Out with the Old: Why Your Salon’s Stuck (and How to Fix It)

Are you still running your salon business the way you did five years ago, ten years ago, more than that? How's that working out for you? Your clients are changing, technology is ripping up the rulebook, the marketplace is evolving, and so should you. On today's episode, we're daring to open the cage and poke the bear of the salon business. Nothing is off limits, let's get ready to rethink everything as we ask, are you going to innovate or stagnate? Call on, build your salon. Have you sunburnt yet? And how is August treating you? We started at the beginning of the month questioning whether we were going to ride the wave of a business through August or whether we were going to take a little bit of time to relax and refresh and just enhance our businesses through recognizing the patterns that exist. Today, we're going to be challenging your thinking a little bit. We're diving into a little bit. We're diving into a crucial topic for any salon owner. We're diving into innovation. And it's crucial for anyone who thinks there may just be a better way of doing business. I want you to get ready to rethink everything in your salon because I've always believed that no part of your business should be considered sacred. Nothing should be left untouched because the problem is in our industry, so much of what we do is just inherited. The way that we carry out our services hasn't changed for days, weeks, months, decades, sometimes even centuries. The way that we, for example, in the hair business, carry out our services hasn't changed for a very long time indeed. And yes, there's been some innovation in the technology, but there's so much that we do just because it's the way that things have always been done down to our service delivery, our pricing, even our opening hours. And I believe everything should be up for examination. And if needed, it should be up for change because as different business pressures come along, as the business gets squeezed from different directions,

what we start to realise, what we start to realise is that the old way of doing business is not working for us anymore. And it's time maybe for us to look at a new, better way because the world is moving fast, my darling. Your clients' expectations are continually, constantly evolving and technology is delivering new possibilities to you seemingly every single day. And if we want to build businesses that are here for the long haul, if we want to build businesses that serve us first, we need to be willing to question the status quo. And of course, that has always been my mantra, that we build a business that serves you. I am the lifestyle first business coach in the salon industry. I think anyone who sneers at a lifestyle business is frankly missing the point, my love. So think about it. Would you still be using the same colour range and cutting techniques that you did 10 years ago? Of course not. Things are moving on. Would you still be using the same facial techniques and the facial products that you were 10 years ago? Definitely not. It's about keeping current with trends and techniques. But somehow, sometimes, we stick to outdated business strategies, outdated marketing strategies, outdated internal systems or clunky processes out of habit or fear of the unknown. So let's start with a few examples, shall we? What about marketing? Are you still marketing the same way that you were a few years ago? And just to show you that things do change, I mean, can you remember when print ads in your local newspaper were the way to attract new clients? I can remember the first noticeable expense that I ever slightly flinched at in my new salon business was when the rep from the Yellow Pages came around. Can you remember the Yellow Pages? And it was the biggest amount that I'd ever spent on anything in our business. And I really did have to question whether that was money well spent. And ultimately, it was kind of you had to be there. Now, how much of the marketing budget are you allocating to the Yellow Pages? Probably nothing or at least very little to print advertising because along came digital marketing. Along came websites.

Along came social media and targeted online ads. And that seems to be where it's all at now. But are you maximizing those channels? More importantly, are you tracking whether it's money and time well spent? And I've said a few times, my love, that I don't think social media is serving us particularly well. I don't think social media is as good at getting you busy as you maybe think it is. So let's start tracking. Let's start noticing where we're spending time, where we're spending money, where we're spending energy to see whether we have a clear digital marketing strategy or whether we're just posting crap on Instagram and hoping for the best because that's what everybody else is doing. Similarly, our appointment booking systems. Are we still relying on phone calls for booking appointments? Probably not. How much time is your front desk actually spending on the phone each day? Do you still have a front desk? We had an episode last month questioning whether that prime real estate was actually really serving us in the salon business. If all that's happening at that desk is scheduling and rescheduling, frankly, my dear, technology is your best friend here. And these systems have been around for years now and they're more user friendly than ever. They can drastically reduce costs, drastically reduce burden, drastically free up time, effort and money for you and your team so that you can focus on the stuff that's actually going to make a difference in your business and puts money in the till. What about retail? Are you still displaying and retailing the same way that salons did when I started 20 years ago with a few tired, dusty shelves and a couple of bits put in the window? But of course, we can't put our aerosols in the window, can we? Or have we stepped up the game? Are we looking at online ordering, home delivery options, fulfillment options for your local market? Or are you just missing out on crucial revenue because your methods are outdated? So how do we begin? Well, we start by questioning these areas that have previously been sacred in our business. And we start by conducting an audit. So taking a hard look at every aspect of your salon business, mapping out each system, each workflow and looking for areas that don't feel aligned. And I know alignment feels a bit woolly and a bit woo woo and a little bit unmeasurable. But I promise this is where the goal is. We're looking for the areas of your business that sap your energy.

We're looking for those tasks that make you roll your eyes or those tasks that take longer than they should. Or, and this is the big one, the things that you procrastinate over, they're going to be the things that are out of alignment with your values, with your attitudes, with your beliefs. They're the bits we should be looking at first. Second, start looking at your clients, gather client feedback, ask your clients what they love about the salon, what they feel could be improved. Use surveys, use suggestion boxes, either physical or digital. Well, simply, and we're in an enviable position in the salon industry because we can just have conversations with people. You could incentivize feedback, but you don't really need to. You have your target market in front of you, a captive audience for hours and hours every single day. So start with the small questions and then dig deeper. What are the little bits of your business that are causing hassle to your client where there doesn't need to be? What are the things that could make their experience more enjoyable, make spending money with you easier? Because that's where we need to be optimizing. And third, look outside the industry. I promise you are not going to find the next big innovation for your salon business at a trade show. Every time I've managed to make a noticeable change in my business, my loves, it has come from elsewhere. I took our salon cashless years before COVID and that didn't come from the salon industry. That came from the ABBA Museum in Stockholm. It was the first business I'd walked into that didn't accept cash at all. I came home, brought it into my salon. Salon memberships. I stole that idea shamelessly from a gym owner that I met at a networking event. Or what about our five point promise? I promise that I will tell you about every single product we're using on your hair today or you take them home for nothing. Where did that come from? TGI Fridays. Because they promise if they don't tell you about dessert, you get a free pudding. And I stole that idea and brought it into the business. I promise you, look for other businesses that are innovating. Look at where your customers are spending their time, spending their money away from the salon industry. If you're looking for inspiration in other salons, we're going to end up doing the same stuff

again and again. Your business is going to look like a cookie cutter model of every other business on the high street. And that is not going to cut the mustard as we head into the future. More on this after a word from this week's sponsors. My salon owner friends, building a steady clientele and keeping your calendar full can be challenging. Zoka is the must have tool that makes it so easy you'll wonder how you managed without it. It's an AI powered platform that acts just like your own marketing team designed to help your salon get discovered online and consistently attract new clients. Zoka optimizes your online presence so you rank higher on Google, turning online searches and inquiries into confirmed bookings, and it even follows up to keep happy clients coming back again and again. Essentially, it's like having a 24-7 receptionist, marketer and booking assistant all on autopilot. The best part is Zoka promises guaranteed new customers for beauty professionals. Over a thousand salons and spas already trust Zoka and they're seeing higher Google rankings and fully booked businesses. If you're ready for consistent bookings and steady growth, check out Zoka.com. That's Z-O-C-A dot com and see how Zoka can fill your calendar with clients. Now, here's where I do want to apply just a little bit of balance because I'm not advocating change just for the sake of change. Innovation needs to be purposeful. And I think in the salon industry, we get caught up in the latest trend and the flashiest new software or the flashiest new machines and end up complicating things that were working just fine. And I promise you, our suppliers love us for this. They love a posh stand at a trade show just to impress us because they know we're easily parted with our cash. And I've seen too many salon businesses jump headfirst into innovation only to find their client relationships suffer or their profits take a hit. So we don't want to necessarily jump into technology just for the sake of it. We don't want to follow trendy services. You know, I've seen salons chasing every single fleeting trend, a new style, a new technique,

a new range of products isn't going to work for every salon or every client. But so many try to shoehorn them into their business rather than focusing on finding the stuff that's actually going to make their business more effective. So change needs to be purposeful. And that means asking whether an innovation is going to bring you closer to the business that you want to build. Is it aligned with your values? Is it something your clients actually want or need? That means you're going to have to do the work at the beginning to establish what your values are. You need to know what you want your business to be about, because then the things that pop up on our radar that will take us closer to that picture are the things, my love, that you want to bring in. So a few questions before you carry out any significant changes in your business. Firstly, get really clear. What problem is it you're trying to solve? And if the innovation doesn't address a specific problem or need, it's probably not worth pursuing. If you don't have that problem in mind when something comes your way, then it's going to make it very difficult to judge whether you need to bring something in or not. Then we're going to look at how it impacts your clients. Is it going to enhance their experience or is it going to create new frustrations? If you're bringing something in which means your client has a learning curve, honestly, you're probably barking up the wrong tree. We need to be really clear about what the potential risks are, what the potential costs are. Don't just be fooled by the potential benefits. Get realistic about the downsides and make sure you've got a plan in place to mitigate them. And does it fit with your brand? Will a new solution reflect your personality better in your salon? Because so often I'm seeing people, for example, in bringing in AI and bringing in technology when losing a little bit of their spark, a little bit of their spunk, darlings, and sacrificing some of what made them unique in order to bring new tech and new tools in. But I do think innovation can be truly powerful. I do think that there's a new piece of tech and a new tool that can just about enhance any area of your business. But what excites me is we get a chance to rebuild. Even if it's just a small bit of your business, we get to rebuild it in a way that's more aligned with who you are. If what's important to you is more time with your family, I promise there is technology out there that can save you time in order to get you home on time for dinner with your kids. For example, AI. We recently did a video called Five Ways.

You're probably not using AI, but should be. And it's been resonating with a lot of you. And that's because it's not just about replacing people. It's about freeing up your time so that you can spend that time on the things that are important to you, whether that's actually giving you some time to build your business, giving you time back with loved ones, giving you time back just so that you can relax and spend time in a field with a watercolour. You can do whatever you want that really matters to you. And because time is important in my business, that's exactly what I'm doing. Identifying areas where I'm spending too much time on repetitive tasks and then I'm researching innovation that can get them automated for me. I've got so many free trials and demos on the go at the moment to see if there's software out there that's a good fit for my business. I'm not trying to overhaul my entire business at once. I'm implementing one or two new tools to see how they impact. But most of all, I'm investing in this. I'm going on the record to say that you need to be paying for some software. You need to be paying for some technology. You need to invest in training. You need to be upskilling because these are the things that are going to support your business going forward. These are the things that are going to help you understand the impact of innovation and how we can capitalise on the tech that is out there. And most of all, I'm monitoring my results. So I'm tracking the impact. It's OK for me to spend a bunch of time getting some of these solutions in place, but I'm measuring how much time it's saving me in the longer term. I'm measuring the impact it's having on my profitability. I'm measuring the impact it's having on the time saved, the revenue that's been brought in, the client satisfaction and my productivity. But as salon owners, we're not just owners. We're also leaders. And it's so important to focus not only on the business side of things, the performance of our salons and the needs of our clients, but also on the needs of your teams. And there's innovation and advancements out there that can enhance your employee wellness as well. We could be using technology as an amazing resource to prioritise a mindful and safe workplace. We could be optimising our schedules, using technology to optimise schedules, to analyse availability of our employees and optimise our staffing. We could be using technology to get a feel for our employees' moods by perhaps even just something as simple as a survey, identifying issues early on before they become a bigger

problem in your organisation. We could be personalising training with technology, making sure we've got the training available to upskill our employees to make sure they're doing a better job, enjoying their jobs more. So as much as we're looking for opportunities to enhance our client experience, let's look for opportunities to enhance our employee experience as well. And the first step here, I think, would be to spend some time with your team, find out what they need, keep the communication open. Some workplaces are chronically bad at communication. Some of you are terrible at taking time in a formal way to sit down with your team and find out what's going on with them. But also make sure that they feel that it's a place where we can experiment, make sure they understand that we're going to be making some changes in the business that may not stick, but we're going to give stuff a go in order to make a better workplace for them in the longer term. So I want to leave you with a little challenge today. I want you to identify one part of your business that you think maybe you've been protecting from innovation. Where have you got that mentality of, darling, that's the way we've always done it, because that's just not good enough anymore. And I'm going to challenge you to find a system or a process that's up for review. Find a way that you could be using innovation or technology more intentionally. And I know it's uncomfortable and I know it's scary and I know it's difficult and I know you don't know where to start. But I want you to find something that you're ready to shake up, whether that's around how your team operates or how you market your business to attract new clients or how you deliver your core services themselves. And I promise you the thing that's going to make this palatable for you is because innovation doesn't always mean massive revolution. Sometimes it can just mean a small change, a small tweak, a small improvement. But it's those little 1% changes that build up over time and turn your business into something that truly reflects your values and serves your clients better. And that's got to be the bottom line. So what have I missed? I really want to hear from you on this one. What's the one thing that you're going to examine in your business this week? Reach out. Let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com.

You know, I love hearing your thoughts. I want to hear what you think about my podcast. I want to hear what you're doing in your business. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your ears again. And next week, we have an interview episode with a good friend of mine who is a previous coaching client. We're going to speak to Noel Halligan about his journey in the salon industry. If you've got a journey you'd like to share with my Build Your Salon audience, please reach out and let me know. I would love to be hearing from you, sharing your story with my amazing listeners. Today's episode was brought to you by Zoka. Head to Zoka.com and see how the power of AI can fill your calendar with clients. And until next time, please 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.