Salon studio success is strongly determined by your ability to
The salon I worked in before I opened my salon studio was like bootcamp for this type of business. Everyday when we went in for a day of work, this weeks goals were immediately thrown in our faces.
A list of our clients for the day with 3 numbers at the bottom. If it was your first day of the week you would see your total numbers from the week before. If it was any day after that you would see how your week is going as it is progressing. We were taught how to figure out our numbers on our own just in case there was ever a discrepancy.
That’s some pretty awesome business skills to pass on and the kind of honesty that I love having in our industry!
I immediately wanted to adapt this to my new business because I knew it was a big part of the success I had seen at this previous salon. Problem was, I would later find out, my business was SO different than what I was used to the system would need to be tweaked a little to be effective.
At the end of week 1 in my salon studio everything was going great.
At the end of month 1, I felt the same.
Unfortunately though, by the end of month 2 and 3 everything seemed to be falling apart, including the idea I had in my mind of seamlessly falling into an easy business that would run itself with the conveniences of technology today.
I mean, am I the only one that sort of thought it might be possible?! No effort needed at all ever just an endless stream of my dream clients pouring into my salon studio?
You see, with the help of different apps and salon software our clients can almost do everything we need them to do. They book their own appointment, the booking system sends them a reminder and at the end of the appointment auto generates an emailed receipt to the address the client already put on file.
Once you have all of your info put into the system the ability to turn the paperwork side of our salon studio on auto pilot becomes a temptation that many stylists fall victim to. Now, if you read my post from a few weeks ago How To Set Your Salon’s Website On Semi-Automatic you’re probably a little confused right now.
Yes, I am totally a fan of this system but you cannot forget about it for months and months without paying it any attention as I explained in that post. You can use these tools as assistance but you still have to set it up and monitor it from time to time.
If you haven’t read it yet give it a few minutes because there is some great advice in there that has freed up so much of my time while still maintaining a really strong customer experience!
Let’s get back to this uphill battle of running a salon studio. What like owning a salon is hard?! Lol. (I hope you read my sarcasm, if you haven’t caught on yet sarcasm is sort of my thing.)
The types of goals that my previous salon had laid out weren’t perfectly
Now, I am a salon owner. There for my goals are those of a salon owner AND a hair stylist. Yes, those goals of how many clients came in that week that were referrals vs new or haircuts vs color matter but what mattered, even more, was what my customers experience every single time they interact with me or the business.
How they found their way into my chair and why they will or will not come back to see me again.
At the end of the day my goals were to be growing!
This may all seem very overwhelming. I have spoken to many salon studio owners who do not want to talk about this stuff and if you weren’t prepared for or interested in doing this side of the business you may be wanting to run.
I hope you don’t. I hope you see that it isn’t THAT hard or something that has to cost you that much money. You just need a little organization!
In order to Identify your salon studio’s business weaknesses you are going to have to look at your salon objectively. You have to be your toughest critic.
Walk yourself through a visit.
Start from the absolute beginning and go until the very end. Why not imagine keeping in touch with your client after they have left your salon studio. What do you imagine that could be like?
How do your clients find you? Online? Are you proud of your online presence? How can this be unleveled to represent your salon studio as the best possible option for your dream client to come to as her home salon?
What does your physical salon say about your brand? When someone comes in to meet you, are you and your salon representing the same brand you have created online?
Are you using the hair products that you 100% stand behind and love? Do you have a mishmash of product lines or constantly changing what you are using?
Are you physically doing the service that your client asked for? Yea, I went there! So many clients say in a consultation that they left their previous stylist to try something new because they weren’t getting what they asked for. Someone out there is doing their clients dirty from time to time and it’s gonna take a hard look in the mirror to recognize it!
Look no hairstylist is perfect. We all make mistakes from time to time. BUT, if you feel like there is a technique you haven’t mastered yet and especially if its something you are trying to specialize in, take some classes. Everyone can get better at something!
There are a ton of different steps of your customer experience and area’s of weakeness your salon studio business could be suffering from. If you haven’t yet read The Salon Customer Journey into your Chair: The Trust Funnel and Raising the Bar: How to give an All-Star Customer Experience this is the perfect time to do so.
As you read the posts or walk through the journey your customers experience when they are going through the process or booking with you and receiving their hair service make a detailed list of the constructive criticism you would give yourself.
Seriously, pull out a couple of pieces of paper and a pen. Make this list as big and as detailed as needed. The more nitpicky you are the better
Break your list up into categories of things that need to be worked on.
Take 4 pages and at the top of each page write out one of these categories until all 4 are assigned a page. On this page you will make this list of improvements you want to make to your salon studio business that fits into this category.
- Physical Salon Tasks
- Digital Issues
- Business Finances
- Personal Development
These categories should be relatively clear when you look at your list but I will quickly explain.
Physical Salon Tasks are things that physically need to be done in the salon. For instance, right now my lights need changing! Lol. Maybe you have been wanting to sprouse up your salon studio decor, deep clean and organize your salon or buy some new shears. Something you physically touch or need to physically do.
Digital Issues are things that you find need to be improved along your customers journey into your chair. Maybe you’ve never really had a logo, or you absolutely hate your website like I used to. Want to create or better oranize your marketing calendar. These items would go in this category.
Finances everyone’s least favorite thing to work on! If money makes you cringe then it is a serious area of possible improvement. Do you know how much you are making? Do you know how much you are spending on your business? Maybe you over mix color or haven’t taken advantage of subletting your space out on your days off. What in your business finances do you want to work on?
Personal Development would be something you do. So the way you speak to your clients, maybe you are an oversharer or an interupter and you know you need to work on this. Maybe you are often
If you are having trouble figuring out what about your customers experience you need to improve, think about a business you frequently visit that you absolutely adore. What it is about that business that you enjoy so much. You could also make an appointment at a salon you look up to. Get a shampoo blow dry and observe how your visit goes. Surely you will come up with a few things to add onto your list after that!
Remember, your list will continue to grow even after you have started checking items off. I know you want me to give you the answers and say here is a list of things that need to be done in order to have a perfect salon studio business. Unfortunately, your salon studio business in unique to you and your vision. What makes Diane’s Salon perfect in her eyes might make Heather cringe!
Now that you have assembled your big lists and broken it up into categories, I want you to re-order the tasks from most difficult to easiest.
This means anything that gives you anxiety or causes you great fear goes at the top and then at the bottom are the easy things that you can do will minimal emotional effort.
If you notice I am talking more about the way you emotionally feel about the task not the amount of money it costs or the physical effort of the task.
Once your list is reassembled, I want you to go in and add a price cost to the task if it has one.
Assign a prediction of how much time each task will take you to complete. Not start, complete!
Aim to get 1 task done per day from the list that is on the quicker side and requires minimal emotional effort. These tasks are something I can get done in a few minutes of down time I usually find myself with at some point in the day. Things like, snapping a quick picture for instagram of the new product I am excited to share with my clients.
Note, we are just taking the picture not posting it. Posting on instagram requires more editing and thoughtful captions then a few minutes between clients gives you.
If you want to totally uplevel your salon studio business you can’t be posting on a public forum without purpose!
Every single week I want you to pick one of the more emotionally difficult tasks for you do complete. Not every task will have the same amount of emotional energy required. Once you get in the habit of doing hard things, the hard things become easier to do. By forcing yourself to do these types of tasks but only once a week you are giving yourself enough time to prepare again.
The thrill of checking boxes off your list will give you the motivation you need to keep going. The harder the task was for you to complete the more exciting checking it off the list feels.
This is a plan that usually works best for me. Sometimes I am super motivated and an overachiever and I do a bunch all in one day and I feel super proud and productive. I never stop myself when I am in these moods because it usually leads to something amazing!
Most of the time though I stick to this schedule and I am constantly aware of what I can be doing to move my salon studio in a forward direction toward my goals!
One task at a time, one day at a time.
I highly recommend you create a plan for your salon studio business to be moving in a forward direction.
I have created easy printable planner pages that are a really great way of integrating the best salon habits into your day easily. These pages also have a checklist including the steps you should be taking every time you post something, whether it be a blog post or a social media post and a place to list your clients of the day, marketing ideas, track your revenue in the salon as well as online and a brain dump section for the days, weeks and months ahead. These instant download printables that are available to you here in my Etsy shop. Check out my entire Etsy shop for tons of great business tools for hairstylists!
Without a real plan your goals are just dreams!