Preparing for a Successful Year
How Every Beauty Pro Should Start Planning
We know it might seem like it’s a little too soon to be talking about the new year—after all, we only just celebrated Thanksgiving and we’re not even close to being done with the holiday rush—but trust us when we say that now is the time to start planning.
Why?
Because as soon as we get a little deeper into the holiday season (AKA, as soon as December rolls around) your life is going to get more hectic, more chaotic, and more stressful than ever.
And to be totally honest, if you’re waiting until after the holidays are over to plan out your year as a beauty pro, you’re not really “prepping” at that point—more like throwing together some sort of plan.
We’re not saying this strategy can’t work—better late than never is a true statement in this context.
But we do think your first quarter of the year will go a whole heck of a lot smoother if you enter into the new year with a plan of attack.
Not sure where to start?
Don’t sweat, beauty pros—we’ve got some tips for you right here (it’s something we try to do every year—peep some of our advice from last year for other insight, too!)
What Every Beauty Pro Should Know About Prepping for A Successful Year
Listen, this advice isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it should help you if for some reason you’re struggling to kick it into planning mode.
Have your own methods for planning out your next year? Good—go for it! All we really want to say is that it’s crucial to start planning now—how you go about it is truly up to you!
Start By Looking Back & Reviewing The Year
This might feel like a one-step forward two-steps back kind of thing but this strategy is anything but.
When we say start by looking back, we don’t mean take a semi-reflective glance back at the past year and see how you feel about it— we mean go hard with the data and analyze what the year looked like for you.
- What do the numbers say?
- Did you meet your fiscal goals?
- Did you exceed your ambitions?
- Where did you come up short—why?
This year-in-review session is probably going to be lengthy and TBH a little bit painful (even if you accomplished everything on your list), but trust us, this is the first step for any new plan you’re going to develop.
Why is this so important?
Because you can’t move forward without looking back and learning from your experiences—if you don’t, it’s possible you’ll be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over.
How can you ever improve or boost your career if you’re refusing to analyze the mistakes you’ve made or highlight the good things you’ve done?
The short answer is: You can’t.
So, our advice is to really focus on this and dedicate the right amount of time to your year in review—the best thing you can do is choose to make this the most important piece of your year is planning session.
Have a Few Backup Plans Up Your Sleeve—Diversify Your Income
Listen, if prior years taught us anything it’s that nothing is out of the scope of possibility.
Remember when COVID-19 first popped up and everything began shutting down (including your shops, salons, and spas?)—that taught us really fast that having a second source of income and diversified ways to make money really paid off.
We’re not saying you should panic and we’re definitely not saying that we think everything is going to shut down again but learn from the last year and recognize how beneficial diversifying your income streams can be—pandemic or not.
Evaluate Your Old Goals & Create New Ones
Creating and reaching goals—that’s the real way to attain success in your industry.
Why?
Because that type of motivation is what keeps you going, sets you up for bigger and better things, and puts you in the right frame of mind to continue achieving more exciting, more rewarding goals.
So, yes, if you want to set goals for the year, it’s important to take a look at the ones you set for the previous year—did you meet them?
Did they change over time? What did you accomplish and what did you not?
Take everything you learn from last year’s goals and apply that to your years list of goals. Is the year of your own salon-suite, perhaps?
Want a pro-tip? Talk to your employees, colleagues, and people you admire in the industry—what do they think about your yearly goals?
Finally, it’s important that you do more than just vaguely dream about what you could possibly attain—start putting actionable steps into your planning process to figure out how to get from Point A (the dream) to Point B (the goal being accomplished).
Even if it’s intimidating and even if you don’t have the whole thing mapped out before the year, it’s important to start figuring out actionable ways to take those steps—otherwise, you might never make the time to accomplish those goals.
Three steps might seem like a really short tip list but trust us when we say that planning for your year doesn’t have to be complicated.
Seriously—with just a few tweaks to the way you start evaluating your past year and looking toward the next, you’ll be on your way to creating the ultimate yearly plan.
The real good news here?
You don’t have to have it all figured out before next year hits—just kickstarting the planning now is going to put you miles ahead.
And come next year, we’ll be posting even more helpful advice, guidance, and insight to help you along your journey as a beauty pro.
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