From Chaos to Calm: Salon Systems That Actually Work

A lack of talent is not what's holding you back. Your work ethic is not the problem, but your systems, or rather your lack of them, might just be. If you're ready to move from chaos to calm and start building a salon business that works for you instead of against you, this is your size. All on Build Your Salon Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your Queen of Salons, coming in your ears once again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. As we close off April, first month of Q2, how's it been for you? Nice strong start to the quarter for lots of my salon friends. Any different for you? Reach out and let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know I love hearing from you anyway. And getting into one of my favourite months now, getting into May, start to build up those targets a little bit. Start to push just a little bit harder, a little bit more hustle as we get towards the summer. So I always try and make a bit of hay while the sun shines. April, May, June, good months in my business. And then I ease up and take my foot off the gas a little for Q3 because, to be honest with you, August is a tough month for me to sell anything. So how is it for you? Is it that predictable? Because that's what this week's all about, building on the back of last week's episode, all about salon memberships and predictable income. Now I'm going to build on that and try and make a few more elements of your business predictable too. And like I said last week, a systemised boring business is a beautiful thing. Because the truth is that if your business feels like chaos behind the scenes, if it's a beautiful mess, it's time we had a talk because it probably looks like a chaotic mess to your clients too. Systems aren't boring. They're your secret weapon to business growth. And I want you to get your business running like a smooth, profitable machine, just like it's meant to be. And I think it's partly a maturity, partly getting a little bit older, partly starting to see through the bullshit that I see in the salon industry so often. I go into salon businesses an awful lot, as you can imagine, and there's always one or two team members that just flap around like a startled duck. They're shooting from one end of the salon to the other and honestly just whipping up a breeze behind them and in their wake is this essence of chaos.

And I think it tends to be those actually, conversely, that actually aren't too busy. It seems to be the people that have something to prove, that feel like they want to appear busy to their clients because that makes them look busy and popular. And therefore their column space is desirable. Problem is, it just makes everybody feel a little bit out of control. It makes clients feel edgy and uneasy. It means that they're not relaxing into their salon visits. And let's face it, salon visits should be enjoyable and can be vibrant, but it should ultimately leave us with a sense of peace, I feel. And none of that is evident when we have our flappy ducks. We want people gliding around salons like swans with a sense of control, an air of majesty and a certain grace around them. And that's what systems can bring. It doesn't have to be a chaotic mess. If we get the systems right, that can move you from flying by the seat of your pants to actually feeling like the salon CEO. And systems aren't just for boring admin tasks. They're the muscle behind the business. They're the bit that bring that sense of calm, that sense of predictability and profitability, that sustainable growth. Systems are there to help you work smarter. They're there to do some of the heavy lifting for you. And most importantly, I think they help reduce decision fatigue because the systems make the decisions for you. It prevents that emotional decision making. And that's what I see in small business more than anything. Winging it and emotional decision making will get you so far. It will get you to a certain level of success. But it's an exhausting way of running your salon business. It's tiring, it's draining and it's a parasite to your energy. Systems can make your team management easier too. They can help with recruitment, training and managing the performance of your staff. The systems are there to help help focus on growth, freeing you up for the more creative stuff so that you're not firefighting. But it doesn't happen by accident. A well run salon is not a fluke. It's systemized and a boring business, as I said last week, can be a beautiful thing. So let's talk about the real difference makers out there. There are systems that you can build. There are systems on building systems even. You can systemize everything if you want to. But I've identified five areas that I think every salon or clinic business should be focusing on first.

These are the big hitters, the ones that can make a real difference. And at number one, I'm going to put a client acquisition and marketing. Having client acquisition and marketing systems in place can not only mean that we've got more predictable growth, but they can do a lot of a heavy lifting for you. So systems like having a consistent content schedule, whether it's weekly for your Instagram posts or a monthly newsletter or regular reels. The key is repeatable rhythm. It means that content creation is no longer a strain. There's an air of calm that comes rather than panicking at five in the morning that we haven't posted anything for a fortnight. Or how about a system to capture leads about taking care of your future clientele, collecting client emails or phone numbers for people that haven't spent money with us yet, but they want to hear from us for the future. Or automating your follow ups using direct messages or email sequences that nurture those leads who don't book right away. Or perhaps even automating some of the follow ups after purchase, hopefully chasing further income. Or how about a system for referrals, a system for encouraging and rewarding that word of mouth that we all know in the salon business can be make or break. These systems in place mean that we're not relying on these random bursts of marketing energy. You've always got a pipeline flowing. Area number two, what about your client journey? And this is about systemizing what happens before a client visit, during a visit and after. Do you have a consistent format for contact before people come in? A consistent consultation? Are you following up post service? Is rebooking encouraged automatically? These are the bits where loyalty is built, because listen to your Uncle Phil. If you're doing a good job and you've got loyal clients, but they're not making referrals, it's because you're unpredictable. Your retention might be great, but if you're not getting those referrals, it's because your clients don't trust you. You're good enough for them, but not offering consistent enough experience for them to refer you to their family and friends. Get this nailed and your retention and growth will skyrocket. Or how about systems in place around retailing and upselling, having scripts or prompts that introduce our products to our customers. Tracking what was recommended, tracking what was purchased, incentivizing our customers, bundling stuff together to make it an absolute no brainer.

Get these systems in place and you can double your retail income without adding any extra hours to your week at all. Surely a more profitable salon visit has to be in everyone's best interest. I don't know about you. I'm all for making more money. I don't necessarily want to work more hours to do it. Let me guess. Your appointment book is full, but your bank account isn't. How long are you going to let that go on for? Isn't it time that you got paid properly? My get paid properly program isn't just another course. It's your roadmap to boosting your profits, increasing your takings, finally getting rewarded for the hard work that you do. With nine straightforward modules, my foolproof pricing spreadsheet, and I'm even throwing in a one to one coaching call to answer any questions that you have about the training or anything else that's getting in the way of your incredible success. Head to get paid properly dot com forward slash podcast and you can save a hundred pounds on your sign up and get that bonus coaching call with me. The program is backed by my signature 90 day no quibble guarantee. Take the training, take the coaching call. And if you don't feel you know enough to confidently set your prices profitably for the future, I will coach you myself until you do. Head to get paid properly dot com forward slash podcast. Lock in that saving and finally take strides in the direction of getting rewarded for your hard work. Area number four is around our teams. Team recruitment, team performance management. Honestly, these are the ones that if you've got people in place, these should be non-negotiable. These are the ones that can make all the difference. We can get each team member just adding a few extra dollars or pounds to their columns on a consistent basis. That can be a game changer for your salon business across a week, a month and a year. So those systems involve really clear expectations. Take away the guesswork, make it clear what an amazing job looks like. Make it clear how your team members can impress you. Then we have systems in place for regular check ins or one to ones. Sprinkle on top of that your appraisal and performance management systems. And then we've got a motivated team that we're constantly coaching and giving the skills so that they can do some of the heavy lifting for you.

And then behind the scenes, here's one that's relatively new to my business, actually. And that's my money and metrics systems. So having a weekly or financial check in with yourself, breaking down your income goals so that you can see which services are popular, whether you're meeting your retail targets, tracking your cash flow, predicting your cash flow for the coming few weeks so that you're not left short of change. And this one is a game changer. A business that manages its numbers is a business that's growing on purpose. And I know all of this sounds like hard work. I know all of this might sound a bit boring. I get it. It doesn't feel creative or sexy or Instagram worthy. But I promise the lack of systems is exactly what causes burnout. Get away from that emotional decision making. Get away from that energetic roller coaster, because that's what makes you feel like you're constantly chasing your tail, putting out fires and doing everything yourself. You don't need to systemize your entire business overnight. Just start with an area that causes you the most stress or has the most repetition. And that's the key to getting it started. Pick one process that you seem to be repeating weekly. Write it down. Map it out step by step. Figure out how we can systemize that so that it consistently happens. Maybe there's some elements that we can automate. Maybe there's some elements we can get AI involved. So choose something and then turn it into a checklist or a template or an automation. And then, boom, we've got a system. And once that one feels solid, we can move on to the next. But here's the secret sauce. If a system breaks, never, ever abandon it. Take it back. Review it. Figure out what broke in that system. Revise it and put it back out there. So if you're struggling to delegate, struggling to grow or just feeling overwhelmed all the time, I promise it's going to be a systems issue. It's not because you're not hustling or working hard enough. So there we have it. If you're ready to move from chaos to calm and finally build a business that works for you instead of against you, I promise these systems are going to be a game changer for you. So pick one area and get started this week and then reach out and let me know.

DM me on Instagram at philjacksoncoach or reach out by email and let me know what you're going to be systemizing this week. Heck, I'll even hold you accountable if you want me to. Phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know, I love hearing from my salon owner friends anyway. Also reach out if you'd like to share your salon story with my audience. I would love to be interviewing you on a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. You don't need to be making millions every year. I promise your story will be inspirational for somebody at their stage of their business. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your ears again with another dose of my wise owl wisdom. And until then, 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.