Last Sunday I skipped writing Sunday posts because I was in such a job flow that I would rather take advantage of it and get done with what I was doing :)
But now I'm back on track!
New goals!
I have had so much fever in the last year that I could not understand what Annika meant when she talked about "cetamol", I thought she was talking about a tablet or similar until the token fell down and I realized that she was talking about assign goals, Lol!
Summer is the time when we set new goals for the coming year, always just as inspiring :) Annika fixed a babysitter and then we sat down, Miska and Annika and brainstormed for several hours!
We have several steps when we determine the target image:
- This year, we started by asking all colleagues what they think would be suitable points for the goal picture. What do they want the salon / company to look like in a year? We started the meeting by going through their answers and discussing all the points.
- Then we opened last year's "current situation picture", which is a list of all the opportunities / problems we had at the time. Now we deleted all points that are resolved / not relevant anymore and added new ones that apply now! Everything we talk about is written down.
- When you have been sitting for quite a long time (the above discussions took over an hour), we usually go "the lap around" and then everyone can say how they personally want it in a year. How do I, Miska and Annika want our working days?
- After all the practical talk, it's time for the fun but oh so important phase - the dream phase! Here we talk about all our life dreams and you get to enter as many side tracks as you like, I promise you that even though it sounds unnecessary, it is actually here that the best ideas arise! Ideas that affect the goal we set already today. It's mostly about letting go of the thoughts for a while, we are all creative and work best by talking loudly - not just sitting and thinking.
At that time, we have written down a lot that could be points on the goal picture. In normal cases, we usually run a full day with a break for lunch and dinner and nail the whole goal picture, but Annika can not have a babysitter for that long so we have to take the last steps one day later.
The last steps are partly that there are always lots of questions during the meeting that must be checked before we can continue, e.g. count on numbers, etc. But also to start sorting in the list of points we wrote down, because not everything can be on the target picture, which are the most prio? Late you can decide what should be on the target image and how to formulate it in the simplest way!
After that, the next job begins - nail down milestones, focus, key figures (financial metrics) and plan the presentation for colleagues. But one thing at a time! :)
We sat out in the shade and had a meeting, why not take full advantage of the summer as well? :)
Meeting with Malin + Follow up marketing
The biggest job I have done now may not sound so advanced, but it has been a big project for me - it is that we should become better at following up the advertising as we do. We have been bad at it before, both in marketing ourselves but above all that follow up marketing once we have done it.
The purpose is mainly to see what works well and what works poorly, so that we can work more with what works well. Now we go a little on feeling which is not a bit professional :) But also to see "return on investment" so that the money we invest in advertising should give even more money back in the long run in the form of increased income - that's why you advertise.
It is not enough to see that the number of followers / likes / visits to the website increases, it is of course very nice, but it is important that some of these also become customers for it to be worth the investment. It is not just the ad that costs, but above all all the work behind it!
It is Malin (our colleague who works from home) who will take care of this so I started by going to Gimo last weekend and had a meeting with her! She has two children so we each sat with a computer on a bench by Gimodammen while the children played in the sun :)
Again - why not take advantage of the sun and have a meeting outdoors as well? :) Here I take a break to answer the colleagues at the salon who had some stuff to solve. You may look casual but are always on standby!
Step 1 - decide what and how to measure. Which numbers provide the most info? I divided it into two categories:
- Figures showing increased income. For example. number of clicks to our book-time page, increased sales in the webshop and use of discount codes.
- Figures showing increased activity. For example. number of link clicks, comments, shares, page views on the website, etc. I divided the link clicks into different categories as well, how many people click on a link that goes to make-up tips / webshop and how many people click on the book-time link when we post pictures about treatments :)
If the marketing works, the activity increases and then the income increases, the idea is! But it can happen that the activity increases without the income doing it and then we have to be quick to discover it so that we can do something different :) And even if the activity does not increase, it is completely wasted and then we really have to do something about it !
Step 2 - check previous statistics on the numbers I decided we should measure. On some numbers I went back to January 2018. You have to know what it has looked like before to see an increase, it is also different in different seasons so it is more rewarding to compare autumn 2018 with autumn 2019 instead of just the month for month.
Step 3 - Make documents and forms where you can easily enter all the numbers and get a clear overview.
I made four documents called "follow-up" where you enter all the numbers for each area. Inside there are also step by step on how to find the numbers and how to fill them in correctly. Drift cats as we call it :) We think crib sounds so slack so we renamed it to drift cats instead haha. And so I made two documents called "overview" that give an overview of the most important figures that show income and activity.
My experience of following up statistics is zero, I usually go into the statistics and just look a little but not cave in so carefully. So if this is an effective way or the worst beginner tactic I have no idea haha, we'll see how it works simply!
Step 4 - At the same time as I made the documents and filled in previous statistics, I took screenshots and wrote step by step how to fill them in. Because it is Malin who will do all this and she has not worked at all with this before.
Here I am last Saturday with the fan at full power and working with these drift cats!
IF it was nice when I published the entire "follow-up folder" to Malin in our communication program with clear documents, all previous statistics posted and drift cats at just about every step. Pjuh!
Meeting with potential business partner
IN last Sunday post so I wrote that I will start my own make-up brand and am looking for another co-owner who wants to start with me. I go all in or not at all! :)
I have thrown out some threads here and there but have not taken it as actively as I could, e.g. contact different networks etc. I told Miska ”but it feels like if I just think long enough I will come up with someone I already know, like it's somewhere in the back of my mind. I have a gut feeling that someone like that will be better than someone I am tipped off about.”
The only person I thought about quickly but waved away from my head immediately (due to impossible to contact for remembering neither name nor face) is a girl I met at an event several years ago. She studied business-related stuff and had worked in the beauty industry and I remember saying something like "how good then we will hire you later when I will start my own make-up brand!“A bit of a joke but also a bit from the heart because it sounded like the perfect mix of makeup interest + business. But a random face at an event is almost impossible to check out several years later, so I just let go of that thought.
Then I got email contact with a girl (thanks to my last Sunday post) and we decided to meet last Saturday. Guess who stepped into the salon, haha!
We talked for 1.5 hours and it is of course not certain that she will actually become a co-owner, both she and I have a lot to look up and think about. But I would probably have been more careful if it were not for my gut feeling. The circumstances make it feel right in some way!
Just one such thing that I remember a person is actually unusual, both that I recognized her and that I remember what we talked about - I am both face blind and barely remember what my best friend said on the phone the day before yesterday. The thing is that the event was an event that I worked on 3 years ago, there were over 100 guests and a queue for our show table, I talked to people exactly all the time and it was very dark lighting as well. So that she just got stuck in the middle feels like a sign in itself :)
The future must show!
I did not take a picture from the meeting because nothing is decided at all so then I do not want to post who the person is, it may not even be anything :) But here is instead a picture from the event I talked about! Here I sit tired and full of energy at the same time after a successful event!
Holidays
Now two of our makeup artists have gone on holiday and only on September 23 are everyone back at work again! Our company has a high season before customers go on holiday (to look good without make-up) so we take time off a little later in the summer instead.
I work more now than I did all spring because I have entered a real job flow! In addition, it is smoother now because I have fewer customers than usual, now that people are free they are more adaptable with times so then I can collect all bookings for the same day = fewer days we go to the salon = more time for another job !
I think a bit like Per Holknekt too, now all competitors have a holiday so then I have time to work on them;)
But it's not really that simple because it is very preparatory for me to be able to take a holiday myself as well, because I got a birthday present from Miska that we are going to Spain again! So in two weeks we will be driving around southern Spain and staying in different hotels for 18 days! MAGICALLY!
This summer there were shorter opening hours to get the schedule together with all the holidays, but it works well too! :)
Weekend jobs and flex hours
Now in the summer, it's great that I can have some flex times, I have no problem at all working a few hours longer in the evening because I have taken a break in the sun.
Or like this week when me, Miska and Annika went to her summer cottage in Grängesberg (Dalarna) for two nights. Then I can work now on the weekend instead :)
There are many disadvantages to having your own business, at least when it is not so big that you sit on a safe throne and a fortune :) But when you drink coffee on the beach with this view on a normal Thursday, then you complain at least not!
But I'm taking it back now! Yesterday, as I said, I had a meeting with a potential business partner and after that I worked with the computer in my arms (and my cat Viktoria) all afternoon and evening.
And the same will be this Sunday! I got up early this morning, had coffee, took a shower and now I sit here with hair wrap and face mask and check things from my to-do list on a treadmill :)
Hugs are! ♥
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