You may be asking yourself “what’s the difference?”, but the fact is that being in the beauty business and being in the business of beauty are two vastly different things!

Here’s a quick overview of both…you decide which category you belong to:

Those who are in the beauty business:

  • Generally always arrive first in the morning and leave last at night
  • Have the biggest workload and the most clients
  • Work full-time on the floor delivering services to clients
  • Work well over thirty-eight hours per week (and more than any of their staff members)
  • Have no idea what their services are costing them to provide and therefore don’t know how to market their salon for better profitability
  • Continually search for staff who operate just like they do
  • Believe that without them the business will fall apart
  • Are the last one to take home a pay packet
  • Will never have a saleable business because they ARE the business

Whereas those in the business of beauty:

  • Work realistic hours and are not heading for early burnout
  • Don’t believe they are the only people in the world who can provide a great service to their clients
  • Spend their time doing productive work such as marketing, staff training and developing profitable strategies to take their salons from strength to strength
  • Regularly monitor their business figures and key performance indicators
  • Understand which services provide a worthwhile income to their salons and which don’t
  • Hire staff based on a sound knowledge of skills needed within their salon
  • Are building a saleable business that does not rely on them being the main service provider
  • Make enough money to make it all worthwhile

There are many more differences between the two categories, but I think you may be starting to get the drift.

Which category do you currently belong to and more importantly, which category do you want to belong to in the future?

Many salon owners believe that being great at their craft is all they need to be a successful business owner.

This just isn’t true.  It takes a great deal more.

There is a world full of great service providers out there (just look at all those other salon owners in the beauty business), many of which will fail in their quest to be financially successful.

Being great at the services you provide just isn’t enough to make you successful in the business of beauty.

Running a business requires at least a basic knowledge of good business practices along with the willingness to invest the time and work needed to develop and implement them into your business.

Spending all of your time providing client services will most definitely make your clients very happy but unfortunately, it will most probably cost you the victory you set out to achieve when you started up your salon.

Some business consultants say you need to spend at least twenty percent of your time working on your business, leaving you eighty percent of your time to provide services.

I don’t agree!

Every financially successful salon owner that I have ever met is in the business of beauty first and foremost and spends the majority of their time nurturing the needs of their business and motivating their team.

Whether you have twenty staff or two staff, the same rules apply.

Start to make the time you need to work on your business.

It won’t happen in just a few days or even a few months, but the sooner you make working on your business a priority, the sooner you will begin to move towards having the kind of business you set out to achieve.

A business that will give you not only a great sense of achievement but also the financial freedom you deserve.

You might even find out that your staff can actually make your clients happy too!