This post was written by Antony Whitaker of growmysalonbusiness.com
I'm sure you've heard the expression “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." It’s usually meant in the context of money, but it's equally relevant in a learning or business development context. Meaning, those who invest the time and effort to learn and grow will become more knowledgable and successful, and those who don’t invest the time and effort to learn and grow will get left behind.
Regardless of the size of your business, the goal should be to build a strong, viable, profitable business. You do that by planning, by training people, by budgeting and putting money aside, by developing marketing strategies and long -term thinking because that's what successful businesses are built on. As an industry, we are notorious for being short-term thinkers—we're always looking for a quick fix.
I’m a hairdresser and I love the hairdressing industry, but, as an industry, we often focus on the wrong things. It’s not until there’s a problem that we start to look at the underlying causes and want a quick-fix solution. But, alas, there are no quick fixes.
Whether you employ two people or 200 people, it is your role as a salon owner to build, nurture and train a team of professionals. It’s a never ending job as employees will come and go, but while they are with you, it's imperative that they are a productive, professional members of your team. It's important to understand that that doesn’t happen by chance, it happens because you have invested the time and resources into making them so.
As I often say, “the key to growing your business is to grow the people in it," and not just to be better at the technical and creative side of hairdressing, but to teach them how to do better consultations, how to up-sell products and services professionally, how to increase their average ticket, how to improve their client retention, how to deliver a better client experience and how to develop long-lasting professional relationships.
When you can do that, then you have a sustainable business, you have well paid stylists and you have clients that are raving fans. Make 2021 the year that you commit to developing the building blocks of creating a sustainable business. Start by registering for the January intake of ‘Super Stylist’ the online course at growmysalonbusiness.com