Being successful at any work is something everyone aspires. However, success itself is a vague term and is quite relational. Success to me is different from what it looks like to you. But being in the same industry, there are some common milestones that every salon owner wants to achieve and comes under the shades of success for them. Some common goals are- attaining profitability, multiple salon franchises, financial independence, establishing a brand etc. Being a successful owner here is directly proportional to the success of your salon. These are the possible perks of running a profitable salon that some people enjoy. To understand this we should be aware of what it takes to become a successful salon owner and what are the common mistakes salon owners should avoid.
How Do Others Become Successful?
The Indian salon industry itself is a multi-billion dollar industry. So you are not going to be the only one to succeed here. There are plenty of salon owners who are already living your dreams. Due to its large size, the market is hyper-competitive even in a small area. Therefore, it’s not easy for you to flourish in your salon and become an overnight success. Your hard work and commitment are pre-requisite to growing your salon.
The only thing you can do is to learn from others, what they did and what are the things that are common between the successful salons. What were the strategies that helped them to grow and what are the mistakes they did that you should avoid? You need to follow the path and pattern of successful salons. You will have to invest some time in researching some industry leaders.
What Does It Take to Become a Successful Salon Owner?
Great Team
When there is high contact in services, people become an integral part of the service experience since the person delivering the service often is the service. Hence, A great team makes the most difference between a successful salon and a struggling salon. The hair salon industry is categorized into the high contact customized groups where it contains services directed at people and individually customized service solutions and the interaction and services provided to customers that will likely influence customer experience which leads to satisfaction and hence fostering customer loyalty. You should have a great skilled team of professionals that can handle clients’ demands and can provide them optimum satisfaction. Do not hire someone for the sake of hiring. Provide your staff with proper standardise training after onboarding them. Be grateful to them for their work and appreciate and incentivise their efforts.
Customer Satisfaction
Whatever might be the situation, priority should always be given to the customers. Your every effort should be channelised to maximise your customer satisfaction. If the customer is not satisfied, whatever you do is a waste of resources and time. They are the only ones that will do the best marketing for you for free. Excellence in service quality is a key to achieving customer loyalty. Besides, customer loyalty depends largely on customer satisfaction. You can provide them convenience by providing them with the flexibility to book anytime from anywhere by using a salon online booking software. There are many online salon booking applications in India but my recommendations are Zylu, Styleseat, Uala, Appointy, etc.
Value Over Price
In the hair salon industry, competition is often related to a price war. Some hair salons offer a package deal for customers to retain existing customers and attract price-sensitive customers. Others may refuse to join the price war as they are confident with their skills and want to maintain a standard. You need to decide what type of customers you want. The war of discounts and prices will lead your salon to close the shutters. The war should be to provide more value than your competition. Customers can pay anything you ask them if the perceived value is higher than your price. So, It is always recommended to charge what you are worth. It can be difficult to decide how much to charge for your services, particularly when you are just starting out with your own business. After you do some research and get a ballpark idea of what someone with your level of training could charge, you should carefully consider your own skills and training and determine a price based on that – not what others in your area are charging.
Data-Driven Decisions
It’s one of the most imperative part. Most salon owners make the mistake that they back their decisions completely with intuition. Often times our intuition gets biased and is based on how we perceive the market and opinions. The business environment is highly dynamic and changes every day. So it’s hard to catch up with the market based on our intuition. Successful business owners use their instinct to make a decision based on data. The data always show us an unbiased reality. Technology is nowadays an integral part of running any business. You can use an online salon app to take appointments and can grow your business. Investing in technology can turn out to be one of the best investments for your business.
Conclusion
These tips might sound overwhelming but you can start by implementing even one of them in beginning. Pick something that you think you should currently focus on and try to master that and move on to others. Zylu helps salons and spas to go digital by providing them with a complete 360-degree software solutions. Book a free live demo to explore how Zylu software can help your business to grow.