Is it time to close your salon on Saturdays?
Should salons close on Saturdays? This question must seem like the obvious answer is no, but is it really?
In the salon world, it is tradition to make sure every staff member works the Saturday shift because Saturdays are the busiest and high earning days of the week, right? Well our statistics tell us otherwise!
It has been reported that there are a lot of salons that find that Saturdays are the third if not fourth busiest day of the week. If you actually think about it, what day of the week earns the least or usually goes wrong? Staff members calling in sick, clients are not wanting to buy any retail products because they’re in ‘’out out’’ mode; and did you know that clients are much less likely to tip! This is because on a Saturday, they want to keep hold of their loose cash to use for their Saturday night out!
We know that even our clients plans can go wrong from time to time, and so whats the first thing they go and cancel if their Saturday night plans are cancelled… you guessed it!
What is the atmosphere like on a Saturday in the salon? How are your staff doing?
Working in a salon can be both mentally and physically draining. By taking Saturday’s off the rota, this can massively improve your staff’s productivity levels, and mental health. You’ll find that staff relationships would be better and stronger, the atmosphere will be much more positive, your staff will seem brighter and more energised - all because they had a full weekend to themselves, which means they start a brand new week with you much more fully present, and ready to give their job their all.
Taking away Saturday’s is incredibly bold, daring, and very scary for salon owner, so this is what we would suggest:
💅🏼 Do the numbers, how do they stack on a Saturday compared to your other days in the diary?
💅🏼 Open this conversation of POTENTIALLY closing on Saturdays with your team, if the numbers are not where you’d like them to be, maybe suggest that you trial closing Saturdays for a month?!
💅🏼 Introduce a couple of extra late nights mid-week, to allow the shift in your working hours to be managed. Again, talk to your team about this idea, would they be willing to work longer hours in the week to have their Saturdays to themselves
💅🏼 Important! Be prepared to maybe loose clients that simply cannot make it any other day to you than a Saturday. Remember to drive this decision with intelligence, not emotion!
Finally, like most things when it comes to clients, they need to be told, and then need a little time to change their habits. As for your team, we all know that a busy team is a happy team!
By consolidating some of their hours in to longer days, you may find your salon being more profitable, and you, you get one step closer to a work life balance :)
