Is your salon a little average?
I’m not talking about your decor, treatments or customer service, but about your ability to generate a constant, healthy profit.
Your profit is the one thing that keeps you doing what you love and paying the bills.
Salon owners are generally very hard workers; often the hardest workers in their own businesses.
So it’s not lack of hard work that holds them back, it’s lack of knowledge.
Not the kind of knowledge that’s required to deliver a treatment, but the knowledge that helps them grow and manage a business.
Becoming a better salon business owner.
Once you swap your employee hat for a business owner’s hat, it’s imperative that you dedicate yourself to becoming as good at growing your business, as you are at delivering an advanced treatment.
It’s no longer enough to be able to deliver cutting edge treatments.
Now, you must also know how to turn those treatments into enough profit to sustain your salon or spa in the long term.
Simply doing what you love, and doing it well, won’t cut it.
You must not only be eager and willing to learn a brand new skill set, but also to dedicate a very large part of your time to implementing, monitoring, and measuring proven business strategies.
Welcome to the completely alien life of the business owner!
If you’re able to do this, your business has a better than average chance of thriving in the long term.
However, if you want to just stick with looking after salon clients, I can guarantee you’re going to struggle to grow.
Building an amazing business does take passion, but not only for delivering amazing treatments.
So are you ready to tackle something new?
Then let’s take a closer look at what’s required.
The 6 Step Salon Business Growth Formula.
Step 1. Attract lots of prospects.
Step 2. Convert them into clients.
Step 3. Get your clients to return more often.
Step 4. Get each client to spend more at each visit.
Step 5. Increase your profit margins.
Step 6. Minimise your expenses.
It seems pretty straightforward when you look at it like this, but each step is made up of many strategies that you need to implement, maintain, monitor, and adjust regularly.
And this takes time. Your time.
You’re the boss, and although you can (and should) delegate lots of things, you can’t delegate this.
Only you can make those important decisions that determine how your business operates, and you can’t do this if the only time you have available is when a client cancels an appointment.
Get Started
So, the first step in moving from average to awesome is to free up some time to work on your business.
Set aside time every week to simply work on implementing and reviewing important strategies around the 6 Step Business Growth Formula that will help you turn your business around.
Never leave the important decisions about how your business is going to run to someone else, because eventually, those people move on, and then who’s going to run your business?
I can hear you saying, ‘But how much time will I need?”, and the answer to this question is “How quickly do you want to reach Awesome?”
The fact is that the more time you invest in working on your business, the faster you’ll see the results.
Some salon owners have a fairly full appointment book, and if this is you, then begin by blocking out 4 hours a week as a minimum.
As old clients leave, don’t replace them with new ones in your column. Instead, book them in with your other team members and grab that extra time for your “boss jobs”.
Eventually, as you work more on your business rather than in it, your business will become more profitable.
Seek Clarity
Be clear about the fact that you don’t know what you don’t know.
If things aren’t going the way you want them to, then you need to make changes.
But change for change’s sake isn’t the right thing to do either.
It’s no use jumping out of one pot of boiling water into another pot of boiling soup.
If you don’t have the knowledge you need to make the right decisions, then get some help.
Chances are you became a business owner because you are fantastic at delivering the hands-on skills of your trade.
Unfortunately, these are not the skills you need to run a successful salon.
Yes, they help you to understand the needs of your business, but being a great therapist or hairdresser does not guarantee you will have a financially successful salon.
Be Realistic
Be realistic about the time it will take to turn your business around.
Taking a failing business and turning into a profitable one, doesn’t happen in a few days, weeks or even months.
Experience has taught me that you need to look at between 12 and 18 months to see the results of the changes you make.
Don’t try something once, or for just a short period of time, and when you don’t see miraculous results, just give up on it.
If the strategy is sound and proven, stick with it and give it a chance to work for you.
Turn Knowledge Into Action
How many times have you read a great business book or attended a fantastic training session, felt pumped to the max and then did absolutely nothing with what you’d learned?
Probably more often than you want to admit.
If you want to see changes take place in your business…
If you want to have more profit in your bank account…
If you want to move your business from average to awesome…
Then you must train yourself to take action when a great idea comes your way.
Get into the habit of writing things down. I recommend a desk diary.
This way nothing gets forgotten. It’s been committed to paper and always there for you to review and action.
Prioritise your great ideas and do the stuff that will make the biggest difference.
Don’t waste your time on the little, easy time-wasting jobs that will fill your day but not your bank account.
You know the difference between the two so don’t kid yourself you’re being productive if you’re just being busy.
Give yourself permission to be more successful.
You can be a great person and still make a healthy profit.