The Salon Owner’s Manual

Most salons are not short of talent. They are short of a system.

The cutting is rarely the problem. The problem is the Tuesday with four empty chairs, the client who has not rebooked in nine months and nobody noticed, the color stock that runs out mid-appointment, and the price list that has not moved while everything behind it got more expensive.

This manual writes the business down. Every routine that keeps a salon moving — opening, closing, booking, rebooking, stock, pay, complaints, the weekly look at the numbers — is set out as a procedure someone else can follow, on a page you can hand them.

It assumes nothing about your training and everything about your time. The worksheets are meant to be written on, the numbers are meant to be your own, and the first thirty days are planned out so the change is something you do between clients rather than instead of them.

Inside, you will learn how to

• Run opening and closing the same way on every shift
• Turn a first-time client into a booked-in regular
• Price a service from what it actually costs you to deliver
• Cut no-shows without making loyal clients feel policed
• Know your busiest and deadest hours, and staff for both
• Read the four numbers that tell you how the month is going