Do you have a salon vision?
Have you thought about what you ultimately want to achieve as a salon owner?
As a salon owner, creating a salon vision of what you want to achieve with your business and how you are going to get there is crucial for success.
- What do you want?
- Where you are heading?
- How do you want to influence people?
- What do you aim to create?
- Who do you want to work with and serve?
Did you create a salon vision with your business plan? Did you create your business values, mission and goals, or map out a process, system and strategies to achieve your dreams?
This is your salon vision.
The big question is… is your salon vision shared by your team?
Have you or did you communicate to your team what you wanted to achieve with your business?
When hiring, did you find out if the prospective new team members shared the vision you have for your salon?
Have you worked together to create a direction and vision at salon team meetings?
Are you providing ongoing training for your team to ensure they bring their A-game and contribute what they can to make your salon vision successful?
Values equal culture. Is your salon culture a place where everyone prospers and succeeds?
Values equal culture. Is your salon culture a place where everyone prospers and succeeds?
What even is a salon vision?
There was something that inspired you to open your own salon.
A desire to showcase the kind of hairstyling and salon service that was aligned with your values and what you wanted customers to experience.
A culture and way of working that align with your values and beliefs.
Sharing that with your team is crucial. If this is an element missing from your team, now is the time to cement some solid values, a culture and direction to give your team a success path.
Creating a salon vision and culture
Creating a salon vision as a team will ensure everyone who works for your salon is contributing to a common goal. It highlights your values and priorities which you convey by your salon branding and marketing, plus the systems and procedures your salon operates under.
It should be the underlying directive by which every decision gets filtered, whether the boss is present or not. It provides consistency and a performance benchmark that is clear to everyone.
How do you treat the customers and each other? How do you work together as a team? What is everyone responsible for? What are everyone’s priorities? Is sustainability a priority?
You can talk about things like what music fits the vibe or how does your social media activity reflect your brand and its importance to your salon?
Get clear on procedural things like how you dispose of rubbish, phone communications, time spent on education and even the magazine choice, choice of products, time allocated for services and staff responsibilities.
Spend some time getting clear on your salon vision is if it has been a while or you just winged it at the start-up phase. You won’t regret it, it’s definitely time well spent.
Once you get clear on your salon vision, it should feel authentic. We are in the creative field so it can help to create something visual. If it fits with your vibe, make a vision board. It could be in the salon, your office, on Pinterest. Anywhere that works.
Does This Sound Familiar Salon Owner?
You’ve now spent 10 hours in the salon today, being pulled in every direction (by every client & team member), and the work you used to love has been replaced with an overwhelming desire for a day – or more – off…
What is a vision board?
A vision board is a space that displays what you desire.
Vision boards actually work and do you know why? When you create a vision board and place it somewhere, you often see it so you are doing a short visualisation exercise without even thinking about it!
Visualisation is powerful.
Use the imagination to create pictures and visions of what you want in your life and how these things make you feel. Along with focus, emotion and intention, it becomes a powerful tool to help us achieve what we want.
How to create a salon vision board with your team
Have a meeting earlier in the day. Make coffee, have fruit and scones… whatever your team love. Get them in a creative, positive mood.
We have taken salons through this at retreat team building days. It is an excellent time to put the hairstyling work to one side and dig deep on what you all want to achieve.
Explain that you want everyone in the team to create a salon vision and why it is important to you, the salon owner, to implement this.
Take some time and go through magazines and tear out images, quotes and words that inspire them in the salon. Get everyone to pick some favourites. This can be quite revealing… you might be surprised about what drives and motivates some people you thought you knew quite well.
Ask them to keep the salon in mind when choosing for this exercise. You can always have a personal vision board for each team member too to express their wants and dreams in the salon.
Once the vision board is complete, place it in a communal area where you can see it multiple times throughout the day. Take a photo of the board and save it to your computer wallpaper or home screen of the salon iPad.
Hold the vision, trust the process
Team-building takes time, but see it as an investment
Building your salon tribe reaps rewards for your business, but most importantly your customers will receive the benefits.
A salon with focus and direction is one they will enjoy spending their time and money in. You will create loyal customers who recommend your business and buy into what you stand for.
It’s a place everyone will enjoy coming to and working at… one that contributes to the betterment of everyone’s lives.
Do you have strong leadership skills at your team meetings? Read our blog about productive team meetings here.
If you want to create your dream salon owner life
Get your copy of my Salon Leadership Library
There are ‘Done For You’ Interview Questions so you know the right questions to ask to build a team for success, a Leadership Goal Setting Guide so you can ask yourself the right questions to build your dream salon owner life, and a Leadership Skills Tool to help you become the leader your salon needs for success.
Thanks for the inspiring article.
All I can do is add the miracle question: “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
Thanks for the feedback:)