Are You Putting on Your Own Oxygen Mask First?

by Pam Stellema | Feb 24, 2018 | Leadership and Personal Well-being, Salon and Spa Business Performance

In this article, I want to delve into why many salon and spa owners struggle to become successful.

After all, the majority have the required technical skills, offer amazing customer service, and love what they do, so why aren’t they financially successful?

It also begs these questions,

Why aren’t they taking home a decent wage for themselves each week?

Why are they constantly living on the edge of burn-out, and

Why aren’t they getting all they deserve from their efforts?

All great questions, right?

You might have even asked yourself the very same questions once or twice.

Well, I’ve given it a great deal of thought, and I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the major issues holding them back from getting the outcome they really want is their unwillingness to put their own needs before others.

Many salon and spa owners feel guilty and selfish if they put their own business needs first, so instead, they spend their lives putting everyone else’s needs first.

Don’t get me wrong – that’s a very selfless and generous way to live, however, in business, all it will give you is burn-out.

Here’s an interesting analogy. If you’ve ever taken a plane flight, there’s a part of the safety demonstration where the stewardess drops down the oxygen mask and says, ‘Put your own oxygen mask on first, so you can then help others’.

Wow. Such simplicity, and yet, so important.

You need to look after your own needs first, and only then, are you in a position to help those around you. If you don’t, and pass out from lack of oxygen, then you can’t help anyone else.

So, by putting your own needs first, you are not being selfish or greedy. In fact, you are ensuring that you are able to look after the needs of others because you put yourself in a position to do so.

The same holds true when you’re in business. If you don’t look after your own business needs first, then you’ll never be able to look after those who depend on you.

Too often, I’ve coached salon and spa owners on how to improve their business, and too often I’ve have hit a brick wall because the sensible and practical things I asked them to do (put their business first), hit some pretty solid resistance.

At first, I struggled to understand why they couldn’t see that their resistance to do what was necessary for their business was hurting both themselves and other people who were dependant on the business.

I knew that if they would just do as I asked, they would see a great improvements, which would lessen their stress, decrease the likelihood of burnout, and keep them in their business for the long-term.

But, for some salon owners, they simply couldn’t come to grips with putting on their own oxygen mask first!

One important example of this revolves around service pricing. When I’ve told clients that it’s time to have a fair price increase (which was many years overdue), they felt that they simply couldn’t do it.

The reasons given ranged from, ‘But I can’t ask my long-term clients to pay more for their services than they did 7 years ago, when they first came to my salon’, to, ‘But if I increase my prices, all my clients will leave’, or ‘I feel greedy asking for more money’.

Clearly the clients were getting their oxygen masks first, but what was going to be the consequences of that for the business?

The fact is, it’s not greedy to ask your clients to pay a fair price for what they receive. Yes, there will always be clients who huff and puff and try to blow the house down, but in reality, they are in the tiny minority.

If these clients choose to move on, rather than pay you a fair price for your services, it’s probably a blessing for your business.

These are not the kind of clients who are going to help you grow a happy, healthy, sustainable business that will provide for your family, keep your staff employed and fulfil your dreams of owning your own business.

Other examples that come to mind are when clients are disrespectful of salon policies and there are no consequences.

This eventually leads to loads of no-shows, late cancellations and late arrivals.

When there are no consequences to poor behaviour by a client, that behaviour tends to worsen, rather than improve.

And of course, employee behaviour falls into the same category.

Changing client appointments without permission to suit their own schedules, not making any effort to reach realistic sales targets, taking time off during busy salon periods, enticing clients to come to their home salons and so much more.

All these behaviours escalate when the business owner does nothing to put the needs of her business first and enforce employment conditions.

When salon owners don’t put the needs of their business first, it will inevitably impact on many other people surrounding them also.

So, here’s what I tell my coaching clients now, when they choose not to put their business needs first…

~ When you refuse to increase your prices to a fair level, eventually your expenses will grow too big to be covered by your revenue. Overheads continue to increase and so does the cost of running your business.

~ When your employees and clients are making your life a misery, you will hit burn-out at a rapid rate.

~ When the day comes that you can no longer keep your doors open, or when you no longer want to keep your doors open, the following will happen:

Your employees will be without a job. They will struggle to pay their own expenses until they can find other employment. They will go without because they no longer have a secure job working for you.
Your clients will feel disappointed for a minute or two, then get on the internet and find another salon to go to, where they will gladly pay the price for their services that you were too frightened to ask for.
Your suppliers will suffer because they have lost an important cog that keeps their business running profitably.
Your dreams will shatter. You will no longer have your own business to run the way you want to.

So, if looking after others is something you want to be able to continue to do in the future, be sure to put your own oxygen mask on first!

Making Time for Salon Management

by Pam Stellema | Feb 9, 2018 | Salon and Spa Business Performance

Over the years, I’ve had many salon owners come to me who want to improve their business. That’s great!

What’s not so great, is the fact they want this miraculous improvement to happen all by itself, with little or no additional management time invested into their business.

Let me share something important with you…

Achieving growth and change is not a realistic goal if there’s no extra time set aside to work on your business. It’s simply a delicious dream. Purely wishful thinking on the part of salon owners who’re not facing the reality of owning and operating a business.

But, the good news is this – there is plenty of time available to you during the normal working week to work on your business management, and in this article, I’m going to talk about how to easily find the time you need, to run your business effectively – all without forgoing sleep or leisure time.

Let’s start by breaking the whole process down into Bite-Sized Chunks (my favourite way of tackling big tasks).

BSC #1 – Learn how delegate effectively. There’s definitely a skill involved in delegating well. It’s not simply a matter of giving all the work to others to do, sitting back, and enjoying the down-time.

Effective delegation means matching the right people to the right job so that, with a little bit of training and direction, you can be sure of achieving a great outcome.

It takes a little bit of set-up time to get it right, but once you’ve ensured your delegatees have everything they need to be successful, you will see great benefits and more time for yourself.

Your employees can do much more than a facial, manicure or bikini wax.

They came to you loaded with invaluable life experience and skills that you should tap into. Get to know your employee’s other skills, and you may well find that they can take some time-consuming tasks off your hands.

Be sure to arm them with all the information they need and the desired outcomes of their new tasks, and then monitor their work closely for a short while.

Once they have the hang of what you want from them, all you’ll need to do is a regular check-in with them to see how they’re performing.

BSC #2 – When you don’t have the skills to do a great job, consider outsourcing it. If you’re a terrible, boring and lack-lustre writer, but you know your newsletter needs to be done, or your website content needs updating, consider using the services of a professional copywriter.

Not only will she do a faster, more professional job that should get you superior results, but it also frees up your time to work on your business.

There’s sure to be many jobs that you struggle with that, with enough time invested, you do reasonably well, but could that time have been used more wisely working on other aspects of your business that only you can do?

Whether it’s writing your own copy, keeping your own books or managing your own website, consider whether it might be a great investment in freeing up your time to work on something more important to your business.

BSC #3 – Tighten up your client appointment schedule. If you’re still working with clients each day, learn how to tighten up your appointment schedule, and get rid of wasted chunks of time between clients.

15 mins here and 30 mins can add up to a huge amount of time each week, but on their own, they aren’t long enough periods of time to get stuck into something important, so they end up being simply a huge waste of your precious time.

Sure, you may need to leave a little tidy time between clients, but don’t leave any more than absolutely necessary.

Make sure your team members are working effectively to support one another in tidying up treatment rooms and prepping for incoming clients when they’re not busy themselves. This will often eliminate the need for wasted time between clients.

Tip: If you’re working on 15-minute appointment blocks, try moving to 10 mins instead to reduce time wastage.

BSC #4 – Find at least 2 continuous hours per week for management activities. Once you’ve tightened up your appointment schedule, you’re going to find at least another 2 hours a week to devote to management. (4 x 15 minute breaks a day over 5 days ends up being 5 hrs in wasted time.)

The secret to getting loads done is to have a decent-sized block of uninterrupted, continuous time, so that you can focus on what needs to be done.

Trying to write a newsletter in 8 lots of 15-min time slots is most likely not doable, but doing a newsletter in a continuous 2-hour time-slot most definitely is.

Start by looking for the quietest day of your week – there is always one. Once you know when it is, identify the quietest time during that day.

Great, now mark out 2 hours (or more if it’s available to you) to work on business management issues.

This time to work on your business must be protected at all costs. It can’t be given up for a client appointment or some other activity. It’s when you’re working on growing your business such as creating fresh promotions and marketing ideas, delivering team training or a team meeting, reviewing reports, doing one-on-one meetings with your team members or something else, but whatever you use it for must be management based.

By freeing up larger chunks of more useful time, you’ll achieve more during your day, and find you have to take less work home with you; leaving you free to spend quality time with your family and friends. Now that is something worth getting organised for!

BSC #5 – Write down what needs to be achieved. Set aside 15 mins every morning to write your list.

I recommend using a desk diary where you can list down all the jobs that require action.

Once you have your list, place an A, B or C beside each job – this is important. Your A jobs are those that must receive immediate attention and can’t be left – they are URGENT!

Your B jobs are those that are important, but can wait a few days to receive your attention.

And your C jobs are those that you have to attend to, but can wait a week or more to be actioned without any serious consequences.

Once you have done your prioritisation, don’t get tempted to veer away from your list and start doing jobs that are less important (but sometimes easier or quicker), or worse still, not on your list at all.

BSC #6 – Never lose another great idea. With most desk diaries, there is a section in the back where you can jot down notes. This is the perfect place to store your brilliant ideas before they get forgotten.

Loads of great ideas do get forgotten because they aren’t written down, and I’m sure this has happened to you in the past (it’s certainly happened to me).

Keep your diary with you wherever you are, and when a brilliant idea pops into your brain, grab a pen and write it down.

Once done, you’ll never forget a great idea again, and you can refer to your list whenever you’re looking for inspiration.

Remember, your business needs your attention if it’s to thrive and grow.

It’s a lot like establishing a thriving flower garden. Just planting the seeds won’t result in a beautiful garden. You must tend it, nurture it, fertilise it, water it, weed it, and give it your attention regularly.

This is how you achieve a beautiful flower garden, and exactly the same principles apply to your business.

Are You Running a Beauty Business or Simply Indulging in a Hobby?

by Pam Stellema | Jan 25, 2018 | Leadership and Personal Well-being, Salon and Spa Business Performance

Warning: This article may make you feel a bit uncomfortable! If you’re okay with that, keep reading.

Truthfully, how are you spending your 9 – 5s? Are you working on the management of your business; monitoring your figures, developing strategic plans for growth, training your teams, discovering ways to reduce unnecessary expenses, improving client acquisition and retention, creating your unique-point-of-difference,

or,

Are you doing lash tints, brow shapes and bikini waxes all day long with no time left over for businessy-type stuff?

Here’s the thing, you can do a little of both and still run a fairly successful business.

I did this in my last salon, and it delivered a fairly good return, but, if I’d spent more time on the management and less time on delivering client services, I’d have had a great business.

I only wish someone had told me then, what I’m telling you now. The more time you spend working on your business instead of in your business, the more successful you will be.

Out there, in the cyber-zone, you see a lot of feel-good graphics that tell you that to be successful, you only need to be good at what you do. Well, unless this means being good at business management, then you’re being lied to.

You may be the best facialist, waxer, brow designer or hairdresser in the city, but that is no guarantee of financial success.

If your idea of success is to have clients tell you how wonderful and how talented you are, then you’re probably achieving that already. Unfortunately, ‘wonderful’ and ‘talented’ doesn’t pay the mortgage; but money does.

For some reason, many of those who operate beauty businesses are not comfortable with the concept of making money. It feels dirty and slimy, and not at all attractive.

But, here’s the absolute truth of the matter – if your business can’t generate enough money to way wages, rent, general expenses AND still leave enough for you to make a decent living, then you are running a hobby business.

You are not a serious business owner because you are not doing all you can to be financial solvent.

Let me clear up this common misconception. Making money is not a dirty or slimy thing to do. It’s a beautiful thing, as long as it’s done with honesty and integrity.

And here’s why…

~ Money is what pays your employee’s wages each week, allowing them to do what they love and sustain their own families.

~ Money is what pays your suppliers for their goods allowing them to grow their businesses, supply your much-needed products and become more financially secure.

~ Money is what allows you to keep your business doors open, so you and your team can deliver your wonderful services to the clients who rely on you to do so.

~ And finally, money is what allows you provide a better life for yourself and your family.

So, as you can see, making money is a very positive and worthwhile thing to do – it’s what makes the world keep spinning, and as long as you do it with honesty and integrity, you need not stress ever again over the fact that it’s okay to make money.

Now that we’ve cleared up this success-blocking thought, it’s really time to get more serious about doing business the right way.

Here’s how I suggest you start:

#1. Stop telling yourself that you’re the only person who can do anything properly in your business. Instead, learn the art of good delegation, so you can free yourself from the mundane jobs in your life, and invest that time into running your business in a business-savvy way.

#2. Stop taking on every new client who walks in the door when you have perfectly good employees who can look after them instead. (They must be good, after all, you employed them.) If you’re worried that your employees are going to steal your clients when they leave, you may as well sack them all today, and just go back to being a solo-operator.

#3. Stop making excuses as to why you ‘can’t’ do what you know needs to be done, and start to find reasons why you ‘must’ do what is necessary to be more successful. Time to pull up those big-girl (or boy) panties and face the reality of being a business person.

#4. Treat being in business seriously. Devote at least part of your day to management only tasks that are results-oriented. (The bigger the part, the better). Stop weeding the gardens out the front, stop checking your social media every 5 minutes, stop dilly-dallying with time-wasting activities that will get you nowhere, and instead create a daily plan, and then work your list until everything that is important to your business growth gets done.

#5. Set some clear, measurable and achievable short-term goals for your business. Write them down and revisit them daily to keep you on-track. Once you’ve achieved them, create some more.

#6. Become a time-management terminator. Use your time wisely. You’ll never get back wasted time, so make every business minute count, so you don’t have to eat into your leisure/family time.

#7. Become a first-class communicator. Talk to your team on a regular basis, be transparent, ask for input. You’ll be surprised at how much knowledge they can offer you from digging into their past experiences. Get them involved in growing your business.

#8. Learn how to be business-minded. Invest in your business skills and not just your treatment skills. They will continue to improve your business permanently.

So, are you a real business or just really a hobby? Is it time to get serious about making real money and stop worrying about the future? It all comes down to you, your mind-set and, most importantly, the actions you take.

The Small Changes That Bring Big Results in Your Salon or Spa

by Pam Stellema | Jan 7, 2018 | Client Attraction and Retention, Increasing Profit, Salon and Spa Business Performance, Staff Management, Recruitment and Retention

Sometimes it can be disheartening when your business is floundering and you don’t know what to do to fix it. Where do you start? What’s going to make the most difference in the shortest amount of time? The truth is that your business may need something entirely different from another person’s business to get it back on the right path. And the reason for this is that there’s no one big solution to fix a struggling business, but, there are loads of small solutions that will do the job extremely nicely. And that’s what this article is all about – the synergy of small solutions, that together, create a big outcome. Let me explain… Unless you are an absolute master of all things business, there’s a very high probability that many areas in your salon or spa could be tweaked to provide better financial results. Areas such as: ~ Gaining more prospects. ~ Converting those prospects into clients. ~ Increasing the number of existing clients you retain. ~ Increasing your profit margin. ~ Increasing the number of services you provide to each of your clients. ~ Reducing your expenses. ~ Improving the quality of your services and customer service. ~ Improving the quality of your team members. ~Retaining good team members. And this list is just a small selection of the many things that most businesses aren’t doing as well as they should. Now if this list makes you feel a little depressed, I want you to think about it a little differently. It’s not just a list of things you don’t do well, but in fact, it’s a fantastic list of opportunities and possibilities. Each item on this list, when improved by just a small amount, can make a significant impact on your business results. And the more items on the list that you tweak and improve, the greater the results will be. Think of it like this… If you can gain 10 additional new clients each month, you should do the happy dance. But it would be even better to gain 10 new clients whilst also retaining 5 existing clients. This automatically makes you 15 clients better off than you were last year. Now, if you can increase the profit margin just a little for all your client services, that is going to add up to even more substantial revenue (plus you now have 15 more clients you’re making a profit from). Add to that, just a few extra services sold to existing clients each day will boost your revenue even higher. And on it goes. The synergy of all these small improvements coming together across your business will make a substantial difference to your revenue and profits. It’s not fantasy – it’s fact! And this is why you must never focus on doing just one thing when it comes to improving your business. Don’t get stuck in the rut of just wanting more new clients. New clients are, without a doubt, necessary for every business, but they are just a small part of your overall growth and success. A savvy salon or spa owner continually looks for ways to tweak all their numbers. A few percent of improvement across many areas can have the massive impact you want. But, you must never take your eyes of your business as a whole. Don’t get too focused on any one area and simply ignore the rest until later. Don’t make the common mistake of zeroing in and trying to achieve a massive improvement in just one area. It’s not the solution to your problem. In fact, it really won’t help your business one iota to gain 20 new clients a month, if you are losing 20 existing clients at the other end. Instead, aim for small, sustainable improvements across all the areas in your business and then you can sit back and enjoy some truly amazing results.

How to Generate Additional Salon Profit with Add-on Sales

by Pam Stellema | Dec 29, 2017 | Increasing Profit, Salon and Spa Business Performance

Fact – Most spas are missing out on profitable sales every single day.

Depending on the size of your salon or spa business, you could be missing out on anywhere between $20k to $100K per year from add-on sales that never happen; the serum with the facial, the brow tint with the lash tint, or the gel upgrade with the pedicure. Simple add-on sales that are simply being ignored.

So why does this happen?

In my experience, there are 5 major reasons why spas are missing out on this substantial additional revenue.
1. Therapists or receptionists miss their opportunity to offer something extra during the booking process.
2. There’s not enough time to provide something extra during the service.
3. There is no formal expectation by management that spa therapists will offer an add-on or up-sell to their clients, and therefore, no motivation to do so.
4. Formal training is not provided on how to up-sell naturally.
5. Spa therapists are not confident or comfortable with the process of recommending something extra to their clients.

Let’s take a closer look at these 5 fail points and discover how they can be handled to produce better results.

1. Missed Opportunities

The ideal time to offer clients an additional service/s is, without a doubt, during the booking process. Not only is the existing client’s service history at your fingertips to quickly review for possible add-ons she may have previously had, but if an additional service is added to the booking at this point, it will eliminate the need to squeeze something extra into the allocated appointment time on the day.

For new clients, or where no service history is available, a relevant extra services list, kept at the reception, can be referred to quickly for suitable up-sells. This list can easily be generated through brainstorming with your team members.

2. Lack of Time

Lack of available time can be a real problem if the additional service takes extra time and could cause the therapist to run late for her next client. When this happens, the best up-sell is one that will replace an existing component of the treatment, or be very quick to deliver.

A few strategies that come to mind are:
• Serums applied during the facial to enhance results
• Up-graded masks that will take the place of regular masks
• Gel polish instead of regular polish
• Brow tints while lash tints develop
• Hand peel while the face peel activates

Depending on the services your spa offers, there are loads of various up-sells that can be included when time is tight.

Always look for opportunities to up-ell to a more premium service that requires no additional time.

3. Goal Setting

Not setting individual sales goals for team members means no accountability is in place, and this results in a lack of motivation to offer additional services or up-sells.

Make time at the beginning of each day to spend a few minutes with your team members to review their clients for the day and discuss beneficial up-sells for each.

Set a daily goal for each therapist based on the number of clients she has booked in her column and follow up at the end of each day to see if she has met her goals. If she has, congratulate her on her performance, and if not, discuss strategies she could have used to reach her goals.

The important points here are to set goals, create accountability, review performance, and provide encouragement and support.

4. Team Training

Your team members need to know not only what is expected of them but also how to achieve it. Keep in mind that training on any topic is not a ‘do-it-once-and-hope-it-sticks’ activity. It needs to be provided regularly and reinforced constantly to keep it front of mind.

The best and most successful training methods are those that are inclusive and fun for the trainee. Training that includes ideas and input from your team members will always have the best outcome.

To facilitate this, ask all team members to contribute suggestions and solutions to every training topic instead of sitting back and turning off while the team leader does all the talking.

Make training a team effort and you will be rewarded with a higher level of participation.

5. Changing the Employee Mindset

I’m yet to meet a spa therapist who loves to sell (unless of course they are the business owner). Selling often feels uncomfortable for therapists and they see the whole process as outside of their real job of providing services and pampering clients. Basically, therapists want to nurture their clients and don’t see selling as part of that process.

The way to overcome this is to change their mindset from selling being just about grabbing some extra money from their clients, to selling as a way to benefit their clients and help them achieve a better, faster outcome.

Good selling in a spa environment is always about strengthening the relationship with the client. It should result in a better solution for their problem. Bad selling happens when a client is pushed to purchase something that won’t benefit her and therefore damages the relationship.

Make certain your team members understand that you only want them to do what will strengthen their relationship with their clients and not the reverse. This will help your team members feel more positive about suggesting extra services or items to their clients, and they will be less resistant to the idea of making beneficial recommendations.

When a client achieves a better, faster solution to their problem they will be grateful.

Client Awareness

It’s always a good business strategy to ensure your clients are aware of the additional services you have available for them, as this awareness will help when it comes to suggesting something they may not have tried previously.

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming your clients are fully aware of all your spa has to offer, as few actually are this aware.

One way to create additional awareness is to add your service extras to your Service Menu, grouped with the services they complement. Upgrades such as serums, masks or LED therapy can all be grouped within the Facial and Skin Treatment categories so that clients can easily see what else is appropriate and available to them.

Apply this concept to all your extra options where room permits.

The Best Time to Suggest and Up-sell

The last thing you want your therapists to do is chat all the way through a relaxation-based service and leave the client feeling annoyed and deprived of their special relaxation time. This means you need to be strategic about choosing the best time to introduce the idea of a little something extra.

So, when should it be done?

The ideal time, in most cases, is either during or just after the consultation phase of the treatment, but before the main body of the treatment begins. The therapist should have completed her examination of the treatment area and asked the client questions about her problems and expectations.

If your therapists are not providing pre-treatment consultations, they are depriving themselves of a great deal of important information that will help them to not only deliver a much better service, but also make useful recommendations for extras.

How to Up-sell in the Treatment Room

Once the consultation is complete, make yourself easily seen by the client. If she is already on the treatment couch, then come around to the side and bring yourself down to her level by sitting on a stool.

Place yourself in a position where the clients can see and interact freely with you to reduce any feeling of intimidation.

As you make your suggestions, phrase them in a way that highlights the benefits they will receive relative to the problem they are trying to solve. If your suggestions don’t relate to fixing problems the client believes are important, she simply won’t be interested and a quick ‘no thanks’ will follow.

Here’s an example:
The client has expressed issues around her recurring acne breakouts. She is booked in for a deep cleansing treatment but nothing else.

After consultation, the therapist determines that a suitable serum applied under an infusion mask will reliably provide much better results for the client.

The conversation would go along the lines of, “Sara, it’s great that you’ve booked in the for Deep Cleanse Treatment today. That will definitely get you started on your journey to clearer skin. I’d also like to suggest we apply a healing serum and infusion mask also to give you even better results from your treatment. Are you okay with that? The extra serum and mask will be $20 but the results will be worth it.”
Note: I always recommend you provide your clients with full disclosure on the additional cost to avoid any problems when it comes time to pay for their service. Surprises at the register are never a good idea!

If you have a Client Service Agreement document in place, be sure to add the relevant details outlining additional costs for extra services here also.

If you follow the guidelines in this article, it won’t be long before you see a real improvement in your revenue. If you’re offering performance bonuses, your team will also see worthwhile benefits. This means that your spa, your therapists and your clients will all benefit from this sales strategy.

Why Some People Thrive and Others Fail in the Beauty Business (or Any Business)

by Pam Stellema | Dec 19, 2017 | Leadership and Personal Well-being, Salon and Spa Business Performance

It often seems that some people appear to have the magic touch when it being comes to being successful.

Everything they do just seems to be the right thing, at the right time – nohting ever seems to go wrong.

Or maybe that’s all an illusion……

[clickToTweet tweet=”The truth is that successful people do things differently from those who try and fail continuously.” quote=”The truth is that successful people do things differently from those who try and fail continuously.” theme=”style3″]

Success is not magical; it’s about making the right decisions, based on the right information, and taking the required action – most of the time.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what sets apart the successful business owners so that you can also implement their winning strategies in your business.

Successful people surround themselves with new ideas.

If you haven’t been investing in your professional business development, then you’ve stopped providing yourself with the opportunity to learn new and better business ideas and strategies.

It may be more fun, but it’s not enough to just attend training that teaches you about new products or services. These are important, but you mustn’t neglect information that teaches you how to run a more successful business and make a profit.

Those business owners who take the time to read quality business books, undertake business-related courses, or work with a business coach will be constantly exposed to fresh ideas and motivation.

And without a constant stream of fresh ideas, you generally end up doing things the same old way you’ve done them for years – successful or not. This is not the recipe for success. Times change, information changes and opportunities come and go.

If you have cut yourself off from fresh and vital information, growth will come to a screaming halt.

Successful people implement the great ideas they learn.

In a room full of learners, there are only a tiny minority who will go away and actually implement the great ideas they‘ve been exposed to. These people are the Doers.

They don’t waste their money on attending conferences, buying books, doing seminars or getting business coaches and then do nothing with the information they’ve received. They don’t constantly whinge or make excuses as to why ‘they can’t get things done‘, ‘they don’t have enough time‘ or stating ‘it won’t work in my salon‘ before they’ve even given it a go.

Instead, Doers understand that in every bit of business training they receive, there is at least one gem of information. With this in mind, they immediately pull apart the information they’ve received to find the business gems that they know will improve their business.

Find the gems, make the plans and take action.

Successful people learn from their mistakes.

Yes, successful people do make mistakes. Just like you and me, they don’t get it right 100% of the time.

However, the successful person can identify a mistake quickly. How do they know? Well, they closely monitor their outcomes and, because of this, they quickly learn if they’ve had a great success, a moderate improvement or an outright failure. And this knowledge means they don’t keep repeating their mistakes and suffering the same undesirable consequences.

To grow your business requires trying new things and with that will come the odd bad decision – other wise known as a mistake.

Learn from your mistakes but don’t stop trying new things.

Successful people regularly monitor their numbers.

This is one of the most important things that should be done in any business. However, in the beauty business, it’s often one of the most neglected. Knowing, and more importantly, understanding your numbers, means you will see problems heading your way before disaster happens.

As a business coach, I encourage my clients to take time out to actually read and understand the extremely valuable reports their software programs can generate. These reports can often pinpoint problems with staff productivity, rostering, retail and service sales, client attraction and retention plus so much more.

So, if you’re in the habit of using your computer software simply as a point-of-sale system and a way to send appointment reminders, it’s time to jump in and discover just how much valuable information you can access. It’s all at your fingertips and available with just a few button presses.

Knowledge is power and knowing your figures gives you a great deal of power.

Successful people understand the difference between revenue and profit.

This is a truly powerful and important point. Many salon owners are led to believe (by would-be gurus) that increasing revenue (sales) will automatically increase profits.

This is often not the case.

To give you an example, if a salon chooses to drop the price of their facials from $90 to $45 (50% discount), they’re most likely going to generate lots of additioanl revenue. New and old clients will surface to enjoy tyour fantastic low-priced facials.

Revenue will inevitably increase as clients arrive and depart the salon in droves. The only problem is that the extremely popular $45 facial actually costs $55 in product, consumables and labour to deliver.

What this means is that every single facial delivered is actually increasing your expenses and not generating more profit for your business. These extra facial sales could end up costing you a ton of money.

The only way around this is to upsell lots of additional full-priced services (good luck doing that with a client who is only interested in a discount treatment in the first place) or sell lots of retail (ditto).

So the lesson to take from this is that before you jump in and discount your services, in an attempt to increase your revenue (get more sales), be absolutely sure that there is sufficient profit in each sale to help you cover your many other expenses and stay in business.

Naturally, there are numerous other actions that successful people take every day, however the ones discussed in this article are, in my opinion, some of the most important. These are the mistakes I see struggling salon and spa owners make most often and consequently suffer from the outcomes.

So, if you’d like your new year to be wildly more successful that your past years, think about the points discussed and how you can start to implement more success strategies in your business. It really is all up to you!

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

— Jim Rohn

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