Salon victoria my journey!

Well my vision dream passion is in constant ever changing flux from the journey below. To the personal journey and challenges I know work on.

For me now education sharing experience and knowledge is part of my every day the reward thus far all the positive feed back i get.
The challenge learning to write and present in a better more articulate fashion but also learning more and more skills on the computer.
My day starts at around 6am get up coffee whilst my wife gets ready for work my online day of sharing working on my next topic and replying to comments left.
I think that as Karen say's that jump out of bed what's next feeling is key to making things happen. staying and being positive.It is so easy to get up and in a few short moments set the pattern for how your day will unfold. We all chose or are responsible for out day it will either be good or bad.
Each and every day is an unscripted play for us all. we are not the producers or directors just player's each encounter is just another scene it that play that is today. However this play runs is dependant on our performance the role we play.
Although now i don't have a salon i still remain current and active. When i was last  actively doing education and platform work i also kept my hand in with a small salon  this business model could easily be applied on a much larger scale

I decided to share my formula for what was a huge success for me In having and growing a one person home based hair dressing business.
The Key was and is to decide what it is you want to do . What hours do you want to work,  How many days a week. The type of clientele you want to attract. How much you need or want to make.
This may seem an odd way of doing things but trust me it worked.
In my cases I did not want to work week ends. I did not want to work late nights. I only wanted to do Hair colour. Colour correction . Razor cutting.  Oh ! Did i mention only on women. No men. No children.
At this point you may be shaking your head. It worked
How my client base grew was word of mouth amongst groups of women from all different walks of life . Professionals. House wives. Every profession you can think of from. Female Police officer to Dental assistant to Bank manageress !  They all had two things in common . They wanted great hair at a fair price. I did not encourage clients to bring children with them.
The thing they all had in common was at some point they all knew some one else who came to me. Why? Because they all helped to build my business through recommendation.
It became like a club they kept me busy. I kept them happy by offering a service of the highest standard that they could afford to maintain. How so? you might ask.  Well this is where it gets interesting.
Every client always got a consultation an up date. First time or new clients would have to come for a consultation prior to first appointment. For this they would pay $20.00 for half an hour it would be deducted from first appointment booked if we decided to work together.
I say this because in this consultation time some times due to personality issues, not wanting to listen or my take advise i would suggest i was not the right person they were not ready for my advise or approach and would be better off in a larger salon.  Question:Why would I? Spend time with someone I did not get on with or have a good feeling for or like.
My clients all knew that i did this and that a consultation did not guarantee appointment. They  all respected this and yes I did and do sack clients who wasted my time. Boundaries.
I also had a no exception 15 minute late rule. later than that then re book no exceptions.Why because the knock on effect of this would keep other clients waiting that is unfair.
This for the most part was not the case and to this day i still stay in touch with many of my clients whom i consider to be friends.
Back to business pricing consider this. How much are you worth? How much do you want to make!
Remember. I was  booked the hours i wanted to work every day. I charged by the Hour for everything.
This was in Canada so what ever it is in Dollars would be the same her in pounds. you choose your rate.
For me $50.00 an hour. I would think fair and maintainable so if you want a razor cut a one hour appointment $50.00 Cut and colour most of the time 2hrs highlights maybe 21/2 so  $100-$125 quite reasonable. If colour correction an unknown then we would just watch the clock.
I would only ever book one client at a time never an over lap most of the time i would do three clients a day. Remember I'm working form home and alone low over heads.
So most days given that most clients were cut and colour i turned over $300 that's $1500.00 wk
I kept a range of products and was very up top date with products and how they worked however i did not sell my choice no inventory low over heads.

Not selling them I would write out a prescription and directions and send them all to one place that sold products in high volume so had great prices. This supported a local business. It showed my clients that i was committed to what was best for them. In return they would go and buy the products because they had been professional recommended without strings.
A record card was kept for every client address  contacting information.
A record of hair history both on first meeting and on going
A record of formulation timing out come. time spent fee charged.
Why you ask . well apart from making it easy to adjust and change formulations when i came to move I sold my client list and records. 
So building up honest relationships having trust giving value for money can create a great business without having to over work staying in control having fun meeting some great people.
A business built on mutual respect skill knowledge and honesty.
This business  also enabled me pursue my other passion as a platform artist and hair colour educator for a major colour company.
Clients loved to hear about shows and education work it also showed them total industry commitment passion motivation.
My dream my journey but it could be yours so simple.

The E-booksbeing worked on will cover many aspects in depth on the above business model and journey.