Mini Moment #2: Why Working On Your Business Matters More Than You Think

Transcript

 Welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon Rising, the podcast mini moments brought to you by timely.   I'm joined again by the lovely Sherri . Hey, Sherri.

How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

amazing.

Excellent. I love that. So guys this mini moment we are going to have about the importance of working on your business. Now, it's easy to make excuses that you don't have time to work on your business. If you work for yourself and by yourself. Right. But I suppose it's trying to get away from that mindset of If you just keep working more, it doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna end up making more. Right.

Mm-hmm. Correct.

what are your thoughts on this one?

, It sounds so cliche and it's let's work smarter, not harder.

Yeah.

I believe in that so, so much. And there's just so many elements to that. And I think the things that fall under that, working smarter, not harder means making sure that you have the allocated time that it takes for you to do your services.

Your services are also, charge correctly. You are charging what you are worth. And I think what I also see come up quite often is that no one has worked out what even their hourly rate is.

Yeah.

so. I would always, and, and what the product costs and have you calculated every single thing to a tea, like I'm talking, even your shampoo should be calculated

Mm-hmm.

and how many pumps and, and all of those kinds of things in the salon.

It is so, so, so important to do that. And it might sound like your fickle, but you have to have a good idea of what things cost and then that's where you're gonna profit in your business and start working smarter, not harder, and.

have to have the time to find the information, to get this knowledge so that you can work smarter, not harder. Right.

Correct. And I think what's also really important is your product companies, your software. Like there's information out there that's gonna help guide you to help you better understand that part of your business.

See, we have spreadsheets as part of our Salon Rising program, so I collect a lot of information about this kind of thing.

Yeah.

In that area, is there stuff to collect that information? In my software?

Yes, you can track a lot of your costs. So when I say by your costs, that would be making sure that you are tracking a lot of the product. So you've got professional product, you've got your retail product, and making sure that you are scanning out.

Your professional products and also doing your orders through timely. I always say that this is the most correct way, so you can see what's going out and then what's coming in in terms of stock. You can also set your stock levels and you can also see what it'll notify you when a product's also low.

Yeah. Okay.

you have to set up all those levels correctly and it will work for you.

And again, it's one of those things that not everyone sits down and does. And I think people get deterred at the fact that they're like, oh, I have to upload every product in there. No, reach out to us and we'll actually upload the spreadsheet into your system,

Yeah.

you need to do is just pop your levels in your ideal levels.

Which you'll have an ideal level, and then you'll have a out of stock level so that when the products are going through the system, you'll know exactly where it's at. The other great thing is you can also see where the products are going. So I will use a perfect example of this because I remember I.

Managing quite a lot of salons at one point, and we had product that was like going missing and I was like, why have all these masks all of a sudden sold? Like, why is the shelf looking so bare? So I went back, ran a report and I'm like. They haven't even been put through the system, so that meant that they had been stolen essentially, right?

So you can see who sold the product, what day, where it moved, and there's quite a lot of data that you can track via stock, and that's really helpful if you have a lot of stock and especially for a hair salon. You've got color, you've got retail, like there's so many moving parts and you gotta track it.

And it's good to know, like you can see things seasonally as well. Especially, come Christmas we know stock goes up, but like you might be doing more darker tones in winter. Like you can actually see what's trending in your business in terms of what's being used most at certain times.

So I think that that's super helpful in that sense in terms of tracking financials, it's just good to see what you're spending out.

Yeah.

And also what the cost of your orders are as you're doing them.

100%. And I think that that's one of the places that if you're busy and you're on your own and you're like, oh, you know, I'll just quickly order this, I'll just quickly order that and yeah, just quickly

You will end up spending like however many dollars. It's the same when you go to the supermarket. I don't know about anybody else, but I go to the supermarket, especially in this climate that we are in. I'll be like, I just need to go get toilet paper. There is no way I'm walking in there and I'm buying toilet paper.

I'm walking out with chocolate. Whatever's on special. So I've actually banned myself from doing in-person grocery shopping, and I, yeah, I'm on a complete ban. So what I do now is I do it online and I go and pick it up and I can see exactly what I'm spending. And that's been like my biggest financial hack as a single girl owning a home.

I, yeah, I preach by that and I just wanna see what's going on

That is very clever.

Same applies for Salon on Sundries as well, like buying things for your clients and just staying on top because everybody buys the treats and the coffees and all that and it's like, that's cool. Are you tracking how much that actually costs you? Have you sat down and looked and are you like, no, we're not charging clients for it, but you still need to be charging enough to warrant how much that costs.

correct. Especially if you're doing cocktails and all the bouie stuff like that stuff's expensive and I just, anything that you can visually see what you are doing is going to benefit you. It's like online shopping. If we think about, we go into iconic and we are like, oh, there's like 40% off next minute I've.

Filled my cart, but I'm gonna second guess myself because I'm like, oh God, that's X, Y, Z. But if we went into a store, we are not gonna add up every item before we go to the checkout. I mean, some you might, but I definitely don't. So then next minute, I've spent X, Y, Z. So I feel like the biggest hack of life is just seeing what it is before you've gone and spent it.

And you might second guess yourself a little bit.

Yeah, for sure. so what are other things we want people to be thinking about when we're saying, okay, I want you to spend time on your business. Let's think of what other things we would include in that. For me, I would include social media.

Definitely, and it's just putting that time aside, like committing to that one day a month.

Yeah.

day that I, that is one thing that I know that I didn't do when I first started. I was all about just filling my books and getting things done, and then everything just compacted down and I'm like, no, I actually need to have one.

It can be one day a week and whether or not that's filled for a content day, one day admin day for this, but it's just like planning and thinking ahead as much as you can. So just making the time, first of all. And I think too social media, 100%. It's just a big part of our business now and it's not ever gonna change.

Yeah.

I. So you also need to find ways to embrace that part of your business and find the ways that work for you. And I had a really great conversation the other day with a social media agency in the hair industry. And like she had some just beautiful things that she was just kind of sharing around, making that time, asking for help.

Yes.

you know, it's a creative part too. So hairdressers are so creative, yet sometimes struggle within creating content,

Absolutely.

like you could just take a photo of the hair and post it. Like it is actually a tangible thing. But I also think what's happened with social media, we've become real heavy.

Everything's reels and the labor involved in creating reels is a lot harder than creating a photo. And someone posted the other day actually about what's happened to all the good haircut photos,

Oh yes, I totally agree. Yeah,

We need to start making things a little easier and start re, let's start posting photos more than reels and so that it's still some content.

Yeah, but again, I feel like. We've been speaking about this actually within Salon Rising as a business as well, and realizing that we hadn't been allowing enough time for like the creative process. You

Hmm.

need that time and space away from the day. You know, like being in the grind to, really get those creative juices flowing.

And that's where all the ideas come. So if we don't allow that space, and I know that I've been guilty of it as well. I think, but I, I do think in that foundational time you have to just pack everything in, but like now that everything's sort of hitting it stride, it's like right. Need to, you know, set aside a day for admin.

And it can be that it's a content day or an admin day or a meet with my accountant day, or it might might just be a day that I don't do anything

And I was,

okay as well.

I was about to say that I think even though I'm not in salon anymore, I still have to have so much creative elements to my job at Timely, and I. I still struggle sometimes to get my mind and put the time aside because I'm sending emails and I'm doing this and doing that. And something that I've had to question myself lately is what do I need right now to get into that creative space?

Yeah. Yeah.

And sometimes it's like just going for a walk and putting a podcast on or music. I find music actually helps me be creative and just like step to get that flow because creativeness needs to have flow. And you have to figure out what helps the creativeness when you need to do it,

Yeah, agreed.

and inspiration.

It's finding things that inspire you. I know I need that a lot. I love being inspired by others. So I will maybe find some cool things on YouTube or, you know, a podcast or something like that just to help keep the creativeness going and that inspiration because. Inspiration helps that creative part of our brain as well.

It's funny you say music like I'm the opposite. I actually need complete silence and then all of a sudden things will start pop. Sam and I. Went through this phase where we were like, silent car rides, and it's so good. Like, oh my gosh, the ideas that I have in a silent car ride, or like, really making that conscious effort to occasionally walk completely silent.

Mm

I'm not listening to anything. And I find that really hard because I have a very busy brain, but that okay, just need a little bit of silence and to get the creativity flowing again.

hmm.

Finding that thing that. Just lights the fire for you,

Absolutely. And you just gotta figure out what works for you and try some different things. I will say the whole silence part, I get it in the shower, I.

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, my notepad that I have in the shower, it's the best.

Do you have a notepad in the shower?

I do. Yeah.

That is a really clever idea.

it sticks and it's got this pencil and you just write on it and you can erase on it. And yeah, I call it my shower thoughts. And I've always said that my dream house will have a seat, like a bench in the shower, so I could just sit there.

Well, it's scientifically proven that when water hits our bodies. Right. Our whole body literally goes into our rest and digest. It's this automatic like, ah,

Yeah.

and everything flows to us. And there's also the sound of the water and yeah, cause I went down this, I, I heard it on a podcast about shower thoughts, and I went down a rabbit hole and I was like.

That is so true. And then I jumped onto Amazon and found like this whole world full of shower notepads.

Leaves conversation to go and buy shower notepad.

There used to be a

the shopping list.

No, you should. You should. There used to be a company called Shower Mate, and then they closed and they were Australian and then they closed down and then I went down a rabbit hole and found a US based one. And you just order them on Amazon.

Okay. definitely gonna get one of those. I there, there's definitely something power powerful about that to reset in the shower. I know like yesterday I'd had like just one of those funky days in the salon and I rang Sam on the way home and I was like, oh, I just feel a bit shit and flat.

Actually. She's like right home. Lights off candle on shower, like, okay, I'll do that. Like, but it does, it's

Yep.

I'm gonna wash it away. Just get, you know, like reset digest as you say. Like just, yeah, all the sensory things and just start fresh. And sometimes I think , if people are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, a good, it's like, okay, we are not saying that you have to and do an hour's meditation to spend time away from your business. just have a, you know, a conscious shower.

Let's take a.

Yeah. She, Sherri, snug it to always. And then take three deep breaths.

I love that so much.

it's true. And I think, when we are prioritizing that time to work on our business, it's reassuring ourselves that, and, and I think as physical, like it's because our job is physical,

Yeah.

It, it's really hard to get your mind around the fact that the things that you are doing when you're not necessarily doing something are still making money for your business.

Oh, totally. And we almost need to just continuously remind ourselves of that because we all, you know, nothing comes from an empty cup. It really doesn't. So the rest is gonna help fill all of that up and we get the guilt. I get it. It's, it's this feeling that we get in our body that just, we can't, we, we get the guilt if we're slowing down or we are resting.

But you have to

and I, I think it is not even just the slowing down and resting, I think, you know, like allowing that time to build your website have it really good, you know, like, and think, okay, I'm putting this work in so that that touch point for my clients coming to me is gonna be really good. The things that we are doing when we are not physically doing, clients are still actually building our business. Taking the time to have a meeting with your accountant so that you're not freaking out about, what you need to do because you understand it.

Like you've, you've had that phone call, you know where you're at and it's just becomes a little bit more seamless. So. , I notice this even not from a solo perspective, but know, with Salon on Coordinators and stuff now for people who've got teams and just not losing sight of the value that that person, that's not necessarily doing a client is bringing to your business.

Totally. I remember having a salon coordinator in the salon and she was like, God

Yeah.

just made all the moving parts, and they are like, they're worth their weight in gold.

Yeah, and I think sometimes if we can relate it to that, that if we had a team, we would feel comfortable with adding those extra things in because there's other things that need doing.

Yeah,

we still need to allow ourselves that time to do that. Otherwise, we're gonna burn out.

Right.

absolutely 100%. And burnout is not a vibe.

Burnout is definitely not a vibe. I just need to keep telling myself that

Please don't get there. Don't hit the burnout stage.

know.

I feel we test ourselves to see what burnout might feel like. And I know that sounds really weird, but we don't know we're about to hit burnout until we're in it. And that's like a life skill that that part of our ourselves, because we have this way that we trick ourselves and we're like, yeah, we'll be right, we'll be right.

And then next minute we are like in bed. Correct. And we have this thing where we test it, like just dip our feet in just a little bit and just just see if that that's, that'll be okay. And it's recognizing the signs before the burnout. And I feel like the signs are the cloudiness.

Yeah.

a cloudiness that starts to kind of come over us and we say yes more than no.

Yep. I'm talking to you

I.

and we are so tired that we are going to bed at nine or o'clock, which is like 8:00 PM Yeah,

Oh no,

that is,

don't go to bed at all.

they are the three signs on the way to burnout

Yeah.

That is you take a step back, go put, lock yourself up in a Airbnb for a weekend and go recharge.

Yes, definitely

Hmm.

that into the diary as well.

Yes, yes. Or like go to a spa. I went and had 90 minute sauna the other week, 90 90 minute massage, hour sauna. Best thing I ever did.

I don't, I don't think I could last an hour in the sauna.

I say that too, but then I get in there and I, you talk about sitting with yourself, like, I do that in the sauna, and I was like, this is amazing. I needed a notepad in that sauna. To be honest,

Trademark.

I.

Yeah. okay. I think we have hit our quota for many moments on that one. Guys, I hope that you have taken inspiration to find time to work on your business and not just in your business. And yeah, maybe have a so known, don't get burnt out.

Get, just get hot in the sauna. That can be the version of burnout. The good burnout, getting hot in the sauna.

like literally

Yeah.

out. And in the words of Sherri, take three deep breaths. Alright guys, thank you so much for joining us with for this mini moment and we will be back again soon. Goodbye.