Should nail & beauty salons close on Saturdays?
By Guest Writer | 18 February 2022 | Expert Advice, Feature
Layla Tourh, founder of The Beauty Boss Academy & The Creative Beauty Group, shares her thoughts on salons closing their doors at peak times…
Should salons close on Saturdays? This question must seem like the obvious answer is ‘no’, but is it really?
In the salon world, it is pretty standard for every staff member to work a Saturday shift because Saturdays are the busiest and high earning days of the week, right? Well our statistics tell us otherwise!
It has been reported that there are a lot of salons find that Saturdays are the third, if not fourth, busiest day of the week. If you actually think about it, what day of the week earns the least or usually goes wrong? Staff members calling in sick, clients are not wanting to buy any retail products because they’re in ‘out out’’ mode; and did you know that clients are much less likely to tip? This is because on a Saturday, they want to keep hold of their loose cash to use for their Saturday night out!
We know that even our client’s plans can go wrong from time to time, and so whats the first thing they go and cancel if their Saturday night plans are cancelled? You guessed it!
What is the atmosphere like on a Saturday in the salon? How are your staff members doing?
Working in a salon can be both mentally and physically draining. Taking Saturdays off the rota can improve your staff’s motivation and mental health. You’ll find that staff relationships may be better and stronger, the atmosphere will be much more positive and your staff will seem brighter and more energised because they had a full weekend to themselves, which means they start a brand new week with you feeling more productive.
Taking away Saturdays is incredibly bold, daring, and very scary for salon owners. So this is what I would suggest:
- Do the numbers, how do they stack on a Saturday compared to your other days in the diary?
- Open this conversation of potentially closing on Saturdays with your team. If the numbers are not where you’d like them to be, maybe suggest that you trial it for a month?
- Introduce a couple of extra late nights mid-week, to allow the shift in your working hours to be managed. Again, talk to your team about this idea, and ask if they would be willing to work longer hours in the week to have their Saturdays to themselves.
- Important! Be prepared to maybe lose clients that simply cannot make it any other day to you than a Saturday. Remember to drive this decision with intelligence; not emotion.
Finally, like most things when it comes to clients, they need to be told, and then need a little time to change their habits. As for your team, we all know that a busy team is a happy team! By consolidating some of their hours into longer days, you may find your salon being more profitable, and you, you get step closer to a better work/life balance.