What's Stopping You?
Why is it some salon businesses prosper while others struggle? It happens everywhere and regardless of what the economy is doing so it can't always be blamed on that.
I talk to a lot of salon owners and some will say that business is down or that their retail figures are a lot less than they were a year ago or that their colour business is dropping.
But the next person I talk to is just as likely to say that business is booming, retail is up and they’re doing more colour than ever. So why is that?
Regardless of whether it’s getting hairdressers selling more retail or doing more colour or personal goals like getting fit, losing weight or giving up smoking there are 6 things that successful people do that means they get the job done… whatever it is.
At number 1 it’s
1/ Know what you want…
Have absolute clarity of vision about what it is you want to achieve. The clearer you are about the outcome the more likely you are to achieve the goal.
There is a goal setting acronym that a lot of people use when writing down their goals called S.M.A.R.T. The S stands for ‘specific’, The M stands for ‘measurable’, The A stands for ‘attainable’, The R stands for ‘results orientated’ and the T stands for ‘time bound’.
So knowing what you want is a goal, and if you write it down and it’s SMART, so if it’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results Orientated and Time bound you are more likely to achieve it. It’s not magic, but it helps!
A practical salon example might revolve around increasing the percentage of your clients that have colour. So instead of saying, “I need to do more colour!” your saying, “My goal is to have 50% of my clients have a colour service over the next 3 months” That’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results orientated and Time bound.
So define exactly what it is you want to achieve then write it down and make it S.M.A.R.T.
At number 2 it’s…
2/ Make a clear decision…
A goal isn’t a preference, it’s a clear decision.
It’s not “I’ll try, I wish, or I hope, I must, or I should, or I want to or need to! It’s a decision. So make a real decision to do whatever it takes and then in the immortal words of the Nike campaign “Just do it!”
Easier said than done? Of course it is! If it were easy everyone would be doing it. So what else needs to happen?
At number 3 it’s…
3/ Recognise that motivation isn’t enough. You need to plan
It’s easy to be motivated short term, if motivation is all you do then all you end up with is motivated idiots. So as well as a goal you need a plan.
So, what are the top 5 things you need to do to move towards the goal or desired outcome? Write them down; chunk them down into bite size pieces, what can you delegate? Who’s going to do them? When will they be done by?
For example if we stick with the example of increasing your colour percentage to 50% of your clients have a colour service over the next 3 months, what’s the plan to make that happen?
You might say, number 1. You will offer every client a colour consultation. Number 2. you will develop a Pinterest board on your iPad with a great selection of inspiring colour images that will help you do more professional consultations. Number 3. All the people on your team will have some colour in their hair. Number 4. You will have a colour workshop with all the team to demonstrate inspiring trends and the latest techniques and at number 5 You’ll have an incentive and reward program to recognise those people who achieve their weekly target.
Now you have a goal and a plan. So what’s next?
Step 4 it’s…
4/ Take action
This is the hard bit, “Implementation” All the goals and planning in the world is useless without taking action.
The 5th step is…
5/ Review and follow through
Let's stick with our colour goal example. Review and follow through. It’s a 3 month goal, so what results are you getting at the end of the first week? Or first month? What can you learn from them? What’s working and what isn’t? What changes do you need to make? Make them and move on.
That takes us to the 6th and final step, which is…
6/ Persist
Don’t give up! If it’s a real goal, if it really matters to you, if it’s really important to you. DO NOT GIVE UP! Persist! Learn from your mistakes, fine tune your approach, bring whatever other resources you need and make it happen.
You may not get it the first time or even the 10th time, but the people who succeed at whatever their calling don’t give up!
If you want to learn more about goal setting make sure you have my books GROW 1 Super Stylist and GROW 2 Management you can get them from growmysalonbusiness.com
Thank you for watching…
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Have a great week!
