Key Things to Consider when Opening a Salon

When starting a salon there are a lot of things to consider before opening shop. Things like how you want to come across to your customers, how you want to spread the word about your salon through marketing, the feel of your salon interior, what staff you are wanting to hire, and keeping up to date with bookings. This blog will talk through some of these things that are important to mull over before opening.

Clear Vision

It’s important, when opening a salon, that you have a clear idea of what you’re wanting within the salon. What is your USP? Maybe it could be that your salon is eco-friendly, or that you specialise in treatments for special occasions such as weddings. Maybe that your tanning treatments are super safe and have looked into avoiding the dangers of UV exposure. Or maybe you already know what your USP is… that’s great! 

Branding & Marketing

Branding & Marketing is also a key way to engage with your customers. A striking brand with bold colours can attract customers and marketing is also key to keep customers up to date with offers you have on within the salon and to let customers know about their upcoming appointments. With our Salon Tracker software we offer a marketing suite with marketing suggestions as well as an option to customise your own, if you so wish.

Ambience and Atmosphere

Customers come into a salon for an experience, so thinking ahead about how the atmosphere is within your salon is crucial. For example, having the right colour scheme within the salon interior, having comfortable chairs, and ensuring that customers feel relaxed and enjoy their time in your salon, making them want to keep coming back for more.

Staff and Hiring

Having professional and well-trained staff is also beneficial to your salon as it ensures the treatments that your customers have will be done by professionals and you will have no stress or any issues with the appointments. However, if you are planning on training staff then it is important to think about how to manage your time for this before opening your salon. At Salon Tracker we offer free staff training, so you can tick that one off your list!

Staying organised

Finally, an important part of opening a salon is keeping on top of your bookings and staying organised. With our Salon Tracker software we make this step super easy! Features in our software such as the bookings tab include a calendar view so you can easily see your bookings, and our software can store the customer’s information within the database to make it easy to book them in for the future.

I hope that this blog has helped you with a few things that are necessary when opening a salon, and has given you some ideas for what you could do if you decide to open one.

If you’re interested in getting booked in for a look at our services in a FREE demonstration or a FREE two-week trial, please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0113 350 8230 or emailing us on info@salontracker.co.uk.

 

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How Hiring Apprentices can Benefit your Business

Here at Salon Tracker, we believe in the value that apprentices can add to a business. Many of our staff members have been through or are currently going through a degree apprenticeship through Salon Tracker which has been beneficial to both the individual and the business alike!

Apprentices can be beneficial to all types of businesses, from office environments to beauty salons! In this blog we will explain different ways that apprenticeships can benefit your business.

Government funded training  When you hire an apprentice for your business, you may think that this would come with a lot of costs, but this is where you’re wrong! The government will pay 95% of the costs of an apprenticeship, making it a cost-effective way to produce skilled employees. This means that you will be able to develop the skills in your workforce in order to transform your organisation, at a fraction of the cost of other types of training. 

Diversify your workforce 

Because apprenticeships allow individuals to earn an income while studying their qualification, it is attractive and available for a broader range of people, as not everyone can afford traditional methods of gaining qualifications or be able to study full time. This opens up a wider range of people that you will be able to hire, making your workplace more diversified and bringing in fresh minds with new ideas! 

Training tailored to your business 

Unlike a traditional qualification, an apprenticeship will be tailored to your business, with the apprentice’s off-the-job training being relevant to your needs. This allows the apprentice to understand your organisation in greater depth, which will allow them to exceed in their job role. Research shows that 86% of employers say that apprenticeships have helped to develop skills relevant to their organisation.  

Improved staff retention 

Research shows that 69% of companies reported improved staff retention since hiring apprentices. Generally speaking, apprentices seem to be more loyal to the business and more motivated to learn and implement new skills into the workplace. Giving your employees the chance to learn new skills via an apprenticeship has been shown to increase job satisfaction, which in turn increases staff retention as they are happier in their job. This also decreases the cost of recruiting as you won’t have to do this as often due to retaining staff better. 

Developing new skills in your workforce 

Apprenticeships can help to develop professional skills in your workplace which will increase productivity and improve business performance. The combination of on-the-job and classroom learning enables apprentices to put into practice new skills as they advance, which allows you to develop a more highly skilled workforce even in the short-term, with skills getting more developed throughout the journey of the apprenticeship. This then boosts the talent in your organisation so that employees can make valuable contributions. 

Boost Productivity 

Apprenticeships can be a great help in boosting productivity in the workplace in many ways. When you first hire an apprentice, due to the training that they receive, the minimum wage is lower, which can make this a cost-effective way to increase the number of employees in your business, allowing an improvement in productivity for lower costs. Also, as apprentices progress through their course, the skills that they develop will be implemented into your business and they will be able to work more efficiently and to a higher standard, increasing the productivity per employee. There is supporting research which shows that 78% of businesses found that their productivity improved after hiring apprentices and 74% saying that apprenticeships have helped to improve the quality of their product or service. 

 

But don’t just take our word for it; this is what some of our past and present apprentices have to say: 

Elyse: “I am currently starting the 2nd year of my apprenticeship here at Salon Tracker and, so far, I have really enjoyed it. The apprenticeship has made me feel more confident at work and has allowed me to contribute new ideas backed up by things I’ve learnt.” 

Leah: “I finished my apprenticeship with Salon Tracker a few years ago and found that it has helped me a lot with progressing in the business up to my role as head of sales and marketing. The apprenticeship has greatly developed my understanding of business and allowed me to excel in my position and bring in new ideas.” 

Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular in many types of businesses, why not consider it for yours? 

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5 Salon Tracker reports that will change your life!

 

On Salon Tracker, there are over 40 different reports that can help your business, but have you used them all? Today we are going to go through 5 of our favourite reports and how they will benefit your business. 

Action Log 

The action log is one of the most useful reports on Salon Tracker as it will show you every action that has been performed on Salon Tracker, accounting for every second from when you open Salon Tracker, to when you shut it down! It also tells you which user was logged in at the time. All of this means that you can have peace of mind when you’re not in the salon, knowing that you’ll be able to check every action whenever you need.  

 

Day End 

The day end receipt is a great summary of the day at your salon, including a breakdown of sales taken from bookings or retail products, customers that have been in, a summary of your bookable items (sunbeds or beauticians e.g.) and much more! This report is great for every day use to be able to see how your business is performing at a glance, day-by-day.  

 

Service Minutes Remaining by Customer 

This report allows you to see your customer list and how many minutes they have left to use on the sunbeds. This is great to be able to see which customers have minutes on their accounts and when those minutes expire. It is a lot quicker to see customers’ minutes from this report rather than having to individually look at everyone’s customer cards to see their remaining minutes so it will save you time so that you can focus on other things. 

 

Stock Check/Stock Levels 

The stock reports are extremely useful for monitoring the stock levels of your products in the salon. With the stock check report, you can use this to physically count how many of each product you have in the salon, and then compare it against the stock level report which tells you how many of each product there should be so that you can see if there’s any discrepancies between the two. This is extremely useful as if the levels counted were different, you would be able to identify this and then look into why and notice if it is a continuous occurrence.

 

Sales/Bookings by Day Chart  

On the sales by day chart, you will be able to see your total sales, booking sales and retail sales split up by day. This is very useful for identifying which days your salon performs best, which could help you adjust different components in your business to bring the sales up on the under performing days. This can be used alongside the bookings by day chart which shows how many bookings have been made on each day of the week, including charts for cancellations and no shows. By using these reports, you will be able to identify your strongest and weakest days for business. 

If you would like to have a look at all of the reports that Salon Tracker has to offer or want to go through any reports you are unsure on just give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or email us at info@salontracker.co.uk.

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