Ask me anything - August

Hello, my salon friends. How's business? How's life treating you? How is August treating you? Let's find out in my monthly Q&A. Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming in your eyes and ears again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom. And this week, of course, the wisdom is steered by your questions in my Ask Me Anything. Now, I had to do some nagging. This is me telling you off now, darlings. Brace yourselves. I had to do some nagging to get some questions. You've got to send these questions in. These episodes, I think, are actually some of the most valuable because they directly address what's going on with you and your business. It doesn't work if you don't send me any bloody questions. So get your questions in phil at buildyoursalon.com or reach out at philjacksoncoach on Instagram. Ping me a DM and I can get your question up in a couple of weeks. You haven't got to wait long for a bit of free help, have you, darlings? Anyway, the mailbag is bursting, having nagged people to death to send me their questions. We've got some to answer. So I'm going to jump straight in. Apologies for looking down if you're watching on YouTube, but I've got to read these questions. First question comes from Gemma and she says, how do I get work-life balance? I'm always working evenings and clients message me at home. Okay, Gemma, this is all to do with boundaries. Boundaries and expectations, really, are the biggest favours I can do you. We've got to figure out what you're actually willing and prepared to do for your business. And I'll be really honest with you, there are times when we have to lean in a bit harder. There are times when we have to pull out all the stops, work the extra hours, make sure we're on call 24-7. Push, grind, hustle and 10x to get results, but not all the time. So when we first open a business, we might need to put some extra effort in. If we're recovering from a crisis in the business, we put the extra effort in. But the rest of the time, the day-to-day, we've got to get that balance right. And I think the, I don't like the phrase work-life balance because I think it implies that things need to be 50-50 and a very even split. And where that balance lies is very, very personal. There are times when I've had to go 70-30 in favour of the business and barely any time for myself at all. There are times when I've had to go 80-20 in another direction and the business is everything to me.

And there's not much happening outside. So we've got to make sure that that balance is where we want to strike it. And really, it will be indicated by the levels of energy that you have. So if you're struggling energetically, it's because you're out of alignment somewhere. So start noticing the days and times when that's happening. Is it that you're getting tired and crotchety when you're at work? Is it that you're not present and not able to spend time with friends and family outside of work? What is it that's wrong? From your question, it sounds like it's too much work, not enough life going on outside. And this could, though actually I'm not going to lean into this too hard because there's another question about this a bit later on. This could be as simple as a pricing problem. It could just be that we need to increase your prices, which may slightly suppress demand on your time. You make more money and free up some time to spend outside work. The other thing that I think would be really useful to you is when you're doing your pricing equation, and I'm assuming you're setting your prices properly, but assuming that you are, price in some time to spend on the business during your work hours. So where lots of people go wrong is they say, OK, I've got 40 hours a week. I'm going to work 40 hours a week. And this is how I price my services is with me carrying out 40 hours of services a week. No, if you've got 40 hours a week, I don't know what size your business is, but let's assume you're going to give yourself four hours of admin time. What we do is price up that you're going to be doing 36 hours of services and four hours a week of you working on the business. And that needs to be paid for. It needs to be factored in. It needs to be part of your daily schedule, not taking work home and balancing the laptop on your lap when you should be unwinding and spending time with loved ones. As far as clients messaging you, that's because you've trained them with an expectation. They expect to be able to message you at any time and get a reply because guess what you've been doing? You've been replying. So we need to get some boundaries in place. And there's a couple of little strategies that I have. This actually goes all the way back to an old answer phone message that we used to have in the salon. Do you remember answer phones? Do you remember when people used to ring up for things in the old days when Jack were a lad, as my mother would say?

And the answer phone message basically said, please feel free to leave a message. We check these messages at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. So that our clients weren't waiting for us because a lot of people will leave a message and then expect you to get back to them in the next five minutes. By setting the expectation on when people could hear back from us, the client wasn't waiting by the phone getting cross. And we could be doing this with the direct messages that you're getting on Facebook Messenger and Instagram and all these good places too. Just set up an autoresponder saying this is when these messages will be checked and then stick to it. Train the customer that they can leave your message out of hours, whatever it suits them, but you'll get back to them when you're actually working. That way we're putting a strong boundary in place. The other thing I would seriously think about doing is getting yourself a second phone number. If clients have your mobile phone number, if team members have your mobile phone number, they need to learn that they can't get hold of you 24-7. And the easiest way to do it is have a work phone and a home phone. Don't put both SIMs into the same phone. I know lots of phones now let you have multiple SIM cards. Don't do that. You want to be able to take your work phone, shut it in a drawer, go out for dinner with your husband or your wife or whoever you want to have dinner with and forget about work for a few hours. OK, you want that separation. And that's not going to happen if you've got your work phone with you. So a few things you could be doing to put stuff in place. So please, when I answer these questions, feel free to reach out again and let me know how things are going. I'd love to hear whether any of these tips is actually working for you or whether there's more help that you need. So good luck, Gemma. And thank you for your question over on Instagram. Next up, we have Tom from London who sent me an email. He says, OK, again, Tom, this might be as simple as a pricing problem. If you're not making the profits that you need to, and I'm assuming that your team is busy, it might be that there's a disconnect there. Because as far as commissions go, commissions and wages and pricing are all linked. So when your pay is reviewed, that's usually the time that we would review the prices that we're charging as well.

So everything goes up in sync. So if you've got to the stage, oh, actually, I'm not sure, Tom, because you've said that they don't get commission. Is that because you don't have a commission structure in place at all? Or is it that you've got commission targets that they can't hit? Because if you've got to the stage where you've got commission targets, but your team can't hit them, even when they're busy, it's a pricing problem. So we need to look at that pricing structure. But it's a bigger picture than just pricing. We need to make sure that we're looking at pricing, plus also commissions, plus also the wages that you're paying. The one thing I will say is that generally money in our industry is not a great long-term motivator. Generally, team members that are asking for more money will be asking again in a few months' time. But there are actually very few people in our industry that are driven by money. That's not to say that you can't earn good money in salons. There's some very good money to be earned. Don't get me wrong. But there are easier ways to make a living. So generally, people don't come into the industry because they're attracted by the massive wages. So I would have a look at whether you're paying them enough. And I'm talking about commercially enough. Are they comparing themselves with the salon down the road that's paying a lot more per hour? Are they comparing notes with their friends? Or are you actually paying really well and you've just got some people that are a bit dissatisfied? It seems interesting to me that you've got two of them asking for pay rises. They're probably having some little backroom conversations. And we do need to get to grips with this. The other thing I want you to do, though, Tom, if you feel that you're paying well and that the commission structure that you've got in place is generous and adequate, I want you to do something for me, Tom. I want you to put a recruitment ad out there. I know. Shocking, isn't it? Me asking you to grow your team. I'm not necessarily asking you to grow your team, but it feels like the tail's starting to wag the dog a little bit, Tom. It feels a bit like you're starting to feel vulnerable in your business. And trust me, as a leader, feeling vulnerable to the people that you're leading is not a good space to be. So I want you to put an ad out there and just test the market. Just see whether it would be possible to replace these people if you absolutely had to. Hopefully we can get this sorted. Hopefully we can get people motivated. But if we can't, it will be really useful for you to know that there are applicants out there interested in your job. You say you can't pay more because you don't make much profit as it is.

Again, if you're busy, this is a pricing problem. I think there's a structural problem with your prices. If you've got people that are busy and we're not making enough money, we need to price in more profit so that we can cover higher wages if we need to, but also so we can make you a decent profit too. So I hope that's useful to you. Enjoy the rest of your commute, Tom, and reach out and let me know how you're getting on. Quick question now. Well, it was a short question anyway from Sarah over on Instagram. She says, how do you stay organized? That's wonderfully vague, isn't it, Sarah? How do I stay organized or how does one stay organized? How I stay organized is I'm a planner. I enjoy the planning process. It took me a long time to get to enjoy the planning process. I'm naturally, believe it or not, quite a lazy person, quite a disorganized person. So I've had to coach myself over the years and get tools and techniques in place in my business that mean that I can be productive, that I can get lots done, that I can stay on track, that I don't get stressed, I don't get hassled, and I make good money too. So how do I stay organized? I have a planning process, and that is, well, I mean, I have an annual planning process, which I share with some of my customers on my salon owner's retreat. So we do a goal-setting retreat in January, and I go through that process as well. So I'm setting up my goals for the whole year. Then those goals are broken down into quarters. So I have a quarterly planning process, and that takes me about half a day to plan my quarter. So basically what I'm doing there is figuring out what needs to be done in this quarter, what can wait until another quarter. And then I have a monthly planning process, which takes me about an hour, hour and a half, where I figure out out of that quarter, what am I going to be doing this month, and what can wait until next month and the month after. I have a weekly planning process, and this is where things get really quite quick, but it's still a process. It's a Sunday evening. Well, I say evening, about five o'clock, and it's done with my husband as well. So we sit down, sanity check our weeks, and basically it's my opportunity to figure out who's going to pick up which child from where, what have I forgotten about, who's got a birthday party that we need to buy a present for. But also I'm planning my week and making sure that I'm not missing any of the important appointments. I'm planning my tasks for the week. It only takes me about half an hour to plan home and work. And then I also have a daily planning process, and that happens at the end of my day.

So I call that putting my day to bed. And the end of my day, I know it sounds shocking and it sounds like I'm very lazy, but the end of my day is about 2 p.m. because I start work at 5 in the morning. I'm a morning person. Very important, by the way, people, to notice when you are strongest energetically. I can ride the tide in the mornings. All of these episodes, it's why the lighting is sometimes a bit funny, all of these episodes are recorded at 5 and 6 in the morning because it's when I've got the most energy. If I had to do this episode at 7 o'clock at night, I promise you, you'd be asleep in no time. But at the end of my day, at 2 p.m., I put the day to bed and basically I reflect on the day. Did I get all the tasks done that I said that I wanted to get done today? And what does tomorrow look like? Because at 5 in the morning, I don't want to be thinking about what I'm going to be working on today. I want to be on automatic pilot. So all of that planning gets done the night before. And that's when we come offline. So I will look at my diary, look at my calendar, look at my task management software. But I will write out by hand what I'm going to be doing the next day. So that's how I stay organised. The other thing I do a lot, and I can't mention his name because he'll respond, but I do use the automated helper that's built into my Apple phone. There we go. And I do use that a lot. So I use the reminders. I don't use notepad at all on my phone, but I do use the reminders because I can ask he who cannot be named, we'll call him Voldemort, because I ask Voldemort to add things to my reminder list when I'm on the fly. So if I'm driving or walking the dog, I can ask him to add things to my reminder list. And then that gets scheduled when I get home as well. So I'm a big fan of a bit of technology. I'm a bit of a nerd, a bit of a geek. And I do like my reminders too. So a few tips in there, Sarah, if there's something more specific that you needed help with, then please reach out and let me know. And finally, an anonymous question. And that's perfectly fine. If you've got a question, but you don't want me to share your name or share your salon name, please, that's fine. Just mention it in the question. Um, I've abridged this. It was a very long question and I hope I've got the concise points out of it. Um, and it's a bit of a bit of a sad one, I'm afraid. Um, it says, I'm so close to giving up. I work really hard and my girls do too. So this is someone who's got a team. Um, we're booked up at least two weeks in advance and our clients are always recommending us. I pay myself less than the girls and sometimes I have to take less to ensure everyone gets paid.

I listened to your podcast talking about targets and I'm starting to see the problem is we do a lot of nails. Would adding something like laser help. So basically what we've got here is somebody who's got high demand. They're booked up a couple of weeks ahead, but it sounds like the problem in the business is we've got a low average bill, which in turn means that we're not making the profits that we need to, which means that it's impacting how much you get paid and how much profit is retained in the business. I think that's the gist of what I've got going on here. Um, would adding something like laser help. Okay. Firstly, do not invest in laser right now. Anonymous, you're not making money, which means we don't have a pool of profit to invest it, to reinvest in the business. Um, and I don't know whether we need to right now. Actually, I'm going to go on a little bit of a tangent just for a second about laser hair removal, because I see lots of people bringing laser in tempted. And, um, you know, they've got kind of this rose tinted view of what their business is going to be like because they're seeing people like making lots of money on laser. Okay. Here in the UK, well, I reckon you've got two years of opportunity. We're getting very close to saturation with laser in the UK. Now, um, there's lots and lots of laser hair removal. It's very hard to tell salons apart. Everyone's describing their services in the same way. Everyone's charging the same. The offers that I see are all the same. Everyone's doing a full body offer for 997. Everyone's doing 50% off courses of laser. It's going to become almost impossible to charge full price for laser hair removal because there is so much competition. And in two years time, I predict there is going to be no point in buying laser. You won't be able to make the money back. So that's my little rant about laser hair removal. It's not the same story everywhere in the world, I'm sure. But for now, just be aware that these machines are hugely expensive and it may become less easy for you to recoup your investment. But I can see what you're getting at. I can see that you're trying to strive for a higher average bill. That said, if you're doing lots of nails and you're thinking about going into laser, I'm guessing you've got other stuff on the price card too. So you're probably doing some sort of other hair removal. Perhaps you're doing facial services. I would start leaning into those services before I start investing

if you're not generating much in the way of profit at the moment. Also, I want to go back to something we've mentioned a couple of times. If you're booked up a couple of weeks in advance, there's probably a bit of elasticity in your pricing. There's probably something we can do to get those prices up a little bit. Even on your nail prices, there's probably something we can do to get a bit more profit in and make sure that they are profitable for you. If you can't tweak the prices, maybe have a look at timing so we can get a bit more in the columns. But don't give up. At the end of the day, you've got a relatively successful business. All right, you're not making the profits at the moment, but you've got demand. You've got a team that seems to enjoy working for you if they're working hard for you. And you've got a clientele. You've got people that want your services. So there's some really useful stuff, Anonymous, to build on from here. But we've got to get those prices right. We've got to start pivoting towards stuff that's more profitable. Nails, you know, I get a lot of flack because people say that I hate nail services. I don't hate nail services. What I hate is when I see people that can't make money on nail services. And the problem is, unless you're doing nails all day every day, it's really hard to get the timings down. It's really hard to get the profits up. And I think that nail clients tend to be some of the most price-sensitive clients. So it's not that I hate nails. I just don't think that many people are making them very, very profitable. Lots of people say things like, oh, I need to keep nails because those people go on to have other services. I bet they don't, or at least not as much as you think they do. This is not your gateway drug into more profitable services. So start pivoting into some of the other stuff. And that doesn't mean that we stop doing nails, but it means that perhaps we stop talking about them on socials. We stop running promos. We stop advertising nails. We advertise those higher-priced services instead. So have a look at your pricing. Have a look at pivoting into the more profitable stuff. And don't give up, please. Give it another quarter. Give it another six months. And to be honest with you, if we get to the stage where you're that close to giving up, what have you got to lose? You know, start getting really bold in your business. If you feel like you're that close to closing the doors anyway, why not put your prices up by 20%, 30%, 40%? See what that does to the business model. And unless you're the cheapest in town,

and I've said this lots of times on the Build Your Salon podcast, unless you're the cheapest in town, people aren't coming to you for your prices anyway. They're coming for something else. That means there's a bit more give, a bit more elasticity in the business than perhaps you think. So I hope that's helpful to you. I hope that's given you a little bit of hope. My final point, though, is actually a bit of a gloomy one, in that business ownership is not for everyone, and that's fine. Show yourself some grace. If this really isn't for you, if you really can't make a go of it, I promise you there are hundreds of salons out there that with your level of expertise and experience would bite your arm off to take you on as a pretty well-paid employee, perhaps even as a salon manager. It's not for everybody, and it shouldn't be for everyone to own a business. So if you decide that this is not the path for you, that's fine. That's life. Life is just a series of experiments where we get closer and closer to the things that fill us with joy. So I hope that's been useful to all of you for very different questions, but please don't wait until next month to reach out with your questions for next time. Please reach out phil at buildyoursalon.com. I can't do these episodes if I don't have the questions, and these are my favourites to do. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your eyes and ears again with another dose of Wise Owl wisdom. If you've got two minutes in between, if you found this episode useful, please, if you're on YouTube, subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss an episode. If you're on one of the podcast platforms, leave me a review. My favourite part of the week is receiving a five-star review from you. Until next time, take care. Sit down and see what's going on with the Queen of Salons. Hair, beauty and more successful tips for business owners all on Build Your Salon.