Ok so I’m writing this to touch on something that I think we all struggle with as salon owners and it stops us from moving forward because we are too caught up taking that next $50 note from the next client.
Lately heaps of people keep asking me to do after hours and on the weekend consults with them. And I keep saying no. I know that this is pissing most people off. They don’t like that I am not bending over backwards to accommodate them.
Let me tell you a story.
Years ago when I was still on the tools, clients use to tell me that they couldn’t get to me till 5pm, 5:30pm, 6pm etc. That they couldn’t come on my late night Thursday, but they could come on Wednesday instead.
My reply was always “Ok then, well lets make it for 6pm. Let’s Book you in on a wednesday night then, I’ll just stay back for you”
I was always scared that the client was going to go somewhere else if I didn’t bend over backwards to fit them in for their hair appointment.
So, before I knew it I was working a late night EVERY night of the week. I was coming in at 7am to fit people in BEFORE work. I was working way past my “opening hours” because they basically didn’t exist anymore.
I was working 7 days a week, 70 hours MINIMUM a week on the tools. Plus trying to do all the other business stuff.
Staff, Marketing, Wages, bills, networking and the list never EVER ends!
Plus at the time I had no washing machine in the salon so I use to have to take the towels home EVERY night and stay up waiting for towels to finish to hang them out and get them dry over night to leave at 6:30am the next morning.
I was about to have a mental break down along with a physical one. My hands were killing me, my back was killing me. I was physically and mentally FUCKED for lack of a better word.
I had NO life! The number of times I considered just sleeping on the futon in the salon because I had to be back in less than 9 hours, is ridiculous when I think about it now.
I was in my very early 20’s and felt like I had been working as a slave for 100 years!! That might be a slight exaggeration, but you get my point.
So one Saturday, I had started work at 7am and people just kept calling and calling and I kept saying Yes, Yes, Yes to all these bookings that afternoon and the next day on the sunday.
I’ll never forget it, I finally got through all these clients, the salon looked like a bomb went off it it because I had sent all my staff home hours ago because I couldn’t expect them to stay that late on a Saturday, I looked at the clock and it was nearly 9pm.
9pm on a SATURDAY and I was STILL in the salon… 14 hours I had not stopped. I hadn’t peed, I hadn’t eaten and I was exhausted.
THAT MOMENT was when I went WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING????
I grabbed my stuff and walked out and left the mess.
I did go to work the next day early to clean it all up before my Sunday round of clients started.
So I asked myself this – Why am I killing myself for all of these clients?
Why am I working all of these hours? Is it for the money? Well I never had any time to spend it so what was the point in that?
As of that next week, instead of saying YES to every client I started saying NO.
I cut back the days I was working for starters. Then I said I was only doing 2 late nights. Then I made the clients that told me they couldn’t get there till 6pm, come in before 5pm.
I flipped the control around.
My clients had been controlling me and dictating to me when they could and couldn’t come and I was bowing down and letting them tell me what my working hours were.
The thing I learned was that people will MAKE IT WORK if they want it!
People can get out of work early once every 5 weeks for their hair. They can skip their lunch break and leave early. They can use time in lieu hours. They can just leave.
They can change their plans they had to fit in with you if they want you.
Yes I lost a few clients – did I care? Initially yes, but when I sat back and thought about it, they were a pain in the arse!! I would stay till 5pm on a Monday to do this particular client, she always was late, she didn’t respect my time, she would rock up late then tell me she needed to be out by 6:30pm so she could go out for dinner, so I should hurry up.
It got to the point where once I retrained my clients they worked around ME instead of me working around them.
I got more time back in my life. I got to go home at a decent hour.
I got control back of my business.
I stopped being so EXHAUSTED all the time because I was working less than half the hours that I had been before and was so much happier.
Is this what is happening in your salon? Do your clients have control over you?
Did you go into business so that you could have freedom and flexibility?
Are your clients dictating to you what’s going to happen in your salon?
If they are they I think it’s time for you to step back, reevaluate where you are at and where you actually want to me and make a change.
Take back control.
Take back control of YOUR Business
Take back control of YOUR TIME
Take back control of YOUR LIFE
So to those of you that want after hours consults with me, this is why I won’t do it. I choose not to work after hours so that I have a clear work/life balance.
I am in control of my business.
So when you keep pushing me to do after hours consults and get pissed off when I say no, step back and think about is the reason you are doing that because you have NO time because you keep saying YES to your clients?
That you wish that you had the guts like me to say NO to people?
There is only one of me and lots of you, so if you want my help I know that you will make it work so that we can have that call. It’s exactly the same with clients that want you to do their hair. They will make it work.
If you want to know how you can take back control of your business, your time and your life, you know that you need to make time to talk to me.
Emma x
P.S This started off as a short Facebook post and has ended up as a blog post!! Oops!!