The new year is here, meaning now is the time to look at your business and set goals for the year to come. Look closely at yourself, your team and your tools to see if you can streamline everything into one well-oiled machine. Here’s how to get started!
Communicate and collaborate
Great workplaces start with great communication. Your team will be more motivated and productive when they fully understand what success looks like for your business and how they can contribute to making it happen.
Share your vision
Share your vision with your team so that you can get everyone working towards a common goal. Describe how you see the success of the business and the challenges you anticipate you’ll encounter along the way. Work together to create a plan to reach your goals. This will get your team excited and passionate about helping your business become more successful.
Create an open and honest workplace
Creating a culture of communication has many benefits, including allowing for creativity, initiative and the sharing of ideas. Make sure you’re open to hearing from all team members and that everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.
Share the workload
Look carefully at all of the tasks you’re performing throughout the day. Are you the right person to be doing each of those tasks? Perhaps you could be empowering someone else to take on some of those duties to free up your time for more important things. Teach your staff the way your salon, spa or clinic does things, and let them learn and improve their skills until they’re the expert in that area.
Work towards realistic goals
Start by setting business-level goals and sharing them with your team, then work with individuals or teams to create smaller goals so that everyone knows what they need to accomplish. Don’t forget to reward people when they achieve their goals or do something great that moves your business forward. It’ll add a little extra motivation and help your staff feel appreciated and valued.
Lighten your workload with technology
Some tasks can be done more quickly when you use technology, and some things can even be completely automated! You may need to invest some time upfront to set systems in place, but when you make your tasks take less time, you’ll have more time for the things that you love – the things that deserve your attention and skill.
Your salon and spa software is there to help you manage your business and make things easier for you. Make sure you’re taking advantage of the tools at your disposal:
Use digital forms
Using digital forms reduces the admin associated with copying, uploading, filing and storing paper forms. So it’s not only good for your bottom line, it’s also good for the environment. Your clients will love the seamless experience, your staff will love having access to all the information they need at their fingertips, and you’ll love the time savings.
Streamline your payroll process
You’re already creating staff schedules: including their bookable hours and when they’re in training or on holiday. So why enter all of this information again for payroll? Don’t use a separate system if your salon and spa software can automatically produce accurate time sheets ready for approval. Payroll is unavoidable, but you can make it quicker and easier so it’s no longer a stressful task.
Automate your marketing messages
Don’t forget your clients’ birthdays, or to send that holiday message. Let your software do the remembering for you. Simply set up your marketing campaigns in your salon and spa software system, and let the emails and text messages send themselves. It’ll be one less thing on your to do list, and when you have so much to do, every little time saver helps! Our Automated Marketing e-book has everything you need to help you set up your automatic messages in Kitomba!
Let your clients book online
Online booking is becoming increasingly popular with clients, and with clever online booking software you don’t need to be afraid of it messing up your appointment book. Kitomba Online Booking lets you set up which services are available to book online, which staff member offers each service and how long each service takes. Then you’ll have the opportunity to confirm, change or decline each booking before it’s added to your appointment book. When your clients are booking online you won’t be leaving a client to run to the phone or worrying about those missed calls.
Stress less and choose happiness
You want your team to be excited about coming to work each day, so it’s important to make sure your salon, spa or clinic is a happy place. Because when your staff are happy, they’ll be more motivated to work hard at making your clients happy too.
Create a culture of wellness
Make sure you’re creating a work environment that supports your staff to bring their best every day. Encourage healthy behaviours both in and out of the workplace, such as taking regular breaks, enjoying healthy drinks and snacks, exercising and practising good sleep habits. Supporting these kinds of habits will make sure you and your team are healthier, happier and more productive.
Lead by example
Your attitude makes a huge difference in how you and your staff feel. Positivity is contagious so when you maintain a positive outlook, you’ll soon see bigger smiles on the staff and clients around you too. Managing a salon, spa or clinic isn’t easy, but even when things get difficult, a positive attitude can do wonders for keeping you in a solution-focused mindset.
We’re nearing the end of the year, so it’s a great time to get everything on track for the year to come. Invest some time now in implementing some of the above suggestions, and you’ll soon be on your way to a successful year with more free time to devote to the things you love.
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