– Episode 246Janine Simons

Episode 246: Transcript

[00:00:00] Antony Whitaker: Welcome to the Grow My Salon Business podcast, where we focus on the business side of hairdressing. I’m your host, Antony Whitaker, and I’ll be talking to thought leaders in the hairdressing industry, discussing insightful, provocative, and inspiring ideas that matter. So get ready to learn, get ready to be challenged, get ready to be inspired, and most importantly, get ready to grow your salon business.

[00:00:27] Antony Whitaker: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast. I’m your host, Antony Whitaker, and it’s great to have you here with us today. I’ve been a hairdresser for many years and I’ve worked in many countries and I’ve had a great career. And I 100 percent believe that you, the salon owner, are the backbone of the industry and you survive and thrive through your determination and hard work.

[00:00:52] Antony Whitaker: And so you deserve to win and you deserve to succeed because every day you get up and you do it again by serving and taking care of the clients and serving and taking care of your team and coming up with new ideas about what it takes to run a successful salon business. And we are here to help you in any way we can.

[00:01:12] Antony Whitaker: So thank you for joining us. Once again,

[00:01:15] Antony Whitaker: So with that said, on with today’s show, every salon owner I’ve ever met wants to know how to manage costs. And improve profit margins. And both of those topics are covered in depth in our online money course. And amongst the many solutions we talk about in the course, it’s the potential to use color management systems to help reduce waste and improve consistency.

[00:01:40] Antony Whitaker: Now, as you probably know, we don’t take advertising on our podcast. And so anyone I interview on the show is because I think there is an interesting story or product that has the potential to help salon owners to grow their business. So today, my guest is Janine Simons, who is the founder of colorbar manager.

[00:01:59] Antony Whitaker: And in today’s podcast, we will discuss the day Janine woke up and decided the world needed a new color management app. We’re also going to talk about how Colorbar Manager works and what it does differently to its competition and lots more.

[00:02:12] Antony Whitaker: So without further ado, welcome to the show Janine Simons. Thanks.

[00:02:16] Janine Simons: Hey, Antony is so great to be here with you today. I have been a fan of yours for a long time. Certainly, been following your podcast and grow your salon business for a while. So it’s great to be here tonight to chat with you.

[00:02:29] Antony Whitaker: Fantastic. Well, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to talk to you as well, because, uh, as I was just mentioning to you before we started recording, there’s somebody who I know that was looking into, uh, different, color management systems and your name came up in the process.

[00:02:43] Antony Whitaker: So I thought I have to get you onto the podcast to have a talk about that. So, uh, I’ve already sort of preempted, I suppose, what the first question is going to be, which is essentially. Yeah, absolutely. There was a day, I mean, you’re a hairdresser, obviously, there was a day where you, you woke up and you thought to yourself, I’m going to develop my own software so that I can better manage color costs and inventory.

[00:03:04] Antony Whitaker: And that’s not something that everybody thinks of. So tell us about that day. What’s the story behind how you, got into this area.

[00:03:12] Janine Simons: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, well, first thing’s great that you’re hearing about me from other people and, and comments and things online. That’s awesome. Um, Yeah. So Colorbar manager, we, um, I probably, the idea came to me probably five, maybe five years ago now, it’d be about five years ago. Um, and I was actually sitting in my lounge doing a whole lot of book work at the time, sort of a lot of administration and stock and inventory

[00:03:40] Janine Simons: I’ve always been across managing that to the ninth degree, because I feel like in salons, it’s one of the areas we hemorrhage money and spend a lot of time. And so I was sort of sitting there doing my numbers, thinking about all the things. And, recently within the week or two prior, I’d actually been, I’d seen like this weight watches or weight loss management program where they were.

[00:04:02] Janine Simons: weighing food and, um, managing, uh, managing their, you know, their diet through the system. And I thought, Oh my gosh, we should absolutely do that with color. Why are we not doing this with color and salons when we need to be capturing that kind of data? So that idea, like just hit me out of the blue and I’m using sort of Bluetooth scales and all of the things to manage it.

[00:04:24] Janine Simons: I mentioned it to my husband who said, that’s a ridiculous idea, what are you even thinking? And so I kind of car parked it, as you do, you

[00:04:32] Janine Simons: know, when somebody close to you says, no, you’re, you’re mad, or that’s like a harebrained idea. Um, so I car parked it for a bit and then I went, um, On a trip overseas and I was working with a whole lot of hairdressers at the time and I kind of chatted to a few of them about it and they were like, absolutely brilliant idea.

[00:04:48] Janine Simons: I’ve seen somebody else thinking about doing the same thing. So that motivated me and I came back to New Zealand. I thought, right, I’m going to get started on this idea. Um, and that’s how the idea was born.

[00:04:59] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Well, I knew there’d be a story behind it. That’s interesting about the scales and the food as to where ideas come from and uh, yeah, that’s very interesting and often you do see stuff In other industries that have got nothing to do with hairdressing that you think, do you know what, if we did that in the salon, that’d be fantastic.

[00:05:18] Antony Whitaker: I often look at marketing examples and, uh, and client experience touch points that you might find in a hotel or a restaurant or whatever, and think, how can we integrate that into a salon? So that’s a really interesting story behind how that came about. So, let’s just start with the big picture thing of color bar manager.

[00:05:36] Antony Whitaker: Uh, is it, is it an app on your phone? Is it a website? Is it both? Just, you know, tell us how, how it works from that perspective.

[00:05:43] Janine Simons: Yeah, sure thing. So actually it’s currently both at the moment. So we do have an app that, uh, stylists use in the salon. So it’s an iPad based app. So it can be used on iPads or iPhones. Uh, and then we have a web based version. And so we’ve, the web based version is more recent years, like the last year or two.

[00:06:02] Janine Simons: Um, and the reason we’ve moved to more of a web basis, because then you can use it across any platform. It gets very tricky to develop apps for both Android and iOS. And Apple and, you know, meet all the people in all the places easily. So, um, our web based platform has been a recent addition and it’s actually much better.

[00:06:19] Janine Simons: So we’re starting to move that way now as opposed to an app. Yeah.

[00:06:24] Antony Whitaker: So, so when did you launch it? Was it sort of a, well, I’m sure it was a gradual rolling out thing to iron out any bugs, but like when, when did it, is it, is there a date where you went, turn it on, we’re away up and running

[00:06:35] Janine Simons: Yeah, so we officially launched three years ago. Um, and it was a very soft kind of launch because, you know, when you’re launching technology, um, we did lots of rounds of beta testing and had some salons trialing it for us along with my own salon, of course, um, and, and then softly launched to the market, but we’re global now.

[00:06:55] Janine Simons: So we have, people signed up all across the world, um, different size salons, different needs and different salons. So yeah, it’s going, it’s, it’s a slow build, but it is going well. So yeah.

[00:07:06] Antony Whitaker: is it for you, is it becoming the bigger part of your business or are you still in the salon? I know you work as an educator and you travel a lot and stuff, but it, I mean, this has the potential to be something really huge. Is it, is it, where is it in the big picture at the moment?

[00:07:19] Janine Simons: Yes, it is actually starting to become front and center for me now. So, um, yeah, I do do all of those things. As you just mentioned, the salon is still very much a big part of my life and I feel like the two go together really well. So, um, I don’t have any intention of giving the salon up anytime soon.

[00:07:36] Janine Simons: However, my time and energy now is becoming much more focused on color bar manager. Um, and I’m super excited about that and ready for it. Like the business is ready for that now too.

[00:07:47] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Now starting any software requires capital investment, uh, an area of technical expertise. Which I’m assuming that you don’t have. Maybe I’m assuming that wrongly, but you know, I certainly don’t know anything about code and developing apps, etc. So when you had this bright idea, you had to then take it to the next stage.

[00:08:07] Antony Whitaker: So how did you do that? Have you, did you contact like people that you knew? Was it friends, family? what’s that sort of journey look like to turn the idea into reality?

[00:08:17] Janine Simons: Yes, I guess that’s that that can be something that can be a bit of a barrier and you know, um, generally speaking Salons hairdressers were a little bit technical phobic too. Um, You know, so yeah, it was it’s that’s been a bit of a journey Uh, just to go back a few paces. I actually created an app. Oh gosh, it would be probably 12 years ago That was a consultation tool Um And, uh, we were well before, before our time people weren’t, didn’t even really have iPads in the salon back then.

[00:08:47] Janine Simons: So the leap too far, I think we do very well with the same product now. There’s a lot more people in that consultation space. Um, but during that journey, I actually met a developer. Um, so when I had this idea, I actually went straight back to my original developer and we’re business partners. So. For the most part, sure, we’ve had to invest some cash.

[00:09:10] Janine Simons: You always do with these kind of projects. However, uh, for both of us, it’s been a larger injection of time.

[00:09:18] Janine Simons: Um, codes and I’m the IP and the marketing and the, you know, the story. So it’s been a great journey for the two of us together so far. And we have about three or four other people that work with us.

[00:09:30] Janine Simons: On the team now to, um, with regard to design, um, data analysis, that kind of thing. So we’re growing slowly, but surely. Yeah.

[00:09:39] Antony Whitaker: Cool. Good. Good. But it’s just the two of you that are partners in it.

[00:09:43] Janine Simons: Yes, just the two of us at a price. Yeah.

[00:09:46] Antony Whitaker: Now, the obvious question is, I mean, I’m not sure what number this will be by the time this podcast comes out, but, uh, over the last three or four years, I have interviewed three or four other people that have got, uh, color management apps, um, you know, out there in the industry space.

[00:10:01] Antony Whitaker: You obviously are aware of that. Maybe you were or weren’t aware of it when you, you know, decided that you wanted to do one. What I wanted to ask you about was what did you perceive as the shortcomings in, you know, available color management systems? Because some people might have had your idea.

[00:10:18] Antony Whitaker: But then gone off and done a bit of research and thought, Oh, someone else is already doing it. In fact, there’s two or three other people at least that are already doing it. I’ll just get one of them. Um, but obviously you didn’t make that decision to get one of them. Um, and instead you decided to develop your own.

[00:10:33] Antony Whitaker: And I’m going to assume that was because you thought, well, they’ve got an interesting way of doing it, but I think my way of doing it’s even better still. So talk to me about that.

[00:10:40] Janine Simons: Yeah. A hundred percent. Um, so yes, I actually think we all probably had the same idea around the same time in all honesty. So, um, yeah, because they were, there was one or two just on the market when I had the idea, because obviously I Googled and searched to see if there was anything else out and around.

[00:10:58] Janine Simons: Uh, but yeah, a hundred percent, I felt, I felt like we could do it better and more simply and more affordably. So one of the things that is a big driver for me is I feel like everybody has the right to do great business. And sometimes when these tools are available, they seem to be available for only top or highly successful salons because they’re the only ones that can afford them.

[00:11:19] Janine Simons: So part of our plan too, is to be, um, affordable and simple for the everyday salon, because these salons are the ones that generally tend to need us the most, in my humble opinion, you know, they’re the ones that are struggling. And so the more we can help them build a profitable business and systemize, um, the better, the better for everyone.

[00:11:40] Antony Whitaker: okay. So talk us through the process. I know, you know, you can’t physically demonstrate it in front of me at the moment, but talk us through the process of how it works.

[00:11:50] Janine Simons: it’s very simple to get started. It’s easy to set up. Um, once you’re set up, literally all that happens is your stylist input, the colors that you’re using on the daily and color by manager catches gram for gram, the color you’re using in real time in your salon, and then you can replace it at the push of a button.

[00:12:08] Janine Simons: So by that, I mean, you know, we do our stock orders now, my. Um, I have somebody that looks after that for me in my particular salon, um, but she can sit at home and push the button in a way it goes directly to our supplier or distributor. So the amount of time that we’re now investing and stop ordering and managing inventory is infinitely smaller than it ever was before. Um, and that was actually one of my true drivers for creating it. Like I really just feel like color bars, uh, or color areas in the salon are a huge place where we hemorrhage money through wastage and not charging correctly, but also time we spend so much time.

[00:12:50] Janine Simons: Trying to manage stock effectively, you know, and putting out orders through. Um, yeah, so that’s what, how, why it was created and that’s how it works in a nutshell. Um, so it does rely on your stylist and putting their colors and that’s probably, uh, one of the biggest challenges in getting started, just that little bit of getting onboarding your team.

[00:13:11] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. Now, fortunately, I’m not a colorist. Um, I’ve never even even really done color as a hairdresser. So that puts me in a real advantage at the moment, because I’m going to ask you the most simplistic questions as to how this works. One of the things you alluded to before was that hairdressers are not very techie.

[00:13:31] Antony Whitaker: And in the color area is particularly where they’re used to just squeeze a bit of this, squeeze a bit of that, mix it up. Oh, we’ve run out of this. I’ll use this instead. Oh, it’s a bit brighter, a bit this, a bit that afterwards we’ll throw a toner on and we’ll sort out the mess. Right? So that is how so many people work in our industry.

[00:13:50] Antony Whitaker: Unfortunately. Any of these color management systems are about, no, no, no, you can’t do that anymore because that leads to wastage, too much product being mixed up, uh, redos, et cetera, et cetera. So, so what you’ve got is, so I’m assuming to start with that you’ve got all of the different hair color houses.

[00:14:09] Antony Whitaker: You’ve got all their brands and their different units of color, all uploaded into the app. So if I may, or the website, so, so if I’m a salon that has taken it on. Then the brand of color that I use is going to be in there or going to be in there shortly if it’s not currently in there. And so let, let’s just say for example, that I use Paul Mitchell color.

[00:14:32] Antony Whitaker: Um, and let’s just say that now my salon has got the app. I use Paul Mitchell color, then all the Paul Mitchell color or whatever the brand is will be uploaded in there in terms of the name of that color and the numbers that it is. So it’s easy to find. Yeah. So. So then I’ve got a bowl and I’ve got a scale.

[00:14:53] Antony Whitaker: Is it a, is it a proprietary bowl and scale? Is that part of hair color manager that I get a bowl and a scale?

[00:15:01] Janine Simons: no. Well, so yes and no. So, um, that was one of the things. So going back to my earlier story when I originally said, you know, the idea came through weighing food and so then looking around at like, what was already out there in the market. We made the decision. We played around with scales. And then we made the decision to actually do away with scales, um, for two reasons.

[00:15:23] Janine Simons: One is they’re a little bit problematic. Some days they’re great and they connect Bluetooth and, you know, technology in a busy salon on a good day. It’s great on a bad day, it’s not. So we made the decision to actually take away, um, some of those components so that it wasn’t as challenging when it comes to using technology.

[00:15:40] Janine Simons: So now it’s as simple as the team just did. input their bowl grams and it captures it for you. So, um, yeah, there’s less components, I guess, if you like, from a technology perspective. So all you need in the salon is an iPad or a tablet or a phone or a,

[00:15:57] Antony Whitaker: So when you say input their bowl grams, the grams are not being measured. They’re not being weighed. Or have I got that wrong?

[00:16:04] Janine Simons: yes, they will still weigh them on their scale and then they’ll, yeah. So if I walk you through what happens in my team, so my team, uh, let’s say they’re mixing up a bowl of 6. 0 and 20 volume, they will take 6. 0. put their bowl on the scale, take the 6. 0, put it into the bowl, and at the same time put 60 grams of 6. 0 into colour bar manager, and then add activator, and it will automatically do the math on the mixation of activator per grams in the bowl, and that sort of thing. Um, yeah, so it’s got some smarts around doing the math for our stylists, because they don’t like to do that.

[00:16:38] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:16:39] Janine Simons: Standing at the color bar counting how many grams of activator versus grams of color.

[00:16:43] Janine Simons: Um, so we’re trying to put some things like that in there for them too.

[00:16:46] Antony Whitaker: Okay. And, and it’s, it’s a, uh, Wi Fi connection.

[00:16:51] Janine Simons: Yes, yeah, yeah.

[00:16:52] Antony Whitaker: so does it talk to your point of sale system? So

[00:16:56] Antony Whitaker: whoever there is.

[00:16:57] Janine Simons: No, so it doesn’t talk to point of sale at this stage. Although that is on our roadmap. Um, that is something that we’ve been talking about. And a lot of, a lot of our users are actually asking us to have some kind of connection to point of sale. Um, so what it does have is a financial report in it, so it’s very easy for them to put in one number, their turnover for a day, a week, a month, and it will give them, um, what percentage their colour bar is running at for that time frame based on that turnover.

[00:17:25] Janine Simons: Uh, so they can, they can see that, but we can see the merits of connecting it to point of sale so that they’re actually ensuring they capture those extra grams.

[00:17:33] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Now I just want to jump in there and say something because when Americans use the word turnover, they’re talking about, they’re talking about staff leaving.

[00:17:43] Janine Simons: Oh.

[00:17:44] Antony Whitaker: Whereas in the rest of the world, we will use the word turnover to mean total sales. Okay. So I just know that someone would have been caught out with that expression.

[00:17:53] Antony Whitaker: So I just wanted to jump in there and sort of clarify what, what that’s all about.

[00:17:57] Janine Simons: Yes,

[00:17:58] Antony Whitaker: So, so sorry, carry on.

[00:17:59] Janine Simons: yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so they can, you know, uh, sell an owner can see very quickly, like, within a, within a minute, exactly how their color bar numbers are tracking. Whereas in my old, old world, that used to take me probably half an hour, 40 minutes to input the data in order to get that kind of information out of this, any, you know, systems that we were using.

[00:18:22] Janine Simons: Um, yeah,

[00:18:23] Antony Whitaker: So in terms of what it does differently to the other brands that are out there, um, is it a, is it more simplified?

[00:18:33] Janine Simons: yes.

[00:18:34] Janine Simons: Yeah, I

[00:18:35] Antony Whitaker: So less steps, more simple, whatever.

[00:18:38] Janine Simons: It’s more simple, um, yeah, much more sort of pared down where our number one goal is to be as simple as possible when you think, especially when you build technology, it’s really easy to get what I would call feature itis and keep adding this and making this and making it do this, that and the other thing.

[00:18:56] Janine Simons: Um, we’ve, our aim is to keep ours so simple that it’s like three or four taps of a, of a, you know, push button and you’re done.

[00:19:04] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay. Um, let me ask you this about the color records. Where, where are the color records stored? Are they on the color bar manager app or are they on the salons point of sale website?

[00:19:17] Janine Simons: No, so they’re stored on the Color bar manager app. So and using Color bar manager, uh, you no longer relying on your team to go and put their notes into the point of sale and all of the things that we want to happen, but don’t so it’s all captured at the same time. So again, That creates that consistency of client, uh, journey, um, and any client and any stylist chair, and you know, you’ve got the records.

[00:19:39] Janine Simons: The records are much easier to duplicate, read, understand. Um, so yeah, it really streamlines that whole process as well in the salon.

[00:19:48] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Now I’m going to put my salon owner’s hat on at the moment and, and say to you, but does that mean if I decide to change my color management system, for example, that I no longer have access to all those color records because they’re on your app, not on my website, so to speak.

[00:20:08] Janine Simons: Yes, yeah, no, not at all. and the same way that if you changed point of sale systems, you know, like they all live on that point of sale system, we would give you the data, it’s your data still, so we would give you your records or whatever you need upon exit, entry, whatever that looks like.

[00:20:24] Antony Whitaker: yeah. So like on a CVS file or something like that. So you could take all the data. So you don’t lose the data. Right? So the salon owner still owns the data because I know, I know from talking to some salon owners. That’s a really important issue. Um, and then also around that again, salad owner hat on. What about security?

[00:20:44] Antony Whitaker: Around the client’s records. Um, so in other words, as a salon owner, I’m sure you’ve had people leave you. And I’m sure that, you know, at different times they’ve taken all the names, addresses, phone numbers, and color records. The color records are the property of the business, not of the stylist, unless those stylists are self employed.

[00:21:03] Antony Whitaker: Um, so what security is there around that from the salon owner’s perspective?

[00:21:09] Janine Simons: So again, we have, it’s password protected, so you have the, the sale and owner has the ability to add users or, uh, or administrators to their, um, their login or their, you know, their app, for example. Uh, so if a stylist, if you make them a user, they can’t see anything. The only thing they can really do is put a formulation in.

[00:21:31] Janine Simons: They can’t get information out. Um, if they’re an administrator, they can do all of the things that the salon owner can do. Uh, the minute they hand in their resignation, just like a point of sale system, you would remove the access.

[00:21:44] Antony Whitaker: Got it.

[00:21:45] Janine Simons: in this way, yeah.

[00:21:47] Antony Whitaker: right. Okay. All right. And how easy is it to set up? Is it all just done online remotely or,

[00:21:54] Antony Whitaker: or did someone have to come?

[00:21:55] Janine Simons: Yeah, all done online. So we have, uh, we, we, I’ve had, we’ve had many different experiences with onboarding people. Um, there have been a lot that just download the app and get started. Maybe fire one or two, um, questions online at us through either email or Instagram chat or whatever that looks like.

[00:22:13] Janine Simons: But for the most part, most get started. Pretty easily. Um, there’s been one or two that are a little bit more technology phobic, I guess. And so they need a bit more handholding. So we’ve got, uh, we’ve got like a step by step plan within the app on how to get started that they can read and watch and go through.

[00:22:32] Janine Simons: Um, and also we’re available, you know, we have help available for people, uh, both in both time zones. So if they help getting started or with anything at any time, they can just reach out. Yeah.

[00:22:45] Antony Whitaker: Okay, cool. All right. Um, the ordering and inventory management side of things, how does that work? Cause that’s, that’s a sort of a separate thing to, The client in your chair and their color records, the inventory, you know, management stock control reordering component. Talk to us about that and how you handle that within it.

[00:23:05] Janine Simons: yeah, sure. So how that’s handled within it is by the very nature of our stylists adding their grams in as they’re, um, as they’re working, it removes them from your shelf or from what’s I’ll load it up into the app. So then at the end of the week, or let’s say you order weekly at the end of the week, you can simply push a button and replace the color that you’ve used, or you can replace it up to a minimum or maximum level as set by you.

[00:23:33] Janine Simons: So you can custom order. Um, or replace it to the value to which you want. Um, and it will auto populate your order for you. Um, so it’s all done for you based on the data that you’ve put into ColorBar Manager already, or based on information you’ve put into ColorBar Manager already. So, by that I mean when you set up, you would set up your minimum and maximum quantity of any one color you want to have on your shelf at one time, and then when you do an order, [00:24:00] you can select, replace all of my color to my maximum quantities.

[00:24:05] Janine Simons: And it will do that simply by what’s been removed through the usage of your stylists.

[00:24:10] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Um, a lot of salon owners, a lot, some salon owners have issues with, um, product walking.

[00:24:18] Janine Simons: Yes. Most.

[00:24:22] Antony Whitaker: You know that the dispensary doubles up as a lunch room or something and, uh, that someone thinks, Oh, I need to do my mom’s color tonight. I’ll just take a tube of such and such off the shelf and never mind. Janine won’t mind. Do you know what I mean? Or Janine won’t know. Have you got any, have you got anything sort of built in around that too?

[00:24:43] Antony Whitaker: Because obviously you’d have to do a physical stock count. And compare that with what the app is telling you or with what color manager, what color bar manager is telling you is in there and what is actually in there might be two different things. It’s the only way around that to do a physical stock count to cross reference it.

[00:25:01] Janine Simons: And essentially yes. However, because the numbers are, um, it’s, you know, so clear, you can manage it by the day, by the week, by the month. So it’s very easy to track if anything does go missing, as opposed to like, you know, like, it’s, it’s much more data driven. So there’s, there’s less emotion around. We’re always running out of this and we never have that.

[00:25:24] Janine Simons: And or should something go missing, it’s, it’s traceable very, very quickly, uh, and if stock is taken or removed and it’s not recorded through color bar manager, then it won’t get replaced when we order. So the impact that that starts to have on a salon is huge. So by that, you know, like my team, for example, let’s say they don’t put colors into color bar manager, they won’t get ordered in the next order.

[00:25:49] Janine Simons: So, therefore, you

[00:25:50] Antony Whitaker: It impacts on them. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, that’s interesting.

[00:25:54] Antony Whitaker: Okay. So, so that was sort of one of the things I was just going to ask you and I think you’ve already answered it, which is. You know, as you started out on this journey and started developing a prototype and then working with it in your salon, I was gonna ask you, were there any things that came up that you thought, Oh, I didn’t anticipate that.

[00:26:13] Antony Whitaker: But that’s a great feature. That’s a great add on. That’s a great benefit from using this. Was there anything else?

[00:26:20] Janine Simons: Oh, my gosh. So many things I’ve, I’ve learned. It’s been a wild ride. I’ve learned so much a lot. You know, you have your own ways and systems and things that you do within your own salon. And I tend to be quite a rule book, I guess, when it comes to mixing colors and how I would mix them. But certainly you’re building technology.

[00:26:40] Janine Simons: You’re putting a formulation into it. So you’re, you’re giving it rules, right? Um, so I’ve learned that stylists out there do a myriad of crazy things when it comes to mixing color. So we’ve had to be very adaptable when it comes to like, you know, mixing activators together or mixing different brands together, um, all of these crazy kind of things that I would never think to do.

[00:27:03] Janine Simons: So that’s been really interesting. And we’ve had to kind of adapt the way in which we program color bar managers so that it works for. Works for the masses.

[00:27:12] Antony Whitaker: Now I’m thinking as you’re talking about that, that as you perfect something that you set out to make very simple, that you made a point of saying that that was your number one guiding philosophy. This has to be simple because I might be wrong, but I’m reading between the lines and hearing that you’re saying that because it’s simple, it’s also available at a lower price point than competition.

[00:27:33] Antony Whitaker: Maybe. I don’t know if that is the case or not. Am I correct with that? Right. Okay. So. Right. So because you’re keeping it simple, you can do it at a lower price point, but as you develop it and perfect it, it’s like, Oh, but what if we did this? And what if we did that? And what if we did the other? And so all of a sudden it is in danger of becoming, you know, Not so simple.

[00:27:58] Antony Whitaker: Anything is. It’s in danger of not becoming so simple as you find these good ideas to add to the functionality of it. Um, but you’re, I suppose, so what am I asking you? I suppose I’m asking you, is your philosophy written on the wall? Keep it simple. Do you know what I mean? So that it stops you getting too clever and trying to make it too sophisticated because then you’re sort of just becoming another me too.

[00:28:23] Antony Whitaker: Is that, is that right?

[00:28:25] Janine Simons: Yeah, most definitely. Most definitely. So it needs to be simple. So when we’re testing any new feature or even discussing the potential of adding a new feature or to the app, um, main thing is, is that it needs to be simple. If it’s not simple or if it requires too much thought or too much in depth Um, action by the user, it doesn’t usually get across the line.

[00:28:47] Janine Simons: Uh, so it has to be simple because it’s very easy when you start building technology, it’s so easy to add more and more and more layers to it, which actually defeats the purpose sometimes of having it when you have to, like the whole idea of bringing technology into the business or salons is to simplify and systemize things for us.

[00:29:07] Janine Simons: So we do, we use, color bar manager to do just exactly that for a long time, there was no technology. We’d embraced it in many other areas. Of our salons. Yep. Somehow we’d forgotten the Color bar. Um, so, and because we were relying on our stylists to use it, it needs to be so simple for them. When you walk a mile in a really busy salon, they have not got time to, to really think about what they’re doing on top of what they’re already doing.

[00:29:34] Janine Simons: If that makes sense. The expectations from the clients, the hair they’ve got to deliver today, the service they’ve got to give, the rapport they’ve got to build, you know, all of the things that they’re already having to capture. In that moment with that client, the last thing they need is hard technology in order to be a system.

[00:29:51] Janine Simons: So that, that’s very much first and foremost in our minds. Yes, we need to give the reports and the data and the things that the salon owner needs to make data driven decisions for profit. But first and foremost, we need to make sure that it’s styllist friendly because they are the ones that need to use it

[00:30:09] Antony Whitaker: use it. Yeah. Yeah. I was talking to a salon owner, he’ll listen to this at some stage and he, he was saying to me, Antony, um, Saturday morning, our salon is rammed, you know, nine o’clock Saturday morning, it is absolutely jammed and a lot of those clients are in for color, and at nine o’clock if I’ve got six, seven, eight people, you know, In the dispensary trying to mix up things, weigh things, you know, can I have the scale, so to speak, it creates more problems than it solves.

[00:30:44] Antony Whitaker: So, and I, I empathize with him. The obvious answer is we need more scales, but you know, you need, you need two, three, four, five, six scales. But as he pointed out to me, yeah, but I, they all come at a cost and and he’s right.

[00:31:00] Janine Simons: So this is where, where we are more simple than other things that are on the market. So, um, you can use any scale. And what happens in my salon is for the 80 percent of the time, my stylist or, you know, most of our users.

[00:31:15] Janine Simons: put their recipes in as they’re going. So they’ll put their formulas in as they’re mixing and about to go and start a color. The odd time when it’s really busy or they can log in a bit later and put their color formula grams into the app at any time. So they can be sitting on the bus on the way home, just like they used to put their notes in, but now they put the grams into color bar manager.

[00:31:36] Antony Whitaker: Okay. All right. Um, what are the resistance points that you find that salon owners or colorists have? Around using color management systems, not just yours, any, and I think you’ve already talked about it,

[00:31:50] Janine Simons: Yes.

[00:31:50] Antony Whitaker: but I’m interested to see if you say the same thing.

[00:31:52] Janine Simons: Yeah. The biggest challenge is onboarding your team, without doubt. It’s changing habits in the salon. So salon owners or anyone that manages money or time in the salon, they’re motivated. So they’re extremely motivated to make this work and get it up and running. Um, getting your team on board is the hardest challenge.

[00:32:14] Janine Simons: Uh, no more so than implementing any system in a salon though, I would say. It just is changing habits and making sure that you, uh, sort of educate them through it, step them through it and support them through it and give them the time. So I always say it takes about six to eight weeks to onboard your team, usually to change those habits over, you know, a daily, weekly, monthly timeframe.

[00:32:36] Janine Simons: Um, like any system, the opposite side of hard is where the promised land lives. So once you actually get it up and running, and with a small amount of pain for those first, maybe week or two, and then it starts to ease and it gets better and then it becomes a daily habit and it’s done. Um, so, You know, yeah,

[00:32:54] Antony Whitaker: good. Good. Um, what does the client see? Do they see anything different?

[00:33:00] Janine Simons: they don’t see anything different. No, not at this way. Like our roadmaps quite huge with regard to that. We see some possibilities and things that we could, um, bring into Colorbar manager there, but no, it’s, it literally is a stylist tool. It’s, you know, with the added benefits for a sale and owner, it’s not client facing at the stage.

[00:33:20] Antony Whitaker: right. Got it.

[00:33:21] Janine Simons: So the client doesn’t see anything. Um, but Colorbar Manager does 100 percent capture. Um, it can price your services for you. So it can, you can see exactly how much profit you’re making based on the time and the amount of color you’re using per service.

[00:33:38] Janine Simons: Customer in your salon, so it will do that for you, which that’s actually a part of the tool that is of high value to a lot of salon owners, because it’s a question I get asked all the time. How do I know how much money to charge for my balayage or my foils and my retouch on my, my retouch application?

[00:33:54] Janine Simons: So we’ll do that for you. And once you put those numbers in there, it will allow you to see how much you should be charging per application for each service. But the client doesn’t see that.

[00:34:08] Antony Whitaker: But does the client see that they might’ve been charged a different amount last time? More or less? Because more or less product was used?

[00:34:15] Janine Simons: They will, potentially the client might know that, but for us, that’s a conversation the stylist would have with the client. if I can use my salon as an example to keep it easy, um, we would, in Colorbar Manager, we’ll put in what services they’re having today. And then that will, uh, throw at us the cost of that service based on how many grams we’re going to use and the time they’re in the salon, and we’ll pre quote that to the client before we get started. We always pre quote our clients before we get started, so everyone’s on the same page before the service begins today.

[00:34:47] Antony Whitaker: Got it. Got it. Okay. Um, cost from a salon owner’s point of view. Um, is it, is it a subscription based thing? how does that work?

[00:34:57] Janine Simons: It is subscription based, yes, so it is a monthly subscription and the cost is 29 US a month. Um, so for what we’re offering, we, we know we’re highly affordable, uh, going back to my earlier point, we want it to be available to everyone and anyone that needs to put a system into their cell phone.

[00:35:15] Antony Whitaker: So 29 a month, whether you’ve got five stylists using it, one stylist using it, 20 stylists using it for the salon, it’s 29 a month.

[00:35:23] Janine Simons: Yeah, so our pricing ethos also is based on Keep it simple. Uh, so you can have one sell on, you can have ten sell ons, you can have one team member, you can have fifty. Uh, it doesn’t matter to us,

[00:35:35] Janine Simons: so, uh, yeah, so it’s a very simple pricing model,

[00:35:39] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s very interesting. Now, uh, last thing I wanted to ask you about was when I was trying to find out more about you, you were hard to find out about meaning you were hard to find, uh, on social media. You’re not called color bar manager, no matter how you spell it. You’re called salon auntie.

[00:35:58] Janine Simons: Uh, yes.

[00:36:00] Antony Whitaker: So what’s all that about? What’s that? Explain that because people are going to want to check you out. So, and I’m going to put, you know, your, your website details and your Instagram and your Facebook, et cetera, in the show notes.

[00:36:11] Antony Whitaker: Uh, so, so over to you, you explain to us why is it called the salon auntie or salon auntie?

[00:36:17] Janine Simons: so actually when you reached out to me originally, we were Colorbar manager and all of our branding was Colorbar manager. Um, however, we have just relaunched and rebranded. So, um, Salon Auntie is our, uh, as our way forward. So not only will Colorbar manager be part of Salon Auntie, but we are on a mission to provide apps, tools, and resources and guides for all things, Salon business, Two sounds so our proposition is that our membership, our membership kind of model will remain the same, but people will get a lot more value.

[00:36:53] Janine Simons: So, you know, we’re looking at adding so many more tools and apps and things to our product offering. Um, the name salon Auntie is, you know, because ask auntie salon auntie will help you out. She’s a mentor. She’s a guide. She’s unbiased. Um, so yeah, salon auntie is a bit of a rebrand. But Colourbar Manager is our, um, our master tool, or the jewel in our crown, if you like.

[00:37:16] Antony Whitaker: Okay, well, that that makes sense that that now makes sense to me

[00:37:20] Antony Whitaker: Um, so where can people connect with you? Where can they find out about, um, salon auntie and, um, indeed color bar manager?

[00:37:31] Janine Simons: Yeah, sure thing. So, um, Instagram is probably the quickest, easiest place to find us. Um, so we have our Salon Auntie page, which is Salon underscore Auntie. Auntie’s spelt I E, not Y. Um, so that’s the easiest way to find us. Um, and through, through that platform, you’ll find Colour Bar Manager. Um, and then I also have my own, um, Instagram page, which is hairbiz1010.

[00:37:56] Janine Simons: So people can find me there and message me through that platform as well.

[00:38:01] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Got it. All right. Well, I will, put those links, uh, for your social platforms, in the show notes for today’s podcast. So, uh, before we start to wrap up, Janine, anything that I haven’t asked you that you think is relevant?

[00:38:16] Janine Simons: I don’t think so. I think we’ve covered a lot today, actually, Antony, which has been, uh, great. I just encourage salon owners to seek help with any kind of systems that they need in their salons, because like I said earlier, um, Once you put them into place, that’s where freedom lives. Freedom lives on the opposite side of putting in good systems.

[00:38:36] Janine Simons: So it’s what we’re all about.

[00:38:37] Antony Whitaker: I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. I think that’s exactly the case. And I mean, I purposefully drilled down on those questions because, A, I want to know. I want to understand it. And I think sometimes a lot of people listen to things, and they get this sort of general gist, but they have all these what ifs.

[00:38:52] Antony Whitaker: So hopefully I have, um, answered as many of their what ifs as possible. So, uh, uh, thanks for your time. We’ve really appreciated having you on the podcast today. Um, If you are listening to this podcast with Janine and you’ve enjoyed it, do me a favor, share it with the others that you know will benefit from listening.

[00:39:09] Antony Whitaker: And don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review on the Apple podcast app. So to wrap up, Janine Simons, thank you so much for being on this week’s episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast.

[00:39:21] Janine Simons: Absolute pleasure, Antony. Thanks so much for having me. It’s been great.