This lady is like my second mother to me.  She owns 2 hair salons, but faced many problems experienced by others in this same field.

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The hair salon and barbershop business is a tough industry to make money.  Her only customer base was the Korean community, which was dwindling, due to the migrants returning back to South Korea, after failure to find high-paying jobs.  Some of her employees were stealing from her and not working when she was not present physically.  Due to the dwindling number of customers, she couldn’t pay herself, and her bills were compounding.  She wanted to sell her businesses and exit from the industry. 

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After listening to her dilemma and diagnosing her business problems, a strategy was hatched so that her businesses were back to cash positive and looked worthy to be purchased by a prospective buyer.

 

Her first problem was the narrow customer base.  I advised her to expand her market by targeting and advertising to the Chinese community.  She also needed to advertise to the nearby residential neighborhoods as well.  Based on consumer behavior, customers usually go to a nearby establishment for convenience, if the services and prices meet their expectations.  More markets meant more customers, leading to increased revenue, and the books in the green. 

 

Her second problem was the staffing issue.  She either had to terminate their employment due to embezzlement of the company's funds and report them to the police, or she had to install security cameras to document the business operations.  She chose the first option.

 

After strategizing, developing more markets, and increasing the revenue channels, she was able to make her business presentable within 6 months and exited by selling her hair salons to another hairstylist.