The Top TEN ways to kick off your 2025 was the MOST downloaded episode to date! Go give it a listen and what things did you stick to so far? What needs to change or stay the same! Tell me what has been working for you!

00:00:05 ]Welcome to the Hair Hustle Podcast. I' m Heather

Podlesney, your salon coach dedicated to helping stylists master the business

side of beauty. Whether you' re starting your journey behind the chair or you'

re a seasoned pro looking to level up, this podcast is for you. Each week we'

ll dive into the tips and tricks you need to run a successful salon business

with topics that will change the way you work and earn. From budgeting hacks to

help you keep more of what you make, to time management tips that will keep

your schedule stress-free, and the strategies for boosting your retail sales

and nailing that next promotion. Get ready to build your dream business without

burning out. Together we' ll cut through the noise and get to the root of what

makes your salon thrive.

[ 00:00:47

] So grab your shears,

turn up the volume, and let' s hustle. Hey, hey, welcome to episode six of the

Hair Hustle Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I definitely have to

celebrate a little bit with you. So with just five episodes, I have had almost

150 downloads. And so if you are here, I really truly want to say thank you so

much. If you feel like these are helping you in your hair career, please feel

free to share with any salon owner, any stylist. I am so happy to help and I' m

so happy you' re here. Let' s dive right into it. Today we are going to go a

little bit longer because we are going to talk about the end of the year

follow-up and coming up with a tracking guide for yourself.

[ 00:01:38

] One of the biggest

things that I have learned in my sales career is when you get to the end of the

year, it' s simply looking at everything that you' ve done over the year and

reflecting. In the beginning of the next year, it' s simply about what worked

really well and what didn' t. And reflecting on those two things can really

help you to be a little bit better in your business for 2025. With that, we ve

got about 10 different things. I know that that' s a lot for me, but they' re

all very important and it' s all something that I want you guys to take away.

So take one of them. Take two of them. Take three of them. Take four of them.

Take five of them.

[ 00:02:26

] Take all 10, whatever

you have to do. I want you to make sure that you are at least 1% to 2% better

after this episode and that this is something that you can implement for 2025.

We are coming up into November, which is so crazy and I know how busy each and

every one of you get behind the chair. That is why I feel like it' s important

to talk about it right now. This way, you can take it and as soon as the hustle

and bustle and craziness of being behind the chair during the holiday season

starts to fizzle, this is something that I want you to be able to take. Okay?

And maybe you don' t have a super hustly and bustly holiday season in the books

and that' s okay too.

[ 00:03:15

] Maybe it' s something

that you wanted. Maybe it' s something that you didn' t. However, if it' s not

super busy and it' s something that you wanted to be super busy, these are all

things that you can take and you can reflect on for 20/25 or maybe you can even

take them and reflect on them in your last three months and start implementing

them today. So let' s dive right into it. We are going to go over your year-

end follow- up and your tracking. So the first thing that we' re going to do is

pretty obvious. We are going to review and analyze our sales data. Wah, wah. I

know no one likes to talk about that. Here' s three things that we' re going to

do.

[ 00:03:55

] We' re going to look at

our top selling products. So if you' re a salon owner or a commissioned salon

owner, you are literally going to look at what SKUs in retail sold the most. We

want to break it down by, did you sell the most hair care? Did you sell the

most skin care, hair care, shampoos and conditioners? If you don' t know, that'

s okay. That' s why we' re here. Styling products. So that' s like your hair

sprays. That is your styling aid, your smoothing products, things like that.

We' re going to break down what categories sold the most. Next up, we' re going

to go into our top 10 SKUs. The most important thing about your top 10 SKUs is

if you do not have at least five to six back, which means five to six in

inventory or on your shelf, that' s what needs to happen for ' 25.

[ 00:04:42

] If you don' t have the

retail budget for it, we' re going to try to figure out how to get the retail

budget for it. We typically say we need at least two to three SKUs of each

product on your shelf. Why? Because no one wants to take the last one. So if you'

re a salon owner, you' re So typically three is what' s recommended. This was

shared with me years ago, and it' s one to show, one to go, and one to grow. So

even if you can only afford one to show and one to go, that' s what we need. So

we do not want onesies. We want at least two to three products. And then of

your top selling SKUs, you need at least six to eight.

[ 00:05:19

] Does that mean that if

you only have three of your top sellers, that' s terrible? Terrible? No, but

that' s just a goal that you need to build up to for 2025 for your retail area.

Next part is to track what happened with each of your promotions. I have a

really great year-end promotional calendar that is a freebie. Please, you can

reach out to me. I will actually leave the link right here in the show notes.

Please go grab that, and that actually takes you right into January and

February. You can start a promotion today with that sheet. And the other thing

that we' re going to get started with that promotion, that promotional sheet,

is we are going to then, after all of our promotions are done, we' re going to

look at how did each promotion go.

[ 00:06:01

] So if you' ve been

doing your promotions since January, it' s now November or December, how did

your January and February promotion go? Did you have to pivot? Did you try pick

a kiss in February and it was a flop? Did you try scratch-offs in March and it

was like, yes, we are doing this again? Great. So we' re going to go through

and analyze all of that data and our promotions. Do you have to be completely

tech-savvy for all of this? Absolutely not. When it comes to tracking

promotions, I always suggest at the end of each promotion, simply run your

reports on how sales went from this year to year prior, especially if you' re

new to this, and you can take handwritten notes.

[ 00:06:46

] You can put them on

your laptop in one file, whatever it is that you need. It does not have to be.

It doesn' t have to be crazy, but those are all things that you' re going to

want to track. Also, on that promotional planner and you' re tracking that success,

it' s not just retail. You also need to be checking out your add-on services.

Did you do an add-on service in that time period and how did it go? Did you

maybe have too many things going on in that time frame that no one even focused

on the service promotion? Or was a specific service promotion a complete

success and then you look at the product line and realize, it was a super

success in March, but here we were in August and that line completely died down

in our sales.

[ 00:07:32

] Did we just stop

talking about it? Do we need to have two animations a year along with that

service? Do we need to have two animations a year with that service add-on? All

of those things, we need to sit down and we need to figure out so that we can

come up with a really great plan for 2025. The next step in your year-end

follow-up is going to be about your clients. We' re actually going to gather

our client and guest data and any insights that we need to know. There' s a

couple of things here. We do need to make sure that we' re running reports for

this one specifically. We' re going to look at all of our clients.

[ 00:08:07

] We want to look at our

top-selling guests because that' s also something we could do some type of a

campaign even now. If we looked at our top-selling guests and we did a

gratitude campaign for our top 10, top 20 guests, that' s always really fun.

They could get entered to win something. We want to make sure that they' re

getting a credit. It' s something that just makes people feel good. Is it going

to drive sales necessarily? It will drive a positive outlook around your

business and if you have the budget to do so it will drive sales in the future.

Is it going to have like that turnaround return? It' s not. So, if that

Something that you need, maybe that isn' t somethin...