'make profit your priority' - 3.6.5 education seminars

Salon owners need to work on their business as well as working in their business if they want to be more successful, according to Ken West, director of salon coaching organisation 3.6.5 Education.

"If you're a hairdresser-manager running a column, you're often the busiest person in the salon. At some stage you need to change that and work on your salon," Ken told delegates at the 3.6.5 Education seminar at Salon International.

One of the biggest challenges facing most salons is how to make more profit. Ken said: "We get scared talking about profit as if it's a dirty word, but salon owners need to understand the economies of a business."

He gave an example of staff using too much product in a salon. The approach he took was to sit the stylists and assistants down and ask the stylists which assistant they would like to fire, telling them the amount of stock they were wasting was equivalent to one assistant a week. They could carry on as they were, and risk losing someone, or change what they were doing (though Ken had no intention of firing anyone; it was just to illustrate his point).

"Stock use went down after that," said Ken. "If you ask your employees to use less because it's costing you money, they won't care because they think you're loaded. You have to make it real and relevant to them."

Ken advised busy salon owners to be brave about putting their own prices up. "If you double the price you charge, you may lose half of your clients, but you will still earn the same amount of money and have more time to work on your business. Only fear holds you back from putting up your prices. If a client believes you've become too expensive, then you can suggest she moves to another member of the team."

He added: "We should apply logic rather than emotion when it comes to pricing structures."