May 03, 2019 — Jennifer Last modified on November 08, 2019
As the owner of a salon you need to wear a number of hats if your salon is to be successful. You are the owner, manager, marketing expert, you keep the book keeping up to date and on top of this your agenda is filled with appointments with clients and representatives. So it is important to organise your tasks, to allocate your time wisely and to manage your agenda. Otherwise you may find yourself torn between the demands of your business and private life, your home and the salon.
Sometimes it can be difficult to ensure that you manage your salon, rather than becoming managed by your clients. So we would like to share a few tips, with the aim of achieving a healthy work-life balance!
Unexpected occurrences are often impossible to prevent. The agenda that you drew up for the day in the morning may be knocked totally off course by all sorts of developments. Nevertheless you should always try to focus on doing one thing at a time. Because “hopping” from one task to another is very bad for your productivity.
By constantly stopping to carry out smaller tasks (like answering the phone or your emails, or quickly placing an order with a supplier), the really important tasks never get done. Often these are tasks you would prefer to put off to another time. And the result is that you end up having to do them in your own free time. So - do you need to focus on an important task? Then switch off the phone! That way you will avoid being distracted by apps or social media.
Ask yourself for a moment which tasks keep coming back and cost you a lot of time. Doing the accounts, ordering stock, promotional activities (for example a nice newsletter) or bedding in a new member of staff?
Make sure you structure these tasks, or even automate them if possible. You might start, for example, by automating your book keeping with a smart till system. With Salonized you can simply download all your transaction information for your book keeping once a month. Turnover, VAT, revenue per payment method; the system just pumps it all out for you. That saves you a lot of time because you no longer have to manually enter it into excel files.
Besides this you might think about drawing up a digital handbook for new employees, containing all the standard things that need to be sorted out. This will prevent you forgetting things or having to deal with them in your free time.
Because the same thing is true for many tasks: working at home is hard to resist, because it is always possible. And you're not the only one who thinks this, because your clients think so too. For example the clients that app you late in the evening to make an appointment. A better work-life balance will give you more peace of mind.
An online agenda will mean that you don't spend your evenings sending WhatsApp messages to and fro with clients about when you have an empty time slot in your agenda.
In truth you don't “sell” a facial or a manicure. You sell time. And, just like money, you can't afford to lose or waste any time. You can only use time. That is why it is important to use your time well, because if you don't do so it feels like wasted time.
By way of an example, think about those 15 minute gaps between appointments. Although 15 minutes may not seem like much, just think about how much money that time is worth. It could add up to hundreds of euros per month.
So you should take a few minutes each day to see what your agenda looks like for the next few days. Are there any 15 minute gaps between appointments? Then call your client and ask if it's possible to move the appointment by 15 minutes.
Of course it is also possible to automate this. Within Salonized there is a special setting for your online agenda, which makes sure that clients can only make appointments that follow straight on from each other. This means that clients can only see times that dovetail neatly with other appointments. This produces a tight timetable, which in turn means more cash in your till!
Curious to find out how much time you spend on your various tasks (such as cleaning, marketing and book keeping) and how much time you spend on appointments? The new tasks function from Salonized makes it easy for you to keep track of tasks as well as appointments in your agenda. You enter a task in the agenda and then in the Reports you can see the precise share of your time that you have spent during each reporting period on "appointments with clients”, and “time spent on tasks”.
Would you like to know how many hours you are really spending at present on tasks, besides your appointments with clients? The salon software from Salonized makes it easy for you to keep your timekeeping up to date and to obtain the information you need. Create a free trial account or contact us, free of obligation!
Jennifer literally skated into our offices – on her skateboard – as an intern, ready to grow her skills. She is now part of our Support and Growth Team and she has a wealth of experiences in online marketing to share with you.
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