Grab a pen and notepad! 

We have some good information for you below.

But real quick...

How do you know where you are on your journey if you are NOT keeping track of where you've been, and where you are at now?

How do you determine if an ad you are running is successful or not, if you aren't tracking the results, and the guests who are coming in because of the ad?

These are some REAL questions we urge you to consider, and while you do, we'll give you a break down on why we feel tracking is essential to your business.

You see, when running your business behind the chair, there are many things to consider, and many things you should be tracking to help keep you on the right path of healthy growth.

I don't have nearly the amount of time or words to dip into everything you should be tracking, but I do have some extra important points, along with why we take the time to track these things. I am going to delve into three big tracking points today.
- First, what types of clients you are seeing/servicing.
- Second, a break down of your total sales.
- Third, how much of those sales are you averaging per guest.

There are some other very important things to be tracking such as how many chemical services you are doing, how many add-ons, pre-book percentage, etc., but I think those three items will begin to paint a picture of what you are missing out on if you aren't accurately tracking these things.

What types of clients are you servicing?
In other words, how many of your clients you are taking care of have you seen before? How many of them are new clients who found you through internet searches, or because they were shopping next door? How many clients found you from a social media post you made, or from one of your other guests telling their friends about you? This may sound trivial to track, however when you know where your guests come from, you learn some priceless information.

Did you know that a referral client, or one who hears about you from word of mouth, or from directly communicating with, or following you, is 40%  more likely to return to you, than a new client who stumbled upon you unintentionally.

The average retention of a new guest is 30%, while the average retention of a referral guest is 70%.  Knowing this, I want to make sure that I am focusing on my referrals, instead of marketing myself/my salon towards walk ins. Walk ins are great to help you in the day to day, but they aren't a reliable source to consider for a foundation of your business. So, in order to grow your referral count, and increase the retention of guests in your salon, you must first know what types of guests you are servicing.

We break ours down into 4 simple groups for tracking:

1. New Guests - Never been to the salon before, don't have a preference of which stylist they see. Found you through impersonal means such as google, shopping/eating next door, or a sale.
2. Referral Guests - This is a new guest who requests to see you, or a specific stylist. They have been sent to you through a friend, social media post, or a line of communication you established personally.
3. Repeat/Request Guest - This is a returning guests who prefers to see one particular stylist.
4. Salon/Shop Guest - This is a returning guest who loves the environment of the salon, and does not have a preference of which stylist does their service. They will see whoever is available at the time most convenient for themselves.

Breaking down your sales can be a daunting task, but knowing how you or your business are performing, and the effect each area can have, can help you put your resources into the places which can be the most profitable, and beneficial for your business.

When we break down sales we break them into three big categories:

Services
Retail
Gift Card Sales.

Service Sales:
Service dollars that come in are, in reality, your least profitable area of income. With your service dollars you should be restocking inventory on your backbar (styling products, color, lightener, developer, etc.), paying overhead costs (rent, utilities, maintenance), paying staff members, the cost of subscriptions (booking software, magazines, Pandora, etc.), taxes, all that good necessary stuff.

Retail Sales:
Your retail sales will have the largest margin of profit. Roughly 50% of your retail sales will go back into purchasing replacement products, and 10-20% depending on your environment will go to the staff member for a commission, and depending on your state you also need to pay sales tax, but the remaining 25-40% is profit.

Gift Card Sales:
Gift Card sales will help with an immediate cash flow issue, but should also be considered similarly to service sales, with the exception of it can be used in either service or retail. Gift card sales are great because they can also guarantee that your guests will be back! They have basically pre-paid for their next visit, or friend's visit, so why wouldn't they return?

See the picture I am painting?

It is important to know how your money is coming in, so you can budget and plan accordingly to be able to handle all areas of your business, and with the proper focus and investment you can learn which areas need the most attention to help you make the most money.

If you worry too much on increasing your service sales you will likely find yourself in a struggling situation where you are making plenty of money, but nearly all has to go back into the business.

Last, but not least, knowing your average sales per guest. This comes in a couple forms, what is your average service ticket for each guest, and what is your average retail sales per guest?

This information comes in handy when you are trying to determine how much you can/should spend on advertising, how many guests do you need to bring in to reach your goal, are you performing as expected for your business. These averages provide you the opportunity to know if you as a company should be doing better with the clients you have, or would you do best to increase the actual number of guests you are servicing? All three of these things, and all other areas of your business, are so important to track. If you are failing to track your business you are unable to know if you hit your goals, you are unable to make plans for big changes, and notate achievements.

We as an industry want to show the world, and community that we are real business people that are making educated moves, and making big plans that we are going to accomplish, and tracking is an essential step on that journey

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If you ever have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out! You can email us at support@innovativelooks.net or text us at 281-800-4770.

     P.S. the most common licensed retailer of beauty products is ULTA, and we get it they have amazing deals, if you do want to support your stylist, but you can get the product cheaper at ULTA, ask your stylist if they will price match for you. Not all will, but they should always appreciate the gesture that you want to support them and you are being clear about why. Even if we can't we still appreciate that you are using REAL products that are quality guaranteed by being non-diverted.