[165] The 🫠Domino Effect of Poor Scheduling: Limit gaps and avoid the slow week / busy week roller coaster

The domino effect of poor scheduling: How to limit gaps, avoid the slow/busy roller coaster and audit your timing.

Hey Successful Hairstylists!! This week we’re talking about how to make MORE money in 2025 - and to kick this off we’re diving into scheduling and timing. I know it’s not the sexiest topic and it can bring up a lot of resistance. After all, many of us became Independent Hairstylists to create our own schedule and don’t want to feel tied down. BUT - if you’ve ever had a “busy” day and looked back and said, “wait, that’s all I made?!” - this will show you why!!

After this training - you’ll know how to:

• Limit gaps in your schedule before they even happen

• Get out of the slow week / busy week roller coaster

• How to audit your service timings so that YOU are not the bottleneck in your business

Let’s get into it!

LIMIT GAPS IN YOUR SCHEDULE

As hair stylists, it is easy to feel frustrated with the gaps in our schedule - especially the ones that aren’t big enough to squeeze a client into.

So, I’m sharing what YOU can do, when booking appointments into your schedule, to prevent this from happening all together!

1. Pick your schedule and stick to it (Big sister truth bomb: Always trying to come in late and leave early is sabotaging your potential!!)

   • Whether your shifts are 6, 8 or 10 hours - do your best to be at your studio the full time. In your downtime you can create content, do your marketing, other inventory, catch up with client requests, etc. A lot of times, when hair stylists don’t have a full day, they dip out early and then wonder WHEN they could possibly have time to do all of the CEO activities that come with growing a clientele. It might feel difficult and annoying at first, but eventually, you’ll see those openings as great opportunities to catch up on everything so that when you’re home - YOU ARE FULLY HOME.

2. When scheduling a client into a BLANK DAY - book them your first or last appointment of the day.

   • This allows you to create “anchors” in your schedule to then build the rest of your schedule onto that appointment.

   • “Tuesday is perfect! I have 9am or 3pm that day, which one works best for you?!”

3. When scheduling a client into a day with other appointments - book them right before or right after the other appointment.

   • One of the biggest areas of lost $$ is in the spaces we give ourselves between clients! Aside from booking a 30 min lunch break (if you don’t have processing time to eat something) - your appointments should be booked back to back. A lot of hair stylists create these spaces so that they feel “comfortable” and are not “rushed.” However, seeing just ONE more client a day (x5 a week) adds up to $39,000 A YEAR. If you are not confident with your timing - see my timing recommendations below for tips!

PREVENT THE BUSY WEEK / SLOW WEEK ROLLER COASTER

As hair stylists grow their clientele and get closer to reaching that “fully booked,” holy grail status - it’s normal to go through many different cycles. One of those cycles is the busy packed week and then the slow week roller coaster. During those busy weeks - we feel like we are UNSTOPPABLE and can rule the world!! But, during the slow weeks… we feel struggle with doubt, imposter syndrome and income anxiety.

Knowing how to, intentionally, stagger your appointments so that you have more predictable income is such an important skill in growing your clientele.

The way that we do is through REBOOKING.

The switch I recommend, is to Rebook your clients into an ODD number of weeks (5, 7, 9)!

When we rebook clients on EVEN weeks (4, 6, 8) - we end up replicating the same pattern over and over again. But, when we rebook clients on ODD weeks, we stagger the appointments and create much more consistency.

AUDIT YOUR SERVICE TIMING

Timing not only impacts your clients… it also impacts your INCOME. Improving your timing allows you to ADD VALUE to your clients and INCREASE your daily/weekly/monthly income. It’s a true win-win.

The biggest areas where I see time getting lost are:

• Base color applications

• Haircut

• Blow-dry

• Hot-tool finishing

• Maintenance Foiling (Partial and Full)

Here are 4 ways to improve your timing:

1. Do timed drills on mannequins during no-shows, cancellations and gaps in your schedule. This creates muscle memory!

2. Aim for high-standards, NOT perfection.

3. Prioritize the RIGHT thing during a service. (For example, a perfectly crisp folded foil does NOTHING for the outcome of the highlight service).

4. Keep a small timer on your station (out of your clients line of sight) and high “Start” when you start a service, this will give you awareness around how long things are taking you AND keep you on track!

---

I hope you make the time to implement even just ONE idea from this weeks training and see how it goes! Great job showing up for yourself today! XO - Ren

If you're new here, welcome!! I'm Ren Lopa, the CEO and Founder of Wolf and Rabbit Inc Salon Marketing! I'm obsessed with helping hairstylists and estheticians make more money doing what they love!!

If you need help getting fully booked - check out these resources!

• Grab my FREE 30 Days of Instagram Posts for Hairstylists: https://bit.ly/30dayssocialposts

• Join 2,000 other Successful Hairstylists in our https://www.facebook.com/groups/successfulhairstylists

• Shop our $17 Success Kits for Hairstylists! These self study courses include titles like... Fully Booked in 6 Months, Get Clients with Instagram Stories and SO MANY MORE! https://www.wolfandrabbitmarketing.com/shop

• Start booking high-end, loyal clients in the next 72 hours inside the Luxury Client Method. THE revolutionary program for hairstylists to get clients in any economic climate https://www.wolfandrabbitmarketing.com/lcm

• Shop my Amazon Storefront for all of my recommendations for marketing, style, salon decor, personal development and more! https://www.amazon.com/shop/renlopaofficial

• Get 20% OFF long lasting manicures at home with the Olive & June Mani System https://fbuy.io/oliveandjune/43phw6d7 

• Get 50% OFF of Flodesk! Send beautiful emails, create opt-in forms, email funnels and more with Flodesk
https://flodesk.com/c/PZ8RG0

#independentstylist

#hairstylist

#framar

#behindthechair

#haireducation