A successful salon owner’s life can be stressful — fair warning. But if you’ve decided to move forward and fulfill your dream of opening a salon, we’ve collected the 10 tips for hairdressers to succeed.
1. Have Good Organization Skills
As a salon owner, you are required to juggle personal life, clients, employees, finances, and more. There are many services in a hair salon, but being organized helps you focus on the task at hand and still have time for some fun.
Find a system to keep you and your staff in order and stick with it.
2. Stay Motivated
Drive, being a self-starter – whatever you call it, it’s a must for successful salon owners. The important thing to remember is it’s not a finite thing. Increase it through simple everyday things like completing your to-do lists. By completing smaller tasks, you start to build momentum to conquer bigger tasks and challenges throughout the day.
3. Have a Vision
Telling your family and friends you’re opening a salon is a big step in your entrepreneurial journey. Whether the advice they’ll inevitably give is positive or negative, have a clear vision of what you want from your business and how to get there. Be open while remaining true to yourself and your vision.
4. Have a Thirst For Knowledge
Ask any small business owner how they spend their day; their answer would most likely sound exhausting. As an owner, you’re responsible for every aspect of salon management – HR, finance, guest services, marketing, management, and sales are just a few of the areas you will need to be knowledgeable about.
Being a lifelong learner prepares you to wear all of these hats, and not always at the same time. Understanding the interconnected nature of your business is what will make your salon a lasting success.
5. Be Confident
Confidence will help you to “bring it all together.” Being confident is more than just being sure of yourself. Confidence comes from knowing you’re prepared, you’ve done the best you can, and you are prepared to take on any challenge you might face.
6. Be focused
As a small business owner, you need to be focused on your time and resources. There are only so many hours in a day, and you need to be mindful of how you use them. Don’t be afraid to say no. Your time is valuable, treat it like it is.
7. Learn How to Delegate and Manage Your Team
You can’t be everywhere. The ability to effectively delegate tasks and manage your team provides you with the most valuable resource of all: time. Remember to let go. Your team members might not complete tasks the same as you, so if you want something done a certain way, coach (don’t command!) on what to do instead.
8. Be Passionate
It’s the foundation of a successful entrepreneur. You need to have it for the full experience of being a salon owner. It will get you out of bed in the morning even if you’ve only had a few hours of sleep because you were up late taking inventory. The salon industry is competitive: passion gets you through bad days and makes good days much more meaningful.
9. Promote Yourself
Talking to others about yourself can be one of the most difficult parts of building your business. We’re taught from a young age talking about yourself too much is rude. Instead of thinking of self-promotion as a sales pitch, think of it as your way to share your passion with those around you.
You should also be using social media such as Instagram and Facebook to boost appointments via the book now button. and to share your passion with the world. Your salon is a big part of your life, be proud of it!
10. Be Resilient
The life of a small business owner can be a roller coaster ride. Some days you’ll feel like you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, but it’s important to remember bad days will pass, and tomorrow holds the potential for greatness.
One More Step To Become a Successful Salon Owner
Staying focused and organized might be one of the most challenging parts of a day for a salon owner. With everything going on, people tend to leave administrative tasks or dealing with finances to be the last on the to-do list. In part, because these activities demand time and energy that you’d rather spend with more creative activities in your salon.
We understand so we have a solution.
The DaySmart Salon Software will help you with all the operational tasks. Alongside acting as an online booking system (no double booking from now on!), DaySmart also covers payroll processing, client management, email and text marketing.
Successful salon owners know how to work smart, and DaySmart is right there in their repertoire.