CONGRATS! You’ve just invested in an incredible tool that will help you GET REALER THAN REAL with your salon numbers and – build some serious profits! Okay, so you have the scale, now what?!
New business, seasoned vet, independent or large team – making ANY changes in your salon business can be tough. Time is money and change can cause major change $$$! Pardon the pun. Since the purpose of SalonScale is to support just that, change $$$ in your business, I’m sharing my top tips to help you implement this tool with little to no pushback. What good is change if you don’t know what to do with it?
When you start receiving new data/numbers (from using the SalonScale system) there are some important things you can start doing with this newfound knowledge – and we’ll show you how. Think about it: this is like putting extra money into your bank account. Where did the dollars come from? Where were the dollars being spent before? Where can I put these NEW dollars to work that I’ve just saved, in order to make me and my team more income, save us time and ultimately be more fulfilled and able to GIVE MORE to our clients?
Each salon is unique in structure and the great thing about SalonScale is how adaptable it is to every business model and how SIMPLE it is to use and implement. The fact that SalonScale was created BY a hairstylist means that it’s simple and easy to work with! So, let’s DIVE IN!
Here are my 6 MUST-HAVE TIPS (that will save you time & money), plus key points on implementation and getting going:
1. MEASURE & MONITOR:
Use the scale to measure all your color and just monitor your numbers for
60-90 days. Imagine if you owned a pizza & wine bar and every glass of wine you poured carelessly ran over. No one got to drink the wine yet someone is still paying for the wine. Moral of the story: spilled wine and over-usage of color (that’s not helping anyone out) cost someone money. Also, think about letting your shower run 10 minutes extra after you’ve already jumped out. How massive would that water bill be to pay for water when no one’s actually in the shower?! When you can see the costs on paper – and how they add up, you start to think about “what else could I be doing with that money” (instead of wasting it).
Key point: ask yourself, “is my color usage per client in a reasonable zone?” Note: you know that if you’re using more than 11% per client that you are going to dip into the profit margins and let’s be honest…..that won’t end well for anyone!
Case in point: even being $3.00 short per color per day with a team of 5 stylists, equals over $7K at the end of the year! YIKES. Bottom line – make sure your margins are in check so you know where to course correct. Knowing your numbers inside out is POWERFUL. “A small leak can sink a great ship”
2. EDUCATE YOUR TEAM ON HOW, WHY & WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM.
If everyone on your team knows and understands the WHY behind making changes in your business they are much more likely to be cool with it.
Be open and real. A hair salon is like any other business and needs to be run efficiently. The sad statistic is that 80% of small businesses fail before they even reach 18 months and 8 out of 10 salons are closing. A profitable business means more room for education, staff events, upgrades to the salon, and not to mention….job security!!! Nobody wants to be the next salon on the street to close its doors!
3. TURN BACKBAR SAVINGS INTO A BIGGER PAYCHECK.
Utilizing SalonScale will give you your back bar numbers each month to the penny. Some salons charge a percentage to their staff as a back bar or product charge before they pay commissions. This is a great model, however, if it’s a blanket percentage it might not be covering what it needs to.
Key point: help save your heavy mixers $$$ by letting them know that simply taking it down a notch (mixing & measuring color) translates to them saving dollars per usage which can add up mega each month.
Case in point: we have seen some tickets that were upwards of $175.00 in PRODUCT ALONE!! Now, if this is a 7+ hour color correction – you go girl!! But a color correction isn’t necessarily the average stylist color-service on the daily, am I right? Punchline: PLEASE…for the love of all things make sure that the cost is covered no matter the service you’re providing, am I right??!!
4. CHARGE ACCURATELY
Other salons charge a chemical service charge to the client and break down the total price based on service and product so that it’s calculated as a part and labor type payment. Hairdressing is a trade so this makes a lot of sense! A plumber or an electrician would never ‘guess’ the cost of their parts. They know exactly how much they are!
5. EMPOWER YOUR STAFF FOR LONG TERM SUCCESS.
Something magical happens when our staff physically SEE how many colors they are using in a dollar amount….our color bills went down by just over 500.00 per month just by everyone realizing what those costs look like. To be fair, if they aren’t buying the color every month they might not appreciate the cost as much as you do. So let’s empower them and show them what those numbers look like! This can also be very helpful if you take on new hairdressers right out of school.
6. MAKE INVENTORY PAINLESS.
For so many of us, this can be such a painful word!! If you choose a package that gives you access to the dashboard, you can check your reports weekly, monthly or even daily to see how much of which tubes of color you have used to help with restocking! Brilliant right??!!
Guys and gals….let’s be real for a minute. Our industry needs a pick me up. We need to charge our worth and build stronger, sustainable businesses. HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY in ANY type of business.
Knowing the numbers is the golden key. Let’s work together, support each other and just be awesome humans and lift each other up! I hope these quick points help you out and inspire you to make the changes you need to. I want YOU to make this year your best one yet with your salon business!!
Cheers to mixing many colors ahead and being a part of the #saloscalemovement!!
Best,
Kristie
(just a girl whose salon life was forever changed by SalonScale)