We find ourselves in a very weird time at the moment. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all of us one way or another. Not necessarily becoming ill with the virus or knowing someone that has become ill with Covid, but we all know businesses that have had to temporarily or permanently close. We all know someone who's job has been affected or they've become redundant, and some have actually started up brand new businesses and find themselves not just surviving but thriving during the pandemic. Either way, we've all been impacted by the goings-on at the moment and hair salons are high up on the list of businesses that have been affected over the last year.

Here are our top tips to recovering your hair salon post pandemic in a way it will thrive in our new normal:

Safety

This is the ongoing top priority for every business right now. We have some previous experience to go by, with partial openings in-between lockdowns and understand the requirements to staying safe, for both hair stylist and customer. Now is the perfect time to review the effectiveness of those procedures you've used before and see how they can be built up/ improved on in line with the latest guidance. Make sure you are up to date with the latest guidance the government have announced. If you are unsure as to what the latest restrictions/ guidance is regarding covid 19 and hair salons, visit GOV.UK

Consider stock and PPE

Have you reviewed your inventory since we were last able to operate?

Stock has long been an area of hair and beauty businesses that can cause unnecessary financial leak if not vigilantly monitored. Review it now to ensure that there are no unnecessary purchases, and no stock unaccounted for. Not one pound should be leaving the business accounts for your salon that isn’t productive in being able to bring revenue back into the business. The main things that we will be able to control once this lockdown is over, is creating a safe atmosphere for both clients and staff, getting information out to our clients to make bookings as easy to understand and carry out, and managing the revenue that we do see coming in with extreme prudence. Salon owners need to be able to identify where and why every pound is an outgoing.

Operation

This is your chance to take stock and consider what actions you need to consider.

• Which services will you focus on?
• Are there any that you will need to be removed?
• Will you run a reduced offering?
• Will you focus on higher priced services?
• Will you just carry out the services that can be done in a speedier manner, meaning you can see more clients in the day?

All these questions must be considered and answered thoroughly before you open your hair salon again.

Workforce

There’s only so much that we can plan with this one. We don’t currently know if there will be any more changes to the furlough system. As businesses have previously experienced with other lockdowns, while it’s great that businesses can re-open, there has been the pressure to make pre-lockdown revenue immediately, in order to cover all of the usual business and wage costs. We know that it can take a while for this to happen, and even if the business is there, with safety restrictions affecting how many clients can be seen in a day, this impacts on revenue.

It is worth taking the time to figure out likely revenue, and consider your options for bringing returning staff back on reduced hours until you get a better understanding of demand and financial support that may be made available to businesses.

Discounts and offers

This pandemic has hit us all hard. As we said before, no one has escaped its effects. So now is a good time to consider your long term discounting plan for the year. While custom will still be there, consider the ongoing impact of the coronavirus on your business. Will it affect events and celebrations? Will this mean less trade at certain points in the year? The key is to anticipate and innovate.

We know that the recovery period won’t be easy, but time taken working on our businesses, really will make all the difference once we’re back working in them. It's an exciting and apprehensive time for us all.