You’re not alone! EVERY business is doing it tough right now.

By Hayley Mears

I wish I could take full credit for this philosophical approach and tell you I came up with it myself, but… full credit goes to my friend Mia De Vries who said this to me recently. For months I have been thinking, what the hell is going on?

Why are salons struggling so much? Is it interest rates? Is it the fear of a recession? Is it the increased cost of our groceries and basic life supplies?

So, the concept of bouncing back stronger after tough times made me reflect on my personal experiences in business over the last 13 years. There have been plenty of highs and plenty of lows. The lows do tend to hold currency in your headspace a lot more than the joys and successes. For me, I think I take cash flow for granted when things are good. I don’t plan for the quiet times and every single February and March (after a VERY quiet January) I’m left wondering, SHIT, why do we have no money?

This declining revenue movement hasn’t just happened suddenly, it started happening at the back end of 2022, and slowly crept into 2023. The disruption of Christmas and the summer break distracted us from really looking at what was happening to our businesses on paper. In March, I spoke with my Cutting Through the Noise podcast cohost Nadine Johns Alcock (Dorothy Jean in Brisbane) and Stephanie Mason (President of Showpony Hair Extensions) about this. They gave some great perspective on what this looks like for them from a salon owner P.O.V. and as an international industry brand.

After we had this chat (I recommend you take a listen, it’s episode 12. Just scan the QR code to listen.) I knew I had to completely restructure my business. What is going out was more important than what was coming in. We didn’t need 5 different software subscriptions to create content, we could just upskill and learn more advanced techniques. We had to undertake the unpleasant task of measuring productivity and look at how we could use our time to achieve more and increase profitability. There were a bunch of tasks that weren’t necessary, and we looked at different ways to achieve the same results.

Sometimes you need to totally rebuild your business practices to thrive in a new era, so I did. I pulled apart the outdated systems that had flaws and inefficiencies. I investigated how we were underperforming for our clients. I went DEEP. I found every imperfection in our client experience. Our turnaround times, our onboarding. The way we can always offer EXTRA without it becoming a cost or burden on our time.

Currently, in our industry, we have two different scenarios.

1) Salons and businesses that have continued to implement change and embrace more fluid structures and processes to be more agile in challenging times.

2) Salons that have resisted change and are left wondering what happened and why the usual approach to sales, marketing and team attrition is no longer working.

I think looking around and seeing once-thriving businesses doing it tough. There are very few businesses that haven’t experienced serious financial impact. The impact is coming from a number of business variables.

- Decrease in client spend

- Decrease in client frequency

- Increased costs in business expenses

- Issues retaining staff

- Changes in staff needs requiring a change in salon culture

So, take a good hard look at the business. Work out what the key problems are and find new solutions from the ground up. It’s an arduous and unpleasant process BUT, it could mean the difference between being in business or not.

Listen to the episode on the Cutting Through the Noise podcast and scan the QR code below.