As a salon owner, have you ever looked at your business and thought, “I need to change something”?
Perhaps you are considering adding new services, changing your pricing, recruiting more staff or even moving to a different location.
Before you make any major decisions, VR Beauty Consulting would encourage you to stop and take a closer look at what you already have.
“Sometimes, the problem is not your business model. It is the way the business is being run,” says Valerie Reynaert, founder of VR Beauty Consulting.
Optimisation is about making your existing salon work harder, smarter and more profitably, without changing what makes it your salon.
After more than two decades working in the beauty industry, Valerie has seen how small inefficiencies can build up over time. A poorly structured commission model, an underused appointment book or a marketing strategy that attracts the wrong clients can quietly undermine an otherwise good business.
The good news is that these are things you can address.
Optimisation requires you to look at the business as a whole. Here are five areas Valerie recommends reviewing.
1. Review your team against the business you actually have
When a staff member leaves, the natural reaction is often to start recruiting a replacement immediately.
But is that always the right decision?
Before filling the position, look at your appointment patterns, service mix and revenue by therapist or stylist. Identify where you have genuine demand and where you have spare capacity.
You may need someone with a different skill set rather than another person doing exactly the same job. You might also find that your busiest periods require a different staffing arrangement from your quieter days.
The objective is not simply to have enough people on the payroll. It is to have the right people, with the right skills, available when the business needs them.
2. Look closely at your commission structure
This is an area where Valerie believes many salon owners need to challenge the way they have always done things.
Commission can be an effective way to reward performance. The problem starts when the structure is designed without properly considering the cost of delivering the service and the margin left for the business.
A high commission percentage may motivate a therapist or stylist to generate more sales. But if the salon is left with too little to cover its other operating costs, higher revenue does not necessarily translate into higher profit.
“More sales do not automatically mean more money in the bank,” Valerie explains.
Every salon owner should calculate the true profitability of their services after accounting for product costs, staff remuneration and other direct costs.
Then review whether the current commission model supports the results the business needs.
A balanced fixed-salary-plus-commission structure may be more appropriate. The right model will depend on the services offered, employment arrangements and local labour requirements, so it needs to be assessed carefully.
The point is not to pay your team less. It is to create a structure that rewards performance while keeping the business financially sustainable.
“Your team should benefit when the salon performs well. But the salon must also retain enough margin to operate, invest and grow,” shares Valerie.
3. Make sure your pricing reflects the value you deliver
When was the last time you reviewed the profitability of every service on your menu?
Many salon owners know which treatments are popular. Fewer can tell you which ones make the strongest contribution to profit.
“A busy service is not necessarily a profitable service,” Valerie points out. It may take longer than expected, use expensive products or require a level of skill that is not reflected in the price.
She recommends looking at the service menu through three lenses:
This information can help salon owners make better decisions about pricing, packages and memberships.
For example, a carefully designed package may encourage clients to book a combination of services that work well together. A membership might support more regular visits. A price adjustment may be justified where costs, expertise or positioning warrant it.
But discounting simply to fill the appointment book can be counterproductive. If the underlying economics do not work, more bookings can mean more work without a meaningful improvement in profit.
4. Improve the way appointments and stock are managed
Empty appointment slots, gaps between clients and products that expire or sit unused all affect the performance of a salon.
These issues may seem small individually, but they can add up.
Start by looking at your booking patterns. Are there particular days or times when you consistently have spare capacity? Could you encourage clients to book during quieter periods, or adjust staff schedules to better match demand?
Next, examine product usage and stock levels. Are you ordering according to actual consumption, or simply repeating the same order every month? Are products being used efficiently? Do you regularly find yourself with excess stock while running short of the items you need most?
You should also look at the client journey, from the initial enquiry to the next appointment. Unnecessary delays, missed follow-ups and inconsistent booking procedures create friction for both clients and staff.
Speak to your team. They are often the first to notice where time is being wasted or where a simple change would make the working day easier.
You do not need to introduce a complicated new system to improve operations. Sometimes, a clearer procedure or a better scheduling routine is enough to make a noticeable difference.
5. Treat marketing as a core business function
Valerie still encounters salon owners who regard marketing as something to do when business is quiet.
The difficulty with this approach is that by the time bookings start to fall, the salon may already have lost visibility and momentum.
“Marketing should not be an emergency measure. It needs to be part of how you operate your salon,” Valerie says.
Clients have more ways than ever to discover, compare and choose beauty businesses. A strong reputation and word-of-mouth referrals remain valuable, but they should not be the only sources of new business.
Your salon needs to be visible where your clients are looking. That includes local search, social media, relevant paid campaigns and direct communication with existing clients.
As a planning benchmark, many UAE SMEs use a marketing budget in the region of 8–12% of revenue, although the right allocation for an individual salon will depend on its stage of development, objectives and financial position. This is a guide, not a rule that every business must follow.
What matters is that you budget deliberately, know what you want your marketing to achieve and measure the results.
Are you attracting new clients? Are they returning? Which channels generate bookings rather than simply likes and views? Are you spending money to reach people who are unlikely to use your services?
These are the questions that make marketing a business function rather than an occasional activity.
You do not need a large marketing department to make better use of your client data.
Even a relatively small salon can begin using AI-enabled tools to understand client behaviour and communicate more effectively.
For example, you can segment your client database according to booking history, preferred services, visit frequency or previous spending patterns. This allows you to communicate with different groups more relevantly, rather than sending the same promotion to everyone.
Consider clients who have not visited for several months. Instead of sending a generic discount to your entire database, you could identify clients whose previous booking patterns suggest they may be due for another appointment.
A personalised message could remind them of a service they previously enjoyed or invite them to book again.
You can also use AI tools to help analyse booking data, identify trends, develop campaign ideas and draft tailored communications.
The technology is useful, but the quality of the information you provide matters. Start with accurate client records, use appropriate privacy safeguards and check AI-generated recommendations before acting on them.
And remember, a message is only the beginning. You still need to offer a service worth returning for!
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