How to Get More Beauty Clients in September (Decided in August)

I've been telling beauticians for two years that September is our new year. Kids go back, routine returns, diary fills.

I went and checked it properly this summer and I was half wrong. So this is the corrected version, and it's more use than the comfortable one I've been handing out.

September's a routine return, not a money return

Both halves matter.

The routine bit is real. Your client gets her Tuesday mornings back. She's out of the house, dressed like a person again, seeing other adults. That genuinely does drive bookings and it's why September can be brilliant.

The money bit is the half nobody says out loud. She gets those mornings back having just paid for a fortnight away, a uniform, a bag and a pair of shoes she'll replace by December. Salon marketing analysts keep putting late August through September in the slow window, and they put it down to exactly that: back to school eating the family budget.

Ask around and beauticians are split down the middle. Some say September's their best month. Some say it's their worst. Same month, same country, opposite experience.

That split is the most useful thing in this whole post, so let's talk about what causes it.

What September actually is

It's the month your client decides which treatments survive the autumn.

She isn't sat down with a spreadsheet. It's quieter than that. She's got her weeks back and less money than she had in June, and one by one, without ever announcing it, she works out what she's keeping.

Nails yes, they chip and everyone notices. Lashes, maybe, she'll see. Brows she'll have a go at herself, she's watched a video.

And what tips that decision isn't your prices and it isn't your work. It's whether she's heard from you since June.

If she has, you're a fixture. Fixtures survive budget cuts.

If she hasn't, you're a habit she's already gone eight weeks without, and she's quietly proved to herself that she's fine.

Which is why September's decided in August

Not in September. By September it's already happened and you're just finding out.

So the beautician who has a good September isn't luckier than the one who doesn't. She's the one who was still in the picture in the third week of August, when the deciding was going on.

And here's the cruel bit. August is exactly when it's hardest to stay in the picture, because you're quiet and skint and it feels pointless posting to an audience who are all in Portugal. So the beautician who most needs to be visible in August is the one most likely to go dark. Every single year.

What to do, in order

1. Write the list. Tonight.

Every client who hasn't been in since June. Out of your booking app, onto paper. Ten minutes.

It's longer than you think, it's the most valuable thing in your business, and about 90% of us have never once written it down.

2. Message them. One at a time. No offer.

She hasn't left you. She fell out of routine and nothing pulled her back in. She isn't going to pull herself, and she won't message first, because from where she's sat she's the one who's been rubbish.

So it has to be you. One message, one person, no discount, easy to say no to.

3. Don't go dark, even though it feels pointless

You're not posting for bookings this week. You're posting so that when she does her deciding in three weeks, you're a fixture and not a memory.

4. Rebook at the chair from now on

The reason you've got a list is that nobody rebooked in June. "Give us a shout when you're ready" is how the list gets written.

One more thing about timing

Organic takes about twelve weeks to properly compound. That's annoying and it's also just true, and it's why most people never see it work, because they give it nine days.

Twelve weeks from the third week of August is the third week of November. Which is the week Christmas bookings get made.

That's not me being clever. It's what the dates say. The quiet stretch you're sat in the middle of right now is exactly as long as the runway, which means starting in August isn't bad timing. It's the only timing that puts you into the busiest quarter of your year with a full diary.

Start in October and you're not fixing this autumn. You're building for January. 💕