We are facing a global pandemic right now called the Coronavirus and several hairstylists are panicking with a ton of time on their hands. Here are some productive things you can do during this time!
First of all, I want to start out by first acknowledging that despite how terrified many of you are for our industry, we will get through this. Nobody knows yet how big this will become but the beauty industry has seen big economic recessions in the past and we will again.
Before you decide to drop your business completely because of, simply the unknown, first take a deep breath and remember that you are a resilient human being. You can and will get through this.
Will this season be hard? Yes it will.
Will you be alone? HELL NO!
Everybody is feeling it but this is where you find out the difference between being a potato and being an egg…
The same boiling water, softens one and hardens the other.
BE THE EGG!
It’s been a couple of days for a lot of us since we found out our doors will be suddenly closing due to a shelter in place order from our cities.
Am I the only one that’s been in dire need of a vacation and immediately said, UNIVERSE….this is not what I meant!!!
In these couple days I’m sure some of you had a couple realizations about our own personal coping mechanisms and who we are down to our core. That’s great! Write this down. The things you have been doing, and ask yourself if you like these habits of yours and if they are a productive way to spend your next 2-3 week.
For most of US the answer is no.
Making the decision to not spend your next couple of weeks doing something that makes you feel not your best is what is going to “Harden you” and get you through this tough time.
Now that you have made the decision, it’s time to get to work!
There are many things you can do to up your productivity. The choice of what put your energy into is totally up to you and what you feel like you need. I am choosing to split my days up into 3 categories.
Self-care
Work for salon
Income
You know I love my lists. I made a big HUGE list of every single thing I want or could do and then organized it down into these categories.
The first one is almost like a bad word these days. It hurt a little typing it. I want to first say this can literally be ANYTHING. I do not mean face mask and pedicures, unless that is what you need.
I mean, whatever is going to feed YOUR SOUL!
Pick up a new hobby. Always wanted to learn how to play an instrument, now is the time. Want to write a book? DO it. Want to read a book? GO!
I plan to use this time, working out, testing out some recipes and reorganizing my home. The last 5 weeks before COVID-19 became the only thing we talked about, I was displaced from my apartment due to a fire in the apartment below mine. I had to basically move out for a month and now that I am back home, I have a ton of a little projects I want to work on.
These projects fill me with joy. I put-on some music (The Postal Service has been on repeat for me the last 48 hours) and re-organize the drawers in my bathroom, or pantry. I love it!
Use your self-care time, every day, to do things that you love!
Take your list of goals that you want to complete before heading back into the salon, that are FOR the salon.
You can’t only focus on taking care of yourself and some way of bringing in income because there are things you need to do to get you in the right place mentally and physically before taking clients again. Especially if you are finding yourself panicking right now. If you are panicking it means your business wasn’t prepared for this. You aren’t alone but its a misstep that proves you need to do some work on your business.
I am working on a follow up post that goes deeper into this topic. Snag a copy of my best consultation questions to be added to my email list so you are notified when this post goes live. Hopefully in the next few days!
For me, during this time, what I need to feed my productivity is focus on leveling up of my entire online presence, again. Website, social media platforms, I want to give everything a facelift. It has been about a year since I made any real changes and I can tell my clients aren’t as excited about it as they once were. I want to do some research and figure out what the big trend is in websites right now and make sure mine is hitting the mark.
If you don’t have a website you have complete control over, you should definitely read my post, Why You Should Build and Operate Your Own Salon Website.
Launching a rewards program for the salon and brain storm things that will encourage people to come in after the shelter in place order is lifted is another productivity goal of mine. Not all people but some people will feel this financially and I want to be prepared to bring up a possible solution we can both benefit from.
I also want to do more stretching/yoga at the beginning and end of my day to prepare my body for long days behind the chair and honestly, because this habit needs to be re-ingrained into my life. #nobodyisperfect
Another goal of mine is to continue bringing in some income.
There is a grey area between these two categories. Before you completely write the salon off as a source of income right now, I want to remind you that you can still bring in some money you just have to get a little creative.
It’s time to turn to your people via email and social media and remind them of your online shop. I would add an option to pick up in salon when you return and keep in mind some products may be limited during this time.
I saw a gardening expert on instagram offer 10 minute FaceTime or DM consultations to talk with his clients about their gardening goals. This gave me a brilliant idea….this is a prime opportunity to sell anybody who wants an experts opinion on the products they need via your own online shop or an affiliate shop.
More on affiliate marketing coming soon!
He had added his venmo account and said donations for the consultation accepted but not required.
I asked him a few questions about a plant I have been having issues with and sent him $10.
This could be us!!
You can also sell gift cards, or offer a few of your regulars to prepay for their services now. Keep in mind that both of these will take away from your income in the future a tiny bit. I am not fearful of this because I know during those first few weeks we will be busier than normal with all of our clients trying to get in at the same time. Hence needing to prepare your body for longer days!
Removing us from the salon again…There is a lot of money out in the world to be made online and I want to share a few of those ways with you here.
All of these are mini gigs that you can do on your own time and with absolutely zero experience or skills needed before hand. None of them are in our industry. Remember this kind of work is work. You may not want to sit and review a website when the time comes but if you haven’t been prepared for this kind of an economic recession(don’t worry, not many of us have), then this is what you might need to do just to survive.
Here are some websites offering online work:
https://thesmartcrowd.lionbridge.com
https://www.voices.com/thankyou/guest
https://www.decluttr.com/start-selling/
https://www.workingsolutions.com
These are no where near all of the places online that you can make some money on but I hope you have gotten some ideas that could help you get started bridging the gap in your finances.
If you think of another resource, share it in the comments below so we can go and check it out.
This is not a time for competition with each other, this is a time of coming together as a community to keep the light of all hairstylists bright.
Thank you so much for being one of the leaders in our industry by staying calm and remembering that there will be a next day behind the chair and you have control over what that day looks like!