Salon business, like many other businesses, has a fairly predictable pattern; it tends to be slower in a couple weeks in August/September, has a dip between October and November before the holidays when it gets insane, and then January and February can be pretty quiet.  The key to running a successful salon, spa or booth, is to level that business out throughout the year.  Ronit Enos, performance coach and founder of Salon Cadence,shares tips on how to bring balance to salon business. 

“If you instill just a couple things into your business plan to account for seasonal slumps and vacations, you can level out your earnings throughout the year and be more financially sound,” says Enos.

Preventing Seasonal Slumps

• Automate your business so you can collect data to learn from your past and help project your future.

• Create promotions to generate income throughout the year to supplement the slower months and devise special promotions during the lighter months to ensure business is operating at, at least, 70% productivity.

• Prebook clients to fill in some of the quieter times – if a client comes in every 4-5 or 6-7 weeks, strategically schedule them in some of the slower times.

• Offer a complimentary gift card during the holiday season to redeem a service when booking appointments in January and February.

• Celebrate new client week in the summer -  “bring a new friend for a color service and receive a $50 gift card.”

• Encourage gift card redemption during slower months by sending an email or text to remind clients to use GC’s.

Managing Vacation Time

• Evenly distribute vacation time by providing guidelines on how much can be taken and when.  Usually, stylists want summer off and have to work the holiday rush. Set up a first come, first served system based on seniority…four set times a year when staff can submit vacation requests and you can strategically spread them out.

• Supplement income lost from staff vacations by calculating a solid number and then dividing it by 12 months.  If 5K is lost, plan to make $416.66 extra a month in promotions to cover that.

“Study what you have and project your future business based on last year’s data…when you know your slow times, there will be no slow times!” adds Enos. 

Enos will be holding two classes in the Business Forum at Premiere Birmingham (October 20-21), “Develop a Mindset for Wealth and Freedom” and “Create a Company That Works for YOU.”  Learn more on https://joom.ag/5Jde/p28.

Ronit Enos is the creator of the Salon Cadence Freedom Model Method and a certified Profit First Coach infusing Profit First Methodology into the professional industry to help salon and spa owners work the way they want to live.  Profit First is a money management system that ensures profitability by putting profit first, not last. Facebook: @Ronitenossalonsprofit ; Instagram: @ronitenossalonsprofits ; YouTube: @RonitEnos