Your first 100 clients: a launch plan for a new salon in Canada
The first hundred people who sit in your chair become your photographs, your reviews and the friends who mention you at work. This plan costs time rather than an ad budget, and it is written around the two Canadian rules new owners most often break by accident: the anti-spam law and the rules on reviews.
Open your booking page — 14 days freeTwelve weeks, in three stages
Each stage depends on the one before it. Skipping the foundations is the most common reason the later weeks fall flat.
Weeks 1–2
Foundations before anybody is asked
Get the booking page right first: every service with a price and a length, your hours, your address and a gallery of your own work. Fill in your Google Business Profile completely and put the booking link on it. Make your Instagram bio say what you do, which neighbourhood you are in and where to book. If your photographs are thin, book friends and family at cost for an afternoon and photograph the results in daylight.
Weeks 3–6
One clear opening offer
Run a single offer for a fixed window — a set amount off a first visit, say — with a coupon code that has an end date and a cap on uses, so it stops by itself. Post it a few times a week, each time with a different photo of real work. Before each happy client leaves, ask in person whether she would leave a review and share a photo; asking face to face works better than any automated message.
Weeks 7–12
Let the first clients bring the next ones
Rebook in the chair: suggest the date for the next fill, trim or touch-up before she stands up, and book it there and then. Offer a reward for bringing a friend and record who sent whom with a short “Who referred you?” question on your intake form. Answer every review and every direct message the same day, and keep posting your own work twice a week.
The anti-spam law applies from your very first e-mail
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) covers commercial electronic messages, such as e-mails and direct messages that encourage someone to buy. Without consent you may not send one. A person who booked and paid for a service with you gives implied consent that lasts two years from that purchase; an inquiry gives implied consent for six months. Anything beyond that needs express consent — a clear yes the client gave you, which you can show later.
This matters at launch because the obvious move — e-mailing everyone in your phone or your old employer's client list — is exactly the message CASL prohibits. Your former employer's clients have a relationship with that business, not with your new one. Tell people in person, post publicly, and let them come to your page.
Referrals have a narrow exemption in the regulations. The first commercial message you send after a referral is exempt from the consent rule if the person who referred has an existing relationship with you and with the recipient, and if the message names the referrer in full and says it is being sent because of the referral. It covers one message, not a series. Easier still: give your client the link and let her forward it herself.
Every commercial e-mail must also say who sent it, include a mailing address and offer a working unsubscribe, and the law gives you no more than ten business days to act on an unsubscribe.
Reviews: what the Competition Bureau expects
The temptation in the first month is to ask a sister, a flatmate or a colleague to post a five-star review. The Competition Bureau has said that people connected to a business who review it must disclose that connection, even when their opinion is honest, and that a business which writes or permits misleading reviews could be liable under the Competition Act. Its advice is that a connected person who cannot make the connection clearly visible beside the stars should not post at all.
The honest route is slower but compounds: ask real clients, in person, right after a result they love, and make leaving a review easy by having the link ready. Reply to every review, including the lukewarm ones; a calm, specific reply to a three-star review persuades the next reader more than ten unexplained fives.
What Slotora will and will not do for a new salon
So you can plan around it from day one.
- It runs the booking side, not the ads
- Slotora gives you the booking page, the gallery, coupon codes, intake forms and e-mail reminders. It does not buy advertising for you, and our directory is too new in Canada to send you many strangers yet.
- No text messages in Canada yet
- Confirmations and reminders reach Canadian clients by e-mail and through the app, not by text. If your clients live on their phones' messaging apps, remind the first ones in person to check their inbox.
- Your campaigns follow CASL
- Marketing e-mails a Canadian salon sends through Slotora reach only clients with recorded express consent or a visit in the last 24 months, and carry your name and mailing address. That keeps you inside the law, and it also means a freshly imported list cannot be blasted on day one.
What to measure along the way
Count first visits per week, and how many of those clients have a second appointment booked within six weeks. The first number tells you whether your posts and your Google profile are working. The second tells you whether the work itself is bringing people back, and it is the one that decides whether a hundred clients become a business or a revolving door.
Look at where each new client came from. If the referral question keeps naming the same three clients, thank them properly; they are doing your marketing.
Questions from new Canadian owners
Can I e-mail the clients I had at my old salon?
Not as a marketing message without their consent. Under CASL, implied consent comes from a purchase from you — the sender — within the last two years, and those clients bought from your former employer. Tell them in person or post publicly instead.
Is a friend's review allowed?
Only if she clearly discloses that she knows you. The Competition Bureau says connected reviewers must disclose the connection and that a business permitting misleading reviews could be liable.
How big should the opening discount be?
Big enough to get a first booking, small enough that the full price does not feel like a shock on the second visit. Put an end date and a usage cap on the code so it cannot run forever.
How long does it take to reach 100 clients?
It depends on your trade, your street and how much of the plan you actually work through. Rather than chase a date, track first visits per week and the share who book again.
Do clients need an account to book with me?
No. They pick a service, a person and a time on your booking page and leave their details; there is nothing to download first.
Sources
The anti-spam and review rules on this page come from these federal pages, read on the day shown.
- CASL, S.C. 2010, c. 23 — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-1.6/page-2.html · Read on Implied consent from a purchase (two years) or an inquiry (six months); unsubscribe within ten business days.
- CASL regulations, SOR/2013-221 — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2013-221/page-1.html · Read on Section 4: the first message after a referral.
- Competition Bureau: reviews by employees — https://www.canada.ca/en/competition-bureau/news/2024/01/online-reviews-posted-by-employees-businesses-could-be-liable.html · Read on
Have the page ready before you tell anyone
Your services, prices, gallery and one link to put on Google and Instagram. Try it for 14 days; after that it is a monthly plan in Canadian dollars, with no cut of any booking.