Mini Moment #13: How to Grow Your Salon Without Working More Hours

Transcript

Welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon Rising, the podcast mini moments brought to you by Timely. Oh, hey there. Hi man. How you doing?

What mini moment topic have you got for us to discuss today? I thought we would do How to Grow Your Salon without working More Hours.

Oh, friend. If you can tell me how to do that, I will very much appreciate you. There are obviously the ones that we know. Yeah, there are retail, like the S. The S, yeah. Retail, rebooking, revenue. Yeah. But I think some of the important things for me is really looking at your, appointment books a little bit more wisely.

So we're talking like optimization, right?

Optimization, yeah. Okay. Of your salon I think, allows your revenue to grow in a way that you are like, oh. Because at the end of the day, if you are optimizing your appointment book, yeah. You potentially get another booking in that day. That's. Over a week that's $2,000. Yeah, absolutely. If you're doing that once or twice a day.

So I definitely think the optimization of how you run an appointment book is important. It's, you know, on top of that, it's all the little extra services. It's the treatment menus. It's like, and we've done that now, so we have. To try and get things a little bit more optimized. For us, we have like a little menu that people fill out, but on there it talks about treatments 'cause I feel like so often it was something that was being missed with my team because we just don't wanna kind of be constantly putting things on people. But now it's on there and they can tick if they want something. Yes, they can tick if they want retail and they wanna have that conversation, like, and that's really nice because it takes away that feeling that it's an offer.

Yes. That you can choose to take or not? Yes. You know, like it's not, whereas I feel that sometimes where people get sticky on it. Yeah. 'cause they're like, I don't know if they want it. Yeah. I feel a bit uncomfortable asking if they want this. Like, I don't know if they want it, but we don't get funny when we go to a restaurant and someone says, do you want dessert?

And you say no. Yeah. Would you like sparkling water or still water? Or tap water? Yes. Yeah. Like they don't get uncomfortable. They're just like, what do you want? Do you want something? So it's the same when it comes to treatments, a retail like, do you want this? If you don't, yeah, that's okay.

But do you want it, it needs to be a question. It's do you want us to recommend? And the other day, funny enough, someone I, it says, would you like to be recommended personalized haircare? And it says, yes, please, or no thank you. And someone made their own little box and wrote Always, Aw. So I was like, as much as you'll have people that say never.

You will also have the always people. Yeah. And you know, retail is a massive one and it's something that I'm not forever focused on with my team. I love retail, but I also, you know, it's like telling your children to pick up wet clothes off the floor. Sometimes you just go tell 'em 45,000 times and feel like, and they still won't pick them up and they still don't do it.

Think, think it can be like that with retail at points. So I'm not always that, like, that's not my full main focus, but it's like, how can we optimize? The clients that are in our chair. Yeah. You know, how are we making sure that we are charging instead of, you know, if someone hasn't come in for six months, you shouldn't be charging for a two month regrowth.

Yeah. You need to be charging that extra 30 to $40 for the bigger regrowth because you are using more product. You know, if someone's having it roots to ends, you absolutely need to be charging more. If someone's having a root shadow, you need to be zone toning and charging for different zones. Yeah, it's, and it's not ripping people off, it's.

Doing what they actually want. You don't go and get a facial and they throw in all of these extras for you. For free. For free. Yeah. It's giving you what you need. And it's the same when it comes to your appointment book. So optimizing how you book appointments, because this is a huge one that we see a lot.

Right? Because there's people that, there's lots of people that are like, we will only do one person at a time. Yes. And then like, I don't do one person at a time because I don't charge as much as the people that do one person as at a time. Yes. Like you can do that. Yep. But I, it was the same with when obviously, 'cause I do a lot of nano plasty and there's someone who does them just up the road that she charges twice what I do.

Yep. But no one else. We're just like, I've got an hour in the middle, I'm totally gonna do someone else. And then you don't have to pay as much. Yes. Yeah. And I think that's really important. Yeah. For anyone that's listening, that's doing one-on-one clients, if you are not charging for the hour, that you are not working on them. Yeah. Then you are losing. And if your client's paying for that service, they're like, oh, I wanna pay 'cause I just wanna be with you for that full service. And you don't go to anyone else. That's fine, but they have to pay for that premium. Yeah. It's the same with us. We now have the Moroccan oil 10 minute color, which I absolutely adore.

But now we don't book someone in between. No, no. I just do like one block and do the whole thing. Yes. And it's so efficient for us. I love it. It's so efficient for us, but. Then it's still priced higher Yeah. Than a normal tint for us because we still have to make sure that that 15, 20 minutes is accountable, or that 15 minutes is accountable for 10 to 15 minutes so that it's priced slightly higher.

Yeah. But the clients love it 'cause they're in and out so much faster and it makes us work more efficiently. Yeah. So it can't just be the basic things like re we know rebooking is important, but like. Not necessarily. I don't rebook for the small appointments. I don't rebook haircuts. I don't rebook. Oh, see, I do I don't, oh, I do when the client really wants it, but I don't put so much emphasis on it. For me, I book the big stuff first. Having said that, I do a lot of haircuts and people pay a lot for me to cut their hair, but that's the difference. Yeah. Our salon it's way more color focused. Yeah.

Um, so then for us, I'm like, book this up first with our bigger appointments, and then the other appointments can kind of go in with them and being okay, and this is like a, this is a hard point for people, but if there is a color appointment and someone books online a blow dry, I'm okay with saying no to that. Blow dry. Yeah. Okay. I'm okay saying, no, I'm not taking a $90 blow dry. Because they've taken a space that can be a color cut and blow dry. Yeah. Okay. And no, that to people would sound hard, but at the end of the day, that's what working smarter and not harder is, yeah, I'm not going to, if I have an hour and then an like, so say for example,

I have a 9:00 AM free. I've got a 10:00 AM with a half a head. So then I would have the 11 o'clock free. So you could do something either side of that? Yeah. So I could do a half head or a full head being assisted with it by another stylist and a cup blow dry. If someone books a blow dry at 9:00 AM Yeah.

I'm quite confident in saying no online. I'm like, I'm really sorry. I can do a three. Yeah. 'cause a three, nothing else can fit. See, I suppose it's different 'cause my blow drys get booked with my babies. With your babies. I don't have babies. I've seniors. Yeah. So for me, I would rather bigger appointments, less people than smaller appointments.

More people in the salon? Yeah. Okay. Because it makes our salon hectic if we do that. So it's better for us to have two big color jobs. And then it doesn't feel, and obviously the girls assist each other and things like that, but that's how we work a little bit smarter so that instead of taking the more clients in that we need, it takes less.

But then on all focus, you can see where we're focused on our socials. Yeah. You can see that that's the way we go. But it's a way for us to make more without working as hectic. Because back in the day, no, I took everything down to the kitchen sink. If you wanted your Brazilian waxed, I'm pretty sure I could work it out out I could do it in 15 minutes. Oh no, that's so funny. So it's trying to work out how to work more efficiently. Yeah. With still giving the customer service you need to give. Yeah. We're still giving the experience that you need to give with making sure that you are charging appropriately for all of those things.

So all of those things are being covered. But like we said, if you are doing one-on-one service, you actually, so if you need to make 130 an hour, for example, in your salon for you to make profit, and if you don't know these numbers, I can't say it any more than know them. Then you need to know your numbers so if it's $130 an hour, you actually have to charge that client. Yes, the 130 in the middle that you're not doing anything because. That hour is being wasted a couple of times a day. Yeah. And you could be getting a haircut in there and then you are working smarter. Yeah. Less hours. I always, you know, the days that I'm here, I work 12 hours on a Thursday, bet your bottom dollar in the amount of clients that are in that day. Without, with still giving the service that I give to everybody with still being me, but I can really make sure that I am making the maximum out of that day outta that time and giving the most I can possibly give to my clients because I would rather work one really big day and make good money out of it than work, three days I am old and tired and would absolutely prefer to do the three days. See? Yeah. I can't, I have too many kids. Yeah. Like I the same as like, I work on Saturdays now because I just can't do two late nights. It's too much. Yeah. I am so tired. I do one, I after one late night, I only, it's crazy when you have little ones, like my team are just like, I'm like.

I can't do this shit anymore. My body's tired. It is tired. It's tired. I need to sleep on a Friday because I'm tired from working 12 hours. Yeah. But it's like these things you need to think on. It's how can you be smarter with how you are booking, with how things look. Yeah. And yet, if you have to be okay saying no to a 70 or $90 blow dry.

Yeah. To, in order to get a $400 color in. And you just have to be smarter with that. That's why rebooking is important. Yeah. Because if it's already rebook, because then you know what you've got and you can just book the other things in. And if you have online bookings, so if we have, we have online bookings and.

I just, I mark that time out. So if I see a nice big gap where the girls could fit a color, and I know I could book that color, I just book it in as an appointment, but it says like, can be a client. Yeah. So that no one can book that online. Yes. For a haircut or a blow dry, because I know that's a really good color space.

Yeah. So just like one of your top things is just optimizing your appointment book. You know, just really making sure that that appointment book is booked how you want it to book. Yeah. So that you know you're making enough money in that day rather than lots of little scattered things. Yeah. Yeah. 100%.

That's our little nugget of wisdom for today, guys. Yep. I hope you've enjoyed this many moment. Thanks. Get out and optimize.