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Salon time management is an essential skill for all salon owners or managers to acquire. Time management is crucial to improve the efficiency and productivity of your salon business, which in turn leads to increased profits.

But first, I have some bad news for you, “Time flies”. But the good news is “You are the Pilot”.

So learning how to work on your time management skills and finding solutions to decreasing lost time will benefit your salon in many ways.

And here is another way to look at it. You are selling your time! Yes, I know, you sell treatments and services, but really when you think about it, it all boils down to time.

The Benefits of Salon Time Management.

Most salons, spas or barbershops are extremely busy these days, so any amount of wasted time relates to decreased revenue. And nobody wants that.

The ability to utilise your time more effectively has a significant positive impact on your day to day operations, productivity and also reduces stress.  

Having a planned and structured schedule provides you with some breathing space, so when any unforeseen problems arise, you are much more equipped to deal with them.

Cultivating a salon workplace that values time management can be the difference between getting ahead of your competition rather than staying stagnant. 

Here is a list of benefits from better time management.

• Increased productivity
• Better planning = better forecasting
• Improved focus
• Better ability to take on more opportunities
• More reliable
• More punctual
• Less stress
• Boosts morale
• Improves revenue

How to Effectively Time Manage Your Salon

Plan to Plan.

You may have the best intentions to improve your time management, but let’s face it. Without planning, you are sure to fall short. Careful planning is vital to your success in reducing time wastage. Planning gives you a clear direction and path to follow. Furthermore, it can help save you valuable time in the future, and remember, time is money! 

Scheduling is the key to easy time management. Not only should you be scheduling your day but also your week, month and year. 

Each morning, dedicating 15 minutes to your daily and weekly plan can keep your week running smoothly. Once a month take half an hour to look over the upcoming month and consider things like goals, tasks, ordering, paying bills and marketing. 

Planning a year ahead of time might seem like a headache, but in the long run, you will be so much more organised. Once a year sit down and write in your yearly calendar all the events, expos, staff training events, and of course marketing campaigns you will implement over the next 12 months.

SMART goals are a great way to set measurable and tangible goals.  To read more about how to set SMART business goals, go to https://www.getneko.com/business-goal-setting-for-2019/

Take into consideration all the holidays and special occasions like valentine’s day and mother’s day and start devising your marketing plans. Once the new year begins, these special events will arrive quicker than you expect. So having marketing campaigns planned ahead of time keeps you from falling behind and missing out on high-profit opportunities. 

Without a scheduling plan, chances are you will get busy and forget to address your goals.  

“Failing to plan is planning to fail” Alan Lakein.

Schedule Your Priorities

So now you have planned your day, week, month and year, its time to set your priorities. Rank your tasks by importance or deadline. Attend to high priority tasks immediately. Once completed, you will feel a sense of relief and satisfaction. Now you can start on the next item on your list. 

Batching Tasks

Batching your tasks is a great way to get ahead and stay organised. But what is batching? Batching is where you group tasks into blocks of time. An example is to set aside one hour per week to focus on all your administrative tasks. Schedule yourself a time when you know you won’t be disturbed. Setting a time limit encourages you to focus and also makes the job feel less overwhelming.  

Keeping visible on social media requires regular posting. So setting aside a few hours per month and scheduling all your social media posts ahead of time will keep you on top of the game. Moreover, you will spend less time on social media throughout the day, which helps you avoid falling down the social media rabbit hole. 

Minimise Distractions

Distractions in the salon can be a real drain on your time. Many distractions are not avoidable like accidents or client complaints, but, there are many distractions you can minimise or avoid altogether.

According to many studies, it takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption. http://blog.idonethis.com/distractions-at-work/

The number one offender is mobile phones. Setting boundaries for yourself and staff around phone usage can help everyone stay focused. Your team can quickly lose concentration or provide poor customer service when continually looking at their phones, replying to texts, or checking social media notifications.

The average American person looks at their phone once every 12 minutes, which is around 80 times a day. Imagine how distracting this is to your staff and your clients. https://nypost.com/2017/11/08/americans-check-their-phones-80-times-a-day-study/

Add these distractions to the time it takes to refocus (23 minutes and 15 seconds) and that is a huge amount of reduced productivity in the salon.

When you are batching tasks, this is also a time to minimise distractions. Silence your phone, disable notifications or turn it off altogether, allowing you to focus on the job and finish is quickly

Here is a list of distractions often encountered in the salon. These are the enemies of effective time management and how they drain your time:

• Salon conversations, chit chat and gossip – A huge time waster, learn how to politely close down a conversation.
• Micromanagement of staff or tasks – Two people doing one job, learn how to trust in your team.
• Not learning how to say “No.” – If you take on everything asked of you, your time will just disappear.
• Social media notifications – One quick look and you have fallen down the social media rabbit hole. Don’t do it!
• Checking phones, texts and emails – Save these for breaks or allocate time for checking emails.
• Not prioritising important tasks – This is how you fall behind and end up chasing your tail.
• Ineffective scheduling – Without a proper schedule you will feel overwhelmed and overworked.
• Multitasking – Prevents you from focusing on one task and you lose valuable time.
• Failure to handle distractions properly – Poor handling of distractions and the inability to recognise distractions is very time-consuming.
• Not learning to delegate properly – Not delegating tasks means you lose time to focus on running your business.
• Procrastination – The thief of time

Learn To Delegate

Just because you are the boss, does not mean you have to do everything yourself. Learning the art of delegation is a must to ensure your salon runs smoothly and you have extra time to focus on your business.

Delegation requires you to know your staffs’ capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. Handing over some responsibility can empower and motivate your team to strive to do better.  

Often the hardest part for salon owners and managers is to step back and trust your employees to do the job right. Avoid micromanaging once you have allocated a task as this defeats the purpose of managing your own time better. 

Avoid Procrastinating 

Do you have a habit of procrastinating? Wasting time or find yourself putting off important tasks?

Unfortunately, avoiding these vital tasks can seriously affect your business, client retention, professionalism and finances. Statistics show that 40% of people have suffered a financial loss due to procrastination. This statistic is proof that you should tackle procrastination head-on and implement suitable strategies to reduce wasting your precious time. If you want to know more about how to avoid procrastination in your salon go to https://www.getneko.com/is-procrastination-impacting-your-salon-business/

Late Cancellations or No-Shows

Unfortunately, every salon experiences late cancellations or no-shows. So it is vitally important to use the time you now have wisely. Remember, time is money! If you can fill a late cancellation with a client from your waiting list…great! Luckily Neko has an excellent waiting list tool that allows you to see at a glance who is waiting for a booking.

If you cannot fill the gap with a client, having a contingency plan in place for yourself or your staff member to follow can avoid wasted time.

Be sure that your staff are aware that in this situation they should be doing a task that you have allocated to them. These tasks may be general cleaning, dusting shelves, cleaning mirrors or re-ordering stock. Make sure you are squeezing the most out of every minute in the day to ensure your business is running smooth and more efficient.

Time Management Software

Time management sure is a challenge in any busy salon, so why not automate your salon, spa or barbershop with clever tools to help maximise your business potential. To get the most out of your day, you need to consider Salon Software. Cloud-based software like Neko is an all-in-one management system that allows your salon to run more efficiently and saves you precious time.  

Here are just some of the features Neko Salon Software has to offer at an affordable price with no contracts and no hidden fees. https://www.getneko.com

Conclusion

Salon time management is a skill you can strive to improve. It may not come easy to you, so try to think of your time management skills like a muscle, the more you use them, the stronger they become. 

Time management involves taking the time to plan for your day, week, month and year. The benefits of planning keep you on top of your workload and ready for any unforeseen complications that may arise. 

Excellent time management skills also involve learning to schedule your priorities and tackle them in a timely manner. 

Working on time management also involves minimising any distractions that you can identify in your salon, spa or barbershop. 

Delegation is an essential skill that requires thought and understanding of yourself and your team’s expertise. Delegating the right jobs to the right people is paramount to a well-run and time-efficient salon business.

Avoiding procrastination is also very important and can effect your finances, time management and even reputation.

Using your time well when you have a late cancellation or no-show is another way to keep abreast of all the tasks that need doing in your workday. 

Automating your salon with software like Neko can be so helpful in saving you time, streamlining your business and increasing profits. 

Well, I hope you have a greater understanding of time management, and you will implement some of the strategies discussed to help propel your business forward. 

At Neko, we enjoy imparting useful business knowledge to our clients. 

So if you have any particular business topics that you would like more information on, let us know by commenting below.

If your salon isn’t already using Neko Salon Software, its time to get on board! So you can streamline your business and improve your time management.

Why not try it for yourself. Sign up today for a free 14-day trial. https://www.getneko.com/free-trial/

Free email support is provided as part of every subscription, so getting started is super easy.  

Are you already using another software system? No worries, we will migrate all your data into our system, so you are ready to go. 

Neko Salon Software is the simple and affordable key to making your business brilliant.

No hidden fees! No contracts! Only pay for what you need!