Holiday Survival for Salons [EP:165]

Holiday Prep and Team Support Tips: Business Insights from Jen and Todd

In this episode, Jen and Todd discuss the importance of planning and preparation as the holiday season approaches. 

They share insights about managing inventory, working with a reliable support team, maximizing business performance, and managing personal health to stay efficient. 

Jen emphasizes ordering extra supplies to avoid disruptions, while Todd advises on efficient social media and marketing strategies. 

They also highlight the significance of having a solid financial plan and providing a secure work environment as a meaningful gift to employees. 

Tune in for actionable tips to ensure a profitable and stress-free year-end!

00:00 Introduction and Renovation Updates
01:17 Importance of Having a Reliable Team
02:51 Business Insights: Working with Non-Industry Professionals
04:52 Preparing for the Holiday Season
07:00 Maximizing Salon Efficiency and Health Tips
10:20 Business Strategies for the Holiday Rush
15:41 Inventory Management and Social Media Planning
19:51 Holiday Gifting and Profitability
23:40 Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

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Transcript

165
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Todd: [00:00:00] All right, what's up everyone? Happy Monday. Let's try this again. This is round two. So we're still in renovation mode as I was saying 

we just had a 

lot of stuff going on at our house. So we're moving back upstairs, which is awesome

Jen: together.

Todd: And I forget what else I was saying, but it doesn't matter. So What's today the third we're recording on sunday.

This will be out on monday, which is november 4th

Jen: May the fourth be with you. If you're a star

Todd: And the fourth be with you, you said the first time. Your mic still sounds not great. Turn it so it's facing you. See the letters? They need to face you.

Jen: Hello.

Todd: Yeah, there you go. All right, here we are. So we've got about two months left. So we were going to talk about some of the things that we're doing, some of the things that listeners might be able to do to kind of prep and have a good last solid two months of the year. [00:01:00] Because I think a lot of people, what happens is you're like, Oh, it's going to get busy.

So you take your foot off the gas and that's probably the opposite of what you should be doing. So we can get into that after our opening takes, which I think when we first started, you said you wanted to go first,

Jen: ready. So what I've learned over the last couple of weeks with, well, we have home renovations and then we had a lot of stuff just, you know, Break at the salon is we talk all the time about having a team around you. And when I say team, I don't mean like your staff, a team of people that when shit hits the fan, you can call.

Like we've had to call and reach out to our lawyer. We've had to find someone to do appliance repair. We've had to get a plumber in. We've had to get I don't know someone else in. But when you have. arsenal of these people that you can just find on your phone and call, even though it's stressful as these things are breaking down and you need to reach out for help. When you have a team of people that you trust and you know they'll get the job done, you don't have to start problem solving for things that you don't know how to [00:02:00] do. I don't know how to fix drain. So I have a drain guy. I don't know how to put sinks in. So we have a guy that does that. Our dryer vent, we have a guy that does that. So even though it's been stressful over the last couple of weeks with

Todd: it. It's all the same guy, by the way.

Jen: Not the

Todd: I'm just being funny.

Jen: The drain guy is not. With these things breaking down and they're not things that we're able to fix, we have people that support us that aren't salon related that could come in, step in and get the shit done for us. And that took a lot of the stress off as an owner. And one of the hats that we don't have to wear was just, you know, like, I'm not the fix it guy, but I'm going to call all the people that we need to call to fix it. So if you don't have a team of people in place from an accountant to a lawyer, to plumber, electrician guy you should work on that.

And I would do it right now. Yeah.

Todd: It's a great take. So mine, I saw this somewhere. I don't remember where, but somebody said there was a disconnect when they were working [00:03:00] with people that weren't in the hair industry and that they only wanted to work with hair industry specific, like And I thought that was really kind of a weird thing because I'm the opposite.

I want my accountant to understand tax law, not know what the word balayage means. I don't give a shit if they know what that means. It's irrelevant to the conversation. So I always get confused and I've actually had people in the past that are like, You know, I would never work at a salon that the owner wasn't behind the chair.

And I'm like, why, what, like, what other place do you have that? And that's ridiculous. Like name a place. Like, do you only call the police if the chief is in, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, I don't understand. I'm only going to the restaurant. If the head chef that wrote the menu is there, you know, it doesn't make sense.

So why, why do people. Think that way. So that was just something, I guess that's a question, but I was just something that I found interesting. And I 100 percent [00:04:00] wholeheartedly disagree with, I think it's, people are probably more comfortable and they want their echo chambers. So they want to hear like, you know, you're right.

It's so hard in this industry. When in reality, you have to think about business as business. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. Like, that's just an excuse. Every business is the same. You take in money, try to get it to the bottom line. Money's going to leak out in certain areas. You have your overhead, all that stuff, and then you have your fixed costs and then you have your taxes and you have your loans and whatever.

And that's why you need a good accountant. But basically money comes into a business and you find ways to get it to the bottom line. And that's the money that you get to keep. Some of it goes to your staff along the way. Some of it goes to products. You know what I mean?

Jen: hmm.

Todd: It's all the same. It's all the same.

It's not any different. All right, let's dive into what we're talking about, which we're not even really sure. Cause we're kind of having this laid back holiday [00:05:00] approach. So November starts our quick podcast where we get in and out 15, 20 minutes. I'm sure some of them will go over, but we want to keep it short again.

If you've been following along since last year, you already know that around the holidays, people get busy, so they're not going to sit around listening to us. Yap for an hour. So we try to make the episode shorter and it helps us too, because we have other stuff to do. Like today we're having family over.

I made some meatballs.

Jen: Smells

Todd: gonna eat. That's good. We're gonna eat, we're gonna hang with family, hang with the kids, and have ourselves a sundae. So

Jen: Sunday

Todd: there's two months left. And it's funny, I saw a lot of people, I didn't check our numbers, but we had a pretty decent October. I saw a lot of people that were like, October, this is, I've never seen it this slow.

The industry, something's wrong. I've seen this all over the place. Is that from? What's that? What's going on there?

Jen: know.

Todd: Why are people so slow?

Jen: I have no idea because we're doing [00:06:00] really well.

Todd: So, yeah. Anyways, I don't know why some salons are slow right now. I haven't really looked into it. It was just an observation. So, either way, we've got two months. What should people be doing?

Jen: Well, I can

Todd: What are some things people can do to maximize so you've got a bunch of people that are going to come in November for us tends to be busier than December. I think people have that backwards. A lot of times, although maybe December is busier for others. But for us, it's November. It's a killer month.

Jen: absolutely.

Todd: December is not by any means slow, but

Jen: It's not like November. A lot of people are cramming into November to get there. If they're on a budget, get their hair done for two holidays and you get, that's why you get it done before Thanksgiving. So you see, I think a really big push coming into the next couple of weeks, more so than you do in December.

Todd: And so knowing that it's going to be that busy, what are, what are some things that you do in the salon? What are some things our staff is working on, if [00:07:00] anything?

Jen: I think there's, there's a couple of things I, know, Todd, I always talk about making sure that their meal prepping having water, like those things may seem really silly, but when you're maybe not a stylist that's been super busy this year or ever when it gets busy, it's very easy for all of your systems to collapse and how you work in your workflow if you haven't prepped your food in your water.

And I say that because if you're used to just, you know, ordering out and having it come and you always have time to eat these next couple weeks. It's going to be very different. If your food came after your break, well, now you've got to find a different time to eat, where if you prepped your food, you brought it, you bring your snacks.

It really helps you stay on your a game so that you can be the best stylist, colorist, barber that you are hair pro in this busy time. And I know, and you know, Todd from the gym, if you do not fuel your body correctly, you will collapse. And you'll feel so drained, more drained than the person that's actually in the gym.

Eating the right foods. It's really important over the next two months and just to keep your health up so you don't aren't so susceptible to getting sick and things like that, right? If you start burning [00:08:00] yourself out and usually we are, because there's parties going on, there's people do the friends giving and they have this party and that party, so you're, you're out and about more.

So it's really, really important to make sure you're, you're maintaining your health by, you know, working out if you do, and just eating healthy and really packing your food. that would be, I, I feel is. Is the most important so that you can maximize being in the salon and really taking advantage of how busy it will be.

Mm

Todd: Yeah, for sure. I can definitely second that. Like we have a young staff. And so hearing them and hearing other people we talk to in the industry, there's a lot of there's a lot of like anxious people out there. There's a lot of people that struggle with all sorts of things. Your diet has a huge impact on that, whether you like it or not.

I know that when you're 19 through 24, however, whatever age, there's an age range where anybody older than you knows absolutely nothing, even though we've been alive for double your life. But I promise you, like you, if you're listening and you're like, I don't feel that great and heading [00:09:00] into the holidays and I'm stressed out and blah, blah, blah, try to focus on yourself.

Do something for yourself. I, I think I put that in my newsletter last week where I challenged people to take some time and do something over the weekend for themselves. There's a reason on airplanes they tell you to put your mask on first.

Jen: I love

Todd: Because if you're drunk, you're not going to be able to help anybody.

You know what did you say?

Jen: I said I love that analogy.

Todd: Yeah, it's true. If you aren't feeling good and if you're not taking care of yourself, and you don't have to be a hardcore gym person, but you should be moving your body. Standing behind a chair is not Exercise. I know it's being on your feet, but it's your body needs more and what you're doing on a regular daily basis.

So a little bit of training will help you. It helps a lot with your even. Even small things that can wear you down, like poor posture, pay attention to yourself while you're doing a haircut, like how are you standing, you know, things like that, but definitely I love the diet thing because people just, we see it at our salon too, we have a [00:10:00] younger staff and it's Uber Eats and it's fast food and it's this and that and then, you know, it's missing a day of work because you don't feel good.

Well, I wonder why. You know, and you can always tell because everyone goes to like little little bursts of like I'm drinking water and I'm doing this and it's, that's good. You got to do that more now. Keep doing that. You know? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Super important. What are some things people can do from a business standpoint to prep for maximizing the holiday rush?

Jen: So I like maybe revisiting your goals, your goals for each individual,

Todd: That's a good one.

Jen: hair pro that's under your roof. And even like we have, we have a large staff and everybody's goals are different and everybody takes, you know, differently from like a level of being fun to not fun, whatever. But I think just kind of touching base and saying like, you know, Hey, I think even making sure that they realize how present they need to be over the next eight weeks, like they're young and they're, they're up and coming.

And [00:11:00] they don't just cause you think they know, they don't know. So like, Hey, you know, There are shifts available. If you wanted to pick an extra one up through the holidays, I would recommend it because the more people you see, the odds are you're, if you can retain them, you're going to see them next year.

So it's a great time. There are people that get their hair done like twice a year, and this is the time they get their hair done. So you want to be available in that salon as much as possible to meet. All the people. So I think as a salon leader, it's really important to just kind of touch on maybe the goals, where are they at?

Where were they last month? Get them to try to beat that this month. If you're into retail sales, same thing, like, Hey, this is where you're at, but you could maximize by, you know, selling a few more products and talking about these things with them to get them kind of more like. Reinspired and excited about the holidays and all that, like they can get out of it rather than just a paycheck, but they can get out of it.

More clients next year that will come back to them. And if they don't see that and they don't have that vision, then it's very easy for them to kind of just get lost. Like, yeah, it's busy. Cool. But you have to, you have to like teach them like this is the time where you can [00:12:00] truly build and build a foundation that sets off 2025 to be a stronger year for you as it should be. you have to really, I think, show them that, that the importance of the next eight weeks and what it can do for them in their career in the future.

Todd: I love that you brought up retention early on. I didn't want to interrupt you, but that's where I was going to go next. You had an opportunity because you're going to see a bunch of people, like you were saying, so what are some things that you can do, I'm asking sort of the audience if you're listening, what are some things that you can do to improve your odds of seeing these people again?

Jen: hmm.

Todd: Because what if somebody comes in, they're a new client and they're not a twice a year haircut or whatever person. What if they're like an every six week person? Now you have an opportunity to see somebody in your chair every six weeks. But you've got to form that relationship. You've got to capitalize on that.

You've got to ask yourself, I would say, am I virtuous? Am I doing the small things that are [00:13:00] super common, uncommonly well?

Jen: hmm.

Todd: Am I pushing myself and challenging myself? And the answer doesn't really matter. It's just that you ask the question. I think that's where people get caught up to where they're like, I haven't really taken any classes.

I haven't really worked on any skills. I haven't really done anything. So I'll just ignore it. That's not a way to go. Buddies out there listening, little buddies. That's definitely the way to go. You've got to,

Jen: will expose all the weaknesses too, right? Cause like you said, you can't really get any better. You're already there. It's going to be busy, whatever it is. It, the work you've put in this year is going to shine for those of you that have put the work in and the opportunities you will be seeing will hopefully be rewarded for you.

Todd: yeah. And even if you haven't put in much work, there are things that you can focus on now. And I, I always go back to the fundamentals, right? Virtuosity is just chasing that and trying to be like, for example, I try to work clean always with whatever I'm doing. I don't like a mess around me. I don't know if it comes from cooking, like you just [00:14:00] can't have a mess around.

So that's something that you could immediately. Clean up. Maybe you revisit your timings. Maybe certain services aren't aren't taking you as long and that's great, but maybe other services you're putting a little extra into it and it is taking you a little longer. We'll adjust your timing so that you're not running into where you have clients standing there waiting because that's the worst possible scenarios when you're, you know, I, I'll be at the salon and they're like, Hey, I have an appointment with someone.

So there's still someone in their chair, get in their hair. And that to me is stressful. And I know that you're never, it's never going to be perfect. And that's not what I'm saying. But if you're somebody that's noticing that you're running late all the time, or even a couple of minutes, like why not just add that couple of minutes so that you don't have that stress, you're not using it.

I know you think like, well, then less people will be able to get in. If I take more time to do that, well, it's less people are able to get in now. It's just less stressful.

Jen: Yeah. And, and your retention will reflect off that you keep running late all the time, unless you [00:15:00] attract all the late people, which maybe you do eventually they're going to get frustrated because they're going to be like,

Todd: no, what I noticed is the late people. What I noticed is that the the hair pros that run late all the time, their clients are almost always early. It's just the way it works. That's what I've noticed. I know that's not any sort of scientific study or anything like that, but what I've noticed is we have people that are always behind, always run late.

That's just how they are. Cause you need those people, right? Not everyone's going to show up early. Not everyone's going to be on time. You need the late people because what else will we be talking about today? But their clients are always 20 minutes early and they're always five minutes late. It's just the way the world works.

What about, is there any thing people can do with software, any inventory tips or tricks? You do all that stuff for our salon.

Jen: So one of the things that I'm really aware of this time of year is back orders, which means the products that you use the most of they, it just happens because everyone else uses it and everyone's [00:16:00] ordering more this time of year because they are busier. And. You could blame everything else, but at this point I just take control of it. And I'm ordering extra of things to keep on hand there and they're not nothing will go bad So we'll use it again next year. But when I talk about ordering extra though, I'm not talking about Holiday and that kind of stuff. I'm talking about the

Todd: That's where I was going to go next

Jen: The working

Todd: holiday.

Jen: we need to do the services at the level that is set as a standard at hello.

So that means extra developers that are most popular, extra colors that are most popular. Certain treatments that are most popular, making sure we have extras of those this time of the year. when back order things come up, we're not scrambling or I'm not scrambling or getting stressed out or having to coach the staff, how to, you know, we can still make this work.

This is what we have to do. We are trying to create an environment for them. That's as. Least amount of stress as we can. And by having the working product that they need, it creates that. So they can still be creative. So there's a couple of years ago, a lot of things were backordered and it was very stressful. [00:17:00] And I think from that experience was just like, okay, we just need to make sure I have a couple more always on hand. And I think now's the time you make those orders to get ahead of it. It's when everyone else is scrambling, realizing like in two weeks, like, wow, it was way busier than I thought. And now they can't get the products they need.

Todd: One of the things I would look at too is your sort of shifting gears. You do all that stuff at our salon, so I don't have anything really to add. I know how you do it. I know you do, you know, you look for sales on things so that we can bulk order and always have things and you do a great job at it.

Jen: Thanks.

Todd: One of the things that I do for our business, and I would recommend that people that are in charge of their social media, their marketing, their emailing, all that sort of stuff have a plan, have a game plan.

You can get tons of great content over the holiday holiday. But you don't have to be doing it live. Like, you can get your content set up for ahead.

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: Excuse me, I just had to hit the pause button. You can get your social media stuff set up. [00:18:00] At least have something to post weekly or every few days or whatever.

Maybe do your captions. Have some pictures somewhere stuck in a folder on your phone so that you always have something. Like at the ready, I would definitely look ahead and see what days and where things fall, like the holidays are coming. When does Thanksgiving fall? Like it's late this year. It's the 20th or something.

Obviously it's a Thursday. What does that week look like? What about Christmas? What about new year's Eve? Don't be surprised by this stuff. I've said this a million times to like, we know we have calendars. The holidays come in the same time every single year. It should not be a surprise. I hear people all the time that are like holidays snuck up on me.

How? How does that happen? Doesn't even make sense. Yeah. You're just somebody that doesn't, you're just not taking accountability for yourself. So do some of that stuff and you don't have to have everything perfect, but by having a couple of ideas, even I, for the podcast for our [00:19:00] newsletter, for a whole bunch of stuff, I always have a notes app in my iPhone where if I have a random idea, I just throw it in there.

I don't know if I'm going to use it this week. I don't know if I'm ever going to use it, but I know that I have lists that have different ideas and thoughts and whatever for posts at the ready

Jen: hmm.

Todd: so that I don't have to stress if there's a time where I'm like, I'm not really even sure what's going on. Or if who knows, say you're not feeling well and all of a sudden that's the beginning of your week and then all of a sudden it's, it's Thanksgiving and you're like, I need.

Something for my newsletter. I need to post something. Well, you have a, a backup in a way, if that makes sense.

Jen: Yes.

Todd: We talked about

Jen: I have something

Todd: inventory supplies, preparing your team, social media marketing. Yeah. All right, go ahead.

Jen: So I think coming into the season of where it's like the gifts of giving, right? Giving, giving. And I see a ton of posts of like, you know, [00:20:00] what are you guys doing for, for gifts for your team? What are you doing for this? What are you doing for gifts for your clients? What are you like, what are you giving?

Right. And I think this is a slippery slope and you do you. So I think. We are really careful. Like Todd said, I'm in in charge of the inventory so my rep's gonna come in and she wants me to buy all the holiday shit to put up for selling and she's gonna explain to me that buy all this holiday stuff, you can always redo this after whatever. I My last salon, I got sucked into it where we were like paying in terms over like months. It was crazy to get holiday in and then holiday's, overnight, I have all this holiday shit. If,

Todd: no,

Jen: you're in the retail game, maybe holiday makes sense for you. But if you are not, then I, I think reps doing her job, the distributors doing their job, but it's your job to decide if that works for your mission and what the flow is in your salon, we do

Todd: yeah, no.

Jen: holiday because it doesn't make sense for us.

We don't sell a ton of retail. We decorate the salon. I love that it feels like holiday, but I don't need a bunch of holiday retail crap in the salon. [00:21:00] Now, again, if that's you, that's fine. But. Also make sure you're being

Todd: It's just to me, it's a bunch of extra packaging. It's so wasteful. All the salons are like, we're green salons. And then you have all this shit that's like X for

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: no reason. Like, it just, it's like,

Jen: being aware and making sure that that aligns with you.

The second thing is, are you profitable? So if you are not profitable, and I can tell you right now, Todd probably has the numbers, a small percentage of salons in North America are profitable. So if you are not, the idea of giving a bunch of shit away is not going to make you more profitable. Those are things you're like, well, everyone's doing all this stuff.

Cool. Don't compare yourself to the 99 who's giving away free gift cards or whatever it is when you are not a corporation like the 99. So because you want to give and give and give, because it's a lot of us, like that's our language of love, right? I want to give all the gifts, but if you're not profitable, giving is not going to be one of the things you're able to do this holiday. And if you are, then you would sit with your accountant and be like, what does this look like for what we can do for certain things so that we still [00:22:00] maintain our profitability? It's really easy to get into some of these pages we see on like Facebook or whatever, and everyone's like, what's everyone else doing?

Well, you're not everyone else and your numbers are not the same. You cannot follow what everyone else is doing. You need to know what you're doing under your roof and what your, again, numbers say that you can do for the holidays. It's really important.

Todd: Yeah, what everyone else is doing is irrelevant. I talk about that all the time, too. If I see everybody heading that way, I'm like, hmm, maybe I should go that way. Because generally, most people are followers, and that's okay. I'm not knocking it. If you want to go on Facebook groups and get ideas and stuff, go for it.

That's cool. That's what that stuff is for.

Jen: Yeah. An

Todd: But I wouldn't copy stuff verbatim word for word. And I, we see that a ton in this industry. We see I don't, I've, I've been to, you know, talks and education stuff and seminars and whatever you want to call them. And then I'll see like other local salons that are just caught, just doing word for word, what was at the talk.

And I'm like, why are these [00:23:00] people don't like, just because somebody gave you an example of something that worked for them, doesn't mean that it's going to work for you. It's just an example of something that worked for them. First of all, most people are fucking liars. So when they're telling you how awesome they are, they're probably not as awesome as they sit, they're saying they are, you know, those million dollar stylists out there putting on, you know, how they make that money by selling you a fricking course, not behind the chair.

Anyways, I'll I'll stop before I lose it. Cause I was in a good mood and I still am. Anything else you want to talk about or are we wrapping here?

Jen: those are some really good points, and I, I think if we're keeping it short and sweet, I like it.

Todd: Okay, cool. And closing thoughts. I don't think I have anything.

Jen: Put your support team in place, and when I say that again, I mean not your staff support team. Get an accountant, have a lawyer, electrician, plumber, all those things, you need to have them on your speed dial.

Todd: Oh, I have a gift idea people can have.

Jen: okay.

Todd: So you want to give your staff something, give them a [00:24:00] secure place to work at work on yourself, work on your business and be a real actual leader. That's the best thing you could probably give them. And if they don't appreciate it, find the people that will. Cause we've gone through several iterations of our team at hello.

And this one right here that we're on November, 2024. If any of them are listening, we have a fantastic team that buys into the vision and the mission that we laid out and we put together and they help us drive that forward because they believe in it too.

Jen: amazing.

Todd: Yeah, it's, it's very amazing. So go us. All right.

Thanks for listening. Get on our email list. If you're not already check out our website and if you want to chat to find out how we can help your business reach out,

Jen: Yes, we're here.

Todd: bye.

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