Improvements....

As I have said before, I keep track of what I do for services each month. And, I compare it to this time last year. I use a 6 column ledger to do this. For this year, I allotted 2 full pages (front & back of 1, really) for this. We are headed into the last week of April...I'm not sure I'll have enough space to track everything!! :) This time last year, I saw 28 clients, 6 of which were clients who requested me (this is important). As of yesterday, I saw 50 clients, 32 of which requested me! WOO HOO!!!! A client asked Ginger (as they often do) if the salon was busy. Her standard reply is "Well, I'm always busy, booked every 1/2 hour all day long. However, the salon isn't busy." Very soon, I'm going to have the actual numbers in front of me to speak up and say " Well, compared to last year, I've almost doubled how many clients have been in my chair, and I'm currently $100 ahead of what I did for service sales this month last year, AND, my requests are over 4 times what they were last year." Just to be a smarty pants. Oh, yeah...and took in 15 new clients, most of which asked for my card so they can ask for me when they come in/call back. Yee frickin' Haw!!! I'm also still working on my color project...I think I mentioned how I'm collecting hair to make swatches out of??? As of right now, I've got everything made up. I do have duplicate colors...apparently everyone in this area is either a level 5 (lightest brown) or a level 6 (darkest blonde). I actually have a 5 x 7 envelope FULL of level 5, on top of the envelopes I have made up that I take to work with me every day, in the hopes that I can get some of these swatches colored at work, too!! I'm a big believer in my version of "Murphy's Law". Instead of "If anything can go wrong, it will", it's "If I bring something with me to occupy my time, I will fill in with clients." It's worked so far!! :) An example: I started Friday with one client...one of my sweet little old ladies that I absolutely ADORE. Then, I filled in with 5 more haircuts, a bang trim, and a brow wax. WOO HOO!!! I didn't leave until almost 8pm!! ( I never used to be there that late!!) On the "snothead" side of things: Evelyn is still not booked every day. Ginger must've said something to her, because now she is taking down clients addresses to send them a note (I'm presuming here) to find out where they've been. She's also been doing the call back list (something she NEVER used to do), as well as a lot of the cleaning. (washing the dishes, making the coffee...wait, brown water posing as coffee..even folding some laundry) The down side of things?? Poor Chrissy is getting terribly discouraged. She's not filling in very quickly. I've talked to her about what I do to get my clients in (send them reminder note cards), but, I guess she's not feeling that one. I have started passing out HER cards, too. We had a potential client come in the other day, asking about our skin care services. So, I gave her Chrissy's card (after writing her hours on it) and a brochure, so she could look things over at her leisure. I love Chrissy to death, don't get me wrong. I think she expects clients to just materialize out of thin air. Ever since I started, I've made sure my clients don't forget about me. There are some who do not respond to my cards, for whatever reason, but most do. And, that's how I keep my book somewhat filled. I'm thinking that's why Ginger is getting Evelyn to do this, as well. And, lastly, I have this fabulous client, who comes in every week to get her hair done. "Miss Georgia" is a wonderful lady who only has her hair dealt with in the salon. She's from Connecticut, and always points out (nicely, mind you) when I do something very different from what her other hairdresser does. Well, this very nice lady has fine hair that is not terribly abundant. So, she gets it colored every 5 weeks, it gets washed and styled (including TEASING) every week, and wants her hair permed every 3 months. So, I permed her hair yesterday. What a mistake that was. Her hair was fragile before I permed it, now it's even worse. This is SO not what I got into hairdressing to do. I get to have the talk with her this week about choosing her chemicals because her hair just cannot support all she's had done to it. She also takes medications for various things, and this all plays into the god-awful condition of her hair, even before I permed it. Right now, for the next few MONTHS, I'll be setting her hair on rollers and putting her under the dryer instead of blowing her dry and using the curling iron...her hair is THAT bad...chemical haircut waiting to happen. When I talked to Ginger about it, she, again, made the comment "well, you should've done this..." after remarking about seeing her hair. I wanted so badly to say to her, AGAIN, "so, why didn't you step in and say something???" Like she's done COUNTLESS times before??? So, I'm suspecting that Ginger is letting me make these mistakes, intentionally not stepping in until after the fact. Need to remember that. So. That was my week. How was yours???