Has anyone here done beauty/glamour portraits in a hair salon?

And if so, what did you find was the best way to approach the salon owner to see if they were interested?

This is the part of photography that I hate, I much prefer the work behind the camera, but it has to be done.

I am going to start approaching hair salons this week, and I am thinking that first thing in the morning would be best. Or perhaps at the end of the day would be a better time, but sometimes they leave early if they have no one scheduled.

I am hoping that they will be satisfied with me bringing in more clients to them instead of them asking for a cut of the sales. If they do this I will let them know that I will have to inflate my prices to compensate.

I am also trying to figure out what type of packages to offer. Idealy Id like to focus on high quality wall framed prints or canvas but I think the starting price may cause the potential customers to not be interested. If I go for a bargain package of one pose, but still make it profitable they may be more inticed to go for it and then not be able to resist making a larger purchase.

What type of packages did you find they were interested in.

As for "studio" setup, I plan on using a portable background stand in the hair salon, hopefully there is space, and mostly do headshots. Most salons ive been in dont have a ton of available space so this really limits the possibilities.

Any advice would be welcome, I am particularly interested in the methods of approaching the salon owners and the deals that are normal. And I do have insurance, liability and equipment, and registered for tax.

My intended customer in this is the hair salons customers. It would be great if the hair salon wants to buy the rights to some of the images to use for advertising, the extra income would be great.

Ill probably toss in a few free 11x14's or 16x20's to the salon since it will be advertising my studio as well with my logo and number on the print. I dont particularly want to toss in the frames since that will really increase the expenses unless I "lend" the frames to them, and later replace the prints with new work of mine to keep the advertising fresh.

I was thinking of making it a package price, that would cover the cost of the hair work, make up if the salon offers it, and my introductory package. That way they wont be surprised that they have to pay more the day of.

The reason I am doing this are three things.
A - to build a relationship with the hair salon and be able to advertise in it, initially with the glamour pictures to show off their hair work and my studio. I will have my studio name and phone number on the prints. Then after a few of those have been used, Ill probably just put up some of my other work that I can rotate between the hair salons to get the best value for the print costs. If the salon is ok with this.

B - Hopefully they will be happy with this and allow me to do it again in January through March during the slow months. These are also slow for the hair salon and they will probably welcome the increased business this could bring them.

C - And to meet new customers that I would not have met otherwise and increase my customer base. Also to make some money.

I know my cost of doing business and how much I need to make per day. I think Ill hope for at least 4 appointments in a day to lowball it, and divide my codb by 4 and make that the starting package for each glamour shot. Then hope for more appointments and increased sales to make it really worth while.

For example, if your cost of doing business is $200 a day, then each package starts at $50 plus tax. To make the $50 enticing but time effective for myself I'll probably just make it of one pose but give them a set of sheets, an 8x10, two 5x7 and a sheet of cut wallets. This is half of my regular print pricing but I want to get as many appointments for the day as I can. My method of upselling is to take incredible pictures and let them be irresistible to the client. They would get the "glamour" effect free on the intro package to help keep the cost down, but then it would be added to the other packages. Ill probably generate 4 packages they can upgrade or add to.

the problem with that package is its a lot of prints and they may not feel the need to buy more. I would love to offer a framed print but the cost of frames is up there and this would drive up the cost of the opening package by a lot. Plus there are no unique frame shops around here that offer good prices to photographers that I know of. If I had the money I would stock up on ikea frames since the nearest store to here is like 5 hours away so no on will know how much I actually paid for them. but I am trying to keep expenses down and as little out of pocket as possible. Perhaps after a few of these events Ill know if they would sell and get a few of them to try out.

As for marketing material I think I should make up some postcards to leave at the counter for the hairdressers to give to every client for the month before the event to get as much direct advertising as possible. This does increase expenses a bit, but I was thinking of making the postcards somewhat generic and leave blank fields on the card for a rubber stamp to put down the name of the hair salon and the date of the event. This way I can order more cards and use them for many events instead of a few cards and one event. This may look cheesy though and Ill have to find a good rubber stamp that will let me put letters for the name of the studio. The date stamp is the easy part.

I was also thinking of having the hair salon collect the non refundable appointment retainers for me, to guarantee the people will show up to the appointment, or allow me not to care when they dont.

How do you intend to make this happen?

You have a good idea there.

Here's what I would do. Have a studio within a few blocks of as many hair salons as possible (after all, most customers can drive to your studio). Approach the hair salons and offer a free matted and framed picture of one of their clients (they can choose) if they agree to pass out a coupon to each and every client who gets their hair done there.

You can set up the pricing whatever way yuou want, but offer a 1/2 hour sitting fee and free 8X10. Then when many of the pics turn out well, they will be interested in the up-priced size, canvas, matting, etc.

The coupon will display a "discount rate" for the sitting fee and the free 8X10. Offer to do "walk-ins", (make it clear that scheduled appointments will take priority), but that they can use the coupon at any time.

Why limit yourself to just one hair salon? Establish the relationship with as many as possible (you will become known as the post-hair styling photographer).

I plan to make that happen with the following bits:

1 - they can possibly get additional appointments from existing clients they would not have normally had.
2 - they can possibly get new appointments from people that have never been to their salon. This package would include a hair cut and make up if they offer it, so it wont just be people coming in for a picture, everyone involved will be making money.
3 - they may get new word of mouth from the people that receive the postcard advertisement and those that heard about the glamour day.
4 - they will get bonus digital files to use on their facebook and website. I give small resolution digital files with logo with all my prints, so it doesnt hurt me to offer these files to the salon as well. It will be up to them to get the model release if I didnt get one. i offer these low res digital files because people will scan the picture if I dont, regardless of copyright law, I may as well put up a good quality file and have my name on it for sure.
5 - they will also get a few bonus wall prints. They get to frame them.
6 - and I am playing with the idea of giving them 10% of the sales. Ill just mark up the packages slightly so I dont notice a difference in profit.

I will probably offer the salon owner an option to go in together on some business cards with a coupon, giving $10 off to people that bring in a friend to do this offer, and $10 off for the friend as well. I would take $10 off for the referee and they would take $10 off for the referral. The catch being it ahs to be someone that has never been to the salon before. this will possibly give the salon more new customers or at least a one time additional sale.

I just need to put this in a nice presentation card to give to the salon owners when I go around to make my sales pitch. fun fun, I hate this part. but it has to be done.