As an owner or manager, how do you split your time? I hate it when someone says this to me, but the answer is, “It depends”
It depends on things like, ‘how many people you have on your team, how many salons you have, whether or not you see clients yourself, and even what your future plans are’. So as a guide I need to make some generalisations.
So, if you are like the majority of salons, meaning less than five staff, and you are also a hairdresser, then you are going to need to be behind the chair seeing clients, probably at least four days out of five. If you are lucky you will be able to make the fifth day an office day, meaning accounts, maybe payroll, inventory management, staff training and general administration.
Many owners that are also stylist want to extract themselves completely from seeing clients before it gets to a sufficient size. If you do that, the business probably won't have sufficient cash flow to pay you properly and is also very vulnerable from the point of view that if staff leave you are forced back behind the chair in order for the business to survive.
Now, if you have a bigger salon, let’s say, ten full-time money producers, then you are getting to the size where maybe you don’t need to be behind the chair full time and the business is less vulnerable when staff leave.
But perhaps like many salon owners, you are still in demand, and you still enjoying servicing a client base. But now at least you can choose whether to work behind the chair two or three days a week and then spend the rest of the time in a training, management and marketing capacity.
If your business is at the next level and perhaps you have multiple salons, maybe 2-3, then the business requires a lot more input at the managerial level.
For some people, this is a natural progression. Perhaps they no longer want to be behind the chair, and the business has now reached a size and has the cash flow to enable them to be working full time in a managerial capacity and to focus on running and growing the business.
But, often the owner of a multiple salon organisation still wants to see clients as ‘doing hair’ is where their passion lies. Often the brand has been built around their name as the ‘high profile hairdresser’. In which case, they can probably charge a premium and afford to employ a general manager and administration staff to focus on running the business on a daily basis while they continue in the important role of the ‘front person’ hairdresser.
If you are the owner of 2-3 salons and actively behind the chair. Then as well as having an effective management/leadership team, you need to spend time regularly at each location. Even if you don’t see clients yourself, it’s essential to oversee the brand, meet clients, spend one to one time with your managers and most importantly to nurture relationships with your growing team.
I hope you have got something out of today and if you haven’t already read my books GROW 2 Management and GROW 3 team there are many ideas to help with growing your business.
Thanks for watching!
Have a great week!