I Learned To Trust The Systems To Deliver Success!
Over the years I’ve owned different businesses and tried lots of different ways of running them, to be frank, I was not naturally a structure person, I was not good at following instructions and I would become bored part way through learning; and often made up my own ways to suit my butterfly mind!
In the early 90’s I started reading business and self-development books, I expanded into business studies and eventually, focused on the process of completing tasks in a structured way. Literally, I learned to trust the ‘system’ to deliver success.
The years since I have continued to learn, and have created my own structures for salon management. I have owned my hair and beauty salons in central London for over 20 years, employing a team of around 25. To be clear, I’m not saying I’m an expert at everything, there are many elements to running a salon (or any business). I need support from my managers, the team and external professionals, to keep the business going! But the things I am good at (the foundation stuff to build a solid platform to grow from – and systems or automation for mundane tasks) I’ve developed into practical tools to free myself, to focus on the things I enjoy in life.
Nowadays my approach is easier, I know what I want to achieve (although sometimes that feels a bit like a natural looking balayage and wavy blow-dry, it looks so natural and easy to achieve although it took a highly skilled colourist/stylist hours to create)!
What I mean is, identify what you really want, then look at how to get there. Imagine the path like a recipe for a cake, you need to know what type of cake you want – the right ingredients in specific quantities – mixed in a certain order – placed in specific sized baking tin – baked at an exact temperature for precise period of time. Only then do you get your perfect cake.
Well, it’s the same with business planning; you need to know what type of business you want. For simplicity, I’m going to go with a profitable business, one where my team are happy, feel valued and want to work for the business. But also leaves me free to do more of what I love.
For many, the technical side of salon business (the day job) is the easy bit, it’s the admin that is often the challenge; which is not surprising when you look at the balance of salon work, versus back-office work.
The typical salon business model is divided into specific areas:
The front end – salon core business
- The creative / technical / service element
- The client facing elements
- Retail homecare
- The physical plant (salon space)
The backend
- Financial
- Budgeting and forecasting*
- Banks, bookkeeping and accounts
- Government and taxes
Operational
- Stock
- Maintenance / cleaning
- Health & Safety*
- Licensing
- Insurance
Employment
- Legal and compliance*
- Pay systems commissions and payroll*
- Target setting*
- Relationship / engagement / team building / reviews*
- Training and staff & personal development*
- Record keeping and business compliance*
- Scheduling*
- Holiday management*
- Sickness*
Marketing / PR
- External
- Website
- Social media
- Community
- Charity
Internal
- Client journey
- POS materials
- Magazines
- Refreshments
To name but a few.
Looking at the list, it’s evident that the backend of salon management is a lot more detailed than the front end; which to be honest is scary.
So, how can you deal with the stuff you don’t like, or don’t understand or simply not interested in? The truth is it will take effort, but if you start by separating things into:
- Things I like to do
- Things I must do
- Things I’ll employ someone else to do
For the things you like that’s easy, just make sure you are sharing all the right information with your team so they can deliver the things they have to do.
The things I must do, find the easiest most efficient way to do them, typically that will mean tools and delegation.
And for the things you don’t have time for, or don’t like doing, pay someone else to do them. The problem with this is (from my experiences) if you don’t like it or understand it, you hand it over to someone else and you don’t look at it again (at least that’s been my experience)! When they leave you don’t a clue what they do. This happened to me years ago, my office manager left, I had no idea what she did or how she did it. I tried hiring someone else but without a clear idea of a job description it took a long time to resolve. Tip: whoever is doing the ‘stuff’ on the ‘someone else to do’ list, have them write out what they do, a brief on how they do it and the contact details / account numbers etc. associated to the tasks.
So, to be clear, from the list above, identify what you are willing to do, and delegate the rest (as I say it’s not a comprehensive list but you get the idea). The points with an asterisk* at the end, can be managed by Loop hr software…
I started developing software around 15 years ago; I had no idea how complex or expensive it would be. Many versions later I am very happy with our specially designed, salon HR software, it now does what I always dreamed of – meaning you just need to add your salon information – Loop hr will take care of the rest.
I encourage you to ease the burden of salon management; free up your time to focus on the things you love to do. If you’d like to discuss how Loop hr can work for your business, drop me Live Chat (bottom right side of your screen) or ping me a message on Instagram or Facebook.
Ian Egerton
Creator
Loop HR Software