How to survive the holidays as a beauty professional
1. Don't make rock solid plans. We know this time of year
clients come out of the woodwork. People you were sure had passed onto another
salon, or even another life, you know the ones that are so sketchy during the
rest of the year. Well all of a sudden they remember how fabulous you are and
cannot possibly get through the holiday season without your services,
preferably yesterday. So you know you are going to be coming in early, staying
late and maybe even on regularly scheduled days off. Just embrace the business
and the extra cash, it happens every year, you know it, get over it.
2. Take care of you. The holidays call for extra long hours
and extra busy days. Try and prepare yourself by getting extra rest, limiting
alcohol and planning to have healthy choices to dive into when you are ready to
eat your arm off. Surviving on cookies, brownies, peanut brittle, peppermint
bark, pitzels, caramel corn and chocolate candy is not the best plan. Have fresh
cut veggies, fruit, healthy chips and salsa on hand and take the cookies and
junk to grandma's for the kids. They have plenty of energy to burn off all
those extra calories. Get yourself some Emergency or vitamin supplements to
ward off the ever present infection DuJour our guests are so graciously
exposing us to this time of year. Have extra hand sanitizer at the ready and
get in the habit of pre and post slathers, all day long. Wipe down door
handles, phones, if your salon has a land line key boards and mouses or mice? You
get the drift, follow the KISS method. Keep it sanitary sister.
3. Have your shopping done by tomorrow. Seriously. You know you are not going to have any more
time to shop between now and the holidays, just admit it. Gift cards and online
shopping are our good friends. Your loved ones want to pick out their own gifts
anyways, honestly my daughter hasn't liked anything I picked out for her since
she was 4. If you insist on shopping for them I recommend wrapping up a
shopping spree to take place after the holiday madness. Enjoy the malls when
things quiet down and all the prices are marked down even further. I'm going to
admit another spin on re-gifting here. We all know there are plenty of gifts
our clients bring in that are so much better suited for someone else on our
list. I know it and you know it. Plus how many gift cards to the local health
food store can I use at once? It is still a gift and used as an extra gift has
so much more meaning wouldn't you agree? And as far as cooking all those
treats? Many stores today have excellent prepared food sections, that are good
enough to put in your own serving dishes with a few dashes of your own special
touch and passed off as home-made. These dishes don't make themselves, well
almost.
4 Last but certainly not least. Prepare for the onslaught of
holiday cash. Don't let your family use your extra tips as the household ATM.
Get yourself an envelope to stash away these extra bonus dollars. I don't even
put them in my wallet and let myself be tempted to pick up an extra bottle of
wine or spirits. Write the amount given and the clients name on the outside of
the envelop so you can keep track for your thank you notes. You will be amazed
at the amount of cash you once blew through without anything to show for it.
Better yet focus on an item for this extra windfall. Maybe you have a nagging
bill you'd like to get rid of, or slice in half. Assigning a goal to this extra
money will give you incentive to stick to it. And try and make this something
just for you. I know it goes against our nature as givers at this time of year
but I don't see anybody else coming in early and staying late. This is YOUR
money, you've earned all year by taking the best care of your guests. Treat
yourself. That's an order.
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