Brigitte Benge - CREAM Solutions

If it's too small on to read the screenshot, check out the first two comments.

Retail isn't a personality type.

So many clinics and salons have one therapist who "just has the gift" and three who seemingly don't.

That's not talent.

It's that one of them worked out what to say and the other three are improvising in the last ninety seconds of an appointment, which is the worst possible moment to start.

Notice where the six moments sit. Only one of them happens at the counter. The rest happen while the treatment's still running, because by the time your client is standing up and reaching for their bag, the decision has already been made.

At your next staff meeting or team huddle, run this as a role play, not just a read out. Two minutes each, therapist on one side, someone playing the client who says "I'll think about it" on the other. It'll feel ridiculous for about ninety seconds and then it'll start sounding like a person talking.

🛟 Save it before your next team meeting so you're not writing the training from scratch on the morning.

Some things in your business are flexible. Your treatment menu can evolve. Your campaigns can change. Your team structure can shift. Your offers can be refined.

But four things aren't optional if you want predictable profit.

1. Your wages sit at the right percentage of revenue, or your margin pays for the difference.
2. Your team understands the business reason behind what they do in the treatment room, or they're just going through the motions.
3. Retail is treated as part of the result, not an awkward add-on, or clients don't get the outcome they came for.
4. Time is spent on treatments that carry genuine margin, or being fully booked won't translate into profit.

Here's why this matters more than ever. The beauty industry got better at specialising. Waxing salons, nail salons and blow dry bars all built a business around doing one thing, over and over, until they got fast and good at it.

That's created a real challenge for salons whose therapists still do a bit of everything, every day. You don't need to drop the low-margin beauty treatments. But your focus needs to shift toward the treatments that actually carry margin.

Running a business full of low-margin treatments is exhausting. You're fully booked, your therapists are flat out, and at the end of the month there's still little left over. You're trading time for money with no room to move, no buffer and no way out except doing more of the same.

A business built around treatments with genuine margin and retail opportunity works differently. The same hours in the diary leave room to invest in your team, your systems and your growth, instead of just keeping the doors open.

These are the hills I will die on.

Not because I like rules (even though I do). Because I've watched enough clinics and salons to know: the ones that get this right ,stop guessing. The ones that don', keep the struggle going.

They know WHAT to do. Do they know WHY you're doing it?

That gap is the difference between a therapist who's good and one who's high performing.

High Performance Therapist Academy has spent 10 years closing that gap. This year's update is the biggest one yet, because the industry's changed and your team needs to change with it.

Enrolment closes Sunday at 5pm.

If you've been sitting on this, this is the sign. Get your team in before doors close for the year.
Enrol Now. Link in Bio🔗

Your clients are already asking AI about their skin.

They’re uploading photographs, asking for product routines and even asking it to identify skin conditions.

Sometimes the advice will be useful. Sometimes it’ll be unsuitable, incomplete or completely wrong.

The problem is, it can all sound equally confident.

I’ve written a complimentary client-facing blog that explains what AI can and can’t assess, and why a photograph uploaded to a chatbot isn’t the same as a proper consultation.

You have my permission to personalise it and publish it on your clinic or salon website.

Comment AI and I’ll send you the link.

Every therapist thinks rebooking is about the treatment. Give a great facial, client comes back.

Simple, right?

Except it's not what happens.

Clients don't rebook because they loved the treatment. They rebook because they know what happens next.

They know their skin has a plan.

They know this session was step one, not the whole story.

They know there's a reason to come back that has nothing to do with how relaxed they felt on the bed.

That's the path. A skin prescription, a timeline, a clear "here's what we're doing and why."

Without it, even a great treatment is a one-off.

With it, rebooking isn't something you have to ask for. It's just the next obvious step.

Build the path and you build retention. Build retention and you build a business that actually makes money.

Many clinics and salons don't work to a target. They work to a feeling.

Full book? Must be doing well.
Team are busy? Must be profitable.

But busy and profitable aren't the same thing, and if you don't have a number to measure against, you can't actually tell the difference.

A target isn't a number you pick at random. It's built from the other numbers already sitting in your business: therapist wages, running costs, product spend, and what you're charging for each treatment. Put those together and you get the number every hour worked actually needs to bring in for the business to be profitable.

Without that target, you're managing on vibes. Rosters, bonuses, and hiring decisions all become guesses dressed up as instinct.

But, the industry no longer can follow one target and apply it to every clinic or salon the same way. What your target needs to be depends on how equipment reliant your business is because adding high end equipment costing tens, often over a hundred thousand introduces an additional huge expense the target needs to cover.

If you're running a minimally-equipment-reliant business (think skin treatments with low cost equipment such as LED, micro needling, microdermabrasion along with beauty treatments), your overheads are lower. Your target needs to be a minimum of $185/hour.

If you're moderately equipment reliant (higher priced machines in the mix for many of your treatments but not the whole offering), you've got more capital tied up and more servicing to account for. Your target needs to be a minimum of $230/hour.

If you're heavily equipment reliant (higher priced machines for just about every treatment), you're carrying finance repayments, servicing contracts, and depreciation that don't care whether the room's booked or not. Your target needs to be a minimum of $275/hour.

Work out which category your business sits in, then set the target for every therapist on your roster to match. That's the number that tells you if you're actually profitable, not just busy.

Save this so you've got it on hand when you're building your pricing and rosters next quarter.