When it comes to successfully managing and growing your business as a salon professional, your professional priorities are essential. They help keep you on the track toward success—helping you maximize demand, attract new clients, and improve your bottom line. How can you establish professional priorities and use them as guiding principles as you navigate the business world? Be sure to keep the following seven points in mind.
1. It’s not how hard you work, but how smart you work.
It doesn’t matter how many 16-hour days you pull. If you aren’t using your working hours efficiently, you won’t see the results you want to see. “Think carefully about why you are engaging in any activity and what you expect to get out of it. Establish your highest-ranking goals and determine whether your schedule is consistent with this ranking,” says Robert Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
2. Organize or agonize.
Each day should have a clear structure, with goals you want to meet and tasks you want to accomplish. The items on your daily to-do list should tie into larger professional goals, such as “growing your business by 10 percent by the end of the year” or “acquiring 10 new clients in the next three months.” Once you have identified your daily tasks and goal, you need to organize them by priority.
“It’s tempting to write this list down and immediately start hacking away at it, like a shopping list. But that’s not the smartest way,” explained entrepreneur Daniel Dipiazza. “Some items are time sensitive, some are more mentally taxing, and others are relatively unimportant.” When organizing your day, always prioritize the tasks that are strongly correlated to your long-term professional goals and those that are directly related to growing your income.
3. Choose, or you will lose.
When it comes to successfully running a business, you need to focus on cultivating a specific focus or specialty. You can’t be everything to everyone. For example, perhaps you want to focus on providing exceptional hair coloring or on providing flawless manicures. Whatever it is, you need to choose a specific focus and work on setting long-term goals that align with that.
4. Fill your day with your priorities, not others’ requests.
Remember, your day is yours. Always fill your day with goals and objectives that will help you grow your business. Don’t get sidetracked by the requests of others. When it comes to successfully managing your own business, time is one of your greatest resources.
5. Evaluate, or you stagnate.
Constantly evaluate how you can better meet your clients’ needs and capitalize on demand. Without consistent evaluation, you won’t see the growth you want to see. Make sure you keep track of key metrics, such as the number of client referrals, the number of re-bookings, and so forth. This information will allow you to evaluate your progress toward your long-term goals and objectives.
6. Be proactive, not reactive.
The unexpected is always lurking around the corner, especially in the world of business. Circumstances are constantly changing, and demand is constantly fluctuating. The key to success is being able to respond to changing circumstances proactively. For example, a proactive salon might decide to hire a market research firm to forecast potential changes in demand and alter prices accordingly. Proactive businesses always have a significant competitive advantage.
7. Don’t ask if your calendar will be full. Ask yourself what will fill your calendar?
A successful entrepreneur always makes the most of each day. He or she assumes that every day will be full and takes charge to fill it with the activities that will best help meet long-term goals and objectives.
