Overwhelmed by all the demands on your time? You’re not alone. Managing time remains one of the greatest challenges that beauty professionals face. We profit from direct interaction with clients, but can’t make ourselves available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Reluctant to disappoint anyone and decline opportunities to earn money, we try to find time in our schedules where it doesn’t exist, or steal time from other priorities in our lives. How do we make the most of the time we spend serving our clients?
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” – Peter S. Drucker
1. Work Your Ideal Schedule
Whether independent or employed, we should strive to work our ideal schedule. That might seem impractical, especially when newly licensed, but clients and employers will adapt to your individual availability. Put yourself first and consider the priorities (family, school, sleep, exercise, etc.) that limit your work hours. Forget about traditional salon hours; what schedule works best for you? What’s reasonable, profitable and sustainable? Would you prefer working more short days or fewer longer days? What time of day are you most energetic and productive? Once you’ve determined your schedule, block off everything else because as far as clients (and employers) are concerned, the only time that exists is what you make available. Say it out loud: “The only time that exists is what I make available.” The more consistent your schedule, the better for the purposes of planning and protecting your time. Let clients know your schedule in writing everywhere you advertise your services, like your website, social media, brochure and business card. Don’t allow clients to persuade or intimidate you into “squeezing” them in, starting early, staying late, or working on your days off. When clients request time outside your schedule, or already reserved within your schedule, you can respectfully reply, “That time’s not available, but the next available is [date and time]. Does that work for you?”
“There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” – Henry Kissinger
2. Choose a Scheduling System
While some beauty pros and salon owners still rely on paper appointment books, the options for scheduling clients have expanded greatly in recent years. Generic calendar apps and industry-specific software offer technological solutions with varying capabilities and costs. Instead of being dazzled by any particular system, list your own requirements, like access to client contact information in a format that’s convenient, affordable and reliable. How much more information do you want (past and future appointments, transaction history, retail sales, client notes and formulas, etc.)? What other functionality do you need: appointment reminders, payment processing, inventory control, marketing and payroll? How much control will you give clients in your scheduling process? (As you might imagine, I have very strong opinions about online booking, none of them positive.) The more comprehensive the system, the higher the anticipated costs, and the less likely that those unique functions will be handled optimally. For that reason, I use Square for salon management, but trust my email marketing to Constant Contact and do my bookkeeping with Quicken.
Your salon schedule determines when you work, how quickly and how much money you’ll earn.
3. Calculate the Time Needed for Services
Ever find yourself running behind schedule despite your best efforts to work faster? Clients expect you to perform services within a reasonable amount of time, but those expectations may not match your capabilities. If a service routinely takes you 75 minutes, no amount of wishful thinking will help you finish in 60 minutes. (Conversely, if a service takes significantly less time than what’s scheduled, reducing that service time would be warranted and wise.) When you allow yourself the right amount of time, you’ll produce quality work at a steady, comfortable pace. In the future, greater mastery of your skills and efficiencies in your procedures will reduce the time you need. But for now, focus on your current circumstances and be realistic about the time you need to complete the entire interaction with a client: setting up your station, tools and products; greeting the client; doing a consultation; performing the service; collecting payment, scheduling/confirming the next appointment; and cleaning your station and tools. Whatever amount of time you need, use this time when pricing, advertising and scheduling your services. Don’t overpromise what you can accomplish. When scheduling, confirm the amount of time you anticipate the service(s) will take so as not to disappoint any client who might expect faster service.
4. Develop and Enforce Scheduling Policies
This tip will be expanded upon in another post, but suffice to say, that strong policies make all the difference in whether clients respect your time or not. You wouldn’t dare open a clothing store without a return policy, so why do beauty pros operate without scheduling policies? After all, you depend on clients to keep their commitments. If clients arrive late, cancel or reschedule on short notice or miss appointments, you cannot afford to lose your time and money.
5. Schedule Appointments in Advance
You’ve heard the advice to work by appointment and pre-book clients for their next one before leaving the salon. That’s not good enough if you want to secure client loyalty for the long term. Why waste time negotiating appointment times when you could make a more permanent arrangement? Not only do standing appointments save time, they also relieve the stress associated with either having too few clients on your schedule, or so many that you cannot find time for your best clients when they want services. Because clients who reserve standing appointments provide structure and stability, only offer standing appointments to your best clients (reliable, cooperative and appreciative). Book a year in advance, if possible. It’s as easy as saying: “I really enjoy doing your [hair, facials, waxing, nails, etc.], but as my clientele grows, convenient times will be harder to schedule. I’d like to reserve a specific day and time just for you. What days and times work best?”
An earlier version was published by Beauty Cast Network.