Doing December Your Way

By Kerrie DiMattia

Lately I’ve been reading and listening to some really helpful stuff on preparing for our busiest time of the year - DECEMBER!!! And to be truthful I was going to do the same for you here, I had plans to write out a checklist for you and start a little something like this…

“The busy Christmas season has officially started and by the time you are reading this I hope you have your Santa hat ready to go and all your stockings well and truly in a row! In a perfectly organised world, the time to start planning how to survive the Christmas craziness is really no later than September, there is a fair bit of planning that goes into all the “EXTRA-NESS” of December like……. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

WTF…. I was cheating really, listening to and reading everyone’s else’s ideas just to make sure I had thought of all the angles and that I hadn’t missed something really good that I could pop here on paper and sound all organised like I had all my shit together!

But all I ended up getting was anxiety and an increasing feeling of overwhelm reading all the things that I perceived everyone else was doing and wondering how I could do it all as well!!!! I mean if others can do it why am not as organised?

For those of you who know me well, you know I like to call it as I see it! And I’m going call this….

Christmas can often be a tough time for salon owners, because the world doesn’t stop around us. Whether you are surrounded by a large team, a small team or going it alone, when it comes to planning ahead for a beast like Christmas it can feel overwhelming just thinking about what’s coming your way.

We know Christmas is coming, we know there is all this “EXTRA-NESS” that we have to do, we know that we’re going to have full books ( well we hope) we know we’ve got to be prepared, we know we need all our ducks in a row ( I think I talk about those fucking ducks in every piece I write) and we know we should have it all sorted by at least mid-November or we will be flying by the seat of our pants in December & skidding into 2023 with no arse in said pants and skin off everywhere else!

And yet while we are supposed to be planning all this, life goes on around us as normal, other STUFF doesn’t stop happening, Family stuff, Team stuff, Client stuff, Lack of stock stuff & just life in general stuff…

Adding in all this extra planning can make it incredibly overwhelming and the urge to just cross your fingers and hope for the best can be very real!

So, I decided you don’t need another person writing you that checklist or reminding you of all the things you have to get done asap, there’s enough fantastic advice out there and believe me it is fantastic, but it can be overwhelming if you try to take it all in at once.

Take the pressure off yourself - don’t get overwhelmed by all the things you could do and all the things the other salons are doing - just do what you can do, what you’ve got time to do, and what you know you need to do for your business & your team right now so that you all not only to survive but thrive over the next 4-6 weeks.

Once you’ve got your shortlist organised then you’ve got yourself the beginning of a system that you can action, and each year that you have that system in place to deal with the Christmas crazy you can add a few more things to the list.

I’ve got a list of 6 things that I know I need to have locked and loaded early to be organised for Christmas and I’m going share those with you, but remember, these are what I need to feel like my ducks are lining up…yours might be different!

1/ I Pre order Christmas retail packs in September and I order plenty for drops each month to see us through till January, if cash flow permits, stock up now and break up any leftovers in the new year to increase profit. I also make sure I have plenty of Pro stock on board to cope with demand, there is nothing that adds to your stress levels more in December than running out of colour with full books!

2/ I plan and order our client gifts early also, depending on what we are doing and where they come from these can often take weeks to arrive and some of our 6 weekly clients have their last appointment for the year in the first week of December, so we need to be ready.

3/ Vouchers and Packages. To be honest before we started doing packages vouchers weren’t a big seller for us, we might sell 20-30 at Christmas, now we have to be so organised with packages planned, imagery and vouchers printed and marketing ready by November as clients know they are coming and are asking already!!!

4/ Team goals and incentives for a kick arse December - You’ve got to make this exciting!!! Your team is going to work hard to help get the salon over the line and reach target, they need to feel like it’s fun at the same time. Have things in place like advent calendars and team survival goodie bags with Berocca, Panadol and energy bars in them.

5/ Get your roster right! Make sure you have enough support team on to cope with the extra volume of clients, now is the time to ask around if any young friends or clients are interested in coming in as support just to keep behind the scenes clean and tidy, your stylists will really appreciate this especially your younger team members who usually get stuck

6/ Last but not least important is plan a celebration for your team, we can often overlook this until the last minute and end up doing something rushed and uneventful or worse really bloody expensive because you had no choice!!!

These guys (big or small) are your tribe, they help make it all happen from January to December and I believe it’s important to plan something that says, ‘I’m Grateful”.

I hope this was somewhat helpful, owning a salon be a tough gig at times especially at this end of the year, but remember to pace yourself, you’re in this for the long run not a short sprint, there is so much more you can plan for but it doesn’t matter if you don’t get it all happening this year, you’ve made a start, you’ve now got that system in place which you can expand on next year and the years after that until one day you find yourself as old as me and you can look back and smile at how far you’ve come!

Speaking of which…. (You knew I had to bring it up right!!)

We were privileged to come up trumps at the AHIA business awards last month and we took home the title of NSW SALON OF THE YEAR, this is a huge honour and so very very humbling, after 40+ years in the game the thing I think I’m most proud of and one thing I would’ve loved to have said in my speech had I not completely lost my memory when I got up to the podium was this …

To Win, Final or even enter these awards doesn’t come down to how big your salon is or where you are located, it doesn’t come down to your fit out or the products you choose to use…

It comes down to how you treat your clients, your team and all those around you! It comes down to integrity, being the best, you can be with what you’ve got, where you are.

This is something I took a long time to fully understand and I didn’t enter for years thinking we just weren’t in the running - Turns out I was wrong!

We are all in the running, we are all doing the best we can and we all need to be recognised!

Just do you guys, you are all superstars!

Reach out to me anytime at kdimattia@ westnet.com.au if you would like any further info on my shortlist or what podcasts and articles, I read to come up with one of your own. Merry Christmas everyone!