Give Back=Get Back

      October is breast cancer awareness month and a great way to give back and market your business at the same time. There are so many ways to get involved and give back. Consider partnering with an area restaurant for Manicure Mondays for the cure one night or every Monday in October. Set up at a local hot spot offering mini manicures or nail art and offer to donate a portion of the evenings proceeds to Breast cancer research. Make sure the restaurant includes the event in all their marketing emails and posters. Put up flyers at local coffee houses and anywhere else that allows community event postings. Events at your salon can be just as rewarding. Manicures for the cure can be offered all month with a portion of each service donated. You can also add nail art for an extra two dollar donation.

      Call your local Cancer center or the National Breast Cancer Foundation and they will send you a ton of marketing materials like self exam postcards, pink ribbon reminders and more literature than you could imagine. They are more than willing to send as much as they can for free to help support your event. Make sure to get postcards in the mail, put an event up on Facebook or in Eventbrite even on Yelp and twitter. Remember on social media especially twitter to send this out several times a week to make sure you get as much exposure as you can.

      Partner with a local med center or cancer center. Ask to speak with the office manager and offer a certain percentage off any service for every woman that gets a mammogram in October, or put together a free gift like a sample hand cream, mini pink polish, pink emery board and sample nail oil. Have the literature up on mirrors, in the bathroom, at the front desk and at your nail table to spread the word and encourage women to get this often times life saving procedure. Offer a free gift or free upgrade to any client that gets a mammogram in October. Offer a contest in your salon for a pamper day to a breast cancer survivor. Encourage your clients to nominate a survivor by sending their story in by email or snail mail. The year we did this we were so touched by the many stories of amazing bravery and courage that we ended up sending each one a $15.00 gift card. They were so appreciative and our client who nominated them was so proud to share this opportunity including bragging rights that her salon values the health and well being of women in the community and isn't holding back but giving back. The good will generated by an all out Breast Cancer month is priceless. Make sure you are writing press releases about your specials and events and invite the local news anchors to your salon to experience it firsthand.

      If you are in a plaza you may want to contact the local mobile mammogram center and offer your parking lot one weekend in October to host mobile mammograms. Every tenant in the plaza can put together their own special offer and put together a fabulous goodie bag. Contact the local radio stations and offer to host a live broadcast from the venue. Newspapers, TV stations and radio stations love to get involved in the local businesses especially when companies are giving back to the community. Make sure you have plenty of business cards, salon ,menus and ways to capture contact information. And by all means follow up follow up follow up with each and every possible new guest with preferably a hand written note for helping support the cause so important to so many. Unfortunately I don't think there is any one of us that has not had this horrible cancer impact their life in one way or another. We touch so many lives in such a positive way all day, all week , and all year. We can reach so many others and have such an important impact by putting together a special month to possibly make a difference in another's life. It just could be the difference between life and death.