Hairdressing moving forward

I’ve been a hairstylist for 46 years, I’m still a working stylist and I also help businesses with their marketing. My career has been in top London and international salons. Around 2000 I qualified as a master practitioner of NLP. I decided that I wanted to learn about communication and NLP helped me to do that. I never thought that we would be living through such anxious times, a lot of people think things will never get back to normal and they may be right. I personally think that with massive and consistent action we can stay busy , perhaps even busier. How? Read on

Busier? Now that's a bold claim. But let's chunk that down in to bite sized pieces. Let me ask you some questions

  • How busy was your business pre pandemic?
  • Are you proactive or reactive?
  • do you or did you do any marketing?
  • do you have systems in your business?

In answer to the first point do you test and measure? For example keep a simple record at the front desk. Make a note of every customer you cannot accommodate, what time was it?could you have fitted them in if you tried a bit harder? You might be shocked that a simple change to scheduling can make a huge difference to the turnover of a salon.

It is much better to respond than react, if you are responding to trends with marketing you will generally get busier. However most people react to situations , for example a bill becomes due and you don't have funds. Plan it beforehand in fact plan everything and life becomes smoother and business gets better. That's why marketing is so important, when is the best time to market? Believe it or not when you are really busy! But we don't do that because we get complacent. It's like the old analogy it's easier to find a job when you already have one. Clients want to go to busy salons it says something about you if you are packed to the rafters.

what is your marketing plan? Do you have one. I was talking to a salon owner recently he said "I've tried that marketing and it didn't work" what had he done? One promotion and gave up. You are going to have to hit it from all angles and take consistent action (every day) when you find things that work do them again and again. In reality what sometimes happens is we say "that promotion was really good" and that's it. If it was good do it again!

systemised businesses work better, have a system for everything including marketing. Keep a marketing diary, make a marketing calendar and keep trying new things. I'm always amazed when I help business owners how little they are doing and how a few small changes can make such a massive difference. Cash is king and you can improve your cash flow but it requires work.