Hair Salon Software Program

Sarah (my sister) inspired me to develop some marketing and appointment software for salons.

She's a hairdresser (I guess a stylist actually) and we were talking about some of the difficulties salon and spa owners face in managing and running their businesses.

One of the challenges salon owners face is that their clients are often more loyal to the employees - the stylists and the technicians - than to the salon or spa. (It's understandable because the employees have far more interaction with the clients than the "business" of the spa or salon). When the stylist leaves to work for another salon they take the clients with them.

Another challenge is marketing a salon or spa. Repeat business is essential whether you're running a nail studio, day spa or hair salon but the owner or manager is often so busy doing the managing that there is little time for marketing the business.

I built a salon scheduling program that automatically markets the salon or spa. Marketing to the existing clients of the salon happens automatically in the background leaving the owner free to do the important things.

It can also be used as spa membership software because it incorporates client relationship management features like emailing, address book, bulk message sending etc.

If you're interested take a look by clicking on one of the links above. It's been great fun.

Cheers

Pete

Snooze in the sun

Dear Gran

Today I caught Pete having a snooze. Doesn't it look so lovely! He doesn't know that this picture is on the blog, so I am interested to see what he says when he finds out.

This morning we woke up to a white garden, but not snow, frost again. It is so beautiful, each season has some beauty to enjoy.

Hope you are also having a few cat naps in the sun, you deserve it!

White Christmas (a week and three days late!)

Last night we were sitting in the lounge and the phone rang. It was Eva, and she said: "Look out side it's snowing." Well needless to say, we spent the next hour and a bit out in the snow. Snow men, snow ball fights, jumping with snow on the trampoline, rolling up huge balls of snow. What a great time we all had. When I suggested a snow angel the response was: No, too cold for that.

But it was short lived, most of the snow on the ground was melted by the time Pete and I went to bed. However when we woke it was all white again. So the snow fest began again. Oh, what fun. Sorry to all the SA family who missed it, our order for snow on Christmas must have gotten lost somewhere on the way.

And sorry for the poor quality photos, mobile phones are just not as good as cameras. But never fear, I am on my way now to buy a really nice camera. Hooray!!

Here we all are

Part Two of our reunion, we were all hiking (or really just a slippery walk) in the Mourne mountains. We drove there in four cars, and in a lot of clothing. It was great though, the fresh mountain air and the lovely scenery.

We walked all the way up to the Mourne wall and took some pictures of us there. Not all of us made it that far though, only Dad Bowen, Ed, Phillip, Rachel, Pete and Gill. It was built during the first world war to create employment. (oh the days when men still had honour and needed to work for money, not just have it handed out.)

Afterwards we had a pick nick by the cars and drove home. Donovan was rather frustrated by this as he had to drive as slow as the slowest follower - we all followed him as he knew the way. It was a lovely trip, I am glad that we did it.

Thank you to all the Bowen's who had to go to great lengths to be here, we understand that it took a lot of time off work and money to achieve. I know it was well worth it though. And thank you to Hotel Eva and Hotel Gillian for all your work, but Eva the most for the delicious Christmas day dinner. (yum, yum)

Reunion part 1

The first half of the reunion happened at about 12:30 today when Dad, Mom, Gran (these titles may suffer from generational confusion), Chanel and Paige flew in from South Africa.

What the airline couldn't do Dad managed to and we're hoping his book will arrive before he leaves.

Claudia is the one in the middle faking a grin - she's half dead with the dreaded lurgy but we hope for a speedy recovery soon.

Don and Eva are on another one of their skiing holidays - Switzerland this time. I feel like I'm related to the jet-set!

There is a great feeling of excitement as we look forward to having the rest of the family arrive between now and Christmas.

I held a little baby last night - a one week old chap called Lewis. I missed having someone so absolutely dependent on me. Corbin is getting big fast and Rachel now only laughs at my jokes to be polite.

Rachel performed in her school pay - "The Evacuees" about children sent off to the countryside to avoid being bombed during the second world war.

They sang a lot of war songs like "A long way to Tipperary" and "The Quartermaster's Store".

It felt good to be allowed to feel like I had a history that was legitimate to celebrate. In SA there were very few reminders about the second world war almost as if that part of our country's history was not worth remembering.

I worked long hours last week but was able to launch a desktop version of my systems building software at the end of it. I was rather pleased about it!

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad, Peter Bowen the first turned 100 yesterday. OK, probably not 100 but I actually don't know how old he is - he just seems to have been there always.

Here are some of my memories:

• I remember "Wilson Toffee Romps". He would come home from work with a pocket full of toffees and whoever could get them out of his pocket could have them. I was 13 or 14 at the time so Don must have been 12 and James about 10. He must have been crazy or very strong - I've given up wrestling with Cheryn and Zeek because I get battered and bruised and they're only 11 and 10.

• How about "Swimming Pool Surprise"? A meal made with hard-boiled eggs floating in a greenish yellow curry sauce. I have never eaten a hard-boiled egg since.
  

• I guess patience when someone dropped a hammer on his head while we were building tree houses.

• How he kindly carried me home from the shop after I caused us to crash on his bicycle by accidentally putting my bare feet into the spokes while he was giving me a lift on the carrier.

• The romantic things he did (and hopefully still does) for Mom. Cooking a surprise lunch for her on a camping cooker in the garage. Going on dates and eating ice-cream.

• Studying the scriptures. I didn't see him reading too much else but scriptures and church magazines every day. Usually in the morning in his bathroom.
  

What do you remember most about Dad?