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Liz McKeon is the Beauty Business Expert. Empowering women in business, many of her clients are small to medium enterprises, and as a business expert she often helps them to double their turnover and exceed their targets. She also works with large chains and CEOs of international distributors, mentoring and supporting women to excel in business.
Internationally admired, she is a successful author, business coach, mentor, trainer and speaker. Her approach is both engaging and fun, with a keen eye on the client’s bottom line.
She is also a fully qualified expert witness and regularly attends legal cases, offering her expert insight into the cosmetics and beauty industry in a legal capacity. She is also an ambassador for Shear Haven anti-domestic violence salon training in the UK and Ireland.
From independent salons to large chains and huge multinationals, Liz McKeon excels in growing businesses and streamlining them for fast profitability. She has worked with large conglomerates, global skincare houses, pharmacies and franchises and has worked at every level of the beauty business, from retail sales to management.
A business owner and salon operator, Liz consolidated her knowledge and launched Beauty Business Expert in 2007 where she offered training and workshops alongside her expertise to a global audience. Then in 2020, she launched the Liz McKeon Salon Business Academy, an online course with a number of videos helping salons to grow their business and to thrive after the COVID-19 lockdowns. She followed this up in 2021 with The International Salon Business School, which includes in-person and virtual programmes for business owners, managers and teams.
Liz shares her strategies for success around the world and has helped thousands of business owners to maximise their profits. Thanks to her entrepreneurial work, she received the All Stars Thought Leader Award in Empowering Female Entrepreneurs.
Creator and star of the show £200 Salon Turnaround, Liz helped to transform struggling salons with a £200 investment and a few simple tweaks. She has appeared in a number of TV and radio shows, as well as national newspapers and magazines including, Beauty & Hairdressing, Professional Beauty UK, Irish Pharmacy Retailer, International Therapist, Salon NV, Your Nails, Vitality, Irish Beauty, Salon Magazine, Professional Beauty Ireland, Irish Hairdresser International, Business Ireland, Guild News and Scratch Magazine.
In 2017, YWCA Nashville and Middle Tennessee and volunteer Susanne Post – a Nashville-based salon owner and survivor of domestic violence – developed Shear Haven Education Programme, training salons and stylists in anti-domestic violence training. It consists of an online training course which aims to equip them with the knowledge and resources to recognise the signs of domestic violence int heir clients, successfully navigate conversations with those in danger and pass along tools that can help them get to safety. To date, over 25,000 beauty professionals from around the world have taken the training.
According to the Office for National Statistics, police recorded over 250,000 domestic abuse offences between March and June 2020, a 7% increase from the same period the year before. During and after the first UK COVID-19 lockdown, roughly 1/5 of all offences involved domestic abuse.
There is an understanding that salon stylists and spa professionals have a unique relationship with their clients and they are in the perfect position to hear about and see the signs of domestic violence; but many do not know how to respond or what to do to help.
Now Shear Haven has made its way to the UK, Liz is determined that domestic violence training will become mandatory for all salons and stylists and more domestic violence victims will become domestic violence survivors.
“I’ve had the experience of literally having to run for my life and go into hiding. I just thought I have a responsibility to step up. I know what it’s like to be in that position…I just felt, here’s a resource that would be really helpful to bring to Ireland and the UK.”
Liz has a passion for public speaking, and is a regular keynote speaker at professional exhibitions, industry events and conferences.
She has spoken at events including:
– The Female Entrepreneurs Business Conference as a keynote speaker
– The Skinbase UK Roadshow across 9 locations in their ‘Grow Your Skincare Business’ event
– The Guinot Convention as a keynote business speaker
– At Sothys Skincare Christmas event
– The Image Skincare annual conference as a keynote business speaker
– The ASU Awards as an after dinner speaker
– The Professional Beauty event at Excel London, Dublin, Manchester and Belfast
– Hairdressing Live
– ‘Face the Future’ event as a guest speaker
– The International Distributors Conference for Medik 8 as a keynote speaker
– Profitability
– Marketing
– Domestic Violence
– Customer Service
– Retail and Sales
– Team Building
– Women in Business
– Growing a Mindset for Success
As part of our ‘Chat with…’ podcast series at Great British Speakers, our director Jane Farnham sat down with Liz to talk about entrepreneurial spirit, business leadership, domestic violence, and her experience as a qualified expert witness.
ASAP Skincare, BABTAC, Beauty by McCauley, Dermalogica, DIBI, Fushia, Gelish, Guinot, iiaa, Image Skillnet, Image Skincare, Janssen Cosmetics, Katherine Daniels, L’Oréal, MAC, Mary Cohr, Medik 8, NHBF, Pomp & Co, SkinBase, Sothys Paris, Professional Beauty, Renaissance Skincare, Skinbrands, Thalgo, Waxperts, Wella Professionals, Xpert Pro.
I had the pleasure of working with Liz on one of our Fingal Enterprising Women Network online networking sessions, where she featured as our guest speaker. From the outset when planning the event, Liz was a joy to interact with as she thoroughly understood the needs of our network members and was able to craft her content to suit the diversity of our audience. Our members come from all different types of businesses so it can be challenging to satisfy all, but Liz managed to do this seamlessly. The content Liz covered in her session was both highly practical and motivational, offering strategies which people could implement in their businesses straight away after the session.
Sharon Rossi, Fingal Enterprising Women Network
At Professional Beauty London 2019 Liz hosted the most highly attended seminar at a show attended by over 34,000 trade professionals. Liz would be a fantastic addition to any business conference; she is a very engaging speaker and is always very well received with audiences. I would highly recommend.
Harry Leyburn, Professional Beauty
Thanks Liz, plenty to think about and to do a plan of action. Can’t wait to get started.
Alison Pauls
Great seminar, loads of great tips and advice.
Emma Hanrahan