I Built Giftypoo: Here's Why And What It Taught Me

I built a bit of software last month. It isn't making me very much money at all. It's probably never gonna make me very much money at all, but it taught me something that I really needed a reminder of about what this business is actually all about. All on Build Your Salon. Hello, hello, 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 achingly? Well, I hope I'm hearing June might be some good news, many wise for a few salons, and I long may it last. I feel like spring winter into spring was not very easy for the salon businesses that I deal with at least. Some of them have made some good money, but a lot of them have struggled to make that good money. It's been quite a hard slog, so I'm hoping June has a bit of momentum for you if you are following on with the Money Fix series. That's every Monday. If you're looking forward to the next one, it's not this episode. It's next Monday for fix number three. Head back. There's some really good information on retaining more profit in your business, but today's a Friday and today I want to basically just check in a little bit with you really and tell you about something that I've been thinking about for a while and kind of the lessons that it's taught me about my business and about business in general. I love building things. I always have done, actually, I've always been a bit of a nerd, a bit of a geek. I was the Lego kid, and I've always liked building programs, building tools, building training programs, and building software. And that's gone back way before I was a coach, even long before this podcast. I was the guy who built out the big automations for the email sequences in my salon, things like that when nobody else was doing it. I can remember one of the software companies sending someone into the salon and then being blown away with the email sequences that we put together because it was more elaborate than a big salon software company was doing. And I've always just enjoyed that process of building stuff. Not necessarily talking about it, not necessarily writing about it, but just that process of building. When I was running the salon, I built systems, I built booking flows, I built training programs, I built tools. I built memberships. I loved it. I loved the puzzle. I love the iteration. I love getting it wrong and finding a fix and getting it wrong and finding another fix. And that feeling for me is right up there when something finally clicks and things work the way that you want them to. And I stopped. And it doesn't rate pay. The problem with software and building things is it doesn't pay nearly as well as coaching. A one-to-one client can give me a couple of thousand at a time, month on month for, let's face it, not huge numbers of hours of delivery. They're paying for your expertise and the results, not the amount of time. Whereas a piece of software, you could launch it, you could put it out there and make almost nothing. And I did this over COVID. I taught myself how to code and I built myself a platform to look after salon memberships because still there are so many salon softwares that don't support memberships. So this was a separate program that would monitor who was signing up. It would contain your terms and conditions, it would help you price things properly, collect the payments and so on. And it just took a small percentage off the top. And I really enjoyed it and I loved putting it together and I loved that whole process. But after we came back, after COVID, I needed to get lots of money in very quickly. And maintaining a software platform takes a lot of time. So I leaned into one-to-one and I leaned hard into my coaching. I put my time where the money was. And don't get me wrong, I love coaching. I love spending time with you guys, with my salon owner friends. And that was the right call. It still is the right call and still my one-to-one coaching is paying the bills. It's funding the time that I get to spend in Spain. It's getting the business on its feet and I'm not apologizing for that. But when every working hour is about delivery, about being on, being switched on, being responsible, being part of someone else's business, something in me goes missing. That builder, that creator in me gets a little bit quiet, not gone just a little bit on the quiet side. And I didn't really notice it until I brought it back because one of my coaching clients years ago had said that they wanted something where they could build a wishlist for their clients so that when it was their birthday or their anniversary or gifting season across Black Friday into Christmas, they wanted something a bit like you get for a wedding where you can put together a list and then people can choose things off the list to buy you. So they don't get things wrong that you don't get 47 versions of the same thing. But they wanted it for the products and services and vouchers and bundles that their salon offered. So the client shares that with their friends and family. The friends and family buy from the salon. So the salon does better. Client gets gifts they actually want and the salon makes more in the way of sales. I call it a win win win. So I had the idea that we were gonna do this one day, we were gonna do this one day, never quite got round to it. And this year I gave myself some time in my projects to actually build it. And it has been an absolute joy. I've called it gifty poo because after all, who doesn't love a little gifty poo? Darling, did I research the market? Nope. Did I survey a hundred salon owners? Nope. Did I run the financial projections? Absolutely not. I built it because the idea wasn't gonna leave me alone and I wanted to make it work. I wanted to see if I could make something work. And that, by the way, is what we now call vibe coding. Just sitting down with an idea and AI and just build the bloody thing. I did an episode on it back in May in case you want more about vibe coding, but the barrier to entry for building something like this now has collapsed. My salon membership software, way back in COVID time, took me the whole of lockdown to build. And that was pretty much all day, every day with Gifty Poo. I built it in about three weeks. Anyone with an idea and a little bit of patience can do this now. So anyway, I've built it and after a while of tinkering and refining and using it for myself, I thought I would put it out into the world a little bit. And you've got a salon, you are my audience. I hope you get it. I'm not, I haven't got lots of people in there at the moment. I'm not expecting lots of people to sign up for it, but this new piece of software isn't necessarily what anybody wants right now. And that's fine. But a few years ago that would've stopped me. It would've killed me. If I'd not got lots of people signing up for it, I would've taken it as proof that the idea was bad and that my time was wasted and the work was just lost. I'd have shelved it and gone back to coaching again with a bruised ego. But this time I'm not. Because I've realized that the reward for me is in the building. And especially if I can build it with people, it's not necessarily in making huge numbers of sales for something to prove that something was worthwhile. It was worthwhile because it's time that I enjoyed and it got me close to something that I enjoy doing. And that thing exists now and it works. It's a tool and I'm proud of it. So whether or not hundreds of people sign up for it doesn't change any of that. And what this is actually about of course, is every salon owner that I coach is chasing money. Of course they are. And it's part of why you bring me into your business as a coach, probably why you're listening to this podcast right now. You should be chasing money. The bills don't pay themselves, but it's supposed to give you a life as well. It's not supposed to be. Instead of you having a life, when you opened your salon, you had values, you had interest, you had things outside the business that nurtured you, that fed your soul, that you cared about. And the version of you that signed the lease wasn't just about the money. But then I know what happens. The business grows or maybe struggles to grow. The business fills or maybe you struggle to get it full and cash flow gets tight and the team's hard work. And slowly, all of those things that used to nurture you and feed your soul get squeezed out of the way. The walking, the reading, the holidays, the time with friends, the hobbies, the things you used to do just for fun, get squeezed out because the business needs more. I used to do it. I used to love reading. I used to chew through books. And then suddenly I woke up one day and realised I hadn't read anything apart from nonfiction for years. All I've been reading is business books. And it doesn't mean that I don't love reading anymore, but gosh, some of the joy had gone. So maybe your numbers look fine. Maybe your diary is full. Maybe the salon is performing exactly as it should, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be space for you to nurture your soul. Well, I'm not saying don't chase the money. Goodness, we're in the middle of a series called The 10 Minute Money Fix series. The maths matters, the Profit matters, but chase it because it's funding a life, not because that's become the whole life. I think there's a difference and I think that difference is bigger than it looks. So even if just a handful of people sign up for Gifty Poo, I'm still building it. I'm still tinkering, I'm still making it better and I'm putting it out there to you lot 'cause I think there's something in it. Head over to gifty poo.com. Take a look. If you run a salon or a beauty room or an aesthetics clinic, actually any type of small business at all, you can sign up and start playing with building business registries for your clients. Maybe there's a few little problems in there. Perhaps it's a bit rough around the edges from time to time. I don't know. I don't think so. I think I've ticked a lot of the boxes, but there's some things that I want to build in version two, but version one is good. I'm not necessarily asking you to spend any money. You can just log in and have a little play if you want to, but come and take a look. Tell me what's wrong with it. Tell me what's missing. Tell me what you'd add. 'Cause that's how it's gonna get good. And that's because this whole experience of building it doesn't have to be a solitary thing. It can be something that we build together. And I'd love to be having your ideas on how to take gifty poo forward. And if you've got an idea, something that you wish existed in your salon, then tell me about that as well. I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to talk you through how I made gifty poo. Maybe yours is the next big idea on the market. Or maybe not. Maybe there's something else that nurtures and warms your soul. So yes, money matters. The Money Fix series matters, more of that coming on Monday. We want to keep profit in the business, we wanna stop leaking it for sure. But every now and again, build that thing that no one's asking for. Take that walk. Make sure you're making time to see your friend do that bit of work that doesn't quite pay because that's the bit that it's supposed to be serving. That's the bit that the business is there for, not the other way round. Reach out phil@buildyoursalon.com. I'd love to hear what your take is on this and what you are doing to feed your soul while your business is thriving and expanding, building and growing. How are you taking care of you in the middle of all that? Also reach out if you've got feedback on gifty poo.com. And because I'm an idiot, of course, I've priced gifty poo.com. Insanely low. Dialling a five or a month is all I'm asking if you decided you wanted to jump in as a customer. But I'd love your thoughts, I'd love your feedback. I have my ideas for version two already and the direction that might take in. So watch this space. I'm sure gifty Poo is not gonna go anywhere in a hurry. Anyway, just a few short days until I'm coming all over the internet. I will see you on Monday with the next fix in our Money Fix series. And until then, take care.