Boosting Business for Spa and Salon Owners During COVID-19
Last Updated on 6 August, 2025
COVID-19 has hit the health and wellness industry hard. Forced closures have left spa and salon owners scrambling to adapt their businesses to make money and stay afloat. How can you continue to pay your bills when there’s no money coming in from your spa and salon appointments?
You have options! Be proactive and take action to make sure your business survives and thrives while your doors are closed. Lower your costs, expand your offerings, and develop a solid business strategy. This will help generate the revenue you need to pay your rent, payroll and the rest of your expenses.
Check out this quick guide from our experts to boost your spa/salon business during the pandemic:
Protect your cash flow
Can you lower payments, delay disbursements or get financial help to hold onto some cash? Contact your landlord to reduce rent and research grants or financial aid to help you get by until you can reopen.
Sell memberships
Work on making your memberships attractive to buy right now. A spa or salon membership is something clients can look forward to. How can you entice clients to purchase a membership for when you reopen? You want to add value to that membership since clients can’t visit you in person. Here are some things to consider so clients buy a membership for your spa or salon right now:
- Include a promo with a limited-time discounted rate
- Offer free merch or a gift basket to show clients you care
- Create package deals that combine multiple services at your salon or spa
Add virtual services and products
When your clients can’t come to you, you go to them! Switch to virtual services and build an online store, featuring workshops and clinics. Offer a manicure bootcamp, give a seminar on spring make-up trends, or host a webinar about aromatherapy. Put your expertise to work and use the registration to up your revenues.
People are looking to ‘de-stress’ and that’s where you come in! Build or expand your online retail store to address these needs.
- Sell items like a spa in a box, mani/pedi packages or facial kits
- You can even put together special packages for Mother’s Day!
- Offer curbside pickup or home delivery for safe, fast, efficient service
Offer a rewards program
If you don’t have a loyalty rewards program, now’s a great time to start! Launch your program with promo points to motivate your clients to start spending money now to reach their rewards. Did you already have a program in place? Make your incentives even more attractive with bonus draws, triple the points and faster freebies. Get your clients motivated to invest in your business to help you get some money in the bank.
Plan for long-term business success
Once you’ve got your bills covered, it’s time to look ahead. While you’re not managing the day-to-day operations of your spa or salon, use this opportunity to your advantage! Focus on the things that will give you a leg up when you re-open:
Affiliate relationships with product lines
Make relationships with your suppliers. Arrange to sell their products from your location, online or with a link to their retail outlet. They can ship directly, saving you the hassle (and cost) but you make money off the sale and your clients get the products they’re looking for. This one will help out now, but it’s also a great money-maker long-term, so it’s a win-win!
Build your social media presence
Use your social media channels to get attention while so many people are home and online. Start posting regular content, share relevant information, like, follow and interact with client accounts. Engage your audience with contests, polls, requests for sharing images and any other ways you can get the conversation started. By building up your community now, you’ll have a bunch of new, interested clients you can welcome with open arms when the time comes.
Focus on your marketing
Ramp up your marketing to get attention for your online sales now and build up your community for long-term revenue. Create a marketing plan and be ready to execute. Include steps like:
- Automating your marketing (use email, text or SMS campaigns) to reach more people and get more bang for your buck
- Using social media to increase awareness and target specific markets
- Looking back on past marketing efforts to see how you can revamp or reorganize those efforts to work for your future
- Making partnerships with other businesses to share content and reach each other’s communities
- Asking your satisfied customers for testimonials and reviews to boost your online profile with third-party endorsements
Upgrade your website
Take the time (while you have it) to give your website a makeover! Audit your site to make sure it’s fully functional and up to date. Get busy upping your e-commerce options, enhancing remote client access, adding widgets, linking to relevant content, creating a blog. Stand out from your competition with the best website in town!
Continue to update clients
Your clients will continue to support you, as long as they know how! Stay in touch, notify them when you have new merchandise or promos, and keep that connection strong so when they can re-visit you in person, you’ll be their first stop.
Let WellnessLiving’s all-in-one platform be your first stop for all your software needs. From a loyalty rewards program to automated marketing features, WellnessLiving has all the tools you need to grow your business. Want to learn more? Book a no-commitment demo today!
