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Salons are some of the busiest, most hectic, and most difficult to manage businesses in today’s world. A salon with, say, ten to fifteen stylists can run through hundreds of appointments a day and process millions of dollars in revenue a year. Of course, this makes the salon industry one of the most competitive to operate in, and a lot of these businesses just won’t make the cut.
Of the salons that do grow, thrive, and succeed, it seems that several have one interesting thing in common: they all invest heavily in a software system that fits their specific business needs. Like any other business, not all salons are created equal, which makes it difficult for a salon owner or manager to pick a software platform at random and make it work.
Not doing the right amount of research is the first mistake that many salons make when choosing a software system. A salon owner will do a quick search for salon software, and he or she will choose the first result that pops up as long as the rep answers the phone. To make salon software work for you, you need to work hard at outlining your needs as a business owner and digging deep for a system that will fulfill these needs.
The second mistake that salons tend to make during the software selection process is underestimating the features they might need in the system. In this case, many salon owners are afraid of taking a risk with an innovative, new system that might include such features as online booking, look book, or other functions that have traditionally been done by hand. If you put effort into learning how these features can help automate some parts of your business, your operations will run more efficiently and your customers will have an improved overall experience.
As an extra note, I’ll go ahead and throw in a third mistake that business owners make when choosing salon software: not choosing any at all! This is the 21st century, and if you think your business can survive without a salon software system, you’re definitely in for a surprise. Trust me when I say that all of your competitors are using some kind of computer system, and the longer you wait to implement one within your business, the faster you’re going to be left in the dust.
The sooner you start looking for the right salon software for you, the sooner you’ll see a huge improvement in the way you run your business.
