[00:00:00] Antony Whitaker: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Grow My Salon Business Podcast. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker, and it's great to have you here with us today. And whether you're watching on YouTube or listening, perhaps as you walk the dog or driving the car, running on the treadmill, or whatever it is that you're doing, I just want to start by saying Thank you for being a listener, now our podcast is growing and we need your help to continue growing because we want to get to help as many other people in the industry as possible. And you are our only marketing budget
[00:00:35] Antony Whitaker:. So if you're on YouTube, then give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and share it with your friends. And if you happen to be listening on your favorite podcast app, then give us a five star review and a follow. And that would be very kind of you and much appreciated.
[00:00:54] Antony Whitaker: So with all that said, let's get on with today's show. Now, I totally recognize that the title of today's episode is clickbait, but let me ask you this. Would you like to be able to pay cash for a new BMW this time next year? Well, I imagine that you would. And maybe the title should have been, do you want to grow in 2025?
[00:01:17] Antony Whitaker: As a salon owner, I'm going to suggest that of course you want to grow because well, if you're not growing, then you're effectively going backwards and that rarely ends very well. So whether growth means that you want to grow your staff numbers or. Grow specific service sales or grow the list of services that you currently offer or whatever else growth might mean to you.
[00:01:43] Antony Whitaker: Either way, the reason that you aspire to grow is that growth leads to increased revenue, which ultimately you hope or assume will lead to increased profit as well. And what's wrong with that? So on the assumption that you're serious about growth and not just expressing a preference for growth, then there are two things that we need to start with.
[00:02:05] Antony Whitaker: Now, the first is how much do you want it to grow by? And the second one is to narrow down exactly where will the anticipated growth be coming from? So let's start with the first point. How much do you want to grow? Now, there isn't a right or wrong answer to this question because well, amongst other things, you need to consider whether Where it is that you're starting from, for example, a new business that's only been open a few months might be wanting to double their business revenue over the next 12 months, whereas a business that's perhaps been open for 10 years might just be shooting for a 10 percent growth next year on what they've achieved in 2024.
[00:02:49] Antony Whitaker: So what might be realistic for one business could be fantasy land for another. So while you should be ambitious about your growth predictions, they should also be based on some sort of reality. Okay. Now, the other thing to consider when talking about how much you want to grow is how will you measure the growth?
[00:03:12] Antony Whitaker: For example, is it a percentage of revenue figure or is it a dollar figure or is it going to be a fixed target? So what do I mean by that? Well, some people will say something like in 2025, I want to grow the Salon's revenue by 10%. Someone else will say in 2025, I want to increase sales by 100, 000. And someone else might say in 2025, I want to achieve 2 million in total sales.
[00:03:41] Antony Whitaker: Now, all of those approaches are totally relevant because, well, they all include a number, which means that it's measurable. And that then takes us to the second point, which is to get clear about where you expect the growth to come from. For example, is it going to come from increased retail sales or increased services?
[00:04:01] Antony Whitaker: If it's increased services, then what are the services where you see the most potential for growth? Is it haircuts or color or beauty treatments or is it something else yet again? Or drill down even deeper and ask what specific services do you want to grow? For example, is it that you see that there's an opportunity to increase the hair extensions side of your business?
[00:04:28] Antony Whitaker: Or is it to grow the amount of treatments that you perhaps do? Once again, there's no right or wrong answer here. Only you know where the most potential is for growth in your business. So once you've decided how much you want to grow and how you will measure that growth and then identified where the opportunities for growth are, then the next step is to drill down and put a plan or develop a strategy to make that growth predictable.
[00:04:59] Antony Whitaker: So let's imagine that you've decided that you want to increase your total revenue next year. By 100, 000 and that you've decided that all of that increase will come from in salon hair treatments. Now, I'll be clear with you here. This is a real example of someone who I had the pleasure to work with, and that was her goal for the year to increase Her total revenue by 100, 000 and for that increase to come from additional treatments.
[00:05:28] Antony Whitaker: Now, when she first told me that I was a little bit more skeptical than she was until we walked through the numbers. So let's do that together now. Remember, the goal is 100, 000 in additional treatments for the year. Now, in her case, I think the numbers went something like this. So feel free to use your calculator as I walk you through this.
[00:05:49] Antony Whitaker: 100, 000 in treatments is the goal, and she charged 25 for an in-salon hair treatment. So if we divide the 100, 000 by 25 per treatment, that equals 4, 000 treatments in total for the year that she had to do, on top of what she was already doing. And if we divide those 4000 treatments by 52 weeks in the year, that means she has to average a total of 76 treatments a week.
[00:06:17] Antony Whitaker: Now, if we assume that the salon is open five days, then we divide the weekly figure of 76 treatments by five days. Well, that equals 15 treatments a day. Now, in her case, she has seven stylists. So 15 treatments a day divided by seven stylists is just over two treatments of stylists per day. So let me ask you, is 100, 000 in extra revenue possible?
[00:06:42] Antony Whitaker: Well, of course it is. You see, when she first said 100, 000, it seemed totally unrealistic, but as soon as you do the math and you break it down, and in her case, it comes to only an average of just over two treatments a day from each stylist. Then you realize that it's a hundred percent doable. So what could possibly go wrong?
[00:07:01] Antony Whitaker: Well, there are plenty of things that could go wrong. All we've done so far is prove that mathematically it's possible. So let's dig a little bit deeper and anticipate what the challenges might be. So the first thing to do is to identify who is going to do it. Now let me explain what I mean by that. So let's make an assumption and say that this is an average salon that predominantly has a female clientele of regular cut and blow dry clients, and that 40 percent of them have a color service.
[00:07:29] Antony Whitaker: And let's imagine that each stylist that works there averages five to six clients a day, and that out of those seven stylists, two of them already do two to three treatments a day. And with the five other stylists, maybe three of them average two to three treatments a week. And that the remaining two stylists, you'd be lucky if they did two treatments a month.
[00:07:54] Antony Whitaker: So where is the growth going to come from? Because it's probably not going to come from the two stylists that are already averaging two or three treatments a day. Although they might be able to improve that number a little, the real growth needs to come from the other stylists. Because, for whatever the reason, although they work in the same salon with the same products and the same economy with the same clients, The reality is that they are nowhere near as effective at upselling or recommending salon treatments as what the first two Stylists are.
[00:08:30] Antony Whitaker: So part of your strategy has to be about identifying where and who represents the greatest opportunity for growth when it comes to treatments and that means training and one to one coaching in both product knowledge and consultation and communication skills. And part of your strategy has to be about leadership and goal setting and accountability and incentive and reward and marketing and merchandising.
[00:08:57] Antony Whitaker: And above all needs to be about consistency, meaning consistency from you as a leader and consistency from the team. Because running out of steam is the second biggest challenge that you're going to face. With achieving this goal, because what often happens is that you do it for a week or even a month, but bit by bit, you and they, meaning your team, start to lose focus.
[00:09:23] Antony Whitaker: And then three months later, you're back to where you started with two of the stylists doing 80 percent of the salon treatments and the other five totally underperforming. And then the extra 100, 000 that you anticipated is going to remain in your client's bank account. And just as importantly, the client's hair hasn't had the opportunity of benefiting from having had one of your fabulous treatments.
[00:09:48] Antony Whitaker: So let's recap the process from the top. The first step is to set a revenue growth goal for the year. The second step is to be specific about where the growth will come from, meaning what products or services are going to grow. The third step is to identify who on your team has the most growth potential.
[00:10:12] Antony Whitaker: And then you'll also need to think about what additional resources do you need? So, for example, what training is needed and who needs it the most? What systems need to be developed and put in place? What incentive and reward needs to be factored in to motivate your staff to improve their performance?
[00:10:33] Antony Whitaker: What marketing resources do you need? Do you need any additional advertising or marketing promotions? Do you need any printing done? And anticipate what else could go wrong. What could cause you and your team to run out of steam? And what can you do to ensure that you don't run out of steam or energy or enthusiasm?
[00:10:54] Antony Whitaker: For example, what you could do to ensure that you don't run out of steam is to start tracking the numbers daily and weekly and have systems in place so that everyone on the team can see their results and see yours. The Salon's results, and you need to reinforce and remind the team of the goal and the results at every team meeting that you have, and you need to reinforce the goal and the results of every individual with regular one to ones, and you need to help every individual on the team identify what their own goals and ambitions are and link their reward.
[00:11:29] Antony Whitaker: To their results, and you need to develop a visual representation of both the team and the individual's results using some sort of a graph because, well, a graph is a picture of the numbers and hairdressers love pictures. They don't love spreadsheets. And you need to give them one number to focus on. For example, two treatments a day.
[00:11:52] Antony Whitaker: So two is the number. And just like in sport. You need to build in half time or better still quarter time. And at the end of Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4, you reinvigorate everyone around the goal and you celebrate and reward both team and individual performance. And you make a big deal out of it. And every day you need to acknowledge and celebrate every win and every improvement because well behavior that gets reinforced.
[00:12:24] Antony Whitaker: Repeated and where possible, you need to enroll the support of your product supplier because after all, they're going to win in this as well through increased sales. So how can they support you with training or product knowledge or motivation or merchandising or something else? But here's the thing, if you do all the things I've talked about, then your goal of a hundred thousand in increased treatment sales, or whatever your goal is, has a very good chance of becoming your new reality for this time next year.
[00:12:56] Antony Whitaker: And just imagine you could, if you wanted, then go and pay cash for a new BMW. So what are you waiting for? So look, with all that said, we need to start winding this episode up. But before we do, I want to point you towards our other resources, both free and paid for on our website, ranging from our weekly podcast to our two-minute salon manager videos, as well as our free, Paid for resources, whether it's our books, our one-to-one coaching, or our online courses.
[00:13:28] Antony Whitaker: And relative to today's podcast, there are a couple of resources that I want to point you towards. The first is my books, the Grow Series, Grow One  Super Stylist, Grow Two Management, Grow Three Team, and Grow Four Marketing. And if you want to find out more about them, or our courses, or anything else, then visit us at Grow My Salon business.com and on Instagram also at Grow My Salon Business.
[00:13:55] Antony Whitaker: And I'll make sure to put those links in the show notes for today's podcast on our website. And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review on the Apple Podcast app. So to wrap up, thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast. Until next week, look after yourself.