Paula Clipsham, Owner of the Hart Spa Sevenoaks, shares her tips for entering the Professional Beauty Awards after winning the Spa/Salon Team of the Year 2024 and Large Salon of the Year 2023 and 2024.
What made you decide to enter the Professional Beauty Awards?
I've been a therapist for over 30 years. At college, I first subscribed to Professional Beauty and flicking through the magazine and I would look at these winners and think, ‘one day I want that.’ All those years ago I remember aspiring to be that good and wanting a team and a salon good enough to enter these awards. It was something I always strived for.
As a therapist, I love to go to other award-winning salons. For the first seven years of my career, I worked on my own so the only way I could improve was to go to other salons and see how they did things and see if it was something I could do in my clinic. I hope other therapists come to us as well to do the same.
For anyone interested in entering, how did you find the application process?
The application process is really easy, but you do have to do your homework!
You have to have your figures together, photographs, and supporting evidence and share in your own words why you should win that award. It can take some time so I allow a whole week.
It's actually really exciting to apply again and be able to show everyone how much we have improved since last year.
Have you got any tips for anyone thinking of entering this year?
Yes! Just be really organised with it. Make sure that you've got everything that you want to include and just keep going through it. Last year, I literally tweaked and tweaked the wording and kept going because I started off with way more than the 300 words you're allowed in most categories. Its easy to be a little bit repetitive, so you just have to keep reading through and you can get it down - as hard as it is!
What did you and your team think of the awards night itself?
I brought the whole team and we were the noisiest table in the venue! Sometimes I'll flick through the Professional Beauty Instagram and I'll find our little video where we won and it still makes me laugh so much because we just erupted. The team loved it! We celebrated, we partied… Even before we knew that we'd won, to sit with all those other professionals in this huge venue, it was incredible. It was just a really good experience.
How has winning the award impacted your business over the last couple of months?
Our turnover has definitely increased. Our clients were thrilled for us. We still have a lot of clients from years ago and for them to watch the journey and see the team grow and evolve is very special.
I got lots of messages, lots of emails and congratulations. The team loved it. There was a real buzz within the salon. As I said, by applying again, that buzz is back. It's just brilliant.
And for anyone who's thinking about entering, what would you say to them?
Do it. Just do it! Even if you don't get through as a finalist, you gain so much experience. We all grew within the salon because of the experience of entering.
The Professional Beauty Awards is a prestigious awards scheme for the beauty, spa, nails, and aesthetics markets, recognising those who make a real difference to the industry and encouraging their development. Complete your free entry now