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How'd you keep your business running....

3 replies

LAT1980 · 02/01/2010 15:59

Hi All

I am 3 months pregnant with 1st baby I own a small hair salon with one full time stylist & one stylist who "rents a chair". The salon is doing well & I have been trading for 3 yrs in April.
I am the main bread winner & solely responsible for all business & personal (mortgage etc) expenses & so can not afford to be off work for long. At the moment I am hoping for a whole 4 weeks!!!) My full time stylist has been with me 6 months & so is therefore still building her own client base & some of my customers will be a nightmare to "pass over" even if its just for one or two appointments. Im just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation & how you kept the business going while you were off? Hairdressing is a funny & very fickle business & I have so many existing customers who have come to me as a result of their regular stylist being on maternity leave. I dont want to take a new stylist on whilst I am off as that is another new face to add to the mix & do not think it would be financially viable anyway (& dont think anyone would be happy with a 4 week contract!)I just hope everything goes smoothly ie no c section/complications.
I have already started saving to try get a few months worth of wages/bill money under my belt so I dont have to worry too much......any advice or suggestions on this would be really appreciated

OP posts:
MarketingConsultant · 06/01/2010 19:53

My advice would be to concentrate firstly on the existing clients, to try to make sure you don't lose any. Make sure you communicate with them, tell them when you're leaving (my hairdresser didn't, so I missed out) and when you're coming back, and tell them that you are coming back to reassure them.

Start collecting their email addresses - and contact details. Email them a month before you go on leave to fit in their last-minute appointments; email them to tell them about the baby - and your expected return date - make it about them, not about you; and email them when you're back again.

Then think about gaining some new clients to make up for any possible shortfall. Prepare a postcard or a flyer (Vistaprint is cheap if you want to design your own; moo.com do some lovely little mini cards you could put round). Spend a little bit of money and have it delivered to local addresses. there are companies that deliver for as little as 2p or 3p per flyer - or just do it yourself at the weekends - a few hundred at a time. If you include some form of offer on the flyer, you will get abetter response. Perhaps something like £5 off a cut/blow dry or something??

One thing to consider might be that you work one or two days for the first few weeks back. Could you manage to schedule people in in advance to fit your likely timings? So that you have a fully booked diary for when you come back?

The more you can do in the next few months to build up a solid, loyal following, the better. You may well lose a few clients once you've had the baby, but if you've built up your client base to more than it was anyway, then you should be OK.

Good luck.

hatwoman · 07/01/2010 16:45

MC's ideas are good. what proportion of your current work is with regulars? if they make up say 1 or 2 days a week would you consider coming back sooner but just for one/two days which you would then reserve for regulars? (you could let them know this in advance, as per MC's ideas) and then pass ad hoc or new customers to one of the other stylists.

LAT1980 · 07/01/2010 18:32

Hi Guys
Thanks for your responses...I could probably fit my weekly regulars into 1 1/2 days. The majority of my customers at present stick to their 4/6/8 weekly appointments & so therefore Im always booked in advance. I think the main thing I am worried about is the run up to the birth & the following few weeks...if for example I could say "right..on 1st July Im giving birth,will be straight home & then 4 weeks on I'll be back in working my new hours" then that would be fine. However, obviously it's not going to work like that!

I will definitely be putting leaflets round & keeping my regulars up to date. Im asking a few at the moment to try my other stylist & making up all sorts of excuses as they know they have set appointments with me every week at their specific time & I am not known to mess appointments up. I have not told many customers that I am pregnant as I am also conscious of the opposing salon taking advantage of the time I will be off (paranoid?...maybe!)

It's nice to know Im thinking the same way as everyone else. Any other comments/suggestions would be welcome

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