Maximizing, Managing and Preparing for Busier Times In Your Business

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Um, this is going to be the second part of my two-part series in which I am talking all about how to prepare and react when you are in both busier or slower times in your business. Now, I already released our How to Prepare and React and Reduce Slower Times episode, so you can check that one out either before you listen to this or after li- after you listen to this.

But I encourage that you listen to both, no matter where you're at in your business right now, because you wanna make sure that you understand that your success as a business owner is not linear, and you are going to inevitably go through a roller coaster of either being busier or not being as busy. It is what it is. And so, I want you to make sure that you are prepared and as prepared as possible for either case scenario, and if you're listening to this episode today, which is going to be about specifically when you are in more busy, overwhelming times, but you're not in that current circumstance right now, I want you to understand that this is relevant to you too, because this is going to happen to you one day. If you're putting in the work and the effort to make it happen, it will happen.

However, it comes with a whole new slew of problems. Trust and believe, you can ask anybody who has been in this circumstance, who has been super overwhelmingly booked and busy, that it is very stressful and overwhelming, especially for an independent stylist. And so, um, today, I'm gonna be addressing that, and, um, I'm gonna also be releasing this at the time where our holiday season is coming up and which we know is normally busier for us traditionally, and I think that this will be very relevant fortunately for that, and we'll be talking about whether you should be working extra hours, squeezing people in, et cetera, et cetera. So, we're gonna cover a lot today, and I'm really excited to get into it with you.

So, let's go. What's the tea, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it'll be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So, if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay. So, I wanna first start off by explaining why this isn't necessarily a good thing. So, number one, it is very stressful and overwhelming, especially if you're somebody who is either business obsessed or you, you know, have a busy personal life, or you are somebody who isn't really that great at holding boundaries for yourself.

So, in these circumstances, you are getting client communication left and right, up and down. You have so many clients on your plate that are texting you, asking you to schedule, reschedule, asking you questions. Um, you may have, like, orders for retail products in, in play, a wait list, et cetera, et cetera. Like, there's a lot of things here to juggle on top of maintaining your current responsibilities that are actually bringing you that success, right?

So, the more demand that's on your time, it's gonna be demand that comes in so many different ways that adds more, uh, responsibility and workload onto your plate, right? So, it can just feel really overwhelming, like you can't catch a break. And not to mention, you may be in a space in which you're so booked and busy and solidly booked that you're scared that- to take any time off, because you're like, "Where the hell would these clients go if I took time off, if I got sick, even if I wanted to take a vacation?" Um, if I had to call out one day, then that is super stressful for you, and it's more stressful for you than you just taking the day off and actually just taking care of yourself.

That is a really vulnerable place to be in as a human being, right? That's the biggest reason why I think this is an issue, is because of the detriment that it has on your health as a human being and your time wealth, um, as a human being and entrepreneur. This is also not a good thing, because you're not allowing space for new clients to come in in order for you to make money. When you are so booked solid and so far booked out, you are literally saying no to making more money from new clients, right?

Because those new clients aren't gonna wanna wait that long for an appointment with you, and those new clients are also people who may be willing to pay a higher price than some of your current clientele to come and get services with you. But you're literally saying no to them, and it's important that you are always able to take on new clients so that you can gear towards upping your demand and therefore evaluating that and then making significant price increases based upon that. So, normally, if somebody's booked solid more than four weeks at a time, six weeks, eight weeks, when we get into that zone plus, that is normally when we have to have some sort of change that happens, and I'll talk to you about what you can do about that in a little bit. But this is an issue, because you're not allowing yourself the opportunity of actually making more money when y- it's, like, when people are banging down your doors, begging to hand you more money.

I have shared this story in plenty of places, including on the podcast before, but I'm gonna share it very quickly again. I had an amazing salon suite neighbor. Her name is Jalissa, and she does nails, and I would see her every two weeks to get my nails doneI am a busy entrepreneur who cares about their physical appearance, who wants their nails done on a consistent basis. And I'm somebody who's willing to pay triple Jalisa's prices to be able to get my nails done with her, right?

But Jalisa is so freaking booked solid, okay? She was so booked solid all the time that if I had to cancel an appointment because of a last-minute thing, or whatever it may be, then I would have to wait so long to get back in with her. Or I would have to cancel my current things, endeavors, or work around them to be able to get an appointment with her, and that was really frustrating and annoying to me, because I know that there are people on her books that would not pay as much as I would pay to be in her chair. So, it's I'm pissed as the consumer who wants to pa- spend more money with you, give you more money, I'm upset because you're not making room for me in your schedule.

I'm mad because you aren't raising your prices, right? So, when you put it in that perspective, hopefully that, you know, opens your eyes to the fact that you are missing out on those opportunities and you're not giving your most ideal clients, the people who would want to spend the most money with you, you're not giving them a convenient service that they absolutely love and works with their lifestyle. So, that's why this is not a good place to be in, and that's why we're doing this two-part series, because people just focus a lot, or think about a lot the problem of not having clients, but this brings on other problems that have to be addressed as well. So, let's talk about how to prepare for when this happens, okay?

So, I want you to make sure that you have systems in place that don't let communication slip through the cracks and makes it really easy and fast for you to get back to people. Now, I preach about this all the time, but making sure that you have forms in place, um, making sure that you have automations, systems, saved text replies, saved email templates. There's so many ways that you can go about making sure that you are as prepared as possible to respond as easily as possible, plus digital assets that reduce that demand for your time as much as possible as far as your communication and maintenance of your current clientele, such as maybe a client-only app, right, where somebody can go on there and get their questions answered without actually having to reach out to you. So, making sure that your communication is as streamlined and automated as possible is going to make sure that it reduces that workload and it makes it super easy for you to continuously offer an amazing customer experience, although you have a lot of demand on your time.

You'd rather your clients leave you, and I should have said this earlier, but you'd rather your clients leave you because they can't afford you versus that you weren't getting back to them, or they cannot get in with you, right? That is the tea. You'd rather your clients leave you because they can't afford you anymore versus they didn't find you and your, your customer experience to be convenient anymore, right? So, creating systems that allow the client to do business by themselves quickly and easily without you creates that excellent instant customer experience, right?

Another way to prepare for when this happens is always, even if you aren't booked and busy right now, I recommend that you have an existing client wait list in place. An existing client wait list where you can have everybody's normal availability as far as days and times go so that you have a good idea of what gaps you could fill and who you can reach out to fill those gaps. So, always having some sort of solution for clients who can not get in with you, who can't- who aren't getting the day and time that they're looking for, even, having a solution for them to fill that out gives them an open-ended, um, opportunity to at least have a chance with getting in with you, right? Versus if you just say, "No, I'm sorry," then that person may very well be more likely to leave you and go somewhere else.

But if you have some sort of open-ended solution, such as an existing client wait list, then you can reduce the chance of that person just leaving you instead of sticking around and waiting a little bit longer. Another way to make sure that you prepare for when this happens is always tracking your numbers and evaluating the demand of your business and effectiveness of your certain efforts, okay? So, when you can track your numbers and you can see your trajectory over a- any period of time, and this looks like having consistent, uh, routines of looking at your numbers and looking at a lot of different numbers, not just little ones, like a lot of different ones that can give you a lot of great insight. That can help you make sure that this doesn't happen in the first place, and when it does, you'll have numbers to allow you to make smart decisions, including, you know, raising your price, how much you can raise your prices.

Another thing that this does i- is allows you to understand where your new client inquiries are actually coming from and what marketing efforts work really well for you and which ones don't. And that's not necessarily super helpful for this current circumstance, but what it is helpful for is continuing on in your success of getting new clients into your chair and maximizing how you're doing that, right? I highly recommend that you check out five KPIs, five unique KPIs podcast episode that I did. I forget the, um, actual title of it, but it's the five K- unique KPIs episode, and I tal- I dive a little bit more into this and, and I think that the power that somebody would have as a booked and busy stylist is you have the power of getting so much data, and that data, if you're tracking it and fielding it properly with systems, with a specific procedure as far as your booking procedure goes and how you onboard new clients, et cetera, et cetera, then you're collecting really valuable data that allows you to make, again, smarter decisions as a business owner moving forward, okay?

So, having systems in place that allow you to track these numbers, having, um, ways to be able to, uh, track your progress and your growth as a business owner allows you to make strategic decisions always, specifically when you're in this circumstanceThe other thing is, is making sure that your price is consistently balanced, right? So, making sure that your price is raised high enough to make sure that you are losing some demand in a healthy way, right? To make sure that you are saying no to anybody who isn't willing to pay the standard of your business in which you are getting a fair bit of nice, easy, healthy demand, but you're not pricing people out completely as far as in comparison to your value, and you're also not completely undercharging and just getting a shit ton of demand of a bunch of clients who aren't high quality, and then putting yourself in a shitty situation, right? So, of course, staying prepared by always continuously evaluating those numbers, which will then allow you to make sure that your pricing is balanced.

Okay, so now that we've talked about how to prepare for when this happens, let's talk about what I suggest that you do not do in reaction to this. What I definitely do not want you to do is, is come in early, stay late, or on your days off. It is not worth it. You have one life to live, my friend.

One life to live, and I want you to make sure that you spend it doing the things that you love outside of work, all right? And I would so much rather you charge more and not have to come in early, stay late on your days off, because you have managed your demand, right? Um, and I just want you to make sure that you're taking care of yourself and you're actually reaping the benefits of all the hard work that you've put in thus far. What is the point of having this, quote-unquote, "success" if you aren't even wealthy in your personal life?

If you don't have any free time, if you have to be coming in, feeling like you have to be coming in early, staying late, on your days off to manage your clientele and their demand on your schedule, then what is the point of creating this business in the first place, right? 'Cause you wanna create a business that is serving you, that is pouring into your cup, that is filling your cup and allowing you to have a personal life that you love and that is granting you freedom and happiness and flexibility and time with your family and friends and loved ones and yourself too. So, when you decide to come in early, stay late on your days off to accommodate for these clients, especially I find this with people trying to accommodate new clients, then what ends up happening is, is you're just ... it's redundant.

Like, yeah, you may be making a little bit of money in the short term, but what about what you're sacrificing as far as your personal life goes, right? And to me, what I'm sacrificing in my personal life, it doesn't compare, right, to that. And in some circumstances, it can, but the majority of the time, it's not a good idea to be coming in early, staying late, on your days off, right? 'Cause you're sacrificing something else.

You're- every time you say yes to that, you're saying no to more time with your family and your friends and your loved ones. Now, the TAs relevant to the fact that this is coming out during the holiday time, I wanna make it clear that, you know, because there seems to be an opportunity in this more higher demand time for you to make a little bit of extra money, that does not necessarily mean that you should take advantage of it in that way. There are so many other ways to take advantage of a time and season in which you are busier without sacrificing your personal life or overextending yourself, and I'll get into that in just a little bit, okay? What I definitely suggest you also do not do is I don't want you to stop taking new clients, all right?

Um, I know that it can feel tempting to just clog the hose and just be like, "Stop. Do not come anymore." But I promise you, there will be one day where you regret that . I promise you, you will regret that one day, and again, you'll be saying no to making more money, right?

Your current clientele is inevitably going to eventually slowly decrease because of just the nature of the world and the nature of business, and if you ever wanna actually make more money than what you're making now, then you have to be able to raise your prices, which will then price people out of your book, so you're gonna have to replace your current clientele with new clients in the backend. So, I never want you to get to a space where you stop taking new clients. But here's the thing: and this brings me to what you can do, okay, is if you are in a transition period, okay, if you're in a transition period in which you're like, "I know I have to do a price increase, but I wanna make sure that I have all these things in place first," um, if it's gonna take you a little bit to get some foundations or whatever rolled out before you can actually make a change, what you can do is very temporarily have a new client wait list So, you can shut down your book temporarily, have a new client wait list. If you truly cannot accept any new clients onto your book right now, if you're like, "I have to clog this temporarily," fine.

At least have a way that a new client can at least inquire about getting an appointment with you eventually once you open your book back up to new clients. But if you're in that circumstance, then that means that there needs to be a change that happens. That should be a very temporary solution, and it's one that I never really want anybody to have to put into place, although I've been there, I've done that, and I've had to put into my- into place myself while I was in those transition periods of my business, so it is an option for you. But I want you to make sure that you're taking action to get rid of that problem and being able to take on new clients actively while you have that solution in place.

And then obviously what you can do is raise your prices. There is a, uh, podcast episode from me, it's called Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Increase Your Prices that may very well help you and be a great addition to this episode, so I recommend that you listen to that, and I want you to make sure that it's a price increase that is big enough to actually reduce your demand, right? Um, if you're in this type of space where, like, you are absolutely slammed, you know, and you're super overwhelmed and you can't get these new clients in, then it has to be big enough to actually make a dentFive dollars, ten dollars is normally never enough. Like, twenty, fifteen, twenty-five, that kind of range, depending on the nature of your services, that is normally what will thin out some demand on your time.

Then, sometimes the price increase isn't even the fix. Sometimes the price increase isn't even enough. Sometimes the price increase maybe also has to be done alongside other foundational systematic changes. So, this could look like ...

Listen, friend, you're in a space that a lot of stylists wish they could be in. So, maybe it's not raising your prices to make more money. Maybe instead of you making more money, maybe you'd rather stop working evenings and nights and weekends, right? So, you have the opportunity in this space to be able to change your schedule more freely, because you have so much demand on your time that you can -that your book can handle making that type of change, right?

So, maybe you make a change in your schedule instead. Maybe you change the type of services that you do and you don't do behind the chair. Let's say you hate doing, um, haircut-only stand-alone services, and you only wanna do a haircut if it is paired with a color service, right? That's something that you can also start to implement to be able to make sure that you're only taking on people within your specialty that you love.

And that brings me to my next point, which is possibly letting go of clients or letting go of services that you don't wanna do anymore, and only accepting new clients and services that you actually want in your chair. And there's a lot of other foundational changes that I ta-talk about within my program. A limited booking range, a booking day. There's a lot of different systems and, and procedures that you can put in place, and a lot of alternative ways of doing business that can really help you in managing this type of demand.

Um, 'cause I get it. It can be so overwhelming. And even if you aren't in this type of space right now, some of those foundational decisions can still be beneficial for you, even if you're not booked and busy right now. It just depends on the ones that we're talking about.

So, the booking procedures, um, as far as making sure that you're only open, you know, two months at a time, let's say, for example, right? I talk about this in another podcast episode called The Truth About Removing Pre-Booking. I talk about rethinking pre-booking. Something like that is, is sometimes okay for you to implement if you don't have a shit ton of clientele, because you also wanna make sure that you're building a business that's going to last and s-be set up for success for your next level of growth.

So, if you're somebody who's listening to this right now and you're like, "I'm not booked and busy right now, but this sounds really cool," sometimes it can be implemented for you, and it can really save your ass and set you up for s-a lot of success and growth in a sustainable way in the long term, if it's implemented in a smart, strategic way, and I teach you all about that within my programs, and how to tweak everything that I'm talking about to your specific case scenario. Lastly, I touched a little bit about do not come in early, stay late, or on your days off, especially for, like, let's say, holidays or busy times, right? Instead, take advantage of the opportunity that people are in more of a spending mood and vibe overall. People are gonna be more willing to spend money in general.

So, instead of you feeling like you have to get in a whole new client to make more money, why don't you take the existing clients that you have now and leverage that to then increase your average ticket? And then you could be making an extra fifty to a hundred dollars per day. I have another podcast episode recommendation for you about the holiday season specifically that dives a little bit more deeply into this concept. Um, it's a two-part series.

It's Holiday Season Part One and Holiday Season Part Two. It's called How to Maximize Profit Without Working More, and then How to Set Boundaries During the Holidays. I'll make sure that all the links to those other podcast episodes are in the show notes where you're listening to this, and all of those links will be to the Apple Podcasts of them, okay? All right, my friend, so I hope that you found this episode to be helpful.

I know that this can be super stressful, and I know that it can be really scary to think about reducing it, because it's like this safety blanket that you've created for yourself. But I promise you, great businesses and great, successful people have never become great without some risk. And taking these risks to be able to free up some time and get back some of your personal wellness, right, I think is very, very, very impactful and important. So, my friends, so much love to you.

Good luck in whatever situation that you're in right now. Thank you for tuning in to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.