32 minute read
Can Money Buy You Happiness By Lisa
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CAN MONEY BUY YOU HAPPINESS?
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By Lisa Conway
Everyone says that money doesn’t buy happiness. Lies! I tell ya … lies!!
Let me explain how money does buy happiness, especially if you own a beauty business and have a couple of kidlets.
The fact is money pays for everything. Your holidays, your home, your kids’ education just to name a few. These are the things that give us a platform to enjoy a happiness experience. Now you can have happiness in a tent, a one-bedroom apartment or a 60 square home too you don’t have to be high end to enjoy happiness, happiness is for the most part, a mindset.
The one thing you do need for happiness is to have the freedom to choose where you spend your time and if Coaching salons has taught me anything it’s that time is a challenge for every salon owner I’ve ever met. It’s the no 1 pain point of salon owners everywhere. Lack of time is very frustrating and it’s the same for both rural and city both entry level beauty, a spa or as I say heavy duty beauty they would all welcome more time.
In the early days of owning a salon we start out doing everything and that’s usually unavoidable. You are building and we don’t have the financial resources, so you become a do er that’s where you do everything. Now for most us there is never a written plan to swap over to become a who er. That’s when you change from “I need to get it done “to “who can I get to do it for me?” That’s when the magic happens, and you will begin to free up your time. The first step to finding more time is to know what your hourly earning rate is in the clinic. What can you earn per hour working on clients? Not knowing that and respecting your skill set is where most of us go wrong.
I suggest you list all the tasks you do for a week at home and at work. For this exercise I’ll use home as the example but at work the process is exactly the same.
Track yourself and be honest about all the chores you do from collecting kids and all the other kid activities, cooking meals and making lunches, walking the dog, changing beds, loads of washing, mowing the lawn, washing the car, the list goes on. Then I want you to see where you can outsource ten hours. You see most career women need a good old-fashioned fifties housewife. Too often I see women especially mums doing everything, they often don’t even think about outsourcing or if they do, they get the guilts about it. Here’s a fact… your kids don’t see quality time as you are doing chores and they are on the iPad. Your time with them should be other things too. Ask them what they think would be quality time, you might be surprised at the answer.
When my kids where 8 – 10 I started taking them on a Sunday morning for a latte, we polished up a bit and we went to a wine bar that served coffee. We all sat and poured over the newspapers and chatted about the topics we saw, social events, the sport results, the gossip columns etc. It was a great little tradition we developed; my hope was for them to be interested in current affairs. For less than $30 they drank hot chocolate from a fancy cup and I explained things like politics, law and religious beliefs amongst other things. Kids grow up fast and, if you are lucky, they will leave home. I didn’t want their only memories of me to be doing chores or working at the salon. I believe every salon owner deserve a part time wife, it will be the best investment you ever make, and it will buy you happiness. It might be a housekeeper that cooks a lasagne and makes a pot of soup every week while minding the kids. The aim is for you to find $300 a week somewhere and to re purpose it so you can buy yourself same happiness. Maybe you park 8 blocks away for free parking and walk to work every day? Maybe you bring your lunch from home saving $20 a day. Maybe you stop buying clothes for a bit or eating out. Maybe you sell things you no longer want, clothes, pot plants, vases, gym equipment you never use. Every one of us has hundreds of dollars’ worth of things we don’t use or don’t need that we could sell online.
Imagine this … you come home after spending the day in the salon and the house smells of home cooking the kids are bathed the readers are read and everyone is in their PJs and excited to see you. That money definitely bought you happiness. That one day that you stay late and work servicing your high-end clients could return you three times what you paid the home maker and so it makes sense to re consider your choices.
You may not have any kids; you might use your $300 to have your garden maintained, your ironing done and the window’s cleaned along with your dog walked. It’s up to you but I do know that your beauty girls do way too many $30 an hour jobs. You could be earning between $150 - $200 per hour in the clinic and paying someone else the $30 an hour.
Food for thought… my belief is you deserve it.
For more salon wisdom, email me at lisa@zingcoach.com. au, visit my website, find my video tips on YouTube or read my latest book Your Salon Retail: the no-nonsense, nohype guide to kick-arse retail in your salon business. www. thezingproject.com.au
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YOU CAN’T FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT
By Paul Frasca
It’s fair to say that we’re in an industry where it’s easy to get caught up in the magic - the beauty biz sells the hope of transformation, self-improvement and inclusivity, and on the most part, it really delivers. But given all that’s happened in the last 12 months and the growing number of conscious consumers, I’ve started thinking about how we ‘sell sustainability’ in our businesses… and do we deliver?
Let’s agree that the ‘green-washing’ movement has (finally!) moved out. When eco was introduced to the mainstream, it was kind of a trend; a label spruiking ‘natural’, which was enough to propel your business into the ethical category and satisfy the new eco-consumer. But there was rarely an actual eco-impact in that bottle; it was full of empty promises.
We’ve come a long way since then, though. Young Aussies are living the consequences from past actions and now they actually care about what’s behind the label - they’re passionate, informed and armed with the power of a dollar they won’t give up easily.
I’m normally a big fan of ‘fake it til you make it’ (words to live by when you’re trying to get a start-up taken seriously), but when it comes to adding sustainability practices or statements into your business, this MO needs to go in the bin.
And with the help of the recent Junkee Media 2020 Youth Research report, I’m going to show you why.
FACT: 70% of young people really give a sh*t about Sustainability and the Environment Second only to mental health, and coming in above gender equality. It’s one of the big, profound issues of our time, and we can no longer pretend it’s just the hippies who care.
FACT: 89% are taking environmental action in their own lives They’re reducing the amount of fast fashion they buy, actively avoiding single-use products, increasing their reusables collection and even reducing their meat consumption - the youth market is not just aware they now have environmental choices, they’re making them. You know what else? 51% said their environmental actions had not changed because of COVID-19. I think Junkee summed it up best: “It’s a passion so deep that not even a global pandemic could stop them.”
FACT: 79% are willing to sacrifice chemical-based beauty treatments to help the environment You can only work with what you have available to you, I completely understand. But are you researching your suppliers’ sustainability practices like a young Aussie is researching yours? It’s true that the beauty industry has a long way to go to provide more sustainable product options (it’s a single-use wasteland!), but there are incredible companies out there innovating and offering solutions - even if they’re small ones for now. Think biodegradable, compostable, recycled, recyclable, machinewashable, FSC certified (for paper products), and certified organic. FACT: 56% say the most important quality in a brand is acting ethically/ with integrity (and 33% say it’s giving back to the community) Now that I’ve put the hard word on about your product choices, I’m sorry to say, but stocking eco-friendly treatments is just not enough anymore.
56% need you to prove you’re acting with integrity - that’s more than half. And I should point out that it was the third-highest on a list of 19 options, beaten only by “has good quality products” and “is environmentally-friendly” (see above facts 1, 2 and 3).
This is where faking it won’t just hurt your client’s feelings, it could eventually really hurt your bottom line. Offering a trend-based ‘green’ statement, whacking up a social media post claiming your virtual support for a cause, or introducing a practice you can’t explain end-to-end is eventually going to catch you out.
Believing what you’re implementing and understanding it start to finish, creating a staff culture that accepts and advocates this, and visibly acting upon these practices in full view of your clients is the only way to satisfy (and grow!) this important segment in your business. At Sustainable Salons, we’re passionate about helping our salon members successfully introduce sustainable practices through an awesome induction, ongoing education and transparency, fun and meaningful engagement opportunities, and a super simple recycling and community benefits system that your clients can actually touch and feel, and see you do.
And nothing is more real than that.
Keen to join the movement? Find out more at www.sustainablesalons.org!
LEVERAGING SOCIALS FOR GROWTH
By Rachel Medlock
Are you ready to up your digital game in 2021? Of course, you are!
Happy New Year! Like most of us, I’m sure the start of 2021 is a fresh start (and a big thank you, next to 2020). Day one of a twelve new chapters, the beginning of some big changes and the year you take control of how your business is showing up online.
If we haven’t met before, hello! I’m Rach, the Head Honcho behind do you even social?
We’ll get to know each other over the next year as I join the Beauty Biz squad as your social and digital expert.
Kicking off our time together, I’m sharing ways you can up your digital game in 2021 and why achieving transformative results online doesn’t need to be an intimidating experience. Ready, set, let’s get digital!
DON’T FORGET THE BASICS
The start of a new year is the perfect opportunity to ensure you’ve got all of the basics covered on social media.
Basics such as ensuring your profile picture fits in the Instagram circle, updating your bio to remove any Christmas gift pack promotions and updating your cover photo to include a showstopping first impression of your business are often overlooked updates that take one minute or less to correct.
Whilst you’re ticking off all the basics, don’t forget to double-check that your contact information is correct, call to action buttons are working and that your link in bio sends people exactly where they need to go.
YOU SHOULD HASHTAG THAT
If you’re not already using hashtags on Instagram, you’re missing out on a tonne of opportunities to connect with potential new followers (and ultimately, new customers). For those already using hashtags, 2021 is your year to optimise your strategy to welcome more of the right people to your posts.
Every Instagram post allows thirty hashtags, and every Instagram story allows ten. This is up to thirty new opportunities to create connections online. As a result, it’s important to really consider the hashtags you’re using on social media and whether they’re putting your posts in front not just your ideal customer but people that can actually engage, visit and spend money in your business.
For example, if you’re still using hashtags like #skincare #facial and #beauty, you’re automatically competing with over 60-million other posts. Truly! These incredibly high-density hashtags may be popular but because of that, they’re ultra-competitive. They also lack the specificity required to put your post in front of paying customers. This is where location and demographic-based hashtags come into play. hashtags, consider your location and your ideal customer. Changing #facial to something more specific to your location like #melbournefacial or #toorakfacial, makes it a lot easier for potential customers to find you. These hashtags take the density from million to thousands (or even hundreds) and exude quality over quantity vibes.
When it comes to demographic-based hashtags, consider what your ideal customer does when they’re not visiting your business. Are they career-driven women that would connect with hashtags like #businesschicks or #ladystartup? Are they mums dreaming of some me-time that would respond to #mumsofmelbourne? Perhaps they’re on the ‘gram looking for a solution to their new year’s resolution like #melbournebodycontouring!
In addition to covering your location and what’s actually going on in the photo (think #enzymetherapy), don’t forget to consider what characteristics your ideal customer possesses so you can become part of their fabulous lifestyle.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
You might roll your eyes at me in a moment but 2021 is the year to put a face behind the name and reap the engagement benefits. Getting in front of the camera for Facebook and Instagram Stories, Reels and IGTV sessions are all ways that video is celebrated on social media. It goes without saying that our audience consistently responds better to content that features ourselves or members of a team because it humanises the brand they’re following.
I want you to take a look at the content you’re scheduling on social media and ask yourself “could this be a video?”. Content such as educating about a new skincare product, describing your latest skin treatment or even introducing a new team member are all ways that you could switch a regular post out for a video and start creating meaningful emotional connections.
The best part? This content can be recycled! If you’ve produced a brilliant new in-treatment IGTV video (shared across to Facebook of course), make the most of it by including it in your next e-newsletter or as part of a blog post. Six months down the track, you can repost that video to your socials and re-introduce it to the new followers you have gained along the way. Video will always be one of the heroes of social media so now is the time to embrace it.
YOU’RE A BLOG BOSS
Jumping off social media for a moment and moving to your website, a blog is another brilliant way to be showcasing your expertise online. It’s time to showcase your incredible knowledge through informing and engaging blog posts.
Not only are blog posts another value-adding resource for your clients, but your website’s going to love them too! Regularly adding quality content like blogs to our website puts us in the good books of Google. How? Through SEO. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the dark art of getting your website on the front page of Google. It takes into consideration the quality of the content you’re producing on your website and also the keywords you’re using to spread the word.
When kicking off SEO efforts, consider what people are searching online to find a business like yours. Just like the exercise we did for hashtags, think about your location, services and the problem you are solving for your clients. Searches for a business like yours could include Melbourne Skin Clinic, LED Facials Brisbane or even Fat Freezing Sydney. Including a keyword or two in your blog posts helps boost those SEO juices.
Like everything in the digital marketing world, SEO is a marathon and not a sprint, but it will pay off over time! In addition to boosting your page rankings, blogs can be recycled into e-newsletter features, social media posts (at least 4 to be exact!) and as educational resources that you can refer to during your client’s treatment journeys.
A WHOLE NEW WAY TO EDUCATE
Instagram Guides arrived on the scene towards the end of 2020 and I know you’re going to love them as much as I do. Designed to share our must-know places, products and posts, Instagram Guides make educating our audiences seamless and ultra-engaging.
Instagram Guides maximise content that already exists so there’s no need to panic about needing to produce more posts each month! A platform for you to compile must-know info on specific skin concerns, retail brands, services or even how to perform at-home treatments, Instagram Guides house your existing posts and group them into dedicated themes and topics.
So, why use Instagram Guides? It’s simple! There’s something for everyone. It’s a space for new clients to visit when they’re ready to tackle a skin concern, for the skincare novice that’s looking for a professional brand and the existing client that wants to up their self-care Sunday game. Instagram Guides celebrates the amazing content you’ve already produced and repurposes it as an informative, educative and value-adding hub.
BE PREPARED FOR CHANGES
Now, it wouldn’t be social media without a few spanners in the works! Facebook has kicked off 2021 with the announcement of some significant changes coming our way.
In true Facebook style, the rollout of their new additions will be a slow and sporadic process so get ready for your page to appear differently overnight. Whilst what we’re sharing on Facebook won’t necessarily change, how our audience engages with it will.
Facebook is removing all page likes and instead, moving to followers. This will require a switch in your language when asking your clients to connect with you online.
For us admins, our user permissions are being altered and we’re gaining some new call-toaction focussed insights! From a customer point of view, our bio will be front and centre (so make sure it’s updated) and they’ll have the ability to ask us questions in a public forum.
Ready for a year of nailing your digital game? I know I am! Let’s connect on socials and ride the wave together.
Rachel Medlock is the Founder & Creative Director at do you even social?, a creative digital agency with a twist. Learn more about Rachel and her digital fairy godmother skills at www.doyouevensocial.com.
MAKE YOUR BRAND BLOOM
By Sarah Garner Your brand is so much more than your logo, it’s the essence of who your business is, what it stands for and what your customers love about you.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that standing out from the crowd and showing up for our customers is absolutely crucial. From the way we present our business online to the touchpoints throughout our customer experience, every inch of your brand journey needs to ooze authenticity.
So, how are you setting yourself apart in 2021? It needs to begin with your brand. Today, we’re drawing your attention to 3 key elements of your visual identity that with a little love, attention and a strategically placed colours and font [we couldn’t help ourselves], your brand is set to bloom its way into the new year and beyond.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE (AND LOVE THEM HARD)
Are you communicating directly with your dream clientele or just sending messages out into the universe and hoping for the best? If option B was your answer, then you need to keep reading.
In 2021, we want you to be so clear on your target audience that when your dream customers (they are the ones that leave you feeling incredible) engage with your touchpoints, it feels like a note from a long-lost friend.
When working on your branding goals for the new year, ask yourself the following questions:
●What am I helping my client achieve? ●What feelings does my current brand evoke at first glance? ●What story do my current brand colours and fonts tell? ●Why do my existing clients choose my product or service over somebody else’s? ●What makes my branding different from the others in my industry?
Knowing exactly which rocks to look under to find that dream audience, understanding what lights them up and also what they love about your brand is incredibly valuable insight. Use these details to start deciphering ways that your brand can attract more of the right people and channel your valuable energy into touchpoints that deliver results. This may see you tweaking your tone of voice, updating your colour and font choice or reviewing your logo.
Whatever changes you make, ensure you update your branding style guidelines too.
REVIEW AND REFRESH YOUR TOUCHPOINTS
This year, we have seen an *explosion* of consumer interest in shopping local and supporting small business, not too mention the bucket loads of online sales. Consumers, more than ever, want to know the story behind the brand and the unique points of difference just as much as the product or service offered. They want to connect with your business as thought they were connecting with a new friend. They want to experience your brand for it’s unique point of view, difference and all that you make them feel.
Now is the perfect time to review and refresh your branding touchpoints to ensure that at every stage of your customer journey, you’re creating those meaningful connections that your dream audience craves. Tap into your brand values and look for ways that you can be interacting with your customer more, creating conversation, showcasing your brand’s why.
For our hair, beauty and wellness petals, this could be refreshing your in-person experience with client welcome gifts or a glow up of your printed treatment menu. Online, it could be injecting more of your brand’s style into your social media content or boosting your reviews and recommendations to provide social proof that align with your brand values and ooze authenticity.
For many, this isn’t a case of reinventing the wheel, rather adding some extra air into them, helping them move into 2021 at a much smoother pace.
Clarity, consistency and commitment to your brand If defining your audience and touchpoints is leaving you unclear, the start of 2021 is a brilliant time to start making those power moves and set some serious branding goals for your business.
Beginning with clarity, it’s time to get crystal clear on your brand’s values, mission and who your touchpoints are intentionally speaking to. Once you’re clear on what your brand is, you’re able to start crafting ideas and strategies around how to share it with the world. If what you’re visioning doesn’t align with what you’re working with, it’s time to do a branding audit to see what’s working, what’s missing and what’s not quite right. Designed for the blooms who want to know how to fix the leaky holes in a ship, our branding audit is the best place to start for your road map to getting your Brow Brand Game Strong. Branding in 2021 and beyond is SO much more than a logo and a colour but these elements are still some of the most important features of your visual strategy. If you’re not already working with a style guide, this is a fantastic starting point to help you bring more consistency into your branding.
Know the features that make your brand bloom and stick to them. Now is the time to stop using that colour that doesn’t align with your message, that font that’s hard difficult to read and the tone of voice that is the total opposite to your beautiful energy. We know we sound like we’ve got our bossy pants on but someone’s gotta say it right?!
2021 is the year for every inch of your business to exude your beautiful brand. By kicking off this year with a solid review of what you’ve done, where you’re headed and how to get there, every corner you turn, every touchpoint you create and every customer experience you embrace can see your brand bloom.
Sarah Garner is the Founder and Creative Director of Digital Bloom, an industry-specific branding boutique dedicated to making your growing hair, beauty or wellness business turn heads for all the right reasons.
Visit Digital Bloom’s website www.digitalbloom.com.au or contact Sarah at hello@digitalbloom.com.au
NO STAFF, NO WORRIES
By Karla McDiarmid
It’s been a roller coaster 12 months for every business owner all over the world. One positive to come out of the last year is our industry has DEFINITELY grown from strength to strength and the power of connectivity and the zest of business owners helping one another has been tremendous throughout our industry. We now know we can not only survive during a pandemic but for many in our industry our business’s have never been busier!
Our clients and customers cannot travel or spend their hard-earned dollars overseas let alone interstate. Guests are spending more with us than ever before - it’s incredible to see!
With this wonderful success boom in our industry comes many challenges - some positive & some negative. One negative we are seeing on a lot of the online forums is the staff shortage in our industry.
Many of our therapists have opened home business’ or left our industry completely pre covid. With this current industry boom, we have more guests than ever before but we are left with a skills shortage with every second business is currently looking to hire qualified and experienced staff.
So, what else can you do if you are in this fabulous position of being ‘fully booked’ & now turning customers away -
I believe it’s time to start looking at services that don’t need a therapist, how we can make revenue on our unused areas in our business and invest in equipment. radar for us to employ and we are 3 hours away from a major city. Not even our local TAFE will recommend students which makes it incredibly tough. With this in mind I believe our answer is to look for treatments and experiences that require no therapists as such, but ones where we can train a professional to assist in the business or bring in a new apprentice or retail trainee.
SOME TREATMENTS THAT I BELIEVE WE COULD ALL BE LOOKING AT IF OUR BUSINESS MODELS PERMIT ARE:-
Relaxation massage lounges
There is fabulous options for massage chairs now, they recline, you can perform a facial in them, they can play music, they can blow oxygen at you, you can even add a TV but I also see that it saves our therapists hands and if you want to keep staff happy, often it’s less massage on a day to day basis.
An LED light facial lounge
A consultation can be held on the first visit with a qualified practitioner with a complete LED recommendation treatment plan for home & in the clinic, documented with the guest arriving each follow up visit and looked after by the trained receptionist . After the initial consultation your front desk team will be able to set up the client each visit and assist with application of SPF / creams. I would recommend a regular check in / phone call to ensure your customers are happy during their program by the qualified professional to ensure the guests results are on track but your guest is relaxing in the massage chair under the LED & you aren’t turning customers away! relax in the massage lounge. Teeth whitening is still very popular in many clinics but again I always recommend regular checkups as teeth sensitivity can happen often & use reputable brands.
Meditation lounges
Companies like Ginger & Me have mastered this with wellness & mindfulness a must for our stressed clientele. It’s a great way to include this in your clinic as another added bonus. Again, utilising your massage chair + adding on mindfulness experiences means you can keep adding more dollars to your business without a therapist.
Infrared saunas:
The health benefits of infrared saunas is endless. These are an excellent wellness option that again only needs an operator to turn on & off & clean between. Excellent for clients on detox programs who may also be using your LED lounge for skin clearing / healing. Many customers are having fat cavitation too & thus could be a great way to cross promote with other nearby clinics to help each other’s guests.
You can have a whole new ‘massage experience lounge service menu’ the choices are endless - add a face mask, add a foot spa treatment... the choice is yours.
Let your business continue to boom by adding in treatments that don’t require a qualified expert but instead let your companies train your front desk team / trainees in how to operate and recommend home care recommendations.
We all need to start thinking outside the square a little to keep innovating our business’ in tough staffing times.
HOW TO GO FROM THERAPIST TO CEO
By Jessica Kidner
Without a doubt, the number one question I get in my inbox is “How do I make the jump from therapist to CEO? ” After a little bit of probing I usually find out what they are really asking is “How do I reduce my hours so I have more freedom and still earn an income? ”
Many of us go into business for ourselves because we see the potential to make more money and the sound of being our own boss is freeing. However, soon enough we find ourselves stuck in the rut of being at the mercy of our clients, working extra hours just to make them happy and burning out managing every little task it takes to run a business.
Let’s not forget all the time we spend on social media trying to build an online presence to ensure we have some sort of marketing platform. Your dream of working for yourself can quickly turn into a full-time job with no benefits.
There comes a time when you realise your business has a lot of potential and you start to dream of ways you can grow it. However, the fear of stepping into the role of a CEO scares most people. Trying to figure out where to start or being afraid of making a wrong move can paralyse even the most confident business owner.
It would be easy if there was a step-by-step formula showing you how to grow before you make any moves, but I think the magic happens when you start making mindset shifts and find the courage to make those bold changes inside your business.
So, how do you start growing a service-based business which relies on you, to run more like your dream business. A business where you become the leader and start building an asset with a stream of income.
The answer is building a team of staff. With a service-based business you need someone to perform a service and if you are doing all the clients yourself, you only have a fixed amount of hours that you can give. To increase the amount of hours available we need more of you.
Employing staff is the only way to still service your clients and reduce your time away from the physical part of your business.
This will also allow you time to build the business from the inside, provide more flexibility in your day whilst still earning an income.
The idea of passing your clients on to other people might scare you to your core - after all you have worked so hard to build those clients. Handing even one person over to a staff member seems impossible. To add insult to injury your clients tell you “I won’t go to someone else” and we tell ourselves “no one can do it as good as me”.
These are what I call limiting beliefs, they are holding you and many other people back from growing in the beauty business. They hold you back from growing your income and stop you from having freedom to do the other things you want in life. If you are done with the burn out and being tied to your business then it’s time to start to move the needle towards growing your business into something that works for you not the other way around.
Any good business expert will tell you systems and procedures are the keys to freedom and growing your business but there are also a few other key areas to focus on before you get to that point.
5 KEY AREAS TO FOCUS ON RIGHT NOW
MAP OUT YOUR PLAN
You can’t plan for the next stage unless you know where you want to go and what you want for your life and your business. Once you know the destination you can work backwards to plan out the path. This doesn’t mean you must stick to this plan; once you start making moves towards your dream some things may not feel right or fit with your idea. This is ok, you can adapt and change along the way! In fact I believe you need to start moving towards an idea before it really becomes clear what you actually want. Don’t be afraid to dream big. Start with how you want to spend most of your days. Do you want to get up early and focus on self-care.How many hours a day do you want to work? What kind of tasks do you love doing? What do you want to learn? What kind of income do you want? Are you going to be traveling or would you prefer to to stay home with your kids while they get ready for school. Knowing these things will help you work out how your business needs to run around you. Then it opens the path to what your role will be inside the business going forward. You will start to see what moves you need to make now and over the next 12 months to move you closer.
MINDSET
Your Mindset is really a continuous journey to level up ‘you’ at every stage of business and life. Your mindset can hold your back from greatness. A growth mindset is one that continually looks for opportunity to grow and learn from experiences. You need to understand that you are the only one that can drive your business forward by making CEO decisions - even just small ones move you in the right direction. Working with a coach, reading books on how to develop self belief and trust in your decisions will help you on your journey. I found this one of the keys to success with managing staff and understanding how I needed to support the team.
MARGINS
Look at your profit margins and pricing now before you start hiring. When you grow a business you will also amplify anything that loses you money or costs you time. Setting yourself up for success starts with looking at your numbers. You need to understand what your expenses are, what staff will cost and what profit you need left over. Many times people hire staff and then realise they’re not charging enough to cover the wages let alone the costs of actually opening the doors. Sit down with a spreadsheet and keep track of every expense you have in your business over the next 3 months to find what it really costs to keep your doors open and then start to work out how much per hour you need to be making to achieve a healthy profit.
MENTOR
Now you have perfected your skill, it’s time to step into the role of mentoring your staff. I believe any good beauty business needs to have a mentoring program for all new staff. Even when you hire the most experienced therapist or tech you will need an induction process into YOUR business. Moving you from business owner to mentor. Your staff will elevate your brand and your service. This also ties in with mindset and how you view your role inside the business. Too many times I see business owners get frustrated with having to “train staff” after they hire them. I see this as a fact of business and an investment into your future. You need staff to work for you and they need training. Removing this negative view on hiring will allow for more freedom and give you peace of mind that your clients will be looked after just the way you want.
MARKETING
Once you have your services perfected, marketing your business is going to be your main focus. This is a task that, once set up, can run pretty automatically with a few tweaks and adjustments every month. Being the CEO of your beauty business means shifting your focus from doing the service to telling people about your business. You will set up processes and systems to ensure your business has a consistent flow of new and returning customers. I have developed my own system which I used to grow and maintain my own multiple 6- figure business which I ran from home. Understand that growing a business relies on a few key areas - average client spend, returning clients and new clients. Setting up a strong customer journey which starts the moment they see your business until after they leave is the key to reducing costs of advertising and growing the returning rate of your customers on autopilot.
