Salon Success Secrets

The Real Reason Most Salon Owners Feel Behind By March (It's Not Lack Of Motivation)

• Lindsay Lowe & Jen Booth

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We challenge the myth that more hustle solves slow months and show how reflection, data, and monthly structure stop the March scramble. Using postmortems, PAR metrics, and the GROWTH framework, we shift salons from reacting to leading with clarity.

• why reflection protects profit and energy
• four-question postmortem for clear learning
• turning feelings into data with PAR
• reacting versus leading amid slow months
• the bow‑and‑arrow metaphor for intention
• why goals fail when unmoored from reality
• the GROWTH monthly operating framework
• wow moments for guest experience and culture
• health checks to catch system stress points
• leadership as seeing sooner, not working harder
• a done‑for‑you monthly operating plan offer

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SPEAKER_01:

Let me ask you something. What if the reason your salon feels behind by March has nothing to do with motivation? Nothing to do with discipline or with your team not wanting it bad enough. And everything to do with what you skipped at the end of last year. Because here's the uncomfortable truth. The most successful businesses in the world don't just plan forward, they look back on purpose. And most salon owners never do.

SPEAKER_00:

Because this is the lie that we've been sold as salon owners. You know, in our industry, we actually glorify forward motion. Like it's like new year, new goals, new planners, new energy. And we tell ourselves, you know, I'll just do it better next year or this coming year. And at the end of the day, we know that hope is not a strategy. And when we have when you have momentum without reflection, it's how you accidentally recreate the same year over and over again. I think I did this for the first um seven years, five to seven years. You know, same slow months, the same panic promotion. Oh my God, it's March 1st. I better put a promotion out, right? Same retail goals missed by a mile. Oh, I think my retail goal should be, you know, 10,000 this month, or I think it should be 20,000. That sounds good. Let's go with 15,000. You've never been there. It's the same feeling in March where you think, hmm, why does it feel like I'm already behind?

SPEAKER_01:

Jen, I know I can relate to that so much. I was in that same same boat, you know, and I think what I've learned is a lot about what big brands do that most salons don't. You know, because if you think about it, before Apple launches a new product, or you know, before Nike rolls out a global campaign or Amazon doubles down on some initiative, they pause. They don't rush, you know, they don't hype themselves up. What they do is what's actually they run something that's called a post-mortem. And no, it's not morbid, it's powerful, you know, because a post-mortem is not about failure, it's about completion. You know, it's asking four questions. What worked, what didn't, what surprised us, and what can never be repeated. That's it. That single exercise turns memory into strategy and strategy into leverage.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And the reason most salon owners, I would say, skip this um step is because they're exhausted by the end of the year. You can probably relate to that. You know, you sprint through the holidays, you hold the weight for everyone else, you push to the finish line, you celebrate quickly, you know, you maybe even pop a bottle, and then suddenly and immediately you move on. But when you don't name what exactly happened last year, like there's no way to learn from it. You don't learn from it. And if you don't learn from it, you actually repeat it. You know, reflection isn't indulgent, it's actually protection, it's being protective.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that, Jen. You know, because I think what postmortems do is they turn emotion into data, you know, and data equals dollars. But this is where most owners get uncomfortable because feelings are messy. But data, data is honest, and this is where par changes everything. You know, we've we've talked about par before. Maybe you're already familiar with it. It stands for pre-books, average ticket, and um retail. And so when you revisit your par from like, you know, every single month or every single day, that's when you really stop guessing because you can see when retail dipped, when your productivity peaked, uh, maybe when your team was stretched too thin, or when systems held up and when they broke, you know, and that's not numbers, that's truth. And truth is what gives you power.

SPEAKER_00:

That's so true, Lindsay. It makes me think of like this is that's the difference between reacting and leading. Like when you don't look back, you react, right? Like you scramble, you discount, that March 1st rolls up, you're like, oh gosh, maybe we should just do 20% off everything. Or like you panic promote, you blame timing, the economy, or even your location. And when you do look back, you know, you you start to lead. You see patterns before that may not hurt you. You plan promotions with intention, like you stop reacting, or you um let's say you stop repeating directions or decisions that quietly drain your profit. You know, that's truly the difference between surviving and scaling.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's so good. You know, didn't it really makes me think about like reflection is truly like the pullback? And you know, so when you think about it, after reflection comes intention. And intention is not just like a cute buzzword. The word intend comes from the Latin intender, which means to stretch forward toward, sorry, to stretch toward. So think of this like a bow, an arrow metaphor. You know, an arrow doesn't fly because the arrow's strong, it flies because it's pulled back with tension. You know, your past year is the pullback and your intention, that's the release. And when you skip reflection, when you release that arrow without any aim, that's not growth, you know, that's hope. And I don't even know that I would say it's hope, but it's it's really just ambiguous. There's nothing going on there at all.

SPEAKER_00:

So good. So why most goals don't work is most goals fail because they are disconnected from reality, and so they are not rooted in what actually worked, what actually sold, what actually drained your team. It's like they're wishing, like they're wishful. Intentional planning is truly different. It says, hey, based on what happened, this is where we're going. And if you think about that, based on what happened, this is where we're going, that is true leadership.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You know, and it truly comes down to the five, you know, actually maybe six things that every month must have. You know, these aren't tactics, these are priorities. And every successful business plans monthly around structure. And here's the framework that we like to use in Salon Business School. We call it the growth framework. And the G stands for goals. We got to get clear what does winning look like this month? Not someday, not this year, this month. The R stands for revenue focus. What are we intentionally selling or promoting? You know, services, retail, upgrades. Because if just everything's for sale, nothing is intentional. And sure it is, but we want to be intentional about what we're creating. The O stands for offers. You guys, these are all writer-downers. Make sure you're writing these down. If they're if you're driving, come back later and write these down. The next thing is offers. You know, so you want to look at what are your promos, what are your packages, what are your events, what are the reasons you're giving your clients to say yes now? Because great businesses don't wait for demand. They create it. That W stands for wow moments. We like to do the wow mom if you're catching this live. Um, it's just a fun little way to remember how are we gonna wow people? You know, through our guest experience, through our team morale, you know, through culture moments that are created. These are the invisible things that create retention. The next area is T, and that's traffic. These are your marketing campaigns that drive attention. It's not just random posting, it's purposeful visibility. And then the next part of this growth is the H, which is the health check. You know, and this again, this is where uh most salon owners skip this. This is where you do your power review, you know, you work on that team synergy, you you look at any systems that have stress points because a profitable month that burns everyone out is not a win. I love that. You know, it Jin, it reminds me. Sorry, I know you're getting ready to just say something. I love when you say, you know, systems give ordinary people extraordinary results. And so when you're not doing that health check and you're not seeing where the systems are being stress points, so good.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you think about that, why does this matter more than ever? You know, the salon industry truly doesn't have a talent problem, it's a planning problem, you guys. It's a clarity problem, a leadership problem. And leadership does not mean working harder. Let me say that again for those in the back, just in case you missed it because it's really good. I needed someone to say this to me a while ago, a long time ago, is a leadership doesn't mean working harder, it means seeing sooner.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's a deep breath in on that one right there, Jen. It doesn't mean working harder, it means seeing sooner. Because, you know, here's the emotional reality. Let's, you know, let's really dive into this. Because imagine the time that it would take you to do this alone alone, you know, 12 months, 12 postmortems, 12 par reviews, 12 intentions, 12 campaigns, 12 revenue plans, you know, all the 12s. All of this while running a salon, while leading a team, while living your life. You know, it's not that you don't want to, it's that you don't have the margin.

SPEAKER_00:

So good. So that's why we created the salon success calendar. Uh, it's not another planner, you guys. It's not another idea bank, it's a formula. And, you know, it's a formula. The salon success calendar is actually done for you. And let me be really clear about what this is because language truly matters here. You know, like I said earlier, this is not another planner, it's not a content calendar, and it's not a framework you have to figure out. It's the actual monthly operating plan. Say what? That we use in our own salons. Yes, it is the actual monthly operating plan that we use in our own salons. So every month it decides what our team focuses on, what to promote, how you market, what to prioritize, and what you intentionally ignore. So you're not reacting in real time, you're truly leading. And guess what? The salon success calendar is$97 a month. And that number is intentional because this isn't a maybe someday resource, it's an operating expense for owners who want clarity. So if it saves you one chaotic meeting, one rush promotion, one exhausting month, it's already paid for itself. Now, we're not gonna sell hard, sell this, um, do this hard sell on this podcast. But instead, if this conversation is hitting you, hey, if you're realizing, yeah, I've been planning forward without ever really looking back, here's what we'll do next. Text the word calendar, C-A-L-E-N-D-A-R to 469-283-5590. Again, that's 469-283-5590. And we'll send you the full breakdown of how it works, what's included each month, and how to decide if it's right for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no pressure, you know, just clarity. And for those of you who move quickly, we may have a founder thank you when you text. We'll share details there. You know, this is you know what to focus on, when to focus on it, and why it matters. So you're not reacting, you're leading. So January doesn't surprise you, so March doesn't overwhelm you, so December doesn't exhaust you. You know, this isn't about being busier, it's about becoming the kind of owner who plans like a real business because successful salons don't get lucky, they get intentional, and intention changes everything.