Gazella in Skaneateles has a blog now too!

I've been asked this by many people with businesses.."Why blog?"..hmmm...

To me, it's many reasons. Ranging from..I like to talk, to, I want people to get to know us, to, It's another creative outlet for me, to, I simply like looking back and having a record of what we have done...I realize, so many things I would have forgotten, since there have been so many moments that I've been proud of, or wanted to remember..a blog is an external hard drive of the life of Bijou:)

I also LOVE to read blogs, it lets me hear a voice behind a business or person. I've been hearing about Gazella for quite some time now, and they were even super nice and offered if we wanted to add something to our newsletter. Something I love more than blogging is networking! Small businesses helping eachother..what I wouldn't have been able to do without the advice of friends who owned small businesses!

So I was browsing online..hmm, how did I find it..Oh yes, Facebook of course, the wicked stepmother of all social networking;) I was going through all the page favorites I have added on the Bijou facebook, (you should "like" us, if you don't yet:) since I don't really understand completely how FB works..(why don't I ever get other pages that I have listed as my "page favorites", what they post, that is a mystery, they should make something where you can click business feeds or something, if someone could please figure out how to contact Mark Zuckerberg, that would be super!) Okay, I digress, so sorry...So my point is, while I was browsing the Gazella page (you should "like" them), I discovered they had a BLOG! This is awesome! As I said, I've been hearing lots of great things about Gazella, we have lots of little Bijou friends that are taking dance classes up there, lots of friends who are taking Zumba classes and lot of friends taking spinning and yoga classes!

We will add them to our list of blogs we read to the right of the Bijou blog, so anytime you are reading ours, just browse them too..get to know them, her, and her..oh yes and I can't forget her...please help me, have I missed any? Oh yes, Sierra, our front desk girl who is away in Germany, we knew her hysterically funny side, now she has it on her blog! Are there some I don't know about? Because, really, I should know about them!

Remember to click on the highlighted words, they take you places..interesting places:) and don't worry, when you're done looking at them, just hit the back arrow button!

Hello Ipad, welcome to Bijou

Small details are very important to me, things that I know most places never wanted to bother with, so I always ended up adding these small details myself when I could.

Having plenty of assorted teas, hot cocoa's, special coffee, special creamers, lemonade and iced tea in the summer, hot cider in the winter, mimosa's on Saturdays...tons of really great music (you can listen to the radio in the car, why would I play it in the salon)...embellishments on gift certificate envelopes, welcome cards, thank you cards, Christmas cards with gift coupons, Bijou bucks for referrals...I also love doing little things for the Bijou girls...buying them lunch or treats..just in general I like to make people feel appreciated and special! SO...

For our guests at Bijou and for the Bijou girls...We purchased an Ipad!! We hope to get a couple eventually. This will be great for when someone has to wait or process, a fussy kid (we have games and movies) but most importantly it is for your stylists to be able to take online courses through modern salon learning. I've signed us up for 6 months to take as many classes as we choose and they are rated very high in our industry.

This year we are all about the education, moving advertising dollars to education was our decision for 2011! Already on the docket, we've had 3 classes in salon. Sojourn, Bumble & bumble and a Eufora experience day. There are 7 of us attending a double class in Syracuse for Prom/Wedding style's and a cutting class in the afternoon, both hands on class. Then Courtney and I will be attending a very special 4 day foundations class done by Eufora, all taught by Sassoon trained educators. Then Christina and Taylor will be attending a long hair styling class by Eufora. Two girls will also attend a Sojourn class that will teach them tons. And Jennifer and I will head to Bumble and Bumble university for a business immersion course, then Christina and I will head there in August for a network educator course for 3 days!

All this is exciting and as in the Disney movie, Meet the Robinson's,..our motto has and always will be at Bijou, to keep moving forward!

Thanks!

Wearing Red for women, heart healthy women!

Today the 4th of February was heart healthy day for women. You might remember just the other day I mentioned this. Well here we are, all the girls that worked today, of course being such great girls, they all happily wore red! I'm blessed to have such great girls, who never ever balk at what I throw at them! They are always happy to jump in and do whatever I want them to! (This year when we were discussing the polar bear plunge...I joked that if we put a few of these girls in polka dotted blue and brown bikini's, I was sure we could raise a small fortune...THEY JUMPED at the idea..so 3 of them next year will be taking a plunge and the rest of us will be raising that small fortune..I only have to supply the bikini's!)

We also had the start of the middle school play, Oklahoma!! Those middle schooler's are so talented, tonight Taylor and Christina helped me out, we curled SO many heads! Then we watched the play together, both Taylor and Christina were amazed at how great it was! There is a show tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 and another tomorrow evening at 7:30. I always recommend the shows at the high school here, because I'm telling you, you will be astounded at the talent these kids have!