We all really struggle to say no to people.

I really believe that a lot of us as beauty professionals or hair professionals, we are people pleasers and women tend to be people pleasers as well. So we find it very difficult to say no to people because we want to make everyone happy.

We don’t want people to be upset with us. We don’t want to have those uncomfortable conversations. And we want our clients to keep coming back, so it’s very easy to fall into the trap of bending over backwards to please them. And unfortunately there are some clients out there that can recognise this in a person and they will take advantage of it. So once you say yes to someone’s silly request, they’re probably going to be more likely to ask for more things in the future. And they’re just going to be even more disappointed when you say no, because you’re kind of setting yourself up for failure here. 

They ask you to stay behind until 10pm because they can’t possibly come in any earlier than that.

They reschedule their appointment last minute.

They ask you to do their lashes or their tan or their nails at a time that you wouldn’t normally work.

You’ve already worked 45-50 hours for the week and you’re exhausted and you don’t want to do any more.

If you say yes, they’re gonna think that those kinds of requests are acceptable and that you will fit them in wherever you can.

It’s really, really hard to say no, especially when you’ve said yes so many times to people like this.

So today, let’s putt some things in place so that it is a little bit easier for you to say no.

1. Don’t overbook yourself from the get go. And this goes for solo operators and if you have a team. Try and set non-negotiable start and finish times for all of your shifts. I know that in the beginning, when I first started my business, I would start at 8:30 or 9am and I would finish at whatever time. I would try and fit as many appointments in as I could and I would often be at my salon till 10 or 11pm, sometimes even midnight, fitting people in because I was obsessed with making the most I could out of my business. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to grow. I wanted to make money and I desperately wanted to pay back a business loan of $25k that I got when I opened my salon. I just had this crushing pressure on myself. I really wanted to pay off that loan as quickly as I could. I’d set a goal for 6 months and I ended up doing it. But I did some pretty stupid things. In the beginning, I worked on a Sunday to fit people who rescheduled. Yes, life happens and they had to reschedule their appointments and unfortunately, I just made it too easy for them to think that it was a reasonable request.

   Nowadays, my clients don’t tend to reschedule because they know that they’re just not going to get back in with me. But once upon a time, I was willing to do whatever I could to get them back in and that included working through lunch, coming in at you know 6:30 or 7am on a Saturday and working on Sundays. Which was my family day and the day that I typically used to take off, but I learnt the hard way obviously, that once you do that, certain people tend to keep taking advantage of you and you have to set the bar for what’s acceptable. Set your start and finish times and don’t go outside of these times. I know it’s really hard, especially if you don’t have any other plans. Don’t say things like “Oh, I’m not doing anything on Friday night, I’m just gonna be watching TV so like I might as well just do a couple more lash clients”. If you need help with this, get an accountability partner. I would suggest sending your little roster that you make for yourself through to a friend or people that you work with to let them know what time you’re starting and finishing and and get them to hold you accountable. If they see you working past your finish time you have to give them $20 or you have to do 30 push-ups. Something that is just going to add a little bit of accountability and it will make you not want to go outside those set working hours.

2. Have a break. I am also very guilty of this one. I used to work all day and just grabbed a bite whenever I could. Usually I would be running late, because I didn’t have a receptionist or anyone to help me. I was cleaning up in between appointments. I didn’t add padding times in between my appointments. If you don’t know what padding times are, it’s just extra time in between your scheduled appointments so that it gives you time to you know flip the room or check your client out, make extra appointments, etc. I’ve never believed in padding times, I still don’t add padding times between appointments now. Time is money and I like to make as much money as I can while I am at work, so for that reason I don’t have padding time, but it is very easy for me not to have padding time because I have a full-time receptionist and I have a team, so sometimes if one of the other girls is free and my receptionist isn’t there, they might be able to check my clients out and make some more appointments for them if I’m running a little bit behind, but at Christmas time when we are really, really, fully booked, it is a good idea to eat lunch, go to the toilet at least every couple of hours. Making sure that you are drinking water that you are feeling okay and you get a little bit of a rest in between clients; not all of them but every couple of appointments, perhaps just have a little bit of a stretch or walk around. You really don’t want to burn yourself out one week into December. I think your clients will be able to tell if you are worn out and you’re haggard and you won’t be able to give your best and they’ll sense it. So overbooking is a really big no-no. I know it’s so hard to say no, especially in these busy months of the year when everyone wants us and it’s prime money making time in November and December. I just recorded a reel earlier today and I was saying that November and December are really, in Australia, the two biggest months of the year and after coaching clients in the US and Canada as well, they’re really busy months over there too. It’s hard to say no when we have an overflow of clients that are wanting to book in with us but we need to know our limits.

3. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Put your prices up!

   Work smarter, not harder. Don’t overbook yourself and you’ll feel a lot better for it come Christmas day. 

4. Get organised for the busy Christmas period by locking in your client appointments in mid-October. I have been booking all of my clients through till March 2023. We used to book through to December but then this funny thing would happen where December would roll around all too quickly and I would go to rebook my client for their January appointments and I had no space to fit them in! Block out some time to give your best clients then call them and let them know. I think clients really appreciate this extra level of care. They know that you are thinking about them and you want to get them in; you don’t want them to miss out. Especially if they have limited availability or if you have limited availability. It’s really important to do this. And for clients that you see less often, maybe those ladies that just come in for a brow shape every eight weeks, you can call them or just send them a text saying that you’re currently booking all your appointments leading up to Christmas and to get in quick so that they don’t miss out. Most people, I don’t know why, but they all want to look good for Santa Claus. We all usually just go and spend Christmas with our families and I honestly don’t really care what I look like around my family, but for some reason everyone wants stuff done before Christmas. They’ve got to have their nails done or their tans, lashes, brows; your skin needs to be perfect. They need to have their injectables, hair needs to be done as well; can’t forget about that! We need to look good for Santa for some weird unknown reason. But just giving that extra level of client care is really going to carry through into the New Year as well. They’re not going to forget that you helped them get organised and that you are thinking of them, and this makes them feel really important that they’re a valued client so obviously keeps them coming back.

5. You need to celebrate yourself. If you haven’t done it already, book a Christmas party, even if you work on your own. Just because you are a sole trader, doesn’t mean that you need to miss out on all the fun. It came up when we were talking about teams in one of my SALON GOALS coaching sessions a few weeks ago and one of the girls in there was talking about the benefits of having a team and we were going through all the obvious ones and she added to it that the end of year is so much more fun when you have a team because you get to have a Christmas party and it’s just so much more exciting and you get to celebrate together. But if you don’t have a team, it doesn’t matter. Book a Christmas party, take yourself out, go with your partner or friends. Maybe you know some other beauty professionals in your local area that also work on their own. Why don’t you organise with them to all go out together and have a Christmas party together. It is so much fun and it gives you something to look forward to. It’s a really good content creation opportunity as well so you can get some beautiful photos and pair it with a caption for a reel or a static post on Instagram thanking your clients for their support during the year and that you celebrated and this is what you did. You know your clients really love to see a nice happy post, especially one that has your smiling face in it. So it’s a really good idea to have something to look forward to. You can just go low key, you can take yourself out for dinner with a friend or a family member or your partner; your biggest supporters in your business. Or you can have a big celebration. It’s up to you. But if you aren’t throwing a Christmas party for yourself, think of something else that you might do that will give you something to look forward to. Perhaps you want to work through and do something on Christmas Eve or on your final day of work before Christmas. It’s always a really good idea to have something to look forward to. It will make it easier to get through the busy-ness that December brings and I highly recommend it. And if you do have a team it is a really really great way to show your appreciation for them. I love throwing my staff an end of year Christmas Shindig. We’ve done lots of different things over the years lots of fun stuff.

   I love spoiling my girls I love showing my appreciation for all the hard work that they’ve put in during the year. And I don’t skimp on this. I usually don’t have a budget, I just do whatever I feel like doing. The last couple of years we’ve put together a few ideas and voted on what we wanted to do. This year we went to the races here in our local town. There’s a Christmas party race day, full of marquees and there’s races on and live music and day drinking. It’s always always a fun time. And we’re all getting dressed up and and sharing the experience of picking outfits and getting ready. I know that we’ll get some great photos, great content for our socials. Our clients will love to see us all out celebrating and it’s a really fun day. I also organise gifts for my team. And again, if you work on your own, why not organise a gift for yourself or make a goal for November and December, perhaps a total revenue goal and reward yourself with a really beautiful Christmas present. That will help you get through the month as well. I know that my girls always look forward to their gift from me. I’ve done lots of different things over the years, ranging from gift vouchers and cash to Tiffany jewellery. I always give it to them on the morning of our final day of work. I think it’s a really nice gesture to show your team that you care about them and you know that you are grateful for all of the hard work that they’ve put in during the year. 

6. My final tip is have a break. We’ve already established that November and December are crazy. I close my salon for a week and I’ve only been doing this for about the last three years. I realised that people were out of routine for the week between Christmas and New Year. They’ve got family staying or they aren’t even home. And every year that I stayed open, thinking I had to if I wanted to grow and make money, it was actually the worst week of the year. It was usually only 2 or 3 days that we’d be open. You know those funny days that aren’t Public Holidays. We would open and it wouldn’t be our usual clientele because they’d been taken care of before Christmas. They were usually people on holidays, and those people didn’t know us and they tended to be really flaky. We had lots of no shows and people running late or people ringing up 10 minutes before they were due to come in and say they couldn’t make it. The final straw was one New Year’s Eve. It was a Saturday and it was just myself and Ashleigh working and I think we did 8 to 12 or something like that. We were finishing early because it was New Year’s Eve. And we had that many no shows and last minute cancellations. I think we made $250 between us for the day. Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. We should have made between us about $1000. I was not happy. I was driving home and I was just like “what was the point of that? I could have just enjoyed the day off and spent it with my family and friends”. It was a beautiful Summer’s day; I could have been at the river having a swim. It just didn’t make sense to me. It was not worth it at all. So I decided that I was just going to close from there on in and just have a proper rest. So what that means for us is myself and my team are happy to work that little bit extra in the week leading up to Christmas because they know they’re going to get some time off and usually it works out to be around nine or 10 days off in a row if you include the weekends and all of the Public Holidays. And I think it works out to be only a couple of days of Annual Leave that they need to take and all of my team are happy to do this. They’re happy to take leave at this time and get like a bulk amount of time off all in one hit. And it really makes December and all the craziness that goes on with it that little bit easier to get through because they know they’re going to have some time off at the end of it. So it’s a really, really great chance for my team and myself to recharge. I feel happy going on holidays during this time as well, like actually leaving town and going away somewhere else because my business is closed and my team isn’t needing me for anything, so it’s a really nice relax and recharge for myself as well and I do recommend if you are thinking of having any time off this is a really great time. 

If you have any extra tips or if you have any questions on anything that we’ve talked about today, please feel free to reach out on Instagram – @laurenlappin_ or you can join my email list at www.laurenlappin.com.au and if you’ve been following me for a little while, you would know that I offer 1:1 coaching and I also have some Group Coaching programs and online learning so if you want 2023 to be a big one, please reach out on Instagram, send me a DM.

Lauren x