Saturday 10 November 2012

What are the benefits of Face-slapping massage?

Here at Daniel Beauty Ltd I am always on the look out for new beauty treatments to offer my existing 3D-lipo clients  - so this caught my eye.

A beautician in San Francisco has opened the first face-slapping salon in America named 'Tata Massage'.

Thai natural health practitioner Rassameesaitarn Wongsirodkul, known as Tata, charges £220 for a 15-minute session where she slaps, pinches, and smooths the clients face.



She and her husband Mawan claimed that this unusual technique is a natural alternative to chemical skin-firming treatments such as Botox.

She claims that it firms and slims the face as well as reducing wrinkles and make the pores smaller.

Despite the high price tag, the couple added that just a week after opening, they already had clients through the door wanting to try the treatment, which is already popular in Thailand.

There is no medical evidence to prove that face-slapping works; doctors say it could cause some temporary benefits such as swelling and a flushed complexion.

Tata plans to return to Thailand next year to expand her face-slapping skills, where her next venture will be learning the ancient art of what she calls 'butt punching'.

Sounds lovely - maybe I should get trained in this and offer it to my massage clients too. What do you think?

Wednesday 7 November 2012

How do I get rid of cellulite?


Today I received this embarrassingly lovely testimonial from a lady about my Laser Lipo treatments in Surrey. Here it is in full - read it and watch me blush.
  
Testimonial for the amazing Daniel Bester - Laser lipo

My legs have always been the main part of my body that I have disliked the most, orange peeled skin even shows under some dress and trouser materials and I just wanted to feel less conscious about my legs in whatever I was wearing. I decided to try laser lipo to finally address the matter and to try to boost my confidence.

I have to say that choosing Daniel out of all the possible places advertising laser lipo, has been the best decision I have ever made.

Firstly, Daniel has an exceptional way of really taking the time to understand how you feel about yourself and how he can help you. I have really enjoyed my treatment sessions with him and thanks to him they have been fun too! He really is a delight to talk to which you do not get with many consultants. 

Secondly, the treatment has significantly reduced the orange peel effect and has tightened up my skin. I could not be happier with the treatment and I am now able to feel more confident in my dresses and I can also now fit comfortably and confidently into skinny jeans!

Nikki age 40, Banstead, Surrey

Wednesday 6 June 2012

How to deal with cold callers and your massage business

Earlier this week I got yet another cold call from someone who had got my details from my listing on one of these free massage, beauty therapy or male waxing directories.


It was the usual gambit: So how is it going on that site, Daniel? Are you getting enough business from that listing, Daniel? Of course the answer which you are being pushed into here is "no". (Why do these people always use your name all the time?!)

And then of course the cold caller was well into her stride, how they "work in partnership with Google" and 90 per cent of all search enquiries are made on Google, how they can get my website onto page one. Blah Blah blah. I have heard it all a dozen times before. Normally I just hang up. But this day she caught me with a quiet five minutes and I indulged her.

All these people want to do is to manage your Google Adwords campaign, choose the correct words and key phrases to help your website get found and then charge you a fortune for it. I run a massage and male waxing business. How difficult can it be to work out which words someone looking for massage or male waxing would put into a search engine? How about "masssage" or "male waxing"?

In fact, if you use Google Trends you can work out for yourself which words to use. Which gets more hits: "swedish massage" or "sports masssage" Use Google Trends to find out.

Anyway, back to this nuisance cold caller. I told her that I do my own marketing, manage my own Google Adwords, do my own Search Engine Optimisation and I am listed at the top of page one on Google for "massage surrey". She didn't believe me and checked online there and then. That got rid of her pretty quickly as she agreed that there was nothing she could do for me.

And for once I didn't have to hang up on a cold caller.

Saturday 2 June 2012

When can I not have Laser Lipo treatments?


Recently the manufacturers of my Laser Lipo machine updated their advice about when you can or cannot have Laser Lipo inch-loss treatments.

You will not be able to be treated for Laser Lipo if you have a contagious or infectious disease, full-blown AIDS, liver or disease, epilepsy, hypertension, an immune suppressed disorder, type 1 (insulin-dependent)diabetes, hyperthyroidism, heart problems, a pacemaker or cancer (or a history of cancer). Neither will you be able to be treated if you are undergoing radiation therapy, are under the uncontrolled influence of recreational drugs or alcohol or you are pregnant.

You will need to get your doctor's written permission before you can have a Laser Lipo treatment if you have hypothyroidism (controlled by thyroxine), rheumatism, type 1 (controlled) or type 2 diabetes, polycystic ovaries, hormone problems, gastric ulcers, metal implants, psychological conditions, a photo-sensitive skin disorder, bell's palsy,have any dysfunction of the nervous system (eg Muscular Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease or Motor Neurone disease), anaphylaxis or undiagnosed lesions


You will also need written permission from your doctor if you have had surgery or a minor operation within the past 6 weeks, have been injured recently and are awaiting surgery or treatment, are taking anti-seizure medication, are an HIV carrier are currently breast feeding or you are suffering from or being treated for clinical depression.

If none of the above applies to you I look forward to seeing you for a treatment of Laser Lipo in Woking soon.

Saturday 14 April 2012

How good are Woking Massage Therapists?

On my previous blog you may have read about me checking out the competition in my field as a beauty therapist offering massage, male waxing and Laser Lipo (among other treatments.)


Well after my visit to get a massage in Weybridge, I moved closer to home to check out massage in Woking. From the name of this place it sounded lovely – the name suggested relaxation and tranquillity in a very smart setting.

Not quite.

Indeed it looks smart from the outside and the building is beautiful. However it’s on a main road and when I could hear the music being played from the CD it was skipping all over the place. But mostly I couldn’t hear the music because of the incessant drilling outside. (That’s the trouble with beautiful old (listed) buildings: double glazing isn’t allowed.

The massage itself was perfectly fine – if a little light (maybe they are used to only massaging women) but the room was cold; my toes and fingers felt like ice all the way through. I always make sure my massage therapy room is very warm.

But the most peculiar thing with the massage table – which I absolutely hated – was that there was no face hole – just a u-shape which meant that I couldn’t lay my head down properly as my forehead was not supported. Because of this it was absolutely impossible to get comfortable and therefore relax and get the best out of the massage.

Competition? Not much competition at all.

Saturday 7 April 2012

How good are my competitors for Massage in Surrey?

From time to time when I get the chance I like to check out my competition for massage, Laser Lipo and male waxing in Surrey.

I know there are a few other home-based male masseurs in Woking – I even have one of them work for me from time to time. But this latest foray into checking out other beauty therapists was prompted by Groupon offers.

(As an aside Groupon does not allow me to participate as I am home-based; I looked into it to give discounts for my Laser Lipo treatments but the business must have a registered business address – although I don’t really know why.)

The first of visits to check out massage in Surrey was in Weybridge. I thought that this one would be fantastic – it is Weybridge after all. Not so. They had looked at installing fish pedicure tanks and the place was awash as they had gone wrong and half the floor had come up.

The massage I received was pathetic. In fact I wouldn’t call it a massage – some young girl just rubbed oil on my back and asked – in the way that is normally associated with hairdressers who ask you if you are going away anywhere nice this year – “do you often get back massages”. Hmm. Yes. But obviously not today.

To read about my experience of a massage in Woking click on my next blog.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Male Waxing - an unsolicited testimonial

On my male waxing and massage website there is often not enough room to display the full testimonials which I get from my clients. So today I thought that I would share this one with you in its entirety, especially as it was their first time and completely unsolicited.

First_Name: Jo
Last_Name: M******
Address: *********place
New Haw
Postcode:
Telephone: 07*********
Email: J*******@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Thank you!
Message: Hi Daniel, (on behalf of Phil) just to say, it was very nice meeting you yesterday when you did waxing wonder's on Phil's  back and shoulders, your professionism, together with your fantastic humour helped put him at ease no end and induced a lot of laughs!
He is absolutely delighted with the results and admits the pain was worth it, I am in no doubt he'll be back to see you. We would have no hesitation is recommending you.  See you again, best wishes. Jo & Phil

It's great to hear from happy customers and new customers and especially great to hear from new, happy male waxing customers!

Daniel
www.danielbeauty.co.uk

Friday 16 March 2012

How much does Laser Lipo cost?

I have been a trained Laser Lipo technician for a while now - and offer Laser Lipo inch-loss treatment sessions at my home salon in Woking Surrey for about a year. I have even given myself and my partner several treatments over that time.


But now - thanks to our special offer - we are too busy to treat ourselves and take a brisk walk afterwards.

As we have building works going on at home for a few months, I thought that we'd offer a discount for new clients - as a sort of compensation for the noise, mess and disruption and so that we could get some Laser Lipo clients during the day (before the builders go home at 3pm). So we came up with the idea of £400 for 8 treatments as long as the treatments were paid for in advance. (Well we have to pay the builders somehow!) Anyway that's a whopping 40 per cent discount on an already-discounted price and values each Laser Lipo treatment at just £50 each.

With a newly-written Google Adwords campaign highlighting this offer running, I have never been so busy with Laser Lipo treatments (let alone my male waxing, massage, facials and threading clients) that I don’t get chance to treat myself anymore! I even have two clients with the same name - which is a recipe for trouble.

I have just remembered - I did have one day off recently when the builders had to prop up the hall ceiling by putting an acro-prop in front of my treatment room door - preventing anyone getting in or out. Every cloud...

Saturday 10 March 2012

How do I market my Laser Lipo business?

Did you know that Inbound Marketing is becoming more important to a Laser Lipo and Male Waxing business these days than Outbound Marketing?

I certainly didn’t. Until I read an article this week I had no idea what Inbound or Outbound Marketing were.

To save you the time of reading what was an unecessarily long e-book full of pie charts and diagrams I can summarise it for you. Here is a list of marketing techniques in order of importance:

Blogging

Facebook

Twitter

Linked In

PPC

Email Campaigns

Direct Marketing

Trade Shows

The bottom three (Outbound Marketing) are becoming less and less important to gaining sales leads and the top three (Inbound Marketing) are becoming more and more importand to generating hot male waxing and male massage leads.

The Inbound Marketing - along with PPC (Google Adwords) is where we have been putting our effort for years and will continue to do so - as the cost to my Laser Lipo business for each lead generated is a lot less than the Outbound Marketing. It's great to know that we have been doing the right things all along - without knowing it.

So where will you put your time, effort and money in future?

How to run a Laser Lipo and Massage Business with Builders

No one said that running a business was easy. Especially a Laser Lipo, Massage and Male Waxing business when you are the boss. Long hours. Spending the weekend doing accounts and catching up on paperwork.


But that is made all the harder when the builders move in. Earlier starts - and even later finishes as we have to schedule some massage clients after 4pm.

Still I am sure it will be worth all the pain in the end. At least that is what we tell ourselves as Andrew, Ricky and I sit just a little bit too close to each other for comfort or hygeine - cramped into one tiny office for weeks on end.

Thankfully most of my clients are very understanding and are intrigued by what is going on rather than disturbed by the noise, mess and disruption. I also continue to offer appointments in the evenings and at weekends when it is quiet.

I suppose it doesn't make too much difference to someone having a Laser Lipo treatment, Threading, a Facial or Male Waxing once they are in my therapy room. Some of my clients are even happy to have a massage while the builders make a racket!

And for that I remain very thankful - builders aren't cheap.