Whether you’re putting the finishing touches on your soon-to-be-opened salon or already booking guests, opening a salon is exciting! As you prepare to bring your salon to life, you may be looking for tips on how to manage a hair salon business in the most successful way.

At SalonBiz, we help salons across North America grow their salons with seamless and savvy salon management tools. This is how you can leverage technology to manage your salon, from overall management to team leadership to memorable guest experiences.

How to be a successful salon owner

As you embark on this new journey, it’s important to take focused steps. While the big picture is a bustling salon, success requires daily attention to small details.

Consider these simple tips as you navigate how to manage a hair salon business.

Consider thoughtful and intuitive automation

Simply put, automation is your new best friend! Salon owners were once afraid to put down the book and embrace technology, but those days are long gone. It’s critical to keep in touch with guests, but you don’t have to be tied to a desk in order to do it.

For example, a salon management system like SalonBiz can automatically send text or email appointment reminders, as well as birthday greetings. You can even take advantage of “We Miss You” email outreach for overdue guests (without lifting a finger).

Create a beautiful space built for success

Avoid the common pitfalls of buying or leasing a salon space that doesn’t fit your needs.

Overall, the average salon size starts at around 1,500 square feet if you have more than four stylists. However, a hair salon square footage between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet is ideal for most. From product sales to office space, you’ll need the extra room. Plus, it allows for future growth if you decide to bring in more stylists along the way!

Want to learn more about creating the perfect space? Don’t miss our post How To Use Your Salon Square Footage For Maximum Revenue.  

Set small goals and strive to achieve them every day

Learning how to manage a hair salon business means always looking for ways to improve your revenue, now and in the future.

With SalonBiz, you’ll have instant access to your daily books and long-term reports in order to find new opportunities. For example, see gaps and holes in your stylists’ books this week? Act on it! Text guests with our Textel integration who haven’t visited in a few months or offer a flash sale on social media to fill those spots.

This type of continual focused improvement strategy may seem simple, but when the gaps fill up, your overall revenue stays on track.

How to manage salon staff successfully

Keeping your team happy and motivated should always be top of mind. After all, your salon is truly a team effort with many different moving parts.

Here are some basic principles for creating a team culture among your stylists.

Empower their daily books

Your stylists deserve a sense of ownership when it comes to their job, and that’s what our salon management software can offer at SalonBiz.

Our Stylist App allows your stylists to:

• Book an appointment in their chair anywhere, anytime
• Receive alerts when a guest arrives, or when an appointment is scheduled or changed
• Improve their consultations with easy-to-access guest notes and ideas
• See how close they are to meeting their benchmarks and goals
• Capture before and after photos that stay in each guest’s file

With SalonBiz, your stylists have access to the information they need at a moment’s notice.

Invest in their personal goals

SalonBiz makes it easy for your stylists to monitor their performance in real time.  With access to stats for booking, pre-booking, and product sales, they have 24/7 self-motivation.

Don’t forget about training opportunities! Whether your stylists are interested in learning more about extensions or the latest color trend, this type of growth will only help your salon grow. Find ways to invest in their craft by facilitating training opportunities that leads to new service offerings in your salon.

Develop a culture of appreciation

A positive relationship between you and your stylists is essential if you’re learning how to manage a hair salon business. If your stylists are happy, they’re more likely to stay. This lowers the risk of a stylist leaving and bringing their clients with them.

Take advantage of in-the-moment coaching by messaging staff from the Stylist App, either to individual stylists or the full team! Send a note to celebrate a job well done, send thanks to your team, or give a little nudge when a stylist is getting close to their personal goals.  

How to create a 5-star guest experience

Your loyal guests are at the heart of everything you do. Find new and creative ways to offer gorgeous experiences that go beyond the norm! Here’s how SalonBiz can help you nail every appointment to keep those 5-star reviews coming.

Put your guests in control

Looking to offer a transformative experience? Ditch the front desk and create an open-floor concept that runs on technology.

Give your guests the ability to manage their appointments with the Pocket Salon app. Available on iOS and Google Play, our app allows your guests to schedule appointments, buy products, tip, message their stylist, make payments, and more. This free consumer-facing app is a game changer that keeps everyone in the loop, on their own time.

Here’s a glimpse at all of the features your guests will love:

• Self check-in and check-out to avoid lines
• The option to purchase products online and pick up in-store
• Re-booking their own appointments, paying for their service, and tipping right from the chair
• Messaging with their stylist to discuss ideas

What’s more, our partnership with PaySimple makes it possible to accept payments through credit card swipe, chip, card on file, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Stay in touch with omnichannel marketing

In today’s world of marketing, it’s all about an omnichannel approach. Putting up a website and calling it done is simply not enough. Meet your guests where they are on Facebook, Instagram, email, and text message. This is the best way to keep in touch with your loyal guests and get new ones into your chair.

With SalonBiz, you can take advantage of set-and-forget email campaigns, as well as custom email templates that are beautifully branded. You’ll also enjoy the ability to market to your top purchasers or other targeted audiences.  

Offer rewards programs and perks

Give your most loyal guests a reason to keep coming back. With customized reward programs, they can earn points for every service and retail purchase at your salon. Allow them to redeem these points for products or discounts on future services! SalonBiz makes it easy to create a rewards program that works for your business.

You can also maximize sales with online bonus gift cards. This costs you nothing, but allows your guests to give a gift to whomever, whenever. From holidays to slower sales periods, this is a great way to expand your salon business.

Build something amazing with SalonBiz 

With a modern approach to the growing beauty industry, SalonBiz can help you navigate how to manage a hair salon business! Our salon management system allows you to empower your guests and stylists to create a streamlined experience from start to finish.

Send us a message or schedule a demo today. We love to talk about the fantastic features SalonBiz has to offer!