our inner glow. In order to do so we may need to find it first, and this can easily be done by cleaning out our bathroom cabinet and filling it with products that are clean, active, rich and effective and filling our makeup bags with light reflecting and hydrating products—that's the key; go heavy on the healing and light on the coverage while we are perfecting our skin and we can build up from there. I know the eight-step regimen might not be for everyone, but treat yourself to a mask once a week, your skin will thank you—and maybe you'll thank me! ■ Born into beauty, Lori Leib has been immersed in the cosmetic industry her entire life. Attending The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising for Product Development, and her love for color and trend forecasting sparked her interest to join her family's beauty business. Leib is currently the creative director for Bodyography Professional Cosmetics. Makeup Musings

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