The Company
Planet Skin is a beauty salon situated in Paraparaumu, on the Kapiti Coast. Sue Sage started Planet Skin as a sole trader about 12 years ago, originally with just one other staff member. There are now ten staff members (including Sue), filling eight full-time equivalent positions, plus an appearance medicine consultant who sees clients at Planet Skin premises and pays a commission per client to the business in exchange for providing client administration, consulting rooms and product dispensing services.
The business sells a range of beauty products and offers beauty services in four main areas:
- Nails
- Beauty therapy
- Hairdressing
- Appearance medicine
Such a wide range of business activities is quite unusual for beauty salons in the area. Others mostly specialise in only one or two services. Sue believes the "one stop shop" concept adds to the success of the firm, and this was part of the original business strategy, to have several products for broad customer appeal.
Two and a half years ago, Sue faced a dilemma. When starting Planet Skin, the premises she acquired, well positioned in a highly visible location in a shopping complex with high foot traffic and excellent parking, were too big for her practice alone. She decided to sub-let the space to other complementary beauty industry practitioners to run their businesses in order to cover the costs. However, this business model was not profitable. She decided that if she could grow her own business by adding in other specialties operated by employees rather than acting as "landlord" to the tenants, she would have better control over the entire business, and profitability would increase. To go down this path, however, she realised that computer technology was essential.
Previously, Sue had used computer spreadsheets for accounts and payroll functions. She had also used the PC to create brochures for marketing purposes. Importantly, the business thus already had a PC. However, she did not have software to manage other aspects, such as bookings and stock control. One of Planet Skin's opposition was already using a software package Hair Ware 2000 to manage the business, and Sue learned more about it through an advertisement in a beauty therapy magazine. She realised that in order to keep up with her opposition and grow the business she needed to implement this technology. Growth would not have been possible under the manual system. Sue also hoped that the technology would allow her to spend less time on management activities, and spend more hands-on time with her clients.
She bought the software, and implemented it at Planet Skin. In the two and half years since its implementation, Planet Skin has flourished. The business has grown from two full-time equivalent staff to eight (filled by ten individuals), and the client base has grown from 1000 to 4000. Profitability expectations have been met. All beauty industry specialties are now represented in the business's portfolio of services, and it is truly operating to Sue's "one stop shop" concept.
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