Do you need to delegate more in your salon business?

Hello, Phil Jackson here from Build Your Salon, bringing you the tools you need to master to build the salon business you deserve. And today I want to talk to you about growing your salon through delegation. Welcome! Lots of you will already know that as well as being a salon mentor and coach, I also own a hair salon here in the south of England. And this recording is going to be my confession to you, because if I'm really honest, I've been a bit neglectful of my salon business. I'm immensely proud of what we've built over the years, but I took my eye off the ball. Basically what happened is I moved away from the salon business and into the coaching space, but I didn't replace myself as a manager. Because I thought, being a magnificent coach and mentor, and obviously some kind of superhero, that I could run both businesses effectively. So I could be the salon manager and also a coach and mentor through Build Your Salon. And I was wrong. So there's my confession. I got it wrong. What I didn't do effectively was delegate any of those management tasks in the salon. So what's happened over the last two or three years is I think I've stifled the growth of the salon. We've been hitting profit targets and growing every year, but not to the extent that I think we could have been. And if I'm really honest, though I give my all to my coaching clients, I don't think I've grown my coaching business as much as I could have done over the last two or three years either. So by trying to run both businesses myself, I don't think I've done either particularly effectively. So we're only in March, but so far this year, this has been a massive change for me. And I'm determined that by the end of the year, and it is going to take some time, but by the end of the year, I'll have very little involvement in the salon business. I'll be there supporting the management team in the same way as I do my other coaching clients. I'll be there to help with the strategic decisions. But as far as operational stuff's concerned, I'm aiming to have zero involvement on that ground floor level. So what I wanted to share with you today was the lessons that I've learned the hard way around delegation. And the first thing is, I don't think we delegate soon enough. And there's a reason for this. I firmly believe, even now, that you should not delegate a task that you don't understand. I think that opens you up to all kinds of people taking advantage of you.

But also, I think that means that it's very difficult to figure out whether someone's doing a good job for you. So I think you need some level of understanding of a task before you can pass it over to someone else. What I thought that meant, though, was that you had to master that task and know it inside out. And I don't think that's the case. I think a basic level of understanding is all you need before you can pass a task on to someone else. You do need that level of understanding, though, because my second point is that you do need to systemise. So you need a piece of paper that explains exactly what it is that you're delegating and how you want that approached, but also some measures in there as well. So, for example, if you're delegating your social media, which I know lots of you do, how is it that you're going to measure the success of that activity? Are you measuring it in terms of lots of creation? So lots of content, lots of posts being put out there. Or are you going to measure the success through the level of interaction you get, the number of likes and comments and shares? There's no right or wrong way necessarily for your business. But these are the kinds of things that I think you need to understand and build into the system that you're passing on. I don't think, in most cases at least, I don't think that system needs to encompass all eventualities and be in tiny, minute detail. And that's because point number three is I think you need to allow some creativity. I think if you've got that basic level of understanding, you can work with the person that you're delegating to and build a system that works for you all. And the reasons for that are twofold. Firstly, you don't know best. You might think you know best, you know the best from your experience, but you may not necessarily know the absolute best way to approach that task. So taking in someone else's ideas is a very valuable addition to that system. And secondly, I think also they will have a lot more buy in. People are more engaged and more committed to a process if they've had some feed, some contribution if they fed in to writing the process in the first place. So take their ideas, take their feedback and build that into the system that you're passing down.

And my final point around delegation, point number four is don't be stingy with it. I think you need to price the delegation. I think you need to put a budget to it, which reflects your value, not necessarily the value of the task. Let me explain. If you're going to delegate your social media, you might well choose to take one section or two sections. So you might say you're going to delegate the creation and sharing of content on Facebook and Instagram. Now, depending on the level of posts that you want, the level of engagement that you want, you could actually delegate that task extremely cheaply. You could probably get somebody to look after your Facebook and Instagram for you for maybe 10 or 15 pounds a week if all you wanted was a basic level of posting and engagement. Having said that, I think you should go back and look at how much time you were spending on that task or you would spend on that task if you were going to do it properly. So you might say that you were going to work on your Facebook and Instagram for 30 minutes a day. That wouldn't be unreasonable for someone who's not an expert in the field. So that would be 30 minutes a day for seven days a week. That's three and a half hours. Now, what is your value to your salon? How much are you worth if you're carrying out either management or services in your salon? I'll bet that you're worth at least 25, maybe 50, 75 pounds an hour. So by delegating that task, you're saving yourself three and a half hours of time that you can then spend doing the stuff that really counts in your business. Don't throw 10 or 15 pounds at the task. Reflect your value. Even conservatively, let's say that you're worth 10 pounds an hour, throw 35 pounds at the task. Or if you can afford to, maybe 50, maybe 60. Get the task done really, really well to a high standard with somebody who really understands the qualities that you're trying to project through your social media or whatever task it is that you're delegating. So don't be stingy around this. Allocate some budget, but tie it to what you're worth rather than what you think the task is worth. I hope that's been helpful to you. Please learn from my mistakes. If it has, please don't forget to subscribe. I do a broadcast like this every single week and I would hate you to miss out on the content that I'm sharing. If you've already subscribed, I will see you in a week. Take care.