4 salon New Year resolutions to make this year your best yet

I’ve a confession.

I love New Year. I much prefer it to Christmas.

For me it’s time for a fresh start. An opportunity to turn the page on my business and my life, and decide where I’m heading over the coming months.

This January, if you’re running your own salon or spa business this quote might just strike a chord.

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending” – Carl Bard

In this blog I’m sharing my ideas on how to:

• make those salon business resolutions stick
• overcome procrastination and
• create that “brand new ending” for your hair, beauty or aesthetics business

 

#1. New Year resolution #1 FOCUS

Being focused is critical to business success. And last year I achieved this by adopting a “Not-To-Do resolutions’ list.” It was a real game-changer for me.

Why?

Because it ensured I concentrated on those resolutions that made a major difference to my business.

Fixated by the idea of business transformation and personal motivation it’s too easy to generate an epic list of unrealistic resolutions. In past years, I’ve been so dazzled by the sheer volume of my resolutions that I’m still wondering where to start come February.

Yet Steve Jobs cautioned us to focus our business energies carefully.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.” – Steve Jobs

With Jobs’ words front of mind, here’s how to create your Not-To-Do list of salon business resolutions:

• Examine each new year resolution on your list.
• Imagine how you’d feel if you’d accomplished it.
• Picture the difference it will make to your hair or beauty business.
• Assess what you will lose if you don’t do it.

Now, having mulled over each resolution, circle the 3 that are most important to you.

Now discard the rest.

That’s right. Cross them off your resolutions’ list. No matter how valuable or useful you think they are.

You’re now free to focus on your 3 most crucial business resolutions.

The ones you’d love to accomplish.

The ones that will make a real difference to your salon or spa’s success.

 

#2. Resolve to write a salon marketing plan

The most effective way to focus on the right resolutions and create that “brand new ending for your business” is to write a marketing plan for your salon or spa.

 

#3. Create a Vision Board of your salon business resolutions

Are you a visual, creative person?

Yes?

In which case, rather than compiling a written list of resolutions try building a vision board of resolutions instead. Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry and Kelly Hoppen from Dragons Den use vision boards to help them achieve their business goals and resolutions.

You Magazine describes it as a “tool that has long been popular with Hollywood stars, fashion designers and progressive business leaders, a vision board is a combination of collage and mind-map, a display of images of how you would like your forthcoming year to be.”

Successful TV Dragon and entrepreneur, Kelly Hoppen, is a firm believer in the power of vision boards creating a new board every January to map out her hopes and dreams for the coming year.

She described her vision board for 2016 to You Magazine as “a large piece of black card, covered with neatly arranged but apparently random photographs: a close-up of coral, some monochrome fashion images, the minimalist interior of a barn, a 1950s TV, an elegant model with grey hair, some cupcakes, a photograph of herself with a moustache… Beside them she has written quotes that she finds inspiring: ‘no guts, no glory’, ‘say yes to new adventures’, ‘when nothing goes right, go left’.”

© Daily MailIt’s simple to do. Tear out motivating pictures from say Hairdressers Journal or Professional Beauty magazine, download images that inspire you from the web, include business quotes from industry experts to encourage you and write your salon goals out and pin them on the board.

‘If you don’t know what you want, it’s much harder to achieve it,’ says Hoppen. “Pretty much everything I put on my vision board materialises, because I make it happen.”

 

#4. Turn good resolutions into salon marketing habits or systems

Now switch your attention from the end goal of the resolution and focus on the bite-size steps needed to achieve it.

Decide what marketing systems (or “marketing habits”) you need to put in place to hit your target.

I meet many salon and spa owners each month. The most successful are the ones who understand that marketing is about great systems, commitment and consistency. They are the ones who “do it” day in and day out.

For more hands-on ideas for setting up specific marketing systems for your hair or beauty business try this post.

We all have the same 24 hours in the day. So why do some people have time for marketing, updating their salon websites or attending digital marketing workshops, whilst others don’t?

The answer may be that you’re spending too much time IN your business and not enough ON it…

Feeling overwhelmed and too busy and need to find more time to spend on promoting and running your business? Check out these 9 time management tips for salon and spa owners.

 

 

Create a brand new ending

What you plan and how you plan will dramatically effect your chances of success, fame and profit next year. So take time out this January to start creating your “brand new ending.”