I WANT to know your thoughts on these solutions for this Fastlane problem (hair salons)

[john_paul1802]

Hey Fastlaners,

So I recently came across a very valuable post by the user MTF talking about how to get infinite fastlane ideas through problems. Part of his strategy is e-mailing business owners and asking them formally about their biggest struggles with running their businesses. I sent around 20 E-Mails and got one answer so far. (Of course, I am going to continue sending E-Mails because I want to get a deeper understanding of their problems). The answer was from a german lady (yes, I live in Germany by the way) who has a hair salon. In that e-Mail she poured out her heart to me about problems with the government and other problems the other problems she told me about were:

Fastlane Problems for Hairsalons: ​

Wages - the tariff wages are ridiculously low, and no one can live off of them. But many salons don't even enforce these properly. However, customers are often not willing to pay €80 for a haircut, which is necessary to properly compensate employees.

Time - Not enough of it for Instagram/Social Media - everyone knows how important it is, but finding the time for it is difficult for many.

Staff - The younger generation is struggling to meet the demands. I've never heard the words "burnout" or "exhaustion syndrome" so often among those aged 20 to 30. That's why we already offer a 4-day workweek, but it's not feasible everywhere.

Society - The reputation of a hairdresser in society is still poor. I had hoped that after C0VlD-19 (when everyone missed and supported us), the work of a hairdresser would gain more recognition again. Unfortunately, that was lost again after six months. The image is as bad as ever. If you look at neighbouring countries like Ukraine, England, or the USA, the image of a hairdresser is completely different.

No-shows - They also cost many salons a lot of money. Therefore, we always require deposits for new customers and long appointments. But not all customers are happy with that.

Hiring - I've been looking for a hairdresser for 2 years... despite having a nice salon, offering very good wages, and having a great team, I just can't find anyone who wants to work. I've received 2 applications in 2 years, and neither had a trade certificate.

Which is a lot of valuable stuff to get your hands on as a "fastlaner". So of course I got some Ideas for a product or a service:

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Possible Solutions via Product / Service​

Spoiler: My Ideas

Time - Social Media Management Service: Offering social media marketing to maintain a strong online presence and engage customers. Downside: To produce content I have to be there which does not align with the cenTs framework (Time).

Staff - Some sort of job platform specialised for hairdressers. Maybe even some sort of forum for hairdressers where they can find jobs and where hair salons can post ads for searching qualified staff.

No Shows - Automated Booking and Reminder System: A Streamline appointment scheduling to reduce no-shows with automated reminders via an App or so. Maybe even automated SMS and E-Mail reminders.

Do you have any additional ideas? If yes please comment them. Even if it´s just one sentence. Maybe you can also give me your feedback on my existing ideas and how to best realise them.

	Social Media Presence	Job platform / forum	Reminder system
C - Control	7 / 10	9 / 10	8 / 10
E - (Industry-) Entry	1 / 10 (SMMA)	9 / 10	6 / 10
N - Need	6 / 10	8 / 10	6 / 10
T - Time	3 / 10	9 / 10	10 / 10 (once set up)
S - Scale	4 / 10	10 / 10	10 / 10
Total rating:	21 / 50 (42% CENTS)	45 / 50 (90% CENTS)	40 / 50 (80% CENTS)

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Thanks for the support and answers in advance!

Cheers

John Paul

 

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