How to Manage a Hair Salon Business? Key Aspects

What does it take to manage a hair salon business? Except for protecting it from sinister forces of high taxes and price wars with local competitors!

Well, dozens of chores. From crafting perfect commission structures to implementing an effective automation process with POS, you need a team of experts, some dedication, and a lot of creativity.

So, in this article, we’re looking into the most effective ways to manage your hair salon business aiming to help you identify things you could do better. You definitely could!

Let’s form the fundamental routines and then move on to the business improvement strategies.

Inventory tracking & monitoring

Your routine begins here.

With the right inventory tracking tools, your hair salon management can solve a few crucial tasks:

• Better understand demand for specific products, services, or periods of time.
• Keep essential items always available (to keep your staff and clients happy!).
• Better manage supplier relationships to get timely product orders at the optimal frequency.

All products in your hair salon or barbershop, including retail items like shampoos and conditioners and back-bar supplies (e.g. for hair color) are logged with quantities and prices.

Ideally, every hair salon could be much better with the software that integrates with the POS system to track product sales and automatically update stock levels.

All in all, inventory tracking gives your business a lot of data and numbers.

And this data can help you figure out which products and hair salon services are the most profitable. Know your costs and revenue for each item/service and that will help you focus on the ones that bring in the most money.

Know your digits & terms

To continue with numbers… Are you aware of your service turnover rate? Where is your profit margin? How does a normal client journey look? Does it have any bottlenecks?

Operating a hair salon doesn’t differ much from many other service businesses when it comes to calculating your key metrics and forecasting demands for services and products.

This information will help you improve time management for your salon, improve client management workflows, and revenue forecasting.

Invest in software for scheduling and managing appointments

Today, software is like one more (or ten more!) team player, which does many jobs. Salons can successfully integrate POS, CRM, and booking systems to automate and streamline many routines.

BookingPress is one of those software providers that brings all the essentials to hair salons regarding appointment scheduling.

You’ll value the benefits that it will bring to your daily operations and bottom line:

• Automation for the appointment scheduling process. Clients pick the time and date that works for them and book online!
• Upselling services and products. It simplifies the way to enable clients to purchase additional services or products directly via the software.
• Online payment collection for fewer no-shows and more transparent billing.
• Customer satisfaction thanks to an easy and flexible way to book an appointment at your hair salon.
• Tracking and analysis of the most used services and best-performing staff members.

Extend the line of products and services you sell

Did you know that a modern hair salon business is not just about providing hair treatment services? You can successfully sell products, like shampoos or styling tools, to clients, online or right in your salon.

It’s so much easier to advertise these products when a client has already tested them, isn’t it?

Another example –  it’s very common to rent out salon chairs to independent stylists, so why not provide this information on your website if you have something to offer?

The idea here is to identify areas where you can take the most out of your salon to boost your reach, sell more, and repurpose existing resources.

Implement strategies to keep clients returning

Winning client loyalty is an art and science. How to keep clients returning to your salon with soft and attractive techniques? We have a few recommendations:

• Loyalty and rewards programs with a personal touch (for example, points only on those services that a client is interested in).
• Offer a small gift, such as a discount, free conditioning treatment, or product sample on a special day/seasonal holiday.
• Offer a free stylist consultation.
• Implement a “Bring a Friend” promotion.
• Implement an affiliate program.
• Showcase your clients’ before-and-after photos.
• Invite clients to classes and workshops.

Invest in employee training

This can be your best marketing and overall best investment, while the beauty industry is constantly evolving and new techniques, styles, and products need your attention.

Training keeps hair stylists updated on the latest trends, gives them fresh energy, knowledge, and creativity they can use in the salon.

Also remember that well-trained employees are usually more confident in their skills, which translates to higher quality services and better client experiences.

Needless to note, a salon’s skilled staff is the best competitive advantage that is crucial to clients.

Always keep the branding work active

This requires consistency and creativity. Otherwise, you won’t be able to promote the salon’s image for the long run!

While you can use all the resources you have to implement into brand promotion, we can recommend the following inspiration trends:

• ‘Hair parties’.
• Workshops.
• Eco-friendly products spotlight. 
• Product demos.
• Invite clients and influencers to promote your salon.
• Masterminds.
• Fancy software on the website (like augmented reality).

Key Takeaways on Managing Hair Salon Business

Managing a hair salon business includes financial management, employee control, inventory and supplies management, client relationships, marketing, and so much more. It might take a book to elaborate on all the details! But to some up our article with the hot recommendations on salon management strategies, here the most crucial things you should rely on firstly:

1. Consistent inventory tracking and monitoring.
2. Salon software (CRM, POS, and booking systems).
3. Brand promotion.
4. Investment in client satisfaction and staff training.
5. Business analytics and measurement of key metrics.

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