” Time is what we want most,but what we use worst.” -William Penn
Lack of time is a constant challenge facing salon owners. We all also know the keys to owning a successful and profitable business and still have a family life requires a lot of time and hard work. In today’s challenging economy time management will play a major role in your efforts in developing powerful business management skills and grow a successful and profitable business. Learning to work smarter,not harder will be a good start.
The question I am asked over and over by salon owners is how do I find time to develop my business skills and still work behind the chair 10-12 hours a day.
Unfortunately most salon owners must wear many hats. Everything from marketing and promoting their salons, training and educating their team, hiring the right people, combating staff turnover and the list goes on and on.
The following tips will help you in combating time restraints:
Organization and Structure – The easiest way to find more time is to get yourself and your salon organized. Manage your business instead of your business managing you. Make sure you develop a business plan of action so you can monitor the progress of your salon. My book Creating Your Salon will be extremely helpful. Click here
Time management — take some classes in time management. As they say time is money. Focus your attention on important tasks such as training your team, recruiting and training young talent etc.
Seek Out Help— seek out education from people that offer educational programs, especially from successful people who have a great amount of real world experiences. Help is available, learning by trial and error is just too costly.
Delegate — don’t try to do everything yourself. Develop your salon coordinator who will be your right arm. A salon coordinator can be invaluable in helping you save time. Have one of your stylists serve as your director of education. You might want to add a graphic artist, copywriter, or a social media consultant that can manage your social media program. My book Growing Your Business has a chapter on how to select your salon coordinator.
Employee Handbook — how can you expect your staff to perform if they don’t know your expectations and how they will be measured? An employee hand book will help eliminate many of your time wasting efforts in managing people.
Resources — seek out educational resources that will help you find solutions to many of the challenges of salon ownership. There are plenty of resources available to help you run a successful business.
In these challenging times, you must learn to save time and use it wisely. I do hope these tips will help ease the heavy duties and responsibilities of owning a success and profitable business. Help is available; my educational programs will save you time and money. It took me 45 years to figure this all out, you may want to take the easy way out and make your journey easier than mine. Click Here