Next to Thanksgiving, Halloween is one of the best holidays of the year. It’s focused on food and fun.

Since we are no longer kids at TNG, that doesn’t mean we still can’t focus on food and fun. Candy is still the highlight and each of us has our favorites.

For me, I can’t resist Almond Joy, Milky Way Dark, and Smarties. Milk Duds, M&M’s and Squirrels aren’t too bad either. The best part: When you eat candy on the actual day, it’s calorie free.

As adults, there is more fun in dressing up than eating candy. Today, some of our TNG talent went the distance.

Heather H. certainly did it up but didn’t quite make the top 3.

Jesse R. was extremely creative and would have won first place if he only had a brain. But at least he was smart enough not to be tossed into a bonfire! Second place is well deserved!

Our first place winner, Jen B., did it up and even went the extra effort with fake eyelashes. If you saw her without the costume, you wouldn’t have recognized her nor would you believe how many people wanted to buy insurance!

Alas, Halloween is about tricks and treats. As the economic situation continues to play tricks with us, at least we can celebrate this weekend with lots of treats.

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween!

Home Depot offers classes on everything from deck building to carpet installation. Williams Sonoma offers classes on cooking. Michael’s offers classes on knitting.

Naturally the premise of retailers offering classes to consumers is not only to build store loyalty but to sell them products. Once you taste a panini sandwich made on a panini maker, you are more likely to buy a panini maker.

As mentioned in my last blog, more consumers are doing their hair and nails at home than ever before. Consumers are buying boxed hair color, Pantene shampoo and styling products, Sally Hansen nail polish and Maybelline makeup.

So here is the idea at large. What if salons offered classes to consumers on haircutting, styling, manicuring and makeup? Consumers who don’t visit salons regularly would now be drawn into the salon environment. Instead of consumers buying retail brands, they would buy salon brands. For salon owners, instead of making money on services they would make money on products.

Salon clientele would not be affected. In fact, they would be impressed that the salon they frequent is bold and talented enough to offer classes.

Classes could be held on Sunday’s and Monday’s without creating conflict with regular clients. Goodwill would be huge and an even bigger benefit would be that eventually the same consumers would took the class would become a client since we all know results are never the same at home as at the salon.

Here is one final idea for you to ponder. Keratin straightening is a hot topic. Unfortunately, the formaldehyde issue has yet to be taken seriously but it will. In the meantime, women love it. We are now selling an at-home kit that is formaldehyde-free and works wonders. It’s called Liquid Keratin and retails for $69.00.

The idea is that the salon buys the kit from us for $51.75 and offers a Keratin class for $100. The consumer gets the kit included and learns from the stylist how do it properly at home. All the while the stylist also uses salon styling products to sell after the class.

Imagine the possibilities.

Happy Thursday!

In 25 years of business, we have never seen this kind of devastation to the salon business. In previous recessions, salon business remained solid and in some instances, actually grew. The beauty business was always coined "recession-resistant."

No longer. More salons have closed in 2009 than the past ten years combined. If salons aren’t closing, they are merging, renting space and doing whatever to survive.

What’s different this time around than previous recessions? After all, there are 300 million people in the USA, more than ever before. Surely everyone still needs a haircut, nails trimmed and hair colored. I have yet to walk in an airport or shopping mall and noticed "gray" being the new black for hair color.

What’s different this time around is that more consumers are doing their own hair and nails at home. But why now and not before?

Product quality at retail has never been better. While our industry has been focused on consolidation the past ten years, retail has been focused on innovation. Both Procter & Gamble (P&G) and L’Oreal have used the salon market to exploit their interests at retail which is extremely more lucrative both in sales and bottom line profits.

P&G who markets brand such as Wella, Sebastian, and Nioxin to salons openly advertises that their Pantene brand is superior to any salon brand. Pantene is the #1 selling shampoo/conditioner in the USA and outsells most salon brands combined.

L’Oreal who markets L’Oreal Professionnel, Redken, Matrix and Pureology to salons markets their in-home hair color brands featuring French salon colorist Christophe Robin. In several videos to help consumers color at home, one video even offers Robin’s Top 10 tips for perfect results.

Another reason why now and not before is pricing. Before diversion, consumers had to buy salon brands at a salon. With the advent of diversion and online retailing, salon brands are everywhere and discounted up to 50%. In the meantime, ULTA and J.C. Penney are engaged in a price war selling salon brands cheaper than wholesale. You can shop ULTA and buy any KIWI or Textureline product for $4.99. We can’t even sell for those prices.

And who is selling direct to ULTA and J.C. Penney? No surprise, P&G and L’Oreal. Together, they control the lion’s share of the salon market and consumer market. And most salons are incognito.

Understood, our industry has lots of issues. The economy and recession has brought most of them to the surface. But if there is any one thing that a salon owner can do today to not only help assure their continued livelihood but that of the salon community, that one thing is to be cognizant of the brands used and retailed at their salon.

Happy Tuesday!

With Fall in full bloom, here is something to think about over the weekend (other than increasing sales): What is must be like to be a leaf.

Imagine Springtime, bursting into full bloom and soaking up the sunshine and hanging out all day long.

Rain comes and cleans you off and sometimes you have little bugs crawling all over you and it’s tortuous because you can’t get them off. Luckily  more rain comes and cleans you up again.

Summer is glorious. The best time of life. But then comes Fall and boy, it comes so fast. What did the leaf deserve this for? No reason other than it’s about nature and it’s about life.

The leaf starts to turn color and the aging process accelerates. Some leaves turn bright red, some bright orange, some stay green. But for some reason, some leaves drop earlier than others. Imagine being the first batch of leaves to drop.

A fallen leaf. Is it dead or alive? If I’m the leaf, I still look the same as I did on the tree. It may depend on fate and the wind. Did the leaf land on a major road or in the safety of the woods? Ouch to the leaf that landed on the road. How many times can a leaf endure being run over?

Some leaves are raked. Ouch! Some leaves are jumped on. What fun! And some leaves are burned. Death! But there isn’t any use for a fallen leaf. How sad.

Moral of the story: Don’t become a fallen leaf.

Happy Friday and Victory for MSU!

There are few foods that when you experience that "first taste" give you a sensation like you’re a kid tasting things for the first time.

Some of things that come to mind is the first gulp of a cold beer on a hot day (of course beer is food); the first hot crispy french fry dipped in Heinz ketchup; first chocolate chip cookie off the cookie sheet; and first hot donut at the cider mill.

Yep, all the above are memories (I do sneak french fries once in a while however) so that’s why I’m geeked on Honeycrisp apples. No guilt, no fat, few calories, and the first bite of a Honey Crisp is like an orgy of flavors bursting all at once.

The Honeycrisp apple was produced from a 1960 cross of Macoun and Honeygold, as part of the University of Minnesota apple breeding program. Why it took nearly 50 years to reach the markets, I have no idea.

Honeycrisp’s blow Granny’s away. Red Delicious tastes like paste compared to a Honeycrisp. The only way to describe the taste sensation is to taste one. Virtually every market sells them so what are you waiting for?

Now I’m thinking how I can tie in Honeycrisp’s into the beauty market. Perhaps lotions, lip balms, room scents. Hmm, but I gotta go. I need a Honeycrisp.

Happy Thursday!

The Detroit Free Press in its Second Annual Best Places to Work contest announced the results this past Sunday. TNG once again earned a spot in the Medium Companies (150-500 employees) category.

In all, 75 companies made the grade so being one of them is a great achievement (although there are some outside of Michigan that may wonder if there are even 75 companies left in business).

It’s not easy to win. The DFP sends out an electronic survey to the company employees to complete and some of the questions are very tricky. For instance, if you answer a "5" (on a scale of 1-5) to all the questions, you will be tricked because some of the questions are worded where a "1" is the best answer.

In the end, employee engagement counts. Of all the things we do as a company that I think engagement rocks the most, it has to be the company barbeques. In fact, I would have to say it’s the all beef hot dogs that earned the prize. A close second would be the marinated chicken breasts sliced on top of a fresh-made feta cheese salad. Yes, food is huge. It’s no wonder once someone gets engaged there is a party featuring what else but food!

I know for us to have a chance in 2010, I cannot run out of the dogs. And believe me, we won’t!

In the meantime, we are bringing back an old tradition, our holiday tree lighting ceremony. This year it will be held November 4 at 5:30PM. We will feature Christmas songs, hot cider and donuts and holiday cheer (we certainly need it this year). So if you are around Haggerty between 9-10 Mile Road, stop on by and help cheer on the holiday spirit.

In the meantime, thanks to all our TNG talent for making TNG one of the best places to work.

Happy Tuesday!

Welcome to OPIville, the official town of OPI. In this unique community of OPI lovers, for over a quarter of a cent-cherry, residents live, breathe and treasure OPI.

The main road in town where the restaurants, shops and nail salons are located is Collins Ave. All the homes are done out in deco from the likes of conga-like coral to Miami beet. Dutch tulips line the roadways like you were in Holland.

The residents never get older either, they keep celebrating 20 years over and over again. Girls are referred to as babes and guys are referred to as sweet hearts because who needs a prince, it only makes men blush? But like every other town in America, princesses rule.

Everyone loves to eat out at OPIville’s famous restaurants. The cafes feature espresso your style, dulce de leche, or if you just want coffee, people lean towards java mauva-a with just the right amount of California raspberry syrup. Lunch at the Delhi specializes in cajun shrimp, spicy Cheyenne peppers with wild rice, and their homemade Malaga wine.

For dinner, Mrs. O’Leary’s BBQ serves up the best strawberry daiquiri’s, tropical punch and who would of ever thought, vodka and caviar? Their signature dessert Coney Island cotton candy looks just like fresh, alpine snow and tastes just like a koala beary-y.

Unusual for such a hot restaurant town, all food is served buffet style. When asked why, the overwhelming reply was "I’m not really a waitress."

The town folk drive around in Red Mustangs, type away at on Pompeii purple Dell laptops and sit under the apple tree dreaming of Romeo and Juliet or watching Ellen.

Visitors are allowed only in the early afternoon since all the residents are clubbing til sunrise. The sweet hearts are always asking the babes to party in my cabana especially the ones that make their heart throb and feelin’ hot-hot-hot! But no matter the passion, the princes only end up with a kiss on the chic. Oh so glam!

Happy Monday!

If you are currently 60 years old, you have a life expectancy of 80. However, if you took a single pill once per week, you could live to 100-110 and still feel good and vibrant. But the cost is $250 per month. Would you spend the money?

What can you get for $250 per month?

1. About what smokers pay for a pack-a-day habit

2. About half what Starbuck’s customers pay for a once-a-day habit

3. About what bar hoppers pay for a once a weekend habit

4. About one pair of shoes for women with a shoe fetish (virtually most)

The question begs would you pay $10 a day at age 60 to live to 100-110?

If so, in a few years or less, the opportunity may be coming your way. Forget about anti-aging lipstick, creams and potions, this is the real anti-aging dream drug that could become a reality.

Oh, you want to know the name of this dream drug? OK, I’ll share the secret and while you can buy the raw version online, it is not FDA approved for anti-aging. And there are side effects (studies indicate grapefruit juice negates most of them). So when you check it out, just know that the world’s top pharma companies are working around the clock to bring it to market.

One can only imagine the size of the market. But first, are you willing to pay $250 a month???

Rapamycin is the magic drug and it comes from a far away place known as Easter Island. In a fluke study with rats that you can learn more about on your own, Rapamycin was found to increase aging up to 30%.

Rapamycin is exciting. If you think of miracle drugs that are exciting in the past such as Tylenol, Advil, Lipitor and others, you know this will be big. Real big.

How big? Well, if you answered yes to spending $250 per month, really, really big.

Implications for beauty are huge. Just think how many more haircuts and manicures our industry will produce with this drug. More to come.

Happy Tuesday!

Every day there are a million new blogs created. Most aren’t read but the authors have a purpose writing them.

I review plenty of corporate websites that advertise a blog and once started, they rarely update. Sure, if you want your blog read, you have to be consistent.

But with so many blogs to read on top of all the Facebook, Twitter, text, email and other "stuff to do" each day, are blogs worth blogging about?

Happy Monday!

If I was on the Norwegian Nobel committee, I would have voted for the American Cancer Society (ACS) to win the Nobel in 2009. With all the lousy news this year, who better to win the prize than the organization that gives more piece of mind to others than anyone else?

Good thing ACS doesn’t need to win the Nobel to win. October is the official month for their annual STRIDES event. All over the USA in towns large and small, ACS has team captains, corporate sponsors, cancer survivors, radio and TV stations, and anyone else they can gather to gather and take part in the five mile walk to raise money (there is a one mile route for those that need a short cut).

TNG is proud not only to be a national sponsor, but also the biggest fundraiser as well. Our event takes place tomorrow morning in downtown Detroit on the lovely but windy and cold island of Belle Isle. Some 10,000 supporters will be there to celebrate life and to help make a difference so cancer patients and survivors can celebrate life for years to come. ACS now provides an endless supply of birthday candles to its survivors and the good news: every year they hand out more and more candles.

You can check the STRIDES schedule at cancer.org if you are so inclined to wake up early and support ACS. TNG will be down around 8:00AM and if you have never been to a STRIDES event or on Belle Isle, this is a perfect opportunity to do both and support a great cause.

I hope to see you there!

Happy Friday!