A Guide for Evaluating Your Shop to Ensure
Post COVID-19 Success
Let’s just be real with each other for a second and stop worrying about keeping up brave faces for a moment—the global pandemic absolutely sucks.
Yeah, we’re a professional barbering liability company and we’re saying it this bluntly—the global pandemic sucks. It sucks that so many people have been sick, it sucks that so many people have been affected financially, it sucks that the world as we know it has changed forever.
And honestly, aside from the bigger picture, it also sucks for barbers who have been out of work, missing clients, and missing out on those must-have paychecks.
If you’re anything like us, you’re sick of not being able to go into your shop and take care of your customers. You’re probably itching to get back to work, grow your business, and try to come back better than ever.
Well, guess what, friends? We’ve got good news.
Even if you’re not able to go back into the shop (full-time or at all) just yet you can still start working right now to ensure that your business will achieve post-quarantine success. All without ever even having to step foot inside your shop.
How?
With a comprehensive, top-to-bottom, full-fledged evaluation of your barbershop, your business goals, and your brand. That’s right, we’re calling for an intense, immense, unquestionably insane revaluation of your business in the middle of a quarantine.
We’re not crazy, we’re dedicated to you because, at the end of the day, we want to provide you with the resources, knowledge, and advice you need to kick COVID-19 to the curb and ensure post-quarantine shop success.
The Must-Know Steps For Evaluating Your Shop & Ensuring COVID-19 Can’t Mess With Your Success
We won’t lie, an entire evaluation sounds super overwhelming (spoiler alert: it doesn’t just sound overwhelming, it actually is). But, we’ve laid out a few basics you can start with so you can tackle your evaluation step-by-step without losing your mind (let’s try to keep that in check, okay?).
Remember, there’s no element of your business that’s too small or too expansive—it’s your business, and that means you have the ability to crunch the numbers, examine, and analyze your practices, methods, and strategies and start improving them ASAP.
1. Evaluate Your Last 12 Months (Honestly)
We all know how important it is to plan for our future—that’s why we have business plans, yearly goals, and actionable steps for meeting them. But here’s the deal. You can’t find future success without taking a good, hard look at your past year and learning from your mistakes.
You’ve probably got a lot of time on your hands right now, so it’s the perfect moment to sit down and honestly evaluate your last 12 months. How did the past year go for you? Did you meet your business goals? Did you set business goals that you didn’t attain—if so, why?
Even if the answers to your questions and evaluations are disappointing, this is an important step. It’s going to help you uncover your shop’s issues and help you get to the root of any problems. It can also kick your butt right into gear when it comes to planning for the upcoming year.
Our recommendation? Start with this step first. That way you can truly acknowledge your successes and your not-quite-successes and start to understand why they matter when it comes to your shop’s future.
2. Check-In On Your Website
Your website is a big freakin’ deal, you guys. Even if you’re not a techy person who feels comfortable running a website, the reality is that you need one—and it needs to be updated, modern, and easy-to-use.
Now’s the perfect time to evaluate your site and ask yourself, “what can I improve?” Odds are, your site needs some sprucing up, especially if you’ve got dated pictures and information on there. Either work on updating your website yourself or hire a professional to help you out—either way, use this quarantine time wisely.
Just think—the easier your website is to use, the faster those appointments will fly in through your site post-quarantine.
3. Don’t Skimp on Coverage
We’re not trying to sound insensitive here, but after the 2020 we’ve all had, it’s probably obvious how important liability insurance is for your business, right? We think so. And of course, we recognize we sound biased (we’re a liability insurance company, after all), but here’s the real deal—even if you don’t purchase liability insurance through NAOB, you still need quality, professional liability insurance to protect your business.
Now’s the exact right time to start evaluating your coverage, look for more comprehensive policies, and figure out what’s right for your shop.
4. What’s Up With Your Social Media?
Now is the perfect time to take a good, hard look at your social media and ask yourself, “am I running a solid social media marketing strategy?” Just like websites, even if social media isn’t your thing, it’s a mandatory thing for a business (especially a barbershop) in this day in age.
Social media presence is everything for barber businesses—if you don’t have a presence and don’t engage with customers through these platforms, it’s highly likely that you’ll miss out on future customers and even lose your current ones.
Use this time to evaluate your strategy, make sure your platforms have cohesive branding throughout, and even take the time to set up a schedule for your posts so you never fall behind on content again!
We want you to all understand that we’re not offering this insight lightly. We know that with the weight of the world, the global pandemic, and the general unrest we’re all feeling right now, trying to tackle big tasks like this can be extra challenging.
But here’s the deal—if you can take these steps toward evaluating your barbershop right now (even amid all the chaos), you’re setting yourself up for future success. And honestly, at this point, we all deserve a little success to come our way.
Are you ahead of the game when it comes to evaluating your business during these tough times? Have you already taken on the tough-as-nails job of doing the hard work during quarantine shutdowns? If so, congratulations—you get gloating rights and now you have the obligation to share your tips and tricks with the rest of us.
We’re kidding, of course—there’s no obligation. That being said, your barbering community will most definitely be better for it, so if you feel so obliged, drop your comments, your insight, and your advice on how to start evaluating your shop now. Your barbering community will thank you.
Remember, you guys, if ever you should need some liability insurance help, NAOB has got you more than covered.
We’re here to answer your questions, help you pick the perfect policy, and explain why we’re wholly and solely dedicated to helping barbers just like you achieve the success they crave!
