How Spa and Beauty Professionals Can Navigate the Covid-19 Crisis
We’re only in March and 2020 has already been one heck of a year. We’ve experienced devastating bushfires and destructive flooding in Australia and are now seeing the global effects of COVID-19. This is a tricky time to navigate, but it’s important for all of us to do what we can with what we have, whether that’s time at home or within our business. TheSpring Spa Wear team have been brainstorming ideas to help our fellow beauty and spa business owners to make the most of this time… and we’ve come up with a few great ideas to help the time pass.
While most of us are used to being on the floor and working closely with our clients, now is a great time to take a step back and take advantage of this opportunity to catch up on admin work or any other behind the scenes tasks. Here is a list of tasks that have probably been sitting on your checklist for the past year that could use your attention in the next couple of weeks.
1. Create a monthly calendar of promotions.
Organising your business around your promotions can be an overwhelming task. Holidays and peak seasons always seem to creep up and take you by surprise, so why not sit down and have a date with your diary to plan your promotions and specials in advance. Take note of all the big dates, like Black Friday and major public holidays, and think about any unique anniversaries of your business that you could create hype around (is your business birthday coming?).
2. Plan staff training.
Your staff can never be too trained. During these quieter weeks, it may be worthwhile to schedule in staff training to refresh your employee’s memory on health and safety training, general procedural training or product training. Perhaps, if your staff are taking time off at the moment, you may want to organise a ‘back to work’ training program when business resumes.
3. Do a deep clean and replenish stock.
Deep cleans are usually on the to-do list, but it’s always so hard to organise when the salon is so full of clients. Use this downtime to clean all those hard to reach areas and watch as your salon colours and ornaments come back to life. You may even choose to use this time to repaint the salon and follow up any required repairs. Returning to work will be such a treat knowing everything is ready to go from the minute you walk in the door!
4. Refresh your client consultation forms and paperwork.
When was the last time you freshened up your paperwork? If you can’t remember… it’s probably been too long. Spend a day or so flicking through your forms and documents to make sure your branding and logos are consistent across all your most important files. Trust us, clients and other businesses notice when you forget to update our branding. Oops.
5. Get a head start on your tax paperwork.
Now, we never said these suggestions were going to be fun… but they’re definitely practical and will make your life easier once we’re all back to work and its business as usual. While sorting out our tax can be a bit (a lot) of a yawn, your future self will love you for this. Start small and try to tackle a month per day. You got this!
6. Plan a re-opening party to celebrate your return to work!
While it seems like the worst is still to come, there will be an end to it. So, why not put on your positive party pants, and organise a re-opening party for your business so your community can get together and celebrate the global return to business and our everyday routines.
Nevertheless, while it’s important to take care of our businesses, we also need to take care of ourselves. If business and admin is not a priority now, we encourage you to take a break and indulge in some self-care. COVID-19 is affecting all of us, so know that you’re not alone, and that we’re all going to get through this together.