Updated Online Booking & Availability
Life has gotten hectic since 2017 started. Here's a quick recap of what's going on.
- The Barber Story is growing faster than I thought it would have. I have more appointments coming in, and less downtime is spent at the salon.
- I've been tracking my growth and comparing it to the upcoming appointments, and as I enter the busiest time of the year I'm anticipating that I need to get a hold on my time before it slips away from me.
- I made my first commercial! Huge thanks to Aerial Mastery for helping me get my first ad campaign out into the community.
- Separate from barbering, I have 3 weddings I'm working on for 2017, and another one for 2018. The first one is in a month and I'm getting excited about having this as a side project.
- I've also taken on a few side projects with web design and marketing because I don't know what it is to enjoy free time.
When comparing all of this with how I spend my personal time, I realized I was becoming completely disorganized in my home life. I've rearranged my hours of online booking to include extended hours on Sunday and now opening up my Monday. I still have the same total hours available, but I removed times that typically remain vacant while opening up areas that have been getting frequent requests. Tuesday will be the day I get to have off with my wife, and Wednesday will turn into "Web Design & Weddings Wednesday" once Hailie goes to work and I can focus completely on all of my additional projects without distraction. Those two days are my church, so I won't be taking appointments on them. Additionally, I've noticed that a majority of stylists take Sunday and Monday off. It's like this weird unspoken standard in the industry. To me, Sunday is a day that is synonymous with the weekend. Now that spring has sprung it will be getting warmer and that means the weekends will be getting busier, so why not open more hours on the weekend? Appointments on Saturday and Sunday are now available from 10:00 - 3:30, so you can stop by before/after your trip to Capitol City Market or your Sunday afternoon in Ann Morrisson Park.
This whole experiment of me trying something new has helped me recognize what a healthy work-life balance should look like, and I've put myself into the position where I must pursue the win-win scenarios I can find and create the ones that I can't, and I think the solution I've created is one where everybody wins. My wife gets a day dedicated to the two of us ($5 Tuesday at The Village makes for a great date night). I get a day dedicated to me and the projects that I want to do but can never make time for. My clients get greater availability and their barber at his absolute best. Win-Win. As May approaches, I'm reaching the point where I have been running The Barber Story as a business for half a year. As my way of saying thank you to all of who have allowed me the opportunity to grow and find scenarios that I can create win-wins, I will be offering $5 off your next haircut or a complimentary hot towel steam facial all month to any of my clients who have put the time into a written review on Yelp and Google. Long time readers will know that I've always been a fan of written word, and I can't tell you how much it brightens my day when someone takes a few moments to write something down to share with others what I've done for them. It's such a blessing to do something I enjoy and to have a community that supports my ability to do it.
Until next time....
-Chris