Always be sure you know what it is that your customers are looking for as far as services and products, and be sure to keep a tight ship around your hair salon. These are a couple of keys to managing a successful hair salon.
6 Tips to Successfully Managing a Hair Salon
- Know Your Local Area
Stay current on hairstyle trends in your area. You may want to notice how women are wearing their hair as you wander around your neighborhood, as that will be a great way to see what’s popular. Find out what the locals are looking for in terms of a salon, and then you can begin to meet their needs.
- Watch Your Customers for Clues
A customer may tell you they love their new look, but what if you never see them again? What does that say about whether or not they liked it? If you have heard about the “silent majority”, these are the people you have to keep an eye out for. They may not tell you if they hate their haircut, so you have to watch them close. Look for body language or facial expressions for concern or disappointment, and then politely offer something a little different.
- Have Reasonable Prices
Make an extra effort at pricing your services just right. You don’t want to be the cheapest in town, because you want your clientele to respect you and the great services you provide. However, you want to have people come back again and again as regular customers, and if they can’t afford to come back at least once a month then you may be priced too high. Search for a good balance between too cheap and too expensive.
- Include More Variety
Bring more options and services into the mix, and turn your hair salon into a whole beauty salon. Create a “destination” salon, and look into offering ear piercing, manicures, pedicures, and other options. You also want to be certain you are covering all your bases with hair by offering cuts, perms, washes, rinses, curlers and dyes.
- Wear Black
It may sound strange, but Its a fact that hair salon clients feel more comfortable and relaxed when their stylist wears black. Maybe on some psychological level, it helps to drive away their apprehensions. Whatever the reason, it works.
- Keep Up With Cleanliness and Decor
Think about what your customers are looking for in the atmosphere… A warm, inviting, professional salon, which creates the proper mood for relaxation and pampering – it’s up to you to provide that. Décor and cleanliness must work together to put your customers at ease immediately upon entering your hair salon.
If you follow these 6 suggestions you should be able to successfully manage your hair or beauty salon.
Control the Overhead in Your Hair Salon
A good salon manager will keep track of the overhead and other incidental expenses associated with running a business. Having lots of products sitting on the shelves that don’t sell can be a drain on resources. Make sure you understand which items are hot sellers, and which may not sell so well.
Also make sure to keep track of your number of employees and what specialties they may have. While it is sometimes a good idea to have stylists that specialize in a single technique such as curling or braiding, you also want to ensure that they all have the basic skills needed to meet every customer’s needs. Also, unless your customers use certain services in excess, you may want to think twice before having more than one stylist that specializes in the same thing.
Improve Your Bottom Line
Ask yourself if there is any way to combine tasks in order to cut back on hourly or part-time help. Do you really need an employee dedicated to sweeping or booking appointments?
Maybe your stylists can take a minute or two in between clients to do those chores themselves? There are always ways to cut back on overhead in order to increase revenue, and with enough foresight and creativity a good salon manager can overcome all obstacles!