It’s the most wonderful time of the year – tax season! If you think I’ve suddenly gone off the deep end, you may be right. The reason I’m excited about tax season is that many beauty professionals will finally know how much they made in 2018.
Anything wrong with this picture? If you had a tingly feeling about that last statement, you’re not alone. While we’d all like to say we are on top of our financials and know how much we are making at more than just one point in the year, in reality, that’s just not the case. Many beauty pros, especially self-employed beauty pros, don’t have the smallest inkling of how much they netted or grossed last year, the year before, or ever. Planning Your Beauty Business Sales Plan
How can we grow in our skills and our business if we don’t actually know where we stand now? How can you know if you’re winning if you don’t know the score of the game? Planning Your Beauty Business Sales Plan
Since we’re all likely in the midst of tax prep, or finished if you’re an overachiever, let’s look at how you can stay on top of your business financials more often than once a year.
Schedule Reviews
On the first of every month, do a thorough review of how you are doing versus the same time last year, and where you are compared to any planned sales increase. If you’re seeing slower results, think about what may have affected last year’s number such as a promotion, the weather, a move, etc.
Whatever the first day of the week is in your business (since most of us work weekends, this can be anything from Saturday to Tuesday,) lay out how much you need to make this week to make monthly plan. Do you have enough client appointments this week to reach that number? If not, it’s time to focus on an action plan.Planning Your Beauty Business Sales Plan
Drive the Behaviors
If you see you’re a bit behind to sales plan, drive the behaviors that will address the deficiencies. Do you still need to pick up some revenue but you’re fully booked? Time to focus on retail sales or service upgrades. Running at only 50% booked this week? Institute some strong marketing practices to fill those slots.
Instead of throwing up your hands, focus on the actions you can take to find the results you need. If you’re working with a team, communicate the goals and progress towards them, along with the plan you have made to reach the goal.
Keep Yourself Accountable
The secret to adding metric review to your routine business practice is consistency. It’s hard to build a habit, so schedule it into your calendar to keep yourself on track. It can be discouraging to get behind on sales plan, but if you didn’t know you were down, you wouldn’t be able to make a plan to address it.
Review your action plan periodically to ensure it is still addressing your business deficiency, and change it up if you need to. The best plans are ever-evolving.
Build a Support Network
No one understands this business like the others in it. Reach out to, and network with, other beauty business owners to support each other through the ebbs and floes of business management. There are many Facebook groups and networking options through social media where you can find like-minded individuals to bounce ideas off of, or brainstorm with.
Of course, you can always reach out to me with any questions or if you need a little push in the right direction. I fill my Instagram feed with motivation and reminders that you are capable of building your business year over year into something you are proud of. Planning Your Beauty Business Sales Plan
Planning Your Beauty Business Sales Plan