The concept of isolating the entire professional hair industry from its clients for an indeterminate period of time is very hard for us to get our heads around. Here’s how to optimize the time you have now, in preparation for the big day!
1. Stay in training –even on dummy heads– by experimenting with new cutting, color and styling techniques.
2. Remember your supply chains: manufacturers have been continuing to research and develop new products and launches are still going to happen. Ensure you’re still first to have them available in your salon.
3. Do a salon health check by evaluating your service menu, the retailing opportunities and the partnership services you have on offer. Decide where to optimise and what to invest more in.
4. The Coronavirus will bite deep into our psyche, so long after it has left us, it’s likely that a certain degree paranoia will remain, particularly in terms on enhanced hygiene practices. Revise your sanitation protocols in good time for your salon reopening, so you can meet your clients’ fears head on.
5. Re-opening will be a very busy time for you – bookings will go through the roof. Will you need to reorganize your interior salon space to ensure personalization and privacy?
6. Evaluate your salon interior and design: it may be useful in this period to contact an architect, if only to get more of an idea from a professional point of view.
7. Your salon premises still have one great ‘window of opportunity’ – their windows! Make sure yours still look their best, despite the fact there are much fewer passers-by these days.
8. Consult a trusted accountant every time the media announce concessions, deductions, relief, suspension of payments, instalments, loans, lay-offs …stay ahead of the game of where you stand legislatively.
9. Expect an onslaught of bookings when you do re-open. Think about how you can increase your opening hours to accommodate such a large number of client requests.
10. Schedule innovative events, new campaigns, new types or methods of services to be offered to customers upon reopening.