Running a business is no easy feat. If you’ve ever had one of those days where you’ve missed an appointment, run out of product, forgot to pay a bill, had a stylist call out sick, and tripped over a pile of cords while running out the door to pick up your kids, you know what a hot-mess day feels like. Being the boss is not for the faint of heart, but it’s all worth it in the end when you have the right plan in place. Our little secret: Staying organized is key.

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While we can’t guarantee you’ll never have another one of those days again, we have a few ideas to make them fewer and farther between. Ahead, we share five ways you can create a more sorted-out salon, from your retail shelves to your expense reports.   

1. Organize Your Schedule by Getting Your Calendar in Check

One of the best things you can do to keep yourself and your salon in line is to tackle your time management. GlossGenius offers the most advanced two-way calendar sync to make your client booking convenient and your work/life balance manageable. With our all-in-one salon solution, you can easily connect scheduled events from your personal calendar directly into our app. Plus, you can integrate bookings from GlossGenius right into your Outlook, Google Calendar, or iCal. Syncing this way is ultra-convenient because you’ll have one-stop access to every life event without having to toggle back and forth between different calendars. Whether you’re scheduling clients, planning a happy hour, or blocking off time to do your expenses, nothing gets lost in the shuffle. 

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2. Organize Your Space by Maintaining a Consistent Aesthetic

Not only should you take the time to curate your space in a way that says something about you, but your salon should also be designed to help with your productivity and workflow. With the proper attention to detail and functional storage systems, you can keep your space looking sleek and keep your cleaning routines low-maintenance.

Use labels: How you want to organize your tools and products is up to you – by purpose, by color, by frequency of use – but whatever you decide, it’s a good idea to label the drawer or shelf by those categories so you won’t be endlessly digging through drawers or guessing which container your go-tos are in.

Tackle unsightly cords: Hair pros are especially subjected to the overwhelm of tangled cords with styling tools such as blow dryers, straighteners, curling irons, and more cluttering your workstation. Investing in a cord management system will not only make your life easier, but it’ll also make your space less messy (and less of a tripping hazard).

Streamline storage: Shelves and cabinets are great options for using the vertical space in your salon and can be a great complement to your salon decor when you have a consistent aesthetic. While a streamlined visual is always a bonus, make sure your storage is functional, too. Organized bins should be easy to access (i.e. don’t put your most-reached-for products on the highest shelf) and shelving systems should be orderly and nice to look at.

3. Organize Your Retail by Merchandising Your Products

Once you’ve got your storage and workstations organized, you may want to revisit your retail setup and think about how you can enhance your merchandising. At the retail level, merchandising refers to displaying items in a creative way that is more likely to entice customers to make a purchase and also purchase more. If you’re not properly maintaining both your retail and your back bar products, you may end up losing track of inventory and ultimately losing money.

Using a reliable inventory system is the best way to kickstart your new product management protocol. When your products are all accounted for in their proper place, you can more easily tell what you’ve got in stock, what you need more of, or what you never want to order again. One of the best tactics for inventory success is setting stock minimums that reflect your business flow. Once you’ve determined a threshold for each product, GlossGenius’s inventory management system will notify you when you're getting low so there’s no doubt when you need to reorder. You can also run a Retail Sales report in seconds that will deliver insight on who purchased what, when, and how often in an easy-to-follow format sent straight to your email.

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4. Organize Your Process by Streamlining the Checkout Experience

Whether you’re working in your own studio or renting a salon suite, creating a sense of flow through your space will enhance your clients’ experience and keep your process streamlined. An easy way to do this is to set up a designated checkout area, separate from your workstation for accepting payments. Having that flow from service to payment will feel more professional than processing their card while they’re still in your chair – it may also create an opportunity to start readying your area for your next appointment if you’re lucky enough to have a receptionist or helpful colleague check out your client.

Another simple way to create a more organized payment process is to use a credit card reader – these devices allow you to take contactless payments like ApplePay or traditional magnetic stripe cards for debit or credit. GlossGenius’ Chief Money Machines offer the lowest processing fees in the industry and work seamlessly with the app to accept any payment, get you paid fast, quickly calculate tip amounts, and prompt your client to rebook. Not to mention, they look great, too – there’s a variety of chic card designs that will complement your branding so that even your payment process is a little prettier.

5. Organize Your Finances by Keeping Track of Expenses 

Whether you’re a pen and paper kind of person or prefer to file your expenses digitally (we recommend ditching the former), there’s no doubt that tracking these costs in a timely fashion will keep you and your bank account in order.

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Letting the receipts creep up on you is what often makes doing your expenses such a daunting task. Do yourself a favor and add a recurring block of time in your calendar to check your spending on a weekly or monthly basis. If you really want to stay on top of it, you can enter expenses on the go with GlossGenius. With your smartphone in hand, all you need to do is snap a picture of your receipt, and each one can be swiftly uploaded to the app within a few taps. Keep in mind you’ll also want to keep track of certain notes for each cost: category, amount, date, and description of the purchase – naturally, GlossGenius makes that easy for you with prompts to enter every detail. If you’re currently using GlossGenius and want to take advantage of our easy-to-use Expenses feature, all you need to do is navigate to the “More” tab and then the “Expenses'' icon to get started.

Take the first step in creating your most organized space yet – sign up for your free trial of GlossGenius today and make those hot-mess days a thing of the past.