Cosmetology school might teach you how to pass your boards, but becoming a successful CEO? Not so much.
Meaning, stylists and salon owners today feel unequipped when it comes to making big visionary decisions and knowing how to break them down into achievable, bite-sized pieces, like attracting and—more importantly—retaining clients and keeping them coming back into your salon.
So today, we’re breaking down the 4 steps you need to take to step into the role of CEO of your hair stylist business and ultimately retain more clients.
Set your mission and values
One of the most important things to do in your business is to set your mission and values.
Why? Because, simply, they set the tone in your business. It clarifies what’s important to you as a CEO, business, and person.
Even if you don’t have your mission statement posted on your station’s mirror, it’s important to know them by heart because they are at the core of everything you do. And, when done properly, your clients feel it the moment they walk into your salon, making it easier for them to feel comfortable and trust you.
Ready to take step one of your hair stylist CEO training? Click here to learn how to write your mission statement!
Check in on your guest experience
When was the last time you examined your guest experience through the eyes of a new client?
If it’s been longer than three months, it’s time to take a good, hard look at it.
Walk yourself through your guest experience as if it was brand new to you, from the booking form on your website to checkout. Look for hiccups, things that are confusing or broken, and anything that doesn’t make you fall in love with your business all over again.
Because if you’re noticing these things, you better believe your guests are as well and it could be keeping people from coming back to your salon.
Make booking an appointment easy
As the CEO of your business, you know you’ve got to keep new guests and returning clients coming in the doors, but if you’re noticing there’s a dropoff lately, your booking process is likely broken.
Today’s guests don’t want to play phone tag with you. They want to be able to see your schedule and availability online so they can find the right appointment slot fast.
Go through the booking process on your website as if you were a new client and ask yourself:
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What’s hard to navigate?
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Are there any breakdowns in the process?
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Where might it be hard for clients to make an appointment to see you?
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Is anything about the process or your services unclear?
If you need help setting up your website to support online booking, check out Website Academy. Not sure which online booking software is best for you? We have a guide for that!
Set long-term business goals
Here’s the truth: if you don’t know where your business is going, your clients can feel it.
It’s 101 in hair stylist CEO training: you have to know where you want to end up to retain clients and lead your business to major profit.
Pull out your calendar right now and set aside 30 minutes, an hour, even an afternoon to sit down and work on your goals.
Ready? Grab a notebook or open your phone’s notes app and map out where you want your business to be in 10 years. Then five years. Then one year.
Why start at 10 years? Because if you know where you want to be in the future, it’s easy to stay focused on what shifts the needle in your business.
Next, implement those changes in your business. Start small, but stay consistent. Trust us, you’ll see the changes fast, especially when your clients start to notice and come back over and over again!
Stepping into the role of CEO in your hair stylist business can feel overwhelming without the proper training, but if you know you want to keep returning clients and new guests coming into your chair, it’s crucial.