My hairdresser, Guy, is great at cutting and colouring hair but he is hopeless at training and managing staff. So hopeless in fact, that except for a lone hairwasher-tea-maker-general–sweeper-upper he works alone in his salon. And he makes more profit than ever.
How has he done that? By skilfully changing his business model.
In the old days, Guy made money in the traditional hairdresser sense by having a team of hairdressers working for him and a sizeable salon. Now he works alone looking after one client at a time.
So how does he make money? By selling niche, luxury, hard-to-find skin care and cosmetics to his customers.
Because Guy isn’t running around managing staff, he can devote himself entirely to his clients. This gives him ample opportunity to showcase his products and persuade his clients that they can’t possibly live without Tracie Martyn cleanser and Eve Lom lip balm. Guy is so successful that his average client now leaves his salon having spent 150% more on product than they did on their hair cut and colour.
Guy’s new model works for lots of reasons: the products that he sells earn him a very high margin; his clients trust that he will sell them only the best and he has the ultimate captive audience – the client is rather stuck in the chair/under the heater/prone at the basin.
When Guy had staff they were a cost to the business - he couldn’t keep them long enough to be useful. But now that he has no staff, he runs a smaller salon, has fewer clients and makes more money than ever.
So, if something isn’t working for you in your business, don’t just accept that you have to do it that way. Instead, think about how you can change your business model to make the business suit you. After all if a hairdresser can run a business with no staff, imagine what you might be able to do.