iFabulous Salon Success, an interactive online program targeted to schools, students and new salon professionals, was launched to the beauty school market with a series of three complimentary educational videos discussing the state of today’s beauty school industry and its options. The concept, created by a joint effort between Carlos Valenzuela Resources, LLC, www.getcarlos.com in association with Salon Business Podcast, www.salonbusinesspodcast.com, recommends schools adopt five new educational experiences including independent self-paced learning, closer ties with salons, review of job entry skills, personal branding techniques, and salon social media.

The focus is on learning key techniques for success within the realities of today’s job marketplace, and reiterates most schools do a great job teaching basic beauty skills, but must refine job success techniques to complement today’s commission, lease chair and wage salon mixed market.

“A school’s job preparation model comes from the days of all commission salons, when a graduate would basically be guided to success," says Valenzuela. "This is no longer the norm--graduates must learn to create a clientele for a variety of job situations in addition to basic beauty skills.” The iFabulous program does not require changes in curriculum, nor teaches basic beauty techniques. Instead, it reiterates and supports the school’s current curriculum with techniques to attain salon level.

The educational delivery is via any mobile device, including a student’s cell phone. Jeff Demaree, VP of Operations and longtime Indianapolis salon owner, states salon professionals manage beauty business today from their smart phone. “To increase graduate success, schools must introduce students to mobile technology and it’s proper etiquette in a salon—schools can do this with  iFabulous,” says Demaree.

Carlos Valenzuela is scheduled to present seminars at major spring 2015 events including, ISSE Long Beach, IBS New York, ABS Chicago and Premiere Orlando.
For information on ifabulous, visit www.ifabuloussalonsuccess.com

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.