Every Salon Needs a Back-up Plan

When the Lights Go Out

Winter snowstorms and the heat of summer have a few things in common. One thing is the potential for power outages. I was reminded of this recently. A seemingly small snowfall left the salon without power and phones.

Fortunately, we’ve done this drill before—after a hurricane. The lessons we learned then proved helpful this time around. We fired up the generator and had all the salon calls transferred to a cell phone. Disposable cell phones allowed us to make outgoing calls without tying up the incoming line. The thing we could have done better was our backup plans for Internet service. Tethering the cell phone to a computer turned out not as reliable as we had hoped. An aircard from our local wireless carrier is now our plan C.

When you operate a salon, things will happen. Sometimes they are little and other times, well, they can shut you down completely. The idea is to control the little things and have backup plans in place.

If you depend on certain utilities, what would happen if they ceased to work properly? What’s the worst-case scenario and what would you do?

If the power goes out- Consider installing a generator for backup power.

If the phones go out- Keep a salon cell phone and a couple disposable cell phones for emergencies. Make sure you have cell phone numbers for clients and staff members.

If the water is shut down- Keep emergency bottled water on hand to get you through the clients you have and to flush toilets.

If the gas is shut off- Have an alternate means to heat the salon.
If the Internet service is out- Aircards and tethering can be done through your wireless company.

The difference between staying in business and losing out on income may boil down to how prepared your salon is. What’s your backup plan? And your backup plan for the backup plan?

Note

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