Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Business of Innovation



The Business of Innovation in the Spa, Massage Therapy, Beauty and Wellness Industry


Memory was something you might lose as you age older age...a sign of old age.

An application was used for employment

A program was a TV show

A cursor is a person using profane words

A keyboard was a piano

A web was a spider's home

A virus was any type of flu or that exhibits flu-like symptoms

A CD was a bank account: a cash deposit

A hard drive was a long trip on the road with traffic along the way

A mouse pad was where a mouse lives

and if you had a 3.5 inch floppy,

you just hoped nobody finds out.
 
Funny but so much has changed since the advent of the computer/digital age. We see progress, we see innovation in all aspects of our daily life: from the way we send cards to the way we conduct our businesses. From the way we view our careers to the way we live our daily lives. We have softwares to schedule our clients inside the spa, check our inventory or use bar code systems, know who was absent at what day and who among the staff is scheduled for a day off or a vacation (yes and maybe one of these days I can demonstrate some of these applications with the Meetup group that I organize). The netbook, the printer, scanner and lap top replaced the typewriter, the ebooks replaced books, email and e-cards replaced postal letters, envelopes, and the post, the phone book and rolodex replaced the address book. These are just amongst the other things that technology can help us with.
 
Last Saturday, after visiting the Fitness and Beauty trade show, I attended a Meetup group outside the Meetup group that I organize. It was composed of techie people. I have learned that even if I (and another Japanese lady who was out of place for the time being) was the only one who has a different field amongst all the others, we are still (a bit) in touch with technology. This blog for instance, has its foundation in communicating through technology. I might not understand what JAVA, Cloud, SAP means (amongst all the other technology terms that I have heard) but the nice thing about technology is that we do not have to understand the applications behind --as long as we can use it in our daily lives. Except for the high profile technology inventors, we do not even know who invented which and what. We can only thank God that it has reached our hands and we can use it. There are a lot of things we can use technology for and one of which is educating ourselves. We have to, at the very least adopt to the changing times, hindi yung ayaw na nating matuto mag-text or mag-email man lang. Hindi man lang alamin kung papano mg-FB. Kung ayaw nating matuto ng bago ano ng gagawin natin sa buhay? Life is a continuous learning experience. Kailangan mag invest din sa sarili by improving what we know. Do not go into the spa, massage therapy, beauty and wellness industry without doing your homework or performing due diligence including adopting to new and better ways of serving our clients through technology.
 
Here are some ways you could use technology in your spa, massage therapy, beauty and wellness career or business:
 
1. Use high technology machines to assist you in fighting cellulites, aging and other degenerative diseases. Attend trade shows in and outside the country even if you are on vacation. Whenever I go out of the country, I try to search for events for the country that I will be visiting and attend any seminar, workshops or trade shows that will be held during the time that I will visit. It adds up to my knowledge and my expertise. You will learn from the products, gadgets and services of others. I am not saying that you have to copy them but adopt what you think might be good and remove things that might not be suitable/ applicable for you. The bottomline here is to know the trends in the industry.
 
2. Use Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) and Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (EFTPOS) to speed up transactions in your spa, massage clinic or wellness center. EFTPOS means that prospective clients can pay for goods and services using credit and debit cards.
 
3. Use a website that will serve as your point of contact and sale. You can offer gift certificates online, special promotions and email subscribers using your website. Use it as an e-commerce website. E-commerce is the ability of businesses to trade with the world via websites. This means that there is a larger market and your spa, massage clinic or wellness center is now open 24 hours a day.
 
4. Lessen the use of paper, communication is improved through the use of the intranet and Internet. The intranet is an internal system of computer communication while the internet can be used to communicate with clients, suppliers amongst others in the outside world (through websites and email). Spa staff can work away from the office using mobile technology such as phones, laptops and modems. But a word of warning, do not use naman technology just to play games online or chat with others while you have no client. Use technology wisely.
 
5. Instead of advertising, use the Internet for recruitment purposes. You can post job vacancies online or using the Meetup message board and positions can be advertised and targeted to the right audience, often costing less than print alternatives. And it can be done for free at www.meetup.com/philippinespaandwellness
 
 
and many more....
 
However, the use of technology should be a balance between our needs and practicality. Use it to be more effeicient, better and be able to focus on things that machines and computers cannot do. If the benefits outweighs the cost, then consider in investing in technology. We can just hope that technology can complement and ease our lives rather than burden it.
 
The more high-tech we become, the more high-touch we need -yunesa

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