Contrary to popular belief, I have not been at the beach, poker table or spa. I have been knee deep in resetting our signature store.

The soft grand opening this Monday so if you are in the area, please stop by. We will have refreshments and other fun stuff available.

I will tell you more later this week but I have to get back!

Happy Wednesday!

99% of the population has no idea where the closest maternity store is. Once pregnant, all of a sudden it matters and while one could have passed the store for years, it wasn’t noticed until needed.

Insurance is the same way. We buy life insurance in case we die. How morbid is that? "Sure, give me a Million bucks worth, what the heck!" We buy auto insurance in case we get into an accident. We buy disability insurance in case we can’t work. We buy homeowners insurance in case of fire or disaster.

In short, we spend thousands of dollars for insurance and we pray and hope we never need to use it. What a great industry to be in.

However many of us don’t buy any insurance unless mandated. We take our chances. Plenty of people in their 20’s opt out of health insurance because at that age, they know they won’t get sick. Others don’t buy insurance because they don’t see the value.

Our bodies unfortunately are like a car. They need regular tune-ups. New cars off the lot can be lemons that need constant repair or in some cases, major overhauls. It’s no wonder that hospital emergency rooms are the #1 place people go without insurance. Naturally, they are triple the price of regular doctor offices.

Private health care is what has made the USA. Can you imagine life without Blue Cross? When we need medical attention, we want it now. Not in one month, not in 3 months, not in 6 months like it is in Canada and most other countries with public assistance.

I’m not here to debate the pro’s and con’s of private and public health care. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I favor private. Which do you favor?

Obama Motors and Obama Financial has decided running banks and auto companies isn’t enough so he also wants Obama Medical. How is he going to pay for this? In part, through a 5.6% surcharge on the wealthy. He has decided that the wealthy have had it good enough in the past and it’s time to pay up.

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates each worth some $250 Billion are wealthy. Oprah is wealthy. Tiger Woods is wealthy. But $1 million a year? Most small and medium private businesses in the USA are Sub-S meaning that all income flows down to the owner. The owner has to pay taxes whether or not there is cash in the bank. The 5.6% surcharge will be paid by the owners as an added tax on their business profits, the same profits needed to stay in business.

In effect, we will need to raise prices by 11% or cut costs by 5.6%  just to break even. The possibilities of companies doing this is the same as Obama Medical reducing medical costs. So something will have to give. And it won’t be easy.

We have found the solution at TNG. Create wellness opportunities and let everyone be accountable for their own health and let each individual pay based on their accountability. Smoke? Pay more. Don’t increase your annual metrics? Pay more. Take care of yourself? Pay less.

In the past two years, we have raised premiums less than the rate of inflation. Imagine that. Bottom line: Do you want to decide your health or let the government decide your health?

Happy Monday!

True hair maniacs don’t just use products, they cocktail products for maximum effect. With this in mind, we had the DeBartolo brothers come up with 12 mind-blowing cocktails that give instant results to virtually any look wanted.

Once the cocktails were developed, we needed really cool names for them. Hence, the Name the Cocktail contest. We had over 50 true hair maniacs enter and here are the official results!

#1: All Nighter. Winner: Samantha Metevier

#2: Vamp Up. Winner: Amy Butler

#3: Top Secret. Winner: Julie Harris

#4: Hot Funk. Winner: Allison Lieffers

#5: High Roller. Winner: Julie Harris (two-time winner!)

#6: Volcano Rush. Winner: Renee Sokan

#7: 24 Karat. Winner: Rachel Jones

#8: Big Slick. Winner: Jesse Richardson

#9: All Night Party. Winner: Robin Gaynier

#10: Stiff One. Winner: Samantha Metevier (two-time winner!)

#11: Shine Shot. Winner: Amy Bowen

#12: Peace Out!. Winner: Lani Denman

Each winner will receive $100 in Hair Manya products. The official cocktail menus will be available mid-August. They will be the talk of the salon.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

Happy Friday!

It’s a well known fact that diamonds are a girls best friend. But then again, so are shoes, handbags, cosmetics, dresses, accessories and restaurant reservations.

Diamonds last forever. That is perhaps one of the greatest marketing lines ever invented. DeBeers came up with that one years ago; they are the clearing house for all diamonds sold and are responsible for keeping the price points high.

Sapphires and emeralds aren’t too bad either. Although a bit lower priced, they have that lure that brings attention day after day. One never gets tired of looking at brilliant gems.

With this in mind, Essie herself a connoisseur of fine diamonds, an idea hatched. Why not put a diamond, sapphire and emerald in a bottle of polish and name the collection Essie Loves Diamonds?

Essie partnered with designer Judith Ripka and with no budget spared, came up with a special 1-ct diamond, sapphire and emerald gem. The collection has 3 colors and each color will have one lucky bottle in it containing the gem, up to a $5000 value. At $15 a pop, it ain’t cheap but the marketing folks at Essie are tossing in a signature crystal file, a $14 value, for free (Max is a big shooter).

The collection officially launches August 1 but you can buy now at theindustrysource.com and bebeautiful.com.

If you are a lucky winner, you have to let me know so I can feature you in my blog and in our magazine. Good luck to all.

Happy Thursday!

If there was a tell-tale hint of how Cosmoprof Vegas was going to be after Cosmoprof Italy back in March, the results speak for themselves:

Down, down and down.

Exhibit space down at least 25%. Attendance down at least 30%. New suppliers down at least 50%.

In the end I didn’t walk away with a single new item that got me excited. Sure, there were a few items that were unique and will sell here and there but nothing that indicated that this industry is on the verge of turning around.

This suits corporate America and private equity just fine. They just assume book a suite at the Four Seasons and meet in private. This way they don’t have to deal with exposing their products to people that couldn’t buy them anyway. Plus the cost savings are terrific and the food is better.

In the end, this show has become nothing more than the ability to meet several existing suppliers in a couple days, shake hands, comment on the show (always the same comments), have breakfast-lunch-dinner meetings and wonder why the show exists.

One thing Cosmoprof Vegas does well is intimidate those that attend. Once you are pre-registered and receive your confirmation, you have to walk a mile to get your badge. You must present a business card and photo I.D. If you forget either, you have to walk a couple miles to fetch. Then you have to walk to the badge holder booth and present more I.D. Then to get into the show, you have to present your badge and hope that their "Navy Seals" security force armed with barcode readers correctly reads your badge or else. At least in Italy you have to just insert your card into a machine and your free. I guess they don’t have enough attendees to afford that here.

Cost savings were evident virtually everywhere. Gone were the espresso machines, bottled water, sandwiches, snacks and other fun things. I did manage to snag a few M&M’s at the OPI booth.

I felt sorry for the suppliers that had to endure three days of torture. Yes, they signed up for it but you have no idea how painful three days can be sitting on a hard chair for 8 hours. When someone finally recognized me, they were so happy to spend a few minutes off their chair they even offered better discounts!

I can’t wait for next year. . .

Happy Wednesday!

It can really suck to be a salon owner these days. Besides the normal chaos of running a business, salon owners have to decide which products to retail and use at the back bar and styling stations.

All the while, industry experts bemoan the fact that salons can’t retail. Every consultant that knows the difference between a gel and pomade has written and spoken about the subject. Unfortunately, they themselves have never been a salon owner during these turbulent times so what do they really know?

Most recently, salon owners leaned towards Bumble & Bumble and Kerastase. Salon exclusive brands. But to buy the brands, you must keep every item in stock and buy a minimum quota. In the good days, it was an issue but surmountable. Today, good-bye salon exclusive brands.

Salon owners like to stick with what they know. Little did they know the brands they grew up would be bought by major corporations in which the salon division was a mere percentage of their overall sales. It’s no wonder these brands are sold in virtually every retail outlet. Good-bye to 75% of the brands out there.

And finally, salon owners ventured out into no-man’s land and brought in small, untested brands and even private label. No diversion, no minimums, no results. After the initial launch and list of promises gone undelivered, it was good-bye to these brands.

So it’s with great fanfare that we launch Hair Manya, a hip, cool line of styling products from Kemon. The launch party is Monday and is sold out–more than 200 leading edge and entrepreneurial salon owners and hairdressers looking for the next big thing.

Personally, I love it. Not in a single retail store and nor will it be. No minimums to maintain each month. Education is second to none headlined by the DeBartolo Brothers. Cool displays and hip marketing. Fun, edgy and affordable.

This is the kind of stuff we need to get our industry back on track. I have a feeling these 200+ will help provide the spark. Salon owners still have power to make things happen. I look forward to see what they do with this.

Happy Thursday!

Ah the pleasure of shopping for a gift. &@%&!! There is no pleasure in gift shopping.

It’s no wonder that flowers, candy, fragrance, candles, music and books top the list. Simple and easy. But oh so boring.

Some of us have a mission to find that perfect gift. That one unique gift that when presented to a friend or family member, when opened, the person will smile and be so happy to receive. The one gift that actually might not be returned for store credit. Yes, those gifts do exist. But where?

Daniel bought me a Kindle for Father’s Day. He loaded up the fourth Twilight book and I gave it to the BUB to read. If she passed the Kindle test, it was mine to keep. While the Kindle didn’t pass the BUB test, it was still a unique gift.

So what unique gifts have you recently bought that have been a hit? Try to keep your list to under $50 and perhaps one splurge item over $50.

Happy Wednesday!

Zoya has more than 300.

Essie has more than 200.

OPI has more than 200.

China Glaze has more than 100.

Yet each company comes out with 12, 24, and even 72 new colors each year in various collections.

How did this phenomenon come to be? Back in the day, 48 colors was a huge palette. Of the 48 colors, 10 sold well, 30 sold OK and 8 you couldn’t give away.

I think it started based on two premises. The first being competition. One company could boast over another that they had more colors. "Come one, come all, only Essie has 46 different whites and 39 different pinks. Just think of the French Manicure possibilities!"

"You want reds. We got reds. We got OPI Red and 83 more just like it but a tad different. Now you can satisfy every client looking for red!"

"Your client can’t decide what color to wear? Fantastic, let’s keep it that way. At Zoya, we have more than 300 colors and while they decide which color to choose, they can get a haircut, highlight and  color and they won’t even notice the time spent in the salon!"

The other phenomenon is when polish companies tied their colors into seasonal fashion collections. All of a sudden, CND and Prada were synonymous. Only if Prada included a bottle of CND polish with their handbags. Hey, there’s an idea!

I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with another consumer commodity with so much selection. Even the best selling gum has only 14 flavors. Crayola still has their box of 64 and do you remember the treat it was when you got your hands on that?

With so much selection, I was bowled over to find out that when CND launches their new collections, it will only be two colors. Imagine that! So simplistic it’s genius. Perhaps this will be the inspiration to rethink marketing to consumers.

But then again, what would we do without over 1000 colors sitting on our warehouse shelves?

Happy Monday!

Obama Motors is alive and kicking. It seems the folks at John Hopkins University hospital successfully delivered the new GM today at 7:53AM.

The proud parents are Obama and Michelle and the baby will have some 300 million step aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers. The baby weighed in at only $45 Billion in debt. It’s older brother weighs a hefty $145 Billion but both Obama and Michelle have a way to reduce obesity of this size.

One proud uncle is Robert Lutz who was so excited he decided to skip retirement and do his best to help the new GM succeed. Err, I should have stated one proud rich new uncle….

Step daddy Fritz has his share of work to do. At least he won’t have to worry about diapers, burping, sleeping and other issues. His only concern is how to make his newest son tough and mean without Creatine.

Alix and Partners will make tens of millions or more unloading the old GM. Talk about a separation in which both parties are happy! They get to unload old factories, deal with lost pensions, customer lawsuits and other fun stuff. Hey, it will take 2-3 years and at the end, old GM will be officially buried.

I’m wondering what other baby gifts the new GM will be receiving. In the meantime, if they can produce cars like the new Camaro, perhaps they won’t suffer the fate of the old GM.

Happy Friday!

Growing up as a kid, we had pitchers in the kitchen. We had pitchers that held 32 oz., 64 oz., and 128 oz. We had pitchers that were clear, adorned with flowers, and some that had other designs. We had glass and plastic pitchers.

We mixed Kool-Aid, frozen lemonade, iced tea in these pitchers. But mostly, we stored water out of the tap and at dinner time, put the pitcher of water on the table and that was that.

For those that don’t even know what a pitcher is, here is a classic example of a clear glass version:

Fast forward to 2009, pitchers can be found in antique and dollar stores. Perhaps one reason is because we drink everything from a bottle, including water.

Naturally this makes sense. We were born drinking from a bottle so why not continue doing so as an adult. There is a certain pleasure in doing so and when someone came up with the idea to put water in a bottle, everyone laughed.

No one is laughing now. Billion, trillion, zillions are sold each year. But the ones still laughing are the companies that produce the billions and trillions of bottled water. A report came out this week that none of the companies have to test for bacteria or anything else that might appear in the water. In some cases, the water used comes right out of the tap.

Personally my favorite water is FIJI. I know it doesn’t come out of the tap and it has a great taste. Because of it, I stopped drinking water from the tap. There are no pitchers of water in our refrigerator needless to say.

What’s your favorite water? Here is a test to take. Take two bottles of your favorite water. Drink one or empty one out. Fill it with tap water. Eat something salty. Then blindfolded, taste bottle #1. Eat something salty, Taste bottle #2. Then decide if you can tell which bottle is tap or bottled. You might just have the last laugh.

Happy Thursday!