Time management is one of the most important skills to have as a beautician. Dealing with multiple clients throughout the day, cleaning the salon, purchasing beauty products, and seeking new opportunities to improve are just a few examples of things that require time in this career.
The problem with time management is that it is easy to lose track of things and find yourself working overtime just to make the deadline.
If you find yourself in a situation where there is not enough time in a day while you are working in a beauty salon, make some changes to your routine.
Avoid Procrastination
The temptation to procrastinate and play hooky for a bit is common, especially if you have a few moments to relax. However, doing so builds bad habits, and you might find yourself spending too much time on social media without realizing that your next appointment is in a few minutes.
You might fail to prepare for the appointment. Or maybe you promised yourself to carry out a certain task before the appointment but got lost browsing social media?
Procrastination and such distractions should be kept to a minimum or eliminated from your routine if you want efficient time management.
Make Use of Available Tools
It would be a waste not to take advantage of available automation tools. You can cut some redundant tasks by using available applications. For one, there is Watalook, a salon scheduling app that allows beauticians to create a smart calendar. This smart calendar lets clients make appointments themselves without needing to visit the salon in person or making a phone call.
If a beauty salon is active on social media and uses popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote the business, implementing Hootsuite for scheduling content is worth a shout as well.
The bottom line is that there is a plethora of available business automation tools that offer efficiency. As soon as you leave some of the tasks to software, you will find that time management is not as big of an issue.
Learn to Deal With Disruptions
You are bound to encounter some unexpected disruptions. For example, a client could come rushing in and ask for an appointment by claiming that they are in a hurry and do not have the time to wait.
Now, should you stop working with your current client and accommodate the one who barged in? It varies from case to case, but you need to find a solution that makes everyone involved. If not, the situation will snowball and become a conflict that could last for who knows how long. And unless you solve it quickly, you will end up wasting a lot of your time.
Sure, such disruptions are not that common, but they still happen from time to time. The better you are at dealing with them, the fewer worries you will have about managing your time.
Know When to Relax
Working in a beauty salon can be quite busy as you need to jump from one client to the next and clean the workspace in-between. Then there are other tasks, such as answering calls, making appointments, communicating with beauty product suppliers, and so on.
If you work without any breaks, it will not take too long before you start to lose motivation and efficiency.
Be smart about your schedule and try to fit in some time for breaks. Even if it is just 5 or 10 minutes, they can do wonders for your well-being.
Knowing how to find time for relaxation without sacrificing your duties in a beauty salon is a trait of someone who knows how to manage their time. Polishing this particular skill should be encouraged.
Keep Track of the Clock
Keeping track of the clock is another great piece of advice. Get in the habit of checking the clock and find out what time it is throughout the day so that you do not miss important appointments, for example.
One trick that could help is to have an application that sends you notifications after you provide it with reminders. Some people also use their alarm. An alarm sound indicates that something important is happening, and they should not miss it.
Hire Help If You Can Afford It
The last bit of advice to consider is this—hire help if you can afford it. It becomes much easier to manage time when you can leave some of the work to others. Perhaps you are not well-versed in documents and could use someone who can manage files, invoices, and even social media content if your beauty salon posts on SM platforms.
In case there are too many clients to take care of, and you are barely making it, another beautician is also worth considering. Having a partner and sharing the workload could prove one of the best decisions you can make.