What is holding you back from immense success?
“I wish you were around when I had my salon,” I said to Lisa Conway as we discussed salons and their success formulas. “So do I,” she replied. “I learned the hard way.”
Lisa and I met up at Beauty Expo Australia 2015, where we talked about what holds salons back. The secret Lisa has found is that balancing the relationship between time, team, and money is what enables salons to propel forward. If you want more time and money, you need to harness your team, and vice versa.
That really resonated with me. As a salon owner for 20 years, management took up most of my time. I realised that the brand I was trying to develop was only as good as the experience that my worst staff member was delivering to clients!
So how do you harness your team so that all of your efforts go towards building an outstanding brand?
First things first, get off the floor! You need to work on your business as much as you’re working in it. If you’re struggling to make time to run your business and train your team, then create the time by not dealing with customers so much. If your business is judged by the worst staff member you employ, you’d better pay attention to team and make sure they are performing exceptionally. That weight can’t always rest on your shoulders.
Invest your time in training yourself and your team in excellence.
Educated staff will feel more confident in coaching clients on styles and products that will suit them. You’ll spend less time motivating your team to increase sales since it’ll be part of their client conversations naturally. What if you educate and they leave, you ask? What if you don’t educate and they stay?
Delegate to your team to gain that valuable time required to run your business.
Once you’ve trained your staff, you can start giving them tasks that you’d otherwise have to do. The key to delegation is follow up. What gets noticed gets done. Besides, giving your staff responsibility will make them feel empowered.
What are you doing differently?
If you don’t want to be in the same place you are today next year, you have to do something differently. Once you’ve harnessed your team and things are running smoothly, the next thing to shift your focus to is your numbers.
This is where software can come in to help you. Years ago, I was doing my numbers in messy spreadsheets that made my head hurt. Naturally, I avoided that folder on my computer like the plague.
But today, salon software can track every transaction and customer interaction so that you can measure your success. So when you make changes in your business and the way you manage your clients, check in on your results to see if they are making an impact.
Here are the most important numbers you should be tracking:
- Value of your average client visit
- Number of clients who have a future booking
- Total service sales
- Total product sales to clients
- How many clients are new
- What percentage of new clients make up your total clients
Think about what you want to be doing this time next year. Write it down and work your way backward to where you are right now. Ask yourself how much you need to increase every month to achieve your goal.
It will be hard, but you can do it. And if you need a helping hand along the way, subscribe to our blog (below!) We are always giving you helpful tips, like how to deal with drama in the workplace or how to sell out your product stock. Get amongst!
