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You wouldn’t normally think of logistics when you think of a hair salon. Yet in a small salon, all sorts of things come in and go out every week. Hair dye runs out, shampoo and styling products are sold, and everything needs to be restocked on time. And there’s always a financial aspect to this.
Are you a self-employed hairdresser renting a chair in a salon? If so, there’s another factor to consider. You work on someone else’s premises, but your clients and your turnover are your own. So you want to see exactly how much you’re earning yourself, separate from the salon.
All these processes come together in the system you use to process payments. When comparing POS systems for your hair salon, it’s therefore worth looking beyond just payments. A good POS system keeps track of what’s sold and by whom. You’ll need this data later for your purchasing and bookkeeping.
Checkout from the diary
In many salons, the till is separate from the appointment diary. This means double the work, as you have to re-enter each treatment when checking out. A till that processes payments directly from the diary saves time and prevents typing errors.
Find out which payment methods are available too. As well as card and cash payments, customers may sometimes wish to pay in instalments or on account. A payment request or digital invoice sent by email makes this easy.
A digital receipt has another advantage. You don’t have to keep stacks of paper, and the customer receives the receipt straight away in their inbox. For your own records, everything is neatly organised by day. That saves you having to search for information when your accountant asks for the quarterly figures.
Insight into turnover per hairdresser
If there are several people working in the salon, everyone wants to know how much they’ve earned. Some systems split a treatment between several staff members, for example if one cuts the hair and another colours it. This prevents any disputes at the end of the month.
This is particularly important for chair-renters. At Da Vinci, chair-renters are given their own account with a calendar and till, and you can choose to work independently or in collaboration with the salon. The turnover per chair-renter remains visible, so that settling accounts with the salon is straightforward.
When comparing options, also bear in mind the fixed costs. As a self-employed person, you don’t want to be tied into a contract lasting several years. A subscription that you can cancel on a monthly basis gives you the freedom to take your time and see if the system suits your way of working. That flexibility is particularly valuable in your first year as a self-employed person.
Stock replenished on time
Products on the shelves are money sitting idle. Too much stock puts a strain on your cash flow; too little means a customer leaves empty-handed. Stock management in the till shows you what’s selling well and what’s been sitting on the shelves for months.
Purchase invoices should also be included in that overview. By processing them in the same system, you can see at a glance what a product costs and what profit it generates. This makes it easier to decide which brands to continue stocking. You can then confidently remove a product with a low margin that is selling slowly from your range.
You can automate some aspects of sales. A customer who hasn’t bought a product for eight weeks automatically receives a reminder by email. This means demand picks up again just as their shampoo is running out at home, and you don’t have to follow up with anyone yourself.