Salon owner and industry entrepreneur Sean Hanna has teamed up with HJ to mentor nine aspiring and hard-working salon owners to understand their numbers, delve into their businesses and take them to the next level.
One of their first lessons was on understanding profit and loss.
A salon business is usually underpinned by four ‘pillars’ Sean explained. “Every strategy we create should be focused on and improve each of these pillars. Imagine a large table and each pillar is like a table leg that holds up each corner.
The first is Clients: Everything to do with the client journey and experience.
Next comes Team: Everything that builds and supports the team.
Then we have Marketing: All outward and internal communications.
The fourth is Finance: Everything to do with Sales, Costs, Profit, etc
“Clients is an easy one. As hairdressers we naturally offer good customer service. As long as we are prepared to see the service we offer though through the eyes of our clients, we can create multiple strategies that continually improve our clients experience.
“Team is harder; our teams need to have a shared vision and work towards common goals. They need a genuine sense of purpose and know that they are seen, appreciated and valued. Learning how to be a good and effective leader is something that most business owners need to learn if they are to have an outstanding profitable business.
Marketing is often overlooked but when done well, can genuinely propel any business ensuring it outperforms the competition. Finally, Finance is about having a meaningful business plan and having financial systems in place to grow and be successful."
Sean shared some of his own business journey and highlighted both the mistakes – and successes - he had made along the way. “You have to be able to see it in black and white to be able to make any changes. You need to understand your fixed costs – rent, utilities, card fees, insurance – before looking at your client bills, prices and total stylist takings,” he explained.
At the end of every month, you need to look at your figures and be able to see what is coming in and what is going out.
“You need to regularly look at your outgoings – do you really need that subscription? Can you work without that extra cost? Then look at what you’re bringing in – are your stylists selling enough retail? Are you ordering too much stock? Get your figures right and it will open up a whole load of opportunities for your business.
“People say there is room for everyone and there are plenty of clients to go around. But that is simply not true. Right now in the UK, there are too many hairdressers and too many salons servicing too few salon visits. That is just a fact. Client frequency has changed dramatically in recent years and Covid only exacerbated this. So right now, we need to be better than our competition if we really want to succeed. And just keeping our heads above water is not succeeding. We need to be great leaders. We need to create inspiring places for our teams to thrive, and we need to really learn the business of our business.”
The next HJ Business Academy day will focus on marketing, with the opportunity for the mentees to grill an award-winning salon owner.
Keep up to date with the Business Academy here.
