How To Run A Successful Salon (The Salon Owner Guide)

Despite all elegance awaiting customers from the entrance, salons are no different than any small business. It takes a lot of time and hard work to be a successful beauty salon manager.

Running a successful beauty salon maybe even more demanding. A salon requires the manager to be creative and cater to very nitpicky audiences. Savvy and young ‘salon-entrepreneurs are tirelessly taking the game to the next level. Those who don’t follow them can at their very best earn nothing but a modest living.

But how to run a successful salon among such harsh competitors? If you want your beauty salon to excel in a dynamic industry, there are some rules you must follow.

Table of Contents

How to run a successful salon business?

Let us assist you with some tips and best practices we’ve gathered from the masters of the beauty industry. Their experience will help you gain loyal clients and launch your new business straight to success.

Choose a smart scheduling system

If you are not careful with scheduling, you can soon find yourself in a chaotic mess that won’t help you or your customers. A beauty salon is not the simplest business to run, and there are plenty of things you need to pay attention to.

For starters, you need to make orders and plan your supplies. Next, you will need to manage the team and the employees, and acquire the necessary permits. Last and of course not least, there are your customers who are demanding and have high expectations. In the background, there is only you trying to keep everyone happy. See how a scheduling system would be useful?

Salon managers need a tool they can use to their advantage. This tool should not only be beautiful but also highly advanced and internet optimized to make their lives easier. Technology is there to automate our tasks and daily routines, and we should use it to save some valuable time.

Trafft is one of the best scheduling apps that can be used for a variety of small businesses. Salon managers are among the biggest fans, as the tool automates most of their daily operations. It also helps them keep in touch with customers, manage schedules, process payments, measure performance, and much more. They can accomplish everything through a single dashboard.

Trafft relies on the three main pillars of every successful beauty salon. These are customer loyalty, automated routines, and well-organized schedules. It is also incredibly reliable, and friendly to use.

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve just entered the beauty industry. This tool offers custom pricing to meet your exact needs, be it that there is only you or multiple employees. The software lets you generate and manage prices the way you want them so that there is nothing left to do by hand. Except for keeping customers happy, of course.

Trafft is also the perfect tool for salon industry chains, as it lets you manage stores in multiple locations and even in different time zones.

The software also pays attention to your clients’ needs. Your schedules are up to date, and so are vacations and days off. There are no overbookings and errors – clients can only choose the available appointments.

Analytics are also included. You can pull out data on each service or finance operation. Such data is key to running a successful salon business.

Last but not least, Trafft beautifies the experience as expected in salon management. Its booking pages look adorable, and the payment process is easy and trouble-free.

Choose your salon management niche

Limit activities to a particular market to ensure you are not overwhelmed by the competition. It is always better to excel at a single thing than be average in multiple ones. Think of what you are good at, and pick an attractive activity that is in demand.

You can still provide multiple services, but make sure you promote your specialty. This may limit interested audiences at the beginning, but it will help you build a loyal customer base. As time goes by, you will get more and more experienced and valued as a professional in your area.

Another key aspect of salon management is marketing. Think of your distinctive advantages and develop your unique selling propositions (USPs). This may not be something nobody else does, but rather something nobody does better. As it always is. the more you advertise your beauty salons, the better!

Get to know the market

Are you looking for loyal customers in a small town, or trying to make it in the big city? Who are your competitors? Answer these questions in your business plan, and you will be halfway through.

Nevertheless, the larger and more diverse your community is, the less you can do on your own. If you want to go big, get professionals to explain what you are dealing with, and to help you understand the landscape of your market. A good place to start would be the local chamber of commerce.

Let’s say you are living in a university town. A thing to remember here is that demand will drop by 50% during the summer season. Many salons are unsuccessful simply because they don’t have a plan to assess this gap in their services.

Be clear on your mission and your values

Build a distinctive and recognizable brand. The best way to do this is to get to know your customers and understand their demographic. Every info counts: who are they? How do they communicate? What interests do they share?

Salon managers need a clear purpose for their small hub. Why is their business better than the others? What sets it apart? How is it unique?

These questions will never become less important, and it is worth rechecking them here and there. Trends change over months and not years, and the entrepreneur must remain relevant.

Stay organized

We know, this is easier said than done. We do want to remind you, nevertheless, to keep expectations simple and real. Take the appointments you are capable of and don’t overwhelm yourself from the beginning.

Concentrate on the most important things, take your time, and don’t change your plans. Preparing everything in advance is very important, so don’t let anything stand in your way. Create a salon opening checklist and make sure you check every box.

Don’t forget: Discipline is key. Only salon owners who invest time in their business are successful.

Improve employee management

Do you have trouble retaining talent? Employees are just as vital to your profit chains as customers, so take care of them. The happier they are, the better your business will be.

How you handle human resource matters will define your recruitment process. You must value good work and take care of the well-being of employees. This way, they will be motivated to do an even better job.

Keep up the teamwork and encourage people to participate. Work is supposed to be a fun experience, not something we do just because w have to. This is particularly true in salons, where you’re dealing with creative and talented people. Boardroom style is not the way to go. Instead, organize individual meetings and be there for everyone.

Make sure there is efficient communication at all times. Employees will like the team feeling and the workplace culture, and you will be able to count on them. This is the only way to keep them engaged and interested in your job offer.

Train your people

The knowledge of the staff is what differentiates great salons from good ones. People take beauty pretty personally and seriously, and they must be able to rely on you.

The shortcut to best-in-line service is to train employees to do a better job and sell more. You are only as strong as your weakest team member.

Train the employees and yourself. If you do it right, it will not take long before you have an active user community around the brand. Marketing will work like a charm even without an ad in the local newspapers. Referrals can bring solid money your way.

Great salons are run by experienced stylists and professionals, but also salespeople. And it is these salespeople who know how to advertise treatments and salon products. It happened that even the best salons failed due to a lack of expertise. Take your time – reputation is at stake.

Keep KPIs in the loop

Don’t leave anything to chance. As a salon owner, you have to stay on top of things and plan the budget accordingly. Divide smartly and maximize the use of your finances. The only way to do this right is to allocate smartly and to do in depth analysis.

The first and most important step for any beauty salon manager is to define the measures and to keep the personnel in the loop. Everyone at the salon needs to know what the financial goals are and how they will be achieved.

These are the measures to follow:

How many clients do you have/need
How often do they come
Which products and services sell the best
Which is the average price of these products and services
Which is the profit margin of the salon business

Ensure your customers come back

Beauty salons need to be sparkling clean, and that’s the end of the story. Nobody will entrust you the care over their bodies if you don’t reflect trust. The first time a customer sets foot in the salon is the moment they will remember the most.

Think of this from your perspective: Would you do a facial in a salon that is not clean? Or have your hair done with an old, dirty brush? If these things lay in plain sight, think of the things you can’t see.

This is indeed a no-brainer, but salons get messy quite easily. Clean regularly and every day, and make employees aware of how important hygiene is.

Invest in marketing

Interesting fact – you can’t get loyal customers who are not aware of your existence. Divide a dedicated marketing budget, invest in the necessary marketing tools, and promote and advertise your business.

Marketing will lead new customers your way and remind old ones of your existence. There are many successful marketing initiatives. Examples include ads in local newspapers, radio station campaigns, build boards, etc.

Promotion, however, doesn’t need to be paid. Offer promotions for customers who refer you to their friends. Or, organize large discount programs for local businesses.

You can establish yourself as an expert by providing expertise for free.

Social media also plays a paramount role in the success of your salon business. Create pages on Facebook or Twitter, and let your fans gather and communicate. You can use these hubs to share events, promotions, or interesting posts. Also consider more visual platforms such as Instagram, as people will want to check your work out.

Retain clients

Before you bring new customers on board, work on retaining the ones you already have. This is way cheaper, and it is your safe card to success.

How do improve customer satisfaction?

What clients appreciate the most are service providers who communicate with them. Organize follow-up calls with existing clients to check how satisfied they are, or remind them to take a survey against a promotion coupon. Establish a system for frequent quests, and reward them with extra treatment.

We would all love to save time, but think how important it is to be there in person. Enable phone contact and live support on social media, and let consultants be there at all times. Both new clients and existing customers will appreciate this.

Sell more products and services per visit

Can you count on regular clientele that visits often? Make the most of it, and grow your business by selling more products and services per appointment.

The first step here is to make these products and services visible and desirable. If you run a hair salon, how about treating a customer with a deep care treatment? If it is a barbershop, how about nose waxing?

Retail has paired products and services that work together for years. There are premium lines for hair salon, budget lines, specialized brands, etc.

It depends on the particularities of your salon, but there are many different ways to cross-sell.

Don’t develop an image, cultivate an ethos

Salons are quite dependent on their image and reputation, but that is not all there is to it. Nobody likes Starbucks because of its looks, but for what it represents. This is also what you should do.

Marmor pillars and laser lights are now part of the past. Salon clients want a story to be part of, rather than a shiny place that promotes elegance with no real story behind it. You need to build affinity for your new clients and show them that you are similar and have plenty in common. In a modern salon, affinity leads to loyalty.

If this sounds like something for you, develop a powerful ethos based on values and culture. These should, of course, align with the audience you are targeting.

Adapt pricing to the salon industry

Of course, we all want our salon to be a success and appear glamorous to each customer. This, however, makes us stretch over our budgets and compensate with prices that can send customers in the other direction. If you are at the very beginning, keep the price tag modest. You need friends first.

Start small and keep up with time. This is the best advice we can give you, be that a salon or any other small business.

Nowadays it is an easy task to create an inviting salon without breaking the bank. It needs to be pleasant and clean but offer good service. Sometimes, less is more. Even a small cup of coffee can make a difference for the customer and make him come back.

If you do have some extra money on the side, invest them in equipment rather than in looks. A beautiful salon will not help you if customers are not satisfied.

Train yourself

All master salon owners have one thing in common – they improve themselves. They never stop investing in education, and they use knowledge as their most competitive edge.

Each certificate you receive will reassure customers of your experience. In beauty, at least, the trends are changing every day and it is always something you can do to stay ahead of the competition.

Following trends, however, is only part of the job. You need to know where to purchase the best products, where to hunt for talent, or how to sell better.

It won’t be difficult to find the appropriate courses. Join online groups, check the local community college, and stay in the loop.

FAQs about running a successful salon

1. What are some effective marketing strategies to attract new clients to my salon?

You can use a variety of efficient advertising techniques to draw in more customers to your salon, including developing a social media presence, giving referral discounts to current customers, taking part in regional events, and organizing your own events. Also, it’s critical to check that your salon’s website is search engine optimized and that it has favorable internet reviews.

2. How can I increase my salon’s profitability and revenue?

You can think about adding more services, developing package offers or loyalty programs, optimizing your pricing structure, and enhancing retail sales to raise the profitability and income of your salon. It’s also critical to manage your money wisely and keep track of your expenditures, as well as have a clear cancellation policy set in place.

3. What are some ways to retain existing clients and keep them coming back to my salon?

You can concentrate on delivering exceptional customer service, offering individualized and high-quality services, rewarding devoted customers with discounts or free services, and keeping in touch with them through routine communication via email or social media in order to retain existing consumers.

4. How do I create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for my clients?

Paying attention to the little things, such as making sure the salon is tidy and well-lit, playing calming music, providing refreshments, and providing comfortable seats, will help you create a warm and inviting environment for your clients. To make your salon feel more inviting, you may also think about incorporating unique touches like new flowers or paintings.

5. What are some key factors to consider when setting prices for my salon services?

You should take into account your target market, the pricing of your competitors, your overhead costs, and the value of your services when determining the prices for your salon services. In addition to making sure that your pricing is fair and reflects the caliber of your services and knowledge, you should also make sure that they are competitive. Don’t forget to update your pricing when the circumstances change.

6. How do I effectively manage my salon’s inventory and supplies?

It’s critical to maintain track of stock levels, have a process for replenishing supplies, pay attention to expiration dates, and only buy what you actually need if you want to manage the inventory and supplies in your salon properly. To speed up the process, you may also want to think about employing inventory management software.

7. How can I stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and techniques?

You can attend trade events and conferences, read industry journals and blogs, take part in online forums and webinars, and enroll in continuing education courses to remain current with the most recent business trends and approaches. To give your clients the greatest services available, it’s critical to continuously learn and develop.

8. What are some best practices for managing and motivating my salon staff?

Setting clear goals, giving frequent feedback, creating chances for growth and development, recognizing and rewarding good performance, and fostering a happy and encouraging work atmosphere are some best practices for managing and motivating your salon employees.

9. How can I ensure my salon is following all health and safety regulations?

You may stay informed of regional and state rules, develop written policies and procedures for your salon, have frequent safety training sessions, and maintain correct records to make sure your salon complies with all health and safety requirements. For additional assistance, you can also employ a consultant or ask industry organisations for advice.

10. How can I incorporate eco-friendly practices into my salon’s operations?

You can convert to energy-efficient lighting, use less water, use eco-friendly cleaning products, recycle, properly dispose of garbage, and provide eco-friendly goods and services as ways to incorporate eco-friendly practices into your salon’s operations. Your clients can be informed of your dedication to sustainability and inspired to adopt similar practices.

Final thoughts on how to run a successful salon business

Being the owner of a beauty salon is not easy. You are the expert in your field, the employer, the tech master, the budget planner, and the customer magnet. You need to communicate and stay in touch but manage with a strong hand and set goals. And each day in your salon is just more challenging than the last one.

What can you do to make the salon unique? Should you improve the services? Should you train the employees? Should you communicate with clients? Should you work a bit on branding? The answer is simple – it is all of this. It starts like this, and it develops in all possible directions. The more you try, the better your salon is.

Indeed, it sounds very challenging for a small business. Luckily for you, you can automate most of these tasks with nifty scheduling software. Save your time for what matters – creative work-life and satisfied clients in your salon!