Goals + Planning = Success! Are you ready to build a successful year for your salon, spa or clinic?
2024 is here, meaning now is the time to reflect on your business and create a plan for the upcoming year.
Here are some tips on how to get started, and how Kitomba can help achieve your goals!
Make a plan to succeed
As the saying goes, a goal without a plan is just a dream. Setting goals is a great way to focus your time and energy, but if you don’t create a strong plan to track your journey towards that goal, you’ll likely struggle to reach it.
Follow these five simple steps to make your goals a reality:
Step one: Determine your vision
To create a sound plan, you need to determine your overall vision. Some things to think about if you’re stuck:
Where do you want your business to be in one, two or even five years?
Are you happy with your space, or do you want to move to a larger building?
Have you considered branching out and making more locations?
What do you want to be doing at your business; do you still want to be part of the day-to-day running of the salon or would you like to take a step back and hire a salon manager?
Step two: Reflect on your business
To understand what needs to be done to get closer to your vision, you need to understand where you are now.
Look at every aspect of your business, from staff to the physical location and design of your space, and think about whether they align with your vision. Are you attracting the customer base you’re looking for?
Look at your financials! Kitomba has hundreds of reports that can help you better understand your business. Do you have the disposable income to support new staff and growth? Or do you need to start with smaller goals that cost less and build up to those larger goals?
Step three: Set goals for the year
Once you know what your starting point is and where you want to be, identify two or three goals that you’d like to achieve over the coming year.
Ensure your goals are S.M.A.R.T, they should be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timebound.
Learn more about setting SMART goals for your salon, spa or clinic.
Step four: Create a plan for each goal
Once your goals are set, break them up into a series of more manageable tasks or projects. For example, if your goal is to grow the number of staff, you need to ensure you’ll have the client base, the physical space, and the income to support hiring another stylist.
For each goal, you want to clearly define the following:
- A clear description of what needs to be done.
- Who is involved and what is their role in making this goal come to life.
- A due date that it should be completed by.
Step five: Keep a record
Now, all you need to do is create a timeline for those tasks, add them to your calendar to make deadlines, and you’ll be off to the races!
I’d recommend getting a wall planner and placing it in a visible spot for your staff to see. Add on all the tasks and the due date of each. Crossing off tasks when they’re completed helps your staff feel accomplished and that visible plan will help them feel they are achieving their goals.
Utilise the power of marketing!
I’m not just saying this because I’m a marketer… but marketing is an important tool for any business, especially in the hair and beauty industry. In saying that, there are some things you need to be careful of when creating a marketing plan.
Gone are the days of a typical monthly promotion; we spoke to Paul Carbis, from Carbis Business Management, who believes that specials every month can be detrimental, as clients may intentionally wait to book at your salon until your next monthly special. You want to use marketing effectively – use it when you need to boost something important, but not too much.
Instead, focus your efforts on a few special times a year.
Use Kitomba’s Campaign Marketing feature to spread awareness around important times, like celebrating the anniversary of your business opening with a special gift to all clients who visit that month.
Another approach is to focus your promotions and specials on your quieter months. If you find that your appointment book is fully booked in a certain month but empty the next, I’ve got the perfect plan!
- First, run your Service Statistics report in Kitomba for the busy month to see what your most popular service sold was.
- Create a promotion for this service, only valid if booked during your quiet month. Set up a Kitomba Everyday Marketing campaign to send the promotion automatically to your clients who have appointments in your busy month a few days after they visit, incentivising them to rebook with you in your quiet month!
You’ll see those clients returning and filling up your appointment book without having to do any additional work!
Kitomba’s Everyday Marketing feature allows you to “set and forget” many types of marketing, not just a promotion like this. Use it to develop your client experience with automated ‘Happy Birthday’ texts, or increase rebookings with a message prompting clients to rebook if they haven’t done so a certain number of weeks after a visit.
Learn more about marketing your salon with Kitomba: Salon Marketing – How to promote your salon, spa or clinic in 2024
Teamwork makes the dream work
Everyone knows that achieving goals by yourself can be hard, but having a team to help you along the way can make the world of difference. Your salon team will be more motivated and productive when you all work towards a common goal, and when they fully understand how they can contribute to making it happen.
When creating a business plan or deciding on what to do for a promotion, include your staff in those discussions! Including them helps create an open and honest environment that boosts the culture of your team, promotes creativity and fun in your workplace, and allows your staff, no matter how new they are, to be heard.
Do you want to create the team of your dreams? Creating a motivated, engaged and high-performing team is essential to the overall success of your salon, spa or clinic, but how can you actually achieve it? Download our free e-book to find out more.
Play the long game
Finally, remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your salon! It takes time to create a great workplace, and while you cannot expect success immediately, you will get there with a powerful team to back you, the power of Kitomba Salon and Spa Software at your helm, and a strong plan on how your business can be the best it’s ever been this year.
If you aren’t a customer of ours but would like to learn more about marketing your salon with Kitomba, book a free demo!
Read next:
- Salon Marketing – how to promote your salon, spa or clinic in 2024
- This year, make a plan to work smarter, not harder
- Keep your salon, spa or clinic on track with a strategic marketing plan
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 12 December 2022 and has been updated for relevance and comprehensiveness.
