You need to start planning now if you want to make this year your best one yet, explains salon business coach and mentor Penny Etheridge

SHUTTERSTOCK

If you are a hair salon owner or run an independent hairdressing business and you want to make 2021 your best year yet, you will need to ask yourself these two key questions: 

1. Where do I want my company to be one year from now?  

2. What do I want to achieve one year from now? The secret to having a successful year is constantly to challenge yourself and as Yogi Berra, the US professional baseball manager and coach, once said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” In other words, your first step is deciding where you want to be at the end of 2021 so you can start planning exactly how you will get there.

THE FOUR STEPS TO ACHIEVE RESULTS...

Step 1: Write an annual business plan 

Many people within the hairdressing industry, as well as those outside of it, create a business plan to get access to funding or loans. After that they never give it a second thought. Your business plan is a plan, and for that reason it needs to be reviewed regularly so make this a priority at the start of 2021, or sooner if you can.

Step 2: Reassess your vision and create an annual vision plan 

Ask yourself how does your current plan compare with your previous plans? After the unique circumstances of 2020 your current plan will be like no other. However, now is not the time to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach. Maintain a strategy for your business regardless of the circumstances. If your original plan needs to be changed due to situations beyond your control, so be it, but you must still create a plan. What areas need to be changed, developed or scrapped completely? Involve all your team members in the development of your company vision for the future. Don’t be scared to commit to paper the vision you and your team share, as anything can and should be changed if it no longer ‘fits’ within the growth of your company. Your team need to be heard, understood and respected to ensure you will all work together with 100% commitment towards making your vision a reality.

Step 3: Set specific goals 

Goals need to be refined and made to be as specific as possible to ensure you and your team understand exactly what they must do to achieve them. You will also need to decide the best route to take to attain your goals. Don’t be vague with goal setting. Targets or goals that are allowed to be too generic such as ‘improve my salon’s retail’ will not get the desired result. If you and your team know the destination but not the exact route, the result will be either getting lost, giving up or not achieving what you wanted to achieve.

Everyone in your team should know their targets, skill levels and when and how their current and future performance will be discussed. Your team should also be empowered to take ownership of their own destiny and be made aware of how their actions will benefit themselves and the company. Communicating and mutually understanding specific goals within an agreed time frame will ensure goals and targets are more easily achieved. In fact, the results from a recent meta-analysis published by business magazine Forbes showed establishing specific goals resulted in significantly higher performance, than setting general goals with no time frame attached.

Step 4: Set a plan B 

Even with your best efforts you won’t reach every goal. There should always be an alternative that addresses unexpected challenges or opportunities beyond your control. Above all, don’t beat yourself up about small mistakes. Being in business is a learning curve and everybody makes mistakes. Be kind to yourself and reward your team when something goes well!