The big push: How to make mega profits this Christmas - without burning out

We can't call it the most wonderful time of year. If you're going to face 2024, absolutely knackered. How do we get the most out of our salon businesses in December without burning out? Hello, hello, hello, my salon friends. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. And here we are right at the end of November, just on the cusp of chocolate season when we can start gorging ourselves silly. And I always think advent calendars are a wonderful discipline, aren't they, to get you into the habit of eating chocolate every single morning. How's it been for you? How's November been for you? I've heard a mixed bag this time, I have to say, across my one-to-one clients, my group coaching clients, my social media accounts. A lot of people saying the beginning of November in particular was a real struggle and that they were struggling to get people to keep spending. That means, of course, that there's a lot of pressure on December if we're going to deliver on our Q4 targets. And you have got Q4 targets, haven't you, darling? Otherwise, you haven't been listening for the last 12 months. So how do we make sure that we do that without burning out? Because, of course, the danger is that we get lots and lots of money through the till. But what's that all about? If you're absolutely shattered, is it really worth it? If you haven't got any energy to be completely present with your family during the festive season, what's the point? What are we actually working for? It's not all about getting as much money through the till as absolutely possible. So I spoke last week on how we set some really meaningful goals. We talked about this during the month, how we set some really meaningful goals, how we get the most out of the festive season. I want to take a little bit of a different angle today. Just breathe a little bit. Look after yourselves a bit, darling, and make sure that we're coming through the month and surviving and thriving through December. So what are my three tips? Well, the first one is get some help. If you're not very good at delegating, now's the time to get the hang of it. Ask for help early and often. Delegate as much as you can. Maybe in the summer, look at getting in a seasonal team member. Maybe there's someone that you could bring in on the week before Christmas. The schools and colleges and universities tend to break up earlier and earlier. Or perhaps that's just my feelings as a knackered parent. I don't know. But there seem to be lots of people drifting around and they might be very glad of a few extra quid on the run up to Christmas. So why not get somebody else in? And they don't need to be a qualified hairdresser in order to make sure that your customer experience is still excellent.

Make sure they're cleaning up after your beauty therapists or stylists. Literally half a day's worth of induction. You could get someone actually helping quite a lot in your business. But let's get ahead of that. Let's get somebody in place right now. Tip number two is to get organized. You do not want to be halfway through December, fully booked all day every day, and then go, Oh shit, I've got to do my social medias as well. Let's start batching our content, getting stuff recorded, getting stuff scheduled. You know I love a scheduler for my social media stuff. I very rarely post live, apart from maybe Instagram stories. Everything else is scheduled ahead of time. Let's get ahead. Let's make sure that certainly by the second week of December, the rest of the month is done, dusted, in place, scheduled, good to go. Yes, it means that the end of November is going to be a bit busier, but surely it's better than trying to juggle a fully booked column alongside all your social media marketing as well. Also, your admin. Make sure your bookkeeping is up to date. Make sure that all of the communication that you need to do, all of your emails are up to date as well. And then I would put an out of office on your emails. Just say, look, this is a really busy time of year. Chances are very slim that I'm going to be getting back to you before Christmas. But also think about the personal stuff that takes a lot of time as well, because as small business owners, our worlds collide, don't they? Our businesses and our personal lives are one big hot mess. So why not get ahead on your grocery shopping, for example? If, like me, you're a very busy parent, and if, like me, you've got a fussy little git as one of your children, you can probably tell with relative certainty what your menus are going to look like for the next few weeks. Why not get Uncle Tesco to be delivering that for you? We could get that scheduled, booked, book your slots. Certainly the big grocery shop on the run-up to Christmas. I do like to walk around the supermarkets and choose my own Christmas food. But some stuff I know I'm going to get. Why not get them delivering the potatoes and the bread and all those staples that you know you're going to be getting through? Have that scheduled, good to go. I used to get it all delivered to the salon, to be honest with you, rather than at home, because I wasn't in very much running my busy column. So I get it all delivered and then get one of my wonderful colleagues to help me carry it all out to the car at the end of the day. But also your gift shopping, let's get ahead this year. Let's make sure that some of this stuff's done, dusted, get your wrapping done. You can be one of those smug bastards on Facebook on the last day of November that says, all my Christmas shopping's done and photos of all the... You can have your tree up 1st of December if you wanted to, perhaps not. But let's get ahead, let's get organised.

And then finally, I want you to take care of yourself. You've got to pace your work. There is no point in going through December if you're going to be absolutely frazzled, I almost don't care how successful you were financially. If you're going to face January, absolutely rung out and make sure that January is a write-off for you because you've been overwhelmed for a whole month. Pace yourself. Look after yourself. That means keeping some of those good habits you've been working on over the last few months. That means taking care of your eating. It's not enough to live on chocolate during December. Make sure you're getting some decent meals. Do a bit of meal prep. Have some soups and things frozen that you can defrost and chuck in the microwave at work and get through very quickly. See some daylight. Make sure that you're taking at least 10 minutes of your lunch break to walk around the block. Have a lunch break. Schedule some breaks. I will build in some extra breaks. Yes, I said it. Book yourself an extra 15 minutes out in your column. And the rule from Uncle Phil, if you're going to do this, is you can move that break, but you're not allowed to delete it. So if a client wants that slot, you can move it to somewhere else. If there's nowhere else to move it to, you are fully booked. You will thank me for that because even if you don't get a chance to actually physically take a break, that buffer will stop you running behind on your entire day. And then my final point, and I made this point on the podcast last week. If you didn't hear it, though, I'm going to make it again and zero apologies. You will feel much less overwhelmed if everyone has prepaid. Get everybody, when they're booking, to pay 100% of their bill for that day. Doesn't mean you're not going to be able to upsell extra services. Doesn't mean you're not going to be able to retail all those beautiful Christmas kits that have probably landed into your salon by now. But it will make sure that everyone's positioning that appointment as important. You can have a lot less in the way of last minute cancellations and no shows to worry about. It means you're not flapping around trying to fill those slots last minute. Everybody takes a little bit of a breather and it also starts to train your customers to spend that way in 2024. Why not make that your first business resolution of next year to start getting people prepaying for their slots? So I hope that's been useful to you. So if it has, reach out, let me know. Phil at buildyoursalon.com. You know I love hearing from my salon owner friends.

And what have I missed? If you've got questions for the December Q&A, I'm sorry that one's full. But please send your questions over for my recording in January. We're finishing our Christmas chat now. I'm not going to talk about Christmas next month. What we're going to start doing is talking about goal setting for 2024. So all through December, I'm going to be talking about how to set meaningful goals, how we make sure that we start the year with a bang. So ping your questions over for that too. And also in 2024, I'm going to start bringing some guests onto the Build Your Salon podcast. So if you're sick to death of the sound of my voice, that's going to be a relief for you too. If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, why not reach out? Phil at buildyoursalon.com. I'm looking for people who can speak to a hairdressing and beauty therapy and aesthetic audience in a meaningful way. I'm also looking for content that makes sense at any time of the year. So if you've got a topic you'd like to share with the big wide world, reach out and let me know and we'll get a recording booked. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your eyes and ears again. 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.