It is important to regularly assess the health of your business for a few reasons. As a Sola Professional, you are in total control of your own opportunity and earning potential. So whether you’re trying to set new goals to help your business grow or know how successful you were last quarter, it is up to you to know your numbers so that you can make positive changes that impact your business. What numbers should you look at? You want to track and assess the parts of your business that indicate whether or not you are meeting or exceeding your guests’ expectations, improving guest loyalty and increasing your overall revenue. Items like average ticket, total service sales, retail sales and number of pre-booked appointments are good for starters. But what if I don’t have time to track my numbers?! Assessing your business can help you in so many ways. It’s important to know where most of your income is coming from so that you can focus your energy on improving areas that are most valuable to your business. In order to ensure you are carving out time to regularly assess your business (whether it’s on a daily, weekly or monthly basis) schedule it into your calendar like you would a client’s color. Put it on your books for an hour each week like clockwork and stick to it. Pick a slower day to do this if necessary, or plan on coming in an hour earlier than you normally would one day a week. What are KPIs, and what do they do? KPIs (key performance indicators) will give you the facts you need take the guesswork out of prioritizing what you should work on. They can also guide you in setting clear, realistic goals. Assessing your success based on your KPIs show you very clearly how effective you are with serving your clients and help you compare where you are now with the goals you have previously set. They are like a mirror to show you your strengths and where you can improve. We’ve separated the KPIs we recommend you follow into four areas. From a high-level view, we recommend tracking and analyzing total sales and your overall guest average ticket. From there, you can look at your service business, retail business and guest retention information. Total Sales: This is the total combined amount of service and retail sales. Compare this to your goals for the week, month or year. You can also compare this to last year’s performance to assess progress. Average Ticket: This is the average amount of money your clients spend with you per visit. Your total average ticket helps you to assess overall performance and can be used to project growth in your future. To calculate the average ticket, take your total sales and divide it by the number of guests you saw during that given time period. Gratuity %: This is the average amount of money your guests tip you. This is an important part of total sales because it is income and must be tracked from a tax reporting standpoint. Service Sales: This is the number of dollars you generate on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis in services. Service $ per Guest: This is the average amount your clients spend on services each time they visit. You get this average by dividing total service dollars by the total number of clients for the period you are reviewing. Compare this average to your goal and with your pricing. Frequency of Visit: The frequency of visit is the number of times a client visits you annually. Increasing the frequency with which your clients come in is a surefire way to increase your total sales. If a client typically comes in every 8 weeks, but you're able to show them that they should be coming every 6 weeks, you will increase the total times they visit you by 2 times per year. This can make a big impact on sales volume. Retail Sales: This is the number of dollars you generate on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis in retail. Retail $ per Guest: This is the amount your clients spend on average in retail each time they visit. You get this average by dividing total retail dollars by the total number of clients for the period you are reviewing. Retail to Service %: Your Retail to Service % indicates how effective you are at serving your clients with retail. Divide your total retail dollars by your total service dollars to get this percentage. If you are a stylist, your goal should be 15%. For estheticians, it should be 75%; for nail technicians, the average is 10%; and for massage therapists that offer retail such as body lotions, the average is 5%. # of Guests: Tracking the number of guests you have is important information that helps you factor all other KPIs. The health of your business depends on having a healthy book of business! Rebooking %: Your rebooking % is a key indicator of your ability to retain your guests as well as predict the number of clients and money you can expect to make during a given time period. Your rebooking % is calculated by dividing the number of guests who rebook with you by your total