Preparing your salon for a busy season

If you’re reading this, then chances are you’ve read our previous article on getting the most of a low season. Like every industry, the world of hair & beauty can be a real nightmare, especially when you’re low on booked visits. But say you’ve gone through our previous article and have made adjustments to how you run and operate your business - now what? It’s time for phase two - preparing for the upcoming busy season!

It’ll arrive sooner or later, but what you do before it will have a significant effect on your business during this time. So take 5, grab your coffee and keep reading!

Forecasting

If there’s an upcoming weather anomaly approaching your city or town, what do you do? Prepare accordingly, based on calculations! The same approach should be implemented when preparing for a busy season at your salon. However, bear in mind that you should never predict busy seasons based on hunches and gut feelings, as preparing too early or too late might have disastrous consequences for your business. In your Booksy system (if you haven’t done so yet, you can grab a free trial, here), you can quickly generate sales reports from previous timeframes, allowing you to forecast your upcoming busy season, based on previously recorded data.

If you’ve made substantial changes to your business (be it in decor or how your salon is run), you may experience an earlier start to your busy season or even a more fruitful one. If you’ve made these modifications during your low season, compare the current month’s numbers to the same period last year and note any significant rises in sales, new customers or profit earned.

The calm before the storm

Let’s say you’ve made some serious remodelling in your salon during your low period. You’ve created a grand, re-opening date and have sent invitations to your clients and friends via your fan pages. Now you’re caught in an awkward point where you’re not overly busy and the re-opening date is fast approaching. In this situation, salon owners and managers tend to panic and have second thoughts on this busy season. During this time, focus your efforts on attracting a local audience to your business.

Promoting your business in any way, shape or form via social media post isn’t going to help you much at all. Let’s face it - that post on your salon’s grand re-opening or your pre-holiday discounts isn’t going to get past your audience's ocean of posts on their newsfeeds. Instead, you may want to focus on social media ads, but for the most part, text and email marketing should be your first priority. In Booksy, you can send messages to all of your customers, reminding them of your latest salon event or promotion. This way, you have an influence on how many people visit your beauty salon during your busy season!

Preparing your salon

The countdown has begun - you’re just a few days or weeks away from the start of the busy season. In fact, you and your team have already noticed an increase in sales and new clients. Now comes the hard part - preparing your salon! Focus on these three points in order to come out on top:

Speak with your staff
Prepare your inventory
Tie clients to your business

Speak with your staff

Before high tide, speak with your team to discuss the upcoming busy season. Make sure that everyone is familiar with their assigned tasks and knows exactly what they’re responsible for. Your Booksy appointment calendar will also come in handy here, as it’ll allow you to mark staff off of your online booking page when they’re away, as well as help distribute bookings evenly between other employees. Additionally, make sure your team members have notified you of any absences and vacations, at least a month ahead of time, in order to avoid difficult situations.

Preparing your inventory

One of the most common mistakes salon owners tend to make is not stocking up on products before a busy season - especially before Christmas. During this time, stockists are usually closed for business and you’re out of some essential products.

Tip: It is recommended that you purchase at least twice the average amount of stock before your busy season, and make sure that the expiration date isn’t anytime soon.

Although salon owners might feel as though overinvesting is eating away too much of their budget, products that didn’t sell during your busy period can just as easily be sold after it - and if need be, they can be sold at a discount. Imagine not being able to provide your famous black and red balayage for the holidays because you’re out of the required products.

Tying clients to your salon

Even before the busy season hits, you should already be thinking of ways to tie clients to your salon, as this is crucial to your business’s success. Luckily for you, you don’t have to look far. Inside of your Booksy system, you can find automated Message Blasts which will help you keep clients coming back to your salon, even after your busy period.

Message Blasts work as an extra set of hands, helping you to provide top-quality customer service. During your seasonal rush, chances are you and your staff won’t have time to chit-chat with every client - but Message Blasts will. After your customer leaves the salon, they’ll receive an automatic notification, thanking them for their visit and also encouraging them to return. After some time has passed, this tool will continue to send messages in hopes of drawing that client back to your business.

With the right tools and approach, you not only make it through the busiest times of the year, but also have everything you need to stay busy even during the low periods!