It doesn't suffice to be great at your profession... You can't neglect management, and you need to learn how to do it effectively

Whether you feel confident that you master the skills, or you are fulfilling a dream you had for decades, starting a new salon will mean you will start a whole new lifestyle. The lifestyle of a business manager.

This means you'll need to learn how to effectively manage all the moving pieces of your salon. Since this is not an easy task, we decided to write a blog post to help you with our top tips for being an effective manager and not the dreaded micromanager.

Build a positive atmosphere

• Surround yourself with positive people and don't give attention to negativity– it is amazing how much money you can earn when you love what you do. 
• Under promise and over deliver with your clients. 
• Be organized and don’t forget to take time to relax and recharge your batteries. 
• Take pride in your appearance and in the appearance of your salon. 
• Compliment people, staff, and clients sincerely. 
• Treat everyone who walks in your door as a potential client. 
• Don’t worry about lack of money – instead, work on making money. 
• Be open to new and innovative ideas. 
• Be completely honest and ethical in every dealing you have. 

Effectively manage your time

Learning to run your business more effectively can have a very real impact. Not just for your business, but on your life as a whole. If you are in a peaceful state of mind, you have the energy to assure your customers will be able to relax and experience your expertise without feeling your stress subconsciously passed on to them.

Most beauty salon owners and managers find themselves stretched for time, yet having to do more in order to stay competitive. It makes sense for managers to develop good time management habits. So that everything that needs to be done, gets done. 

To help you with this we have made a list of 10 tips to learn how to effectively manage your beauty salon.

1. Take control of your time. Decide now not to waste any of the precious time you have, and make this the month to start doing what you want with your timeby following these guidelines.
2. Get yourself a week-at-a-glance calender. This can be an app but we strongly recommend a physical calendar since that tends to work better. Write everything you need to accomplish this week and cross them off when those tasks are done.
3. Learn to prioritize! Running a salon business, there are a million things that are urgent and seem like they need your immediate attention. But only a few things are actually vital that they need to be done right away. Train your eye to spot the vital things among the urgent ones.
4.Learn to say "No". You can't do everything that everyone is asking you. It's important to start saying no to interruptions! Realize you say no to the projects, not the person will make this a lot easier!
5. Work out what your hourly rate is and know what each minute of your time is worth. These thoughts and figures help you prioritize your activities and determine what and to whom you should be delegating. Anytime you are doing work that someone on your team could be doing just as well as you, you are losing money.
6. Learn how to effectively delegate the things you have to say no to. Pick the right person on your team to do it for you. Give them clear instructions, set a benchmark and a deadline, and let them do it.
7. Keep track of your time by 15-minute blocks for a week or 2 with a timesheet. Find out how see how you actually spend your time. Is this what you want or should be spending your time on? If not, you know where to make changes!
8.  Stop procrastinating. Many of us do though, but it is important to identify the reason behind it, so you can solve the right problem when dealing with your procrastination. 
9. Set clear goals, both personal and for the salon. They help you prioritizing and also make it easier to evaluate your activities and effectiveness
10. The key is to to schedule your priorities and not to prioritize what is on your schedule!