Owner of Metafolics Salon Jason Linkow takes pride in the fact that his business embodies the traditional meaning of a salon: a community gathering place, used to receive guests and host events or intellectual conversations. The full service beauty salon makes this community aspect an integral part of its service to help women feel beautiful inside and out. The salon engages in community involvement programs ranging from volunteering services for fashion shows raising money for battered women to running its own fundraisers for melanoma at the salon. Regular donations in kind are made to charities needing products and gift baskets for auctions and giveaways. The salon chooses both personal and company wide causes. For example, they will give donations to customers who are involved with charities on top of the company fundraisers and donations. This is not to say, however, that causes are random. Linkow makes sure that any cause the company supports strategically aligns his high-end salon with its target customers. Linkow emphasizes that companies, especially small businesses that don’t have disposable income, need to align the causes they support with business goals. There are many causes to support, and he can’t be everything to everyone. In order to make sure that all partnerships are ‘win-win,’ he must say no sometimes, and stresses that one should not feel bad about this. Thus one of Linkow’s pieces of advice is make sure that you are getting the recognition and benefits deserved from involvement, and not to be afraid to say no if this is not the case. Matafolics Salon has found three main benefits to their community involvement programs: more customers, greater brand recognition, and a positive culture. The influx of customers often comes from the pro bono services it provides for local charity fundraisers. Similarly, by having its name on various fundraisers and charities, Metafolics increases its exposure to the market without direct marketing costs. Finally, Linkow stresses that programs have led to a better culture at the salon. For example, when one of his customers was diagnosed with melanoma, the salon conducted a fundraiser with a dermatologist to scan customers for skin cancer free of charge. In one day, they raised over $3,000 for a local cancer research foundation and found skin inconsistencies needing further medical attention in 20% of customers screened. This helped employees at the salon feel like they were a part of something bigger, and made customers at the salon feel more valued. This event is now held annually and this In all of the programs the salon has been involved with, one of Linkow’s biggest ‘lessons-learned’ is to make sure that fundraisers and charities you are going to work with are well organized. This helps ensure that the events will go well, and that you will really be making a difference. After each program, he evaluates its success to determine whether or not he will participate again. This is all tied to making sure that partnerships benefit both parties involved. Linkow even hires a publicist to help out with cause marketing, ask the difficult questions, and make sure that Metafolics is being fairly recognized. Linkow founded the salon to have a greater impact on more people, and named it to represent his desire to help people evolve to a higher level. By strategically aligning community involvement and good customer care into his business, he has implemented a sustainable and meaningful business practice that is helping his customers and Metafolics Salon move to the next level. By Louise Doyle Based on interview with Jason Linkow, owner of the Metafolics Salon, conducted by Susan Hyatt. Metafolics Salon is located at 1070 Bannock St, #170, Denver, Colorado and can be reached at: (303) 623-9181
