How to Survive Your Busiest Salon Quarter (Without Burning Out)

By the time most salon business owners have noticed the opportunity in autumn, the best part of it is gone. But not you, my salon owner friends. Let's get you an autumn plan together right now. Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming all over the internet again with another dose of my Wise Owl Wisdom. And today we're talking about setting September up as a kind of second New Year in the salon. Now, why am I feeling that way? Well, partly because the kids are back at school, which always means things can start to get back to normal a little bit. I don't know when the summer holidays started to feel like an endurance test, but they have done for a few years now. I don't know if I'm getting older or whether it's because the weather's getting hotter, but my gosh, it's been a flipping long slog. And I don't think I'm the only person out there who feels that way. I think a lot of your salon clients are feeling like this is the time to get sorted again, sorted again to get back into routine, to get back to normal. And I think a little bit like January, a little bit like the proper new year. I think there's an opportunity there because I think what generally happens in January is we have great intentions. We're going to set a new routine, going to put ourselves first. We're going to start ticking some boxes on that self-care calendar. And then by February, March, life gets in the way. And I think it's a bit like that in September as well. I think in September we kind of go, great, the kids are back at school. I can start getting some routines in place. I'm going to get my cleaning calendar sorted and start doing all of those chores around work that have been suffering across the summer. And then by October, November, things have started to get really, really busy. So this is kind of the opportunity, the planning window, and it's your planning window as well. But it's short. We need to make the most of it. If we're going to have a really good September, really good autumn. Then, of course, that sets up an amazing queue for us. So clients are coming back into the salon again. They've seen their holiday photos. The roots have grown out. Their skin's taken a battering. They haven't looked after their skin over the summer. Their nails have been neglected for a few weeks, too. They want to get booked in. They want to feel like they're getting back on track. But by mid-October, that reset energy is gone and people are just on autopilot storming towards the end of the year. So it's not just how do I get busy in September? Because I think actually a lot of that will take care of itself. It's what do I have to do to get ready for a really amazing queue and how do I look after myself through this quarter as well? So let's not just treat this as getting back to normal after the summer. Let's treat it as the opening of the best quarter of the year because you're going to get busy at some stage. All salons in the coming quarter are going to get busy and there's going to be a huge amount of relief that the wait is over for a lot of you. If you're one of the salons a bit like my own that doesn't get busy across the summer holidays, you get quiet, you're going to be breathing a sigh of relief. And then it's going to be about getting as much money in the till through September, October, November and, of course, Christmas. And you're never going to get a chance to lift up your head until January. But the cost of that is that we end up storming into the new year absolutely knackered and more worrying than that, of course, is when we're leaving money on the table. There are opportunities in the business that we're not making the most of. And I see this again and again and again. And I've been guilty of it again and again and again as well. Those wonderful, panicked last minute marketing decisions, which always go down like a fucking lead balloon. Well, it's three days before Black Friday. You realise, shit, there's not enough money in the bank we could do with doing a Black Friday deal. Let's cobble something together and then we just throw it out there. And, yeah, you might get some results. You might make a few quid, but it ends up cheapening the brand. In fact, we're going to do an episode on Black Friday. I'm going to help you do that properly. But I want you to have a proper conversation about what you want the next few months to look like. I want you to be planning Q4. I want you to be making sure that autumn is a real opportunity in your business. First thing to do, as always, and we've been through this process before, is look backwards. What did you do last year? What were the busy months? What were the quieter months? Look at the weekly takings, not just the monthly totals. Figure out whether half term, for example, has an impact on you. Look at which weeks were genuinely huge and which weeks were a bit quieter than normal and where the drop off starts. Everybody's got a quieter bit before Christmas. Everyone's got a quieter bit in the new year. Figure out where that pattern is for you. We don't want to be surprised. OK, and the pattern is there now. Now, I know things were a bit chaotic after lockdown. Things should have settled down for you. Now we should start to get some predictable patterns in your business. So walk through it. Figure out what the good weeks and the bad weeks are. And honestly, this is worth a morning of your time doing this planning. So do the research. All of those wonderful reports that you pay hundreds and hundreds a month for on your salon software systems. They're all there lying for you. The gold is in there, I promise. And then look at your capacity. Honestly, look at the gaps. Look at the holidays that you've got booked for your team. Look at the availability for the hours. Look at where the opportunity might be for you to make a bit more money on some of those weeks. Have a look at where we might be able to make a bit more if we could just reshuffle things a little bit. Speak to your team. Get ahead of the game a little bit. Or if we've got quieter weeks and your team have got annual leave left. Well, don't let them wait until December to start booking it. Let's get it booked in to those quiet weeks now. So we're starting to use the rhythm that's existing in the salon business to plan our staffing. Then we want a plan for those quiet slots, not a discount. Let's plan our team around those quiet slots. But let's have a specific plan that isn't a last minute panic. Maybe it means that we just have to maximize the busy weeks and put some money away for the quieter weeks. Or maybe there's something we need to put in place. Perhaps there's something promotion wise, marketing wise that we need to get in place in advance. Because if we do it in advance, you know, darlings, you know the difference between something you've cobbled together last minute and you've seen someone else do something on Instagram and something that you've taken the time, written the emails carefully, got the posts together. It just feels a little bit classier. It just feels a little bit less bargain basement. That's what we want for those quieter weeks. But also I want you to make a plan for those busy weeks so that you decide in advance how they're going to work without you being absolutely knackered and not having time to eat. Who's doing the cover on the desk? Who's going to be doing the running around making sure that the salon runs smoothly? Do we need to bring in a couple of extra youngsters who are looking to make an extra few quid? Do we need to speak to our apprentice team? See if they can give us a bit of overtime. And then also start planning for your cash. Start planning for where we're going to be spending money because we're going to need some extra stock on the run up to Christmas. We're going to need to start getting those wonderful Christmas packs in. We're going to need to be paying for any extra hours and support hours if we need it. And then, of course, we need to start looking ahead to the quiet bit that's going to come in January or February or March. If you're on your own, you've got no team to organise, then you are the thing that's most important. You've got to look after yourself. So protect the hours that you can actually work so that life isn't getting in the way and decide what you're going to say yes and no to before you start getting busy. The solo trap is saying yes to everything in September and being absolutely wrung out before we get to the last week of November. So plan your energy. Make sure we've got those boundaries in place. Make sure we're screwing away some money on the good weeks. Make sure we're managing your energy on those busy weeks, too. So I want you to block out some time this week. I want you to have a look at what happened last autumn in one column on a piece of paper. I mean, I want you to look at what capacity you've got and what you're going to do about those gaps. So we're making a strategy document now that's going to help you get through the next few months. If that feels like something you could do with some help with, why not reach out? Why not have a look at my one to one ultimate clarity? You don't have to do this on your own. Over 90 days, we will get you a plan for the next 12 months pricing wise, a plan for the next 12 months marketing wise and a strategy for your next three years in business. Head over to philjackson.coach and have a look at my one to one ultimate clarity. So what do you think? What have I missed? How is autumn looking in your business? How's the summer been? Why not reach out and let me know? Also reach out if you'd like to be a guest on a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. I want to get some more guests on. I really enjoyed our conversation on the last episode. I really want to get some different guests on heading into the autumn. I don't want it to just be me talking to you twice a week. I used to have a kind of rule of thumb where we have one guest per month. Why not take the limits off? If you want to be a guest on a future episode, reach out and let me know. My email address is scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Fill at buildyoursalon.com. You know I love hearing from my salon owner friends anyway. Just a few short days until I'm coming all over the internet again with another dose of my wise hour wisdom. And until then, take care.