Your Salon Q3 Plan: 3 Things to Do Before September

It's the end of July, and that means you've got two whole months left to save your third quarter. If Q3 is drifting, or you haven't even made your plans yet, here are three things you can do before September that will change how the rest of your year goes. Hello, hello, hello my salon friends, Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming all over the internet with a big fat dose of my Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you as we reach the end of July, end of the month, end of the first month of a new quarter, and this is the episode where we're going to pull it together a little bit, but get quarter three back on track. How has the month been for you? Some pretty good results in my group coaching program, a bit patchy though. Some salons doing really well over the summer months, and some really struggle to get people through the door because the kids have just broken up. Perhaps you're looking at six weeks, a daunting six weeks of trying to entertain yourself and your children. I don't know how I feel about this summer. I wish it was just a little more stable, but I guess that's just a reflection of what's going on in the world at large. How's it working out for you, my darlings? Reach out and let me know. You know I love hearing from my salon owner friends. But here's what lots of salon owners are going to be doing. They're looking at a quiet July, and then they've decided that Q3 is a write-off, and then they kind of mentally check out until the end of September, ready for the busy quarter, which is of course Q4. And I think that's a mistake because you've got two full months of Q3 left, and that's more than enough time to close the gap and walk into autumn ready instead of drifting into September. And then Q4 being the only one where you make any money, well, that's just not good enough. So what are we going to do first? Well, the first thing you need to do is to know your numbers. And I know I keep banging this drum, but you've got to understand what it is that you want out of Q3, and then importantly, what July has contributed so far. And that means taking a really good look at the numbers. And I know you don't like the numbers. I know you don't want to look at the reports. And I know you'd much rather be carrying out more beauty or hair services for your wonderful, beautiful clients. And I know you'd rather be doing 150 other things than looking at your numbers, but an honest look at where you're standing in the quarter is so important.

And a few Mondays ago, I did a whole episode on setting targets, working back from the profit that you want. And if you did that, brilliant. Go and take a look at those numbers now. Where are you against those targets? If you didn't do the exercise, well, today is your kick up the ass, my darling. Pull your figures for the quarter out so far. Have a look at what's come in, what's gone out, what's the split between service and retail, which services are actually making you money once you account for your products and time. I know it's a big job, but it's definitely worth doing. And it will get easier and easier every time you run these figures, I promise you. And then we want to name the gap. Honestly, look at where you are and what the rest of this quarter needs to bring in in order to deliver. A quarter three that you're happy with. Write the number down. That's the difference between vaguely hoping that things are going to get better, my darling, and knowing exactly what the next few weeks need to deliver. And if you just do that, I promise you're ahead of most salon business owners and it gives you a destination. It's your guiding lights for the rest of the quarter. And then I want you to start getting ahead on the autumn rush. Start planning your autumn while you've still got the headspace. If you're in a quiet time in the salon, actually, this could be an opportunity. A couple of weeks back when I said the quiet of summer is when planning season should be happening, not panic season. And that's exactly what I want you to do with it. September for a lot of salon businesses is a really good month. The disruption of the summer routines being all out of whack has gone. People are starting to come back. People want sorting out and doing all of the wonderful damage that they did to themselves over the summer months. The run up to the kids going back to school and then that long slope towards Christmas. And the owners who are going to win in autumn are the ones who planned it in the quiet times, not the ones that are panicking about what to do when we get to September. So use this time to start mapping out your autumn, get the key dates in place, the campaigns you want to run, the end of summer recovery work, clients coming back from holidays with sun damaged hair, sun damaged skin, too much sun anyway, nails that need rescuing. Whatever your world is, there is an opportunity for you to help people get sorted out for autumn. There's an autumn offer in there, I promise. We used to call it skin in recovery or hair in recovery. Don't just plan it, though. Don't just think about it.

Actually prepare it. So make the posts, get them scheduled, write the emails, get them scheduled. So when September lands, you're not creating from scratch while you're running around trying to keep people happy. You're actually just executing on your plan. And that's how the target move becomes realistic instead of aspirational. And then finally, I want you to really get to grips with getting some recurring income in. And I know I've been banging on about this, but you still haven't bloody done it yet, have you, my darling? And this is going to change the shape of your business rather than just for one quarter or one month. I want you to improve your business by getting a stream of recurring income in. And if we work on it now, when September lands, it doesn't depend entirely on getting bumps on seats. I talked on Friday about holidays, about team holidays, and your holidays only hurt because your salon income is tied to someone physically being there. That recurring income is the fix to that. And the simplest form, of course, is your salon memberships as your queen of salons, your definite undisputed queen of memberships. Well, I would say that now, wouldn't I? Now, you don't need anything too elaborate. Something built on your clients actually come in for regularly. Don't make it obscure. That nice maintenance appointment every few weeks or that monthly treatment that they're having anyway. Name it, package it, get it paid for monthly. That income is going to arrive whether your diary is looking for or not. The point isn't to build a perfect membership this week. If you want to get started on that, some of September's money is already banked, though, before the month even begins. If you want to put this in place, I'm going to shamelessly plug my new Salon Memberships Made Easy book. It's available on Kindle right now. Head over to Amazon. Give some money to Jeff Bezos. I hear he's poor. And Salon Memberships Made Easy by me. It's available on Kindle right now. And I want to hear your success story as far as memberships are concerned, because even a small recurring stream of income changes your whole business into something a lot steadier. And if you're a solo, I used to say that memberships weren't for solo business. But I actually think now that it matters more for solo businesses because the only way your income keeps moving on the days that keep quieter are if you've got some background steady recurring income. So there's your plan for the rest of the quarter for the run up to September.

Take a look at your real numbers. Name the gap. Map out the campaigns that are going to help us get there and get those scheduled. Get the social media done. Get the emails written and get that bit of recurring income in ready for September. So you've got three moves there. One month is all it's going to take. And then it's going to finish that quarter really, really strong for you as we get through into the end of August. So instead of fizzling and slipping away from you, we're going to steer this quarter to success. Let's get back in the driving seat, shall we? So if you've listened to that and you're nodding along, but you're struggling a bit to turn it into strategy, well, that's exactly what my strategy calls are for. We take a look at your numbers. We take a look at your plans, your recurring income ideas, turn them into a proper 90 day plan built around your salon, not just a generic plan, something that's actually bespoke for you. If that sounds like something you could use, reach out to me. I've put the link in the description below. I know that's an awful lot to remember this quarter. So please check out the show notes and the link to book your strategy call is in the show notes as well. Also reach out if you'd like me to be sharing your success story here on the build your salon podcast. You know, I love hearing from my salon owner friends and I love having salon owners as guests on the podcasts. I don't want the out of industry experts. I want my wonderful, wonderful salon owner friends to back up what I'm saying or challenge what I'm saying. You don't have to agree with everything that comes out of your uncle Phil's mouth. We can have an interesting discussion where we put your point of view across as well. So please reach out my email address scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Phil at build your salon dot com and reach out if you'd like to be a guest on a future podcast episode. So here we are at the end of July, just a few short days until my first episode of August. And just a pre warning. We've got one more episode in July and then August. We're going down to one episode a week for the whole of August. We're going to take a slightly lighter touch during August. Whatever you're up to this weekend. Have a wonderful one. And until we speak again, take care.