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Rainbow Room International
Date Added: 2009-02-11
As a teenager growing up in Glasgow and dreaming of art college, Linda Stewart always knew she wanted to do something creative. Leaving school to work in a local salon meant the beginning of a dream, which has taken her and her partner Alan Stewart, on a journey to develop one of Scotland’s most prestigious hair and beauty groups – Rainbow Room International.
Located in the heart of Glasgow and with a history spanning nearly four decades, Rainbow Room International has won numerous awards for the business’ success and creativity.
The company also has a unique franchising system which gives all team members the chance to work their way up the ranks and open their own Rainbow Room International franchise.
Despite the economic downturn the salon is remaining bullishly confident about the future and committing themselves to customer service and new business initiatives.
“In this economic climate you have to be very aware that the customer is spending money with you and maybe cutting back elsewhere, so it is imperative that they receive brilliant value and service,” explains Linda.
Rainbow Room International’s philosophy is one of constant change and continual improvement. Linda stresses the need for this measured approach.
“I predict this year will produce a lot of business casualties through bad financial planning. If a salon has overspent in the past, it can creep up on them now during a time when here may be a drop in trade… We are going to focus on promoting our gift voucher service. We feel that people might find beauty too much of a luxury to buy for themselves, but it is a great present to buy someone else”.
The award-winning brand has a twelve strong salon group with their own educational academy, finishing school, fame academy, two beauty and day spa salons, a property company and a team of over 350 highly trained and dedicated employees, servicing over 100,000 client visits and a turnover in excess of nine million pounds. With this strong background behind them Alan and Linda are predicting a good year. Planning is something Linda believes in strongly when looking at the year ahead.
“Project a cash flow forecast, know when you need money and put in place a facility to ensure that you are covered, have a very close look at your costs and negotiate or change supplier if necessary, never cut back on quality offered to clients, put in place a client reward scheme, try to rebook clients before they leave and finally make sure you set targets for all the therapists,” explains Linda.
With that sound advice we are predicting a great year ahead for Rainbow Room International and it certainly looks like the brand is set to achieve all its targets.
