5 Questions Every Salon Owner Must Answer

We have spent the whole of March on the podcast talking about pricing, planning, team tax and profit. But today I want to zoom out because all of those things are only worth doing if they add up to something, a business that actually works. Today we're going to find out if yours does. All on Build Your Salon. Hello, my salon friends, Phil Jackson here, your Queen of Salons coming all over the internet with a big dose of My Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you aching me? I hope right at the end of March on the cusp of finishing a quarter, which feels like a really good time to zoom out a little bit. Take stock, review whether your business is working for you. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. And this is a process that I go through every quarter. So I take out a big piece of paper that's got my year goals on it and just figure out where we are, where are we up to? Are we on track for the kind of year that we want? And usually there are a few points to celebrate, some things that have gone well, some stuff that we've done. And usually there are a few areas that we're falling short. But what we don't want to do is get to the end of the year, not having done this review processes too late then to work on so many of these things. This can be a little nudge, a little kick up the bum if you like, to get us back on track for Q2. And usually that means that the first month of Q2 for me is very busy 'cause I'm just backfilling all the stuff I didn't quite get time for in Q1. Plus, of course we've got Q2 goals to be working on too. But before any of that, we need to figure out what a salon that works, what a business that works actually looks like. And most of you guys have never done this. And you think that a working salon is defined by how busy it is, by how much money it makes, and it's not. It's actually defined by what the business delivers. And there are five things that I want a salon to deliver. The first is, and the most important is I want a business owner who gets paid properly. Not just covering minimum wage, not just covering costs, not just drawing what's left at the end of the month. A deliberate planned salary and reward structure that reflects the value of what you do for the business, but also the business risk that you are carrying. Secondly, I want a business that does not collapse when you are not there. Whether that's a holiday or whether you are off sick or whether you take a day off. If your business can't function for 48 hours without you, it is not working. You are. Third, I want a business that grows predictably, not just in the good months, but with a plan and with a trajectory and with strategy growth that happens by accident is not a strategy. Fourth, I want you to have a team that performs without constant micromanagement. They don't need to be perfect, but they do need to be consistent and independent enough that you are leading rather than firefighting all the time. And finally, I want a business that gives you a life. After all, we want a business that serves you. And this is where I differ from lots and lots of salon business coaches. We always look at what you want first, and then we build the business that supports those life goals. So what do you want in terms of time off, financial security, the ability to make choices. Most salon owners will hear that list and they'll be able to identify one or two things that are not quite right and that's normal and it's fixable. None of those things is impossible. But if none of those five things are in place for you, the business is not working for you. It's surviving. And surviving is exhausting. So I've got five questions for you. And some of these might be a little uncomfortable. First, are you paying yourself properly? Are you just living over what's left at the end of the month? Or do you have that deliberate planned approach to your salary? Are you able to replace yourself? Could you get somebody into the business paying them what you pay yourself? If you don't know what you paid yourself this year? That's probably not a good thing either. You're almost certainly not paying yourself properly. But if you had to hire someone in, what would you pay them? Are you paying yourself at least that? And if the answer's no, you don't have a business, you've created a job that you happen to also own and that is not the same thing. Second, could your salon business function without you for a week? Now, this was one of the big business goals that I had when I had my salon business. I didn't necessarily want something that functioned perfectly, but I wanted something that would be open, that would serve clients, handle bookings, make money, break even without me physically being there every day. So I wasn't too fussed about us making a profit initially, but I wanted us at least to be at the stage where we could break even. And if the answer to that is no, what is it that breaks? What specific thing is not working without you there? And I'm not on about making you indispensable to the business. I'm not on about making you dispensable to the business. It's about building something that has value beyond your personal effort. That's what a business is. A business that only works when you are in it is not an asset, it's a liability. And I want you to have that lifestyle first vision that we talked about. If you want to spend three months of the year in Spain, do it. If you want more time with the people who matter, the ability to step back, all of that's only possible when you are able to have a business that functions without you. Question number three, do you know what your salon will turn over in Q2? Not roughly a number that you can defend with a plan. And if the answer's no, it means that you're probably running your business quite reactively. Reactively works, you can wing it, but it's an exhausting way of running a business. It means that revenue is happening to you not because of the things that you are putting in place. So what's your Q2 target? Do you know how you're going to get there? Do you have the marketing plan, the pricing strategy, the team capacity to deliver on that plan? And we covered this in a recent episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. Have you done it? Have you put that plan in place for predictable growth? Predictable growth is not going to happen without a plan. And the plan means getting to know the numbers, getting to know the numbers means doing the work. Question four, is your team performing without you micromanaging every single detail? Now, I don't want necessarily a team that removes your role completely, though that may be on your radar if that's what you want. But you want a team that's independent enough that you are not the sole answer to every single question. That's you are not the solution to every single problem that comes up with that day. You are not the substitute for common sense signs that it's not working are when you are the last to leave every night when clients only want to see you or when the team stops working, the moment you are not watching. When you've got these things in place, it means that the team members are starting to take initiative. The standards are maintained whether you are there or not. And your presence is not supervision anymore. It means that you're starting to be a leader in your business. And we covered this in a recent episode as well when we talked about staff reviews, did you book them? Are you having those difficult conversations? 'Cause the team's not going to manage itself, but it can manage the day-to-day consistently if you've got the right systems in place and clear expectations. And question number five, are you building a life or just a business? And this is the one that matters the most and the one with the most that most business content ignores. Are you taking proper holidays? Have you got financial security beyond next month's revenue? Are you working the hours that you want? Or are you working the hours that the business demands? Go back to those 2026 goals. If you want to spend more time in Spain, if you want a lower hour work week, how's that going? Not as a guilt trip, but as a genuine check on where we're up to. Because the point of building a business is not the business. The point of building the business is the life and the lifestyle that the business makes possible. And if the answer to this question is not a good one, that's not a reason to work harder. It's a reason to start working a bit smarter. So once we've done that temperature check on the business, what are you going to do with the answers? If you've answered yes to all five, brilliant. You've built something that works. Your job now is to scale it and also to protect it. Keep the standards, keep the plan, build the systems, and keep those conversations going. If you've answered no to one or two of those questions, you are in the normal and fixable category. Pick the most important one. Make it the focus of your strategy for Q2. Don't try and tackle all five at once, just choose one. If you've answered no to three or more, your business is surviving rather than working. And that's not a long-term viable business. It's going to need more than just incremental changes. It needs a plan, a real one built around exactly where you want to end up. The honest truth is, most salon owners who have been in business for more than three years and are still answering no to most of these questions are not going to work, are not going to fix it by working harder. Most salon owners, in my experience, are not afraid of hard work. But what they're going to have to do is start doing something different. And usually that means getting help. I would love to be offering that help to you. And that's what my one-to-one ultimate clarity is built for. In 90 days. We build three things that answer yes to all five of those questions. We build your five year lifestyle first business plan. We look at your 12 month profit and pricing strategy and your 12 month marketing plan together, done together, no guesswork to build a business that works for you, builds your income, builds your team, and finally, of course, builds that lifestyle. The link for your free 30 minute conversation is in the show notes. So here we are heading towards Easter, time for a happy Easter. Go and enjoy your break, go and enjoy yourself. I'll be back next week with, I must admit it's a prerecorded episode because I'm off to Spain for a couple of weeks over the Easter break. So I'm not going to be terribly responsive email wise. But please, if there's something you would like me to cover in a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast, or you would like to be a guest on a future episode, reach out and let me know, phil@buildyoursalon.com, scrolling at the bottom of the screen right now. I love hearing from my salon owner friends, and I do wish you a wonderful, wonderful spring break. Until next time, take care.