Many people that contact me are “romantically” attracted to our concept. They love the idea of a cute, fun and brightly colored place to take kids for a great haircut. Or I hear, “I love children, so I was really attracted to this." Now I am not saying that having an interest in our franchise concept because of your interest in working with kids is a bad thing. As a matter of fact, I would highly recommend that you invest your money, time and efforts into something that you feel passionate about. But our franchise, like most, is still a business, and will require a certain set of business skills to increase the probability of success. Whether you invest in a yogurt, burger, or salon business, it’s still going to come down to possessing certain business skills to succeed.  Here is our list of the top 3 skills needed to own and run a business:

1.  Communication Skills 
Your ability to communicate with others and “get the message across” about what your business is about to both employees and customers is critical. Everything in life begins with communication, and the ability that someone has to communicate is a big plus. Because time management and organizational skills can’t be taught in an operating manual, someone's ability to effectively execute a business plan becomes crucial. If a potential franchisee is unable to do this, then they may not be able to handle all the moving parts of running a business. Also, it's important to be flexible and adaptable. Rigidity has never worked in business! Now, of course I'm not saying to up and dump a system in favor of your own ideas. You have to follow the system. What I am talking about is the ability to handle a crisis when it arises, to shift gears and go a different direction on a moment’s notice, and to know when to be tough or to know when compassion is needed. Time management and organizational skills allows you to set a goal and reach it.

2.  Understanding the Need for Marketing 

Another great business skill to work at possessing a mastery over is in the area of marketing. Unfortunately, many new businesses fail because of a lack or understanding of effective marketing. Getting your name out in the community, building a loyal customer base and differentiating yourself from the competition can take a new business on average 3 to 5 years. Therefore whatever you anticipate spending on marketing you can pretty much double that amount. The busier your location becomes, the less you can spend on marketing. But getting that initial foot traffic can be costly. If you understand that this is a need and are willing to do the "work" - you should be successful.  A franchise system should provide lots of guidance in your marketing - they have seen it done numerous times and know what you get the most bang for your buck with.

In the initial stages of your business you must market to the masses. Once you have a client base you can save money by target marketing to your existing customers - or to new customers only.  You will have gathered customer information (i.e. email addresses, etc.) that will allow your to touch your client base more economically.

3.  Desire to Learn

Lastly, a desire to learn is also a really important mindset for a franchisee. Of course, everyone would like to learn about something - but great franchisees have the desire to learn. It’s not a chore; it’s something that brings satisfaction when the learned skill produces a favorable business outcome. Great business owners are made and not born, but having some of these basic skills are going to go a long way in determining your success or failure in a franchise!

Are you interested in learning how YOU can join the Shear Madness Haircuts for Kids family and run your own successful small business? We are one of the fastest growing kids hair salon franchise systems in the industry today! If you would like to learn more about small business marketing, great marketing strategies, resources for small businesses, how to grow your small business, or how to become a successful owner of your own kids hair salon franchise business, please click below or call 1-888-98 GONE MAD!

In the world of business, it can sometimes be an innocent oversight for a manager or business owner to become so focused on finding ways to connect and meet the needs of their customers, that they forget to find ways to connect and meet the needs of their team.

Having creative ways to keep in touch with your staff not only helps make everyone feel needed and satisfied in their work (which in turn helps promote better job performance), but it also helps stimulate efficient and effective communication amongst your employees!  When employees feel needed and communication is great, job satisfaction, performance and employee loyalty (retaining employees) also improve!

Here's some helpful tips on finding ways to communicate creatively with your staff.

Frequent Meetings (but not too frequent!): Having a short meeting once a week can be a great way for a manager or business owner to connect with their staff. Be sure the meeting is relatively short in order to maintain good attention. Topics to cover in a weekly meeting may include goals for the week, recognition of goals met from a prior week, and inspiring tips or short videos to help motivate employees. Bringing in a healthy snack once a month may also help motivate and increase loyalty. Use these meetings to motivate the whole team - but be wary of singling anyone out in front of their peers as it may foster resentment and / or jealousy.

Utilize a Bulletin Board: A Bulletin Board may be a nice way for employees to post fun photos or area events that they may think their co-workers would enjoy. It can also be a good place for management to share upcoming events on a calendar, as well as important reminders. Other ideas might include postivie customer feedback, industry news, upcoming birthdays, work anniversaries, etc.

Create a Newsletter: Creating a monthly newsletter either through e-mail or website can be a great way to share fun tips and upcoming events that employees may want to know about. It's important to have some fun here as well, or else staff may not pay attention to it. Ideas include a "classifieds" section, an employee profile (with their favorite movies, books, etc), funny events that have happened in the office, recipes, birthdays, work anniversaries, photos of employees having fun, etc.

Be Approachable: Be mindful of how you interact and respond to employees. The tone of your voice and the posture or body language you use in interactions may communicate that of being unapproachable. Sometimes all it can take is one unpleasant encounter for an employee to not want to bring questions or concerns to a manager. Also, find ways to engage with your staff through taking the time to get to know them, and appreciate them through finding ways to thank them periodically for their work (a hand-written note, a verbal thank-you, or taking the team out for lunch for a special occassion).

Here at Shear Madness Haircuts for Kids Franchising (a salon franchise for kids), we work hard to share our many great resources for small businesses, marketing strategies and business experiences so that our franchisees will have the tools to succeed! If you're interested in learning more on how to franchise and become a successful owner of your own business, please click below!