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1. WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
“Before we can find our way, we must first find ourselves.” Adam Broomfield-Strawn.
Before we can set our goals and implement a plan of action we must first look at where we are. Put your business under the microscope and see EXACTLY what kind of shape it’s in. You’d be surprised how many business owners don’t actually know what their monthly outlay is versus their income, what their average bill per client is or even how many clients they need per week to break even. Take a look at the key areas of your business and get it down on paper for the records, this way you’ll have a benchmark to work from. The key areas are:

WEEKLY INCOME: Before and after VAT per week.
WEEKLY OUTLAY: Absolutely everything that goes out for the business per week.
CLIENTS PER WEEK: Everyone who walks through your door must be accounted for.
AVERAGE BILL PER CLIENT: Divide your weekly income by clients per week to get an average bill.
PERCENTAGE OF CLIENTS HAVING COLOUR: Colour is where you make the most profit.
PERCENTAGE OF CLIENTS BUYING RETAIL: Everyone retails BUT everyone could retail more.
You could go into more detail but this is enough to start with.

2. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?
“What the human mind can conceive and believe, it CAN achieve.” Dr Napoleon Hill.

Now that you know where you are, think about where you’d like to be. Do you want to gut the salon and have a complete refurb? Do you want to move to a better location? Do you want to extend the salon to create more space or workstations? Whatever you want to do long term it’s going to cost money and time so get it down on paper and be as specific as possible. The more detail the better. Don’t just say “I want to earn more this year” or “I want a bigger salon”. Say “I will move to a larger salon on the high street within 3 years” or “I will extend the salon to create 5 more workstations by the end of next year”. Then look at how much this will cost in time and money, again the more detail the better. With the big picture in place you can cut it into smaller pieces, like a jigsaw, and it won’t seem quite so daunting. Gradually the pieces will come together and you will soon see the big picture taking shape.

3. WHERE WERE YOU?
“I cannot go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” Lewis Caroll.

Take a look at your business over the past year to 3 years. What’s changed? How has your weekly income changed compared to your weekly outgoings? Has your average bill per client grown? Are you seeing more clients per week or less? Compare previous business results with today and look for any trends, good or bad. Write down your strengths and weaknesses; STRENGTHS could be good basic colour knowledge, good white coverage skills, classic cutting & colouring, good client base, good reputation for client service and word of mouth referrals.

WEAKNESSESS could be lack of up-to-date colouring/cutting skills, low retail sales, low average bill value, lack of staff motivation, complacency/lack of passion in work. You are only as strong as your weakest link so keep doing what you do well but invest heavily in strengthening your weak areas. “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points” Knute Rockne.

4. WHERE ARE YOU HEADING?
“If you do not think about your future, you cannot have one” John Galsworthy With the knowledge of how we compare now to 1, 2 or 3 years ago we can predict what is to become of our business in the future. What will happen if your average bill continues to grow/decline as it is? Are you losing/gaining clients? Are you keeping up with the trends or doing the same cuts/colours as 3 years ago? Anything less than growth is bad for your business but if we can see the direction we are heading in we can alter course accordingly and get back on track. Write down any opportunities and threats to your business that you can see; OPPORTUNITIES could be new houses/shops being built nearby, opportunity to grow average bill, opportunity to take on new stylist (therefore new clientele), opportunity to grow colour clients.

THREATS could be a local company laying off staff, a new salon opening soon, staff unable to replicate latest trends in cuts/colour, staff member leaving to have child. Opportunities should be ceased upon at the first instant because, if you don’t, your competition will! Threats should be neutralised as soon as possible and what initially looks like a threat could ACTUALLY be an opportunity in disguise. Are your cutting/colouring skills a little stale? Going on a course could not only bring your skills up to scratch but it could also be the shot in the arm your business needs! Most stylists return from a course bursting with enthusiasm and this renewed passion is contagious in a very good way.

5. WHERE’S YOUR MAP?
“Successful people are successful because they do what successful people do” Adam Broomfield-Strawn

To be successful, we need to know what it is that successful people do and start doing it. Now that may seem a little over-simplified but let me explain. Everyone knows someone successful but most of us don’t know how they do it. Now is the time to find out. Find someone successful you know, it may be a relative, a friend or even a client and spend some time with them, talk with them, ask their opinion on how they would deal with things if they were you. The thing about most successful people is that they all have similar habits in how they do things (ever heard of the book “The 7 habits of highly successful people”?) and by modelling what successful people do we can start to develop successful habits.

6. WHERE ARE YOUR MILESTONES?
“What keeps me going is goals” Muhammad Ali

Note that Muhammad Ali DIDN’T say “what keeps me going is the goal of being heavyweight champion of the world”. That was his ultimate goal, BUT he knew he had a lot to do to get there so he broke it down into little goals. He focussed 100% on every fight he had, determined to win because he knew that every fight he won took him closer to his ULTIMATE goal. If all you focus on is your ultimate goal, you may feel like you’re getting nowhere. It may look daunting and stop you from even trying. Break your ultimate goal into lots of little goals and celebrate for each one you achieve. Not only will this make things easier but you’ll have more opportunities to celebrate and this will encourage you to keep going.

7. WEAR YOUR BINOCULARS
“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it” Arnold Glasow

Whatever our goals are in business, we must have “Long term” vision and keep our ultimate goal in sight. We have to be able to look down the path to success and see how EVERYTHING we do today affects our business long term. There are no short cuts to success. Everything we do must be done with honesty, integrity, passion, focus and “Long term” vision. But whatever your ultimate goal is, keep the faith, keep it in sight and anything is possible. When a climber attempts Everest, he looks at where he is, where he wants to be, how far he’s come, where he’s going, he keeps the faith and follows in the foot steps of others who have succeeded, he climbs to one section at a time and never takes his eyes off the summit. Never take your eyes off YOUR summit.

Adam Broomfield-Strawn is a salon representative for Goldwell/KMS California, is an on-line/published author, Toastmasters speaker and is married to a salon owner and hairdresser of 16 years. His ongoing work is to raise the standards of service and ethics within the business. He can be contacted at abstrawn@googlemail.com.
All articles are of the authors opinion and do not represent the opinion of Goldwell/KMS California.