Michael Muia’s salon business has been operating for over 39 years and he knows it inside out. But when the COVID pandemic hit, everything changed. Instead of resisting the shifts happening in the hair industry, Muia saw an opportunity to digitally transform his business model and his salon is still standing because of it.
Michael’s Hair Design & Day Spa is the largest salon in Thunder Bay and has been building a loyal client base for over 39 years. Muia, the salon’s owner, says his brand was thriving before the pandemic hit. He believes a key component of his business’s success is his willingness to learn, adapt, and evolve. Even prior to COVID, Muia explains that while traveling, he would often take time out to visit other salons and beauty businesses to observe their operations. He would look for takeaways that he could bring home and apply to his own salon. Good enough simply isn’t good enough for Muia, who is always looking for opportunities to optimize.
When the pandemic hit, salons like Muia’s were among the businesses most severely impacted. With a large building to maintain and a substantial team to support, Muia’s expenses were high. Prior to the pandemic, the salon had never sought out any financial support. “I’ve never really been a person that took advantage of grant money that was offered just because we were doing so well. I thought businesses that really needed it should apply,” says Muia. But, with the pandemic raging on, Muia knew he would need help to make it through. “You’re basically being crippled. You’re on life support,” he recalls.
Muia began researching opportunities for support and discovered the Digital Transformation Grant (DTG) program offered by Digital Main Street (DMS). The program provides brick-and-mortar small businesses with a digital assessment, online training, and a $2,500 grant to implement their Digital Transformation Plan (DTP). Muia enrolled in the program and dove headfirst into the learning modules. He was eager to find ways to streamline his business’s marketing efforts and operations. The resulting DTP had two goals: the first was simply to find a way to generate enough income to survive the pandemic. The second was to use the pandemic as an opportunity to evolve his business to better suit the changes he saw taking shape in the industry.
Gift cards were a key revenue driver for the salon during the pandemic. It was important to Muia that his customers felt confident that if they invested in a gift card for a family member or a friend, they would have a chance to redeem it post-lockdown. Muia credits the salon’s solid branding and social media presence with helping to project the image of a business that could weather the storm even during an incredibly difficult time.
With the salon’s gift card business helping to boost revenue, Muia turned his attention to optimizing his business’s marketing channels and operations to prepare for a strong comeback. He shifted its marketing strategy from more traditional media channels to digital channels like Facebook and Instagram. While the salon already had a strong presence on these platforms, they had yet to try out paid advertising on the social media channels. “There was a point [where we were] spending 50 – 60,000 bucks a year [on traditional] advertising. That’s a lot of money for a hair salon,” says Muia. After investing a portion of their grant funds into paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, Muia says it was clear that digital marketing would go a lot further for the salon than any other media. “Not everybody reads the newspaper, but everybody looks at their phone,” he says.
A second marketing channel that proved very successful for the salon was SMS. Muia invested a portion of his grant funds to work with a digital marketing expert who helped set the salon up with SMS communications. This allowed the salon to not only market directly to their customers’ phones, but to also help it streamline communication about upcoming appointments. Ultimately, SMS communications proved to me more than an effective marketing channel. It helped the business save money on labour hours and keep their operations lean because they no longer needed as much administrative support.
Today, Muia says his business is beginning to regain momentum, but he doesn’t take the success for granted. He is continuing to find new ways to apply his learnings to his salon’s marketing and operations and is grateful to the DTG Program for helping to keep his business afloat. After losing nearly two-thirds of his team during the pandemic, the salon is preparing to start hiring again and that is what Muia is most proud of. “At the end of the day, people are out there working again. And that’s great.”
