How I Found New Styling Chairs for My Spa

Nibbles Fish Spa Manicure Pedicure

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These cute little fishes known as the Doctor fish from Middle East will tickle your hands and feet, naturally nibbling away those pesky dead skin that make your skin dull and dead, leaving you with silky smooth hands and feet that look great from any direction.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I deplore shopping for the big stuff. Whether it’s a new car, a college for my high school junior, or equipment for my salon, no matter what the item is or even how much enjoyment, value or profit it might bring, I’d simply rather not go to the trouble. If I had a personal shopper, I’d be happy as a queen. But, alas, I do not. Nor do I have the luxury of making big purchases without really looking at the pros and cons. So when it was time to get new styling chairs for my day spa, I balked. Literally. I just turned my back on the situation (the chairs were just getting a bit ragged and old looking) for a good six months.

Then one day a client came in. I led her over to my station for the consult and she just stood there looking at a big, long rip in the seat. Was I embarrassed! Then I had to apologize and pray that she wouldn’t tell her friends that my salon was going down the tubes. Talk about killing your business quick. No one wants to go to a spa to be reminded of the inevitable decay of all things in this life. No, this is where you come to fight the good fight: cover the grays, get the skin treatments, polish the toes and fingers, and massage away those wrinkle inducing stressors!

That very night I plunked myself resolutely in front of my computer and started pricing new chairs. I also shopped for spa pedicure chairs after taking complete inventory of my salon and reviewing my budget. Turns out I needed more than a few replacement seats for a cut and color. Towels, a few area rugs, a massage table and-interestingly enough-the welcome sign on the door!-needed to be replaced or I was in danger of losing highly valued clients in an extremely competitive and scrutinizing market. I began by calling a few friends who have salons to see whether they knew of any good resources for getting spa pedicure chairs and other big ticket salon equipment. I got some references and went from there. I also looked at some websites that I’ve used in the past. I checked out a few online Internet forums and tried to steer clear of websites that pretend to offer honest product reviews but that are really nothing more than ads in disguise. I don’t have time to be misled!

Then it was time to start calling around to see what kind of response I was going to get. I know from years in the business that the best way to do business is person to person. Right? If you call and talk to someone who sounds professional, clear and who addresses your concerns right away, it’s all the better. I also like to put vendors to the test….which is what I did in this case. The next day, I picked up the phone and ordered lower priced items from my top three potential vendors for the styling chairs. While I ordered, I chatted about business and asked questions about what kind of clients they typically served, what their return policy was, guarantee policies, all of that. Then I waited, though impatiently, since one of the styling chairs in my salon was out of commission and I wanted to fill that seat again as soon as possible. I was also worried about problems that might show up with one of the spa pedicure chairs that seemed close to breaking.

Two of the places I shopped came through with flying colors, and the other was a general dud (took about three weeks to get a few service trays that were purportedly in stock when I ordered). For each of the two potential vendors, I called and spoke at length with a sales rep about the large ticket items I needed. Both reps were cordial and seemed like they’d be OK to work with, but one simply offered a better deal and could ship quicker. I went with them and placed an order for everything I’d need (except for the welcome sign, which was handled locally).

My items arrived and were installed, and we were back in business. It felt good to know that my day spa was no longer at risk of losing clients, and I committed then and there to take a complete quarterly inventory of my spa. My experience taught me that buying the large ticket items isn’t so bad once you take the first step. Anyone who reads this, I hope you find it helpful as a sort of roadmap for making those big purchases.