Starting up a salon can feel like a lonely experience. Owning a business is stressful at the best of times, and when you feel as though the business’s success is squarely on your shoulders, you may start to feel overwhelmed. Plus, there are so many decisions to make. Having someone to help you to develop ideas is vital.
Why Use a Salon Mentor
- Take Advantage of Learned Experience
Working with someone who has already walked down this path is an incredible resource. Of course, you will make mistakes along the way. You are trying to grow your business, and each business is unique. However, there are some mistakes that you can avoid by learning from the wisdom of someone a little further ahead of you.
Take time to find a mentor with some experience and listen to their stories – you can learn more about the specific pitfalls of running a salon and avoid some crucial mistakes along the way.
- Learn the Specifics
You can’t see into the future, so it’s hard to know what to expect in the early days. How much money can you expect to make? How much should you spend on advertising? What training should you provide for your employees? If you are self-employed, how do you manage taxes? What rates should you charge? These specific questions can be tough to research online, but speaking to a mentor can help to give you a more realistic idea of what to expect.
- Set Goals
You can ask your mentor to help you set goals for your salon. Having specific, actionable goals can help you make the right decisions to grow your business. It is much easier to do this if you’re working with an experienced salon owner. You could ask them to sit down with you and write realistic goals for your first few years, or you can write them yourself and ask them to check them.
- Make Decisions
As we said, there are many decisions, small and large, to be made along the way. While some of these decisions (colour schemes for your salon, anyone?) can be fun and exciting, others can be confusing and stressful. A mentor can help you to make smart decisions based on their own experience. You will still have complete control, but you will be able to work smarter along the way.
- Feel Connected
Finally, having a mentor can help you to feel connected to other people in the industry. Being a boss – or being self-employed – can be lonely and isolating, and it can also be overwhelming and stressful at times. Having a connection with someone else who understands how you feel can be a vital tool to help you stay afloat in challenging times and can provide you with a broader link to others in the industry, too.