How procrastination can harm your beauty salon

The crucial part of being a business owner is not getting things done - but getting the right things done. Have you ever found yourself doing the fun part of your job repeatedly, constantly delaying the unpleasant responsibilities or simply avoiding them whatsoever? Do you prefer being an excellent beauty specialist - a hairstylist, a beautician, a nail artist - over actually being a business owner? Do you keep putting off vital tasks?

Procrastination is a problem that affects many beauty salons owners. They are used to working creatively with clients, and having to become a business person sometimes makes them feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Would it not be great if you could toss aside all those financial management issues and just focus on the artistic part of your job?

Unfortunately, this way of thinking may seriously harm your salon. How can you fight the demon of procrastination and what tools may help you do so?

The dangers of procrastination

However harsh it may sound, your business suffers every time you delay tasks you were supposed to do. If you avoid hiring new staff, although it is about time, your staff is overworked and therefore less productive, discouraged and more prone to making mistakes. If you avoid analysing reports, you do not understand your cash inflows and outflows and therefore have no idea how to increase profit and minimise factors that pull you down. If you avoid tracking your staff’s progress, you have no idea which of them are your loyal employees and which are constantly doing empty labour. You have no control nor authority over your business, a lack of respect from staff and you are losing money. Do you see the pattern?

Procrastination affects your mental health as well. You may live in a permanent stress, painfully aware of all these things you were supposed to do yesterday. Normally, your brain produces little doses of stress to keep you motivated whenever you are supposed to do a task. In a procrastinator’s mind, those doses of stress constantly multiply and are difficult to get over. You feel worse with every passing day - and you are even less likely to start doing those avoided tasks.

How to stop the cycle?

You have to stand up to the demon of pretending that everything is fine. Here are a few tips that will come handy:

Get to know your tasks

Sounds obvious? I am talking seriously - breaking things down will help you think more clearly and see the way forward. Understand what exactly you need to do and briefly plan your actions.

Be honest with yourself

It is perfectly fine if you do not like to do certain things. Persuading yourself to think otherwise is pretty much pointless. Instead, try to change your way of thinking - rather than contemplating how much you despise a given task, think about the benefits of getting it done and how good you will feel afterwards.

Do the hardest task first

Use the enthusiasm you have at the beginning of the day and face your biggest challenge first. You know well that the longer you put it off, the less likely you are to do it at all.

Simply go for it

Cut the excuses. Move away from all the distractions, log out off Facebook and stop shuffling papers in the drawer. It is about time to finally do your thing.

Be gentle with yourself

Have you finished your tasks, but feel that you could have done better? Cut yourself some slack, you will improve next time - the most important thing is that you finally got to it. Now reward yourself a little - brew a cup of aromatic coffee and be proud of your accomplishments.

Your personal assistant

Fortunately, there is a tool that can help you with tasks you are not particularly fond of. Employee management, stock control, marketing campaigns, financial statistics, specific progress reports - Booksy, the salon management software, has it all and more. Get yourself a professional helper that will never get tired, intimidated or daunted. Check out how Booksy can help you be the manager your beauty salon needs and do not suffer from the effects of procrastination ever again!