Business 101: 5 KPIs to Measure Success for Barbers
When you decided to become a barber, you also decided to become a business owner. Every owner tracks and evaluates success by measuring various aspects of the business. Think of it as a scorecard that helps you to determine what areas of your business are doing well and which areas need more attention.
KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is a common business term that is used to help owners track success.
We will cover common KPIs that every barber should track. These are crucial metrics that will help you measure your success.
Total Income
Total revenue generated from your business aka money made. This is a fundamental metric for you as it helps to track your overall financial performance. Your total income includes: service sales, tips and product sales.
What are your income goals? Make monthly and annual goals.
If you aren’t sure where to start, check out my 21 Day Barber Challenge designed to help you figure out how much money you actually make.
Average Revenue per Visit
The average amount spent per customer per visit. This helps to track your profitability, and identify any upselling or cross-selling opportunities. An easy way to increase your revenue per visit would be to sell products or to offer add-ons (hot towel, shoulder massage, shampoo/condition treatment etc.)
When you consider your income goals, what do you need your avg revenue per visit to be?
How can you increase this KPI? Additional services? Sell product?
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Customer Acquisition Channels
The number of clients who found you through a specific marketing channel: customer referral/word of mouth, Google search, Social Media, Yelp, walk in etc. This helps to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
How are you tracking this right now?
Does your booking app have a feature to help? Maybe their client notes section?
Customer Retention
The number of customers who return for repeat services. A high customer retention rate is a good indication of customer satisfaction and the quality of your service. You will want to track the number of customer visits over a given period of time.
What is your current client retention rate?
Out of 10 new clients, how many of them will return for another visit?
These client retention strategies might help.
Productivity Rate
Time booked vs. the time open in your schedule or the percentage of available appointment slots that are filled. It helps to track how well you are doing in terms of booking appointments vs your schedule capacity. If you have capacity to have 10 appointments per day and you work 5 days per week, you have 50 possible appointments. How many weekly appointments do you average? How close are you to 100%?
What marketing strategies are you doing to fill your chair?
If you are experiencing an empty chair often, consider these low budget marketing strategies.
By tracking these 5 KPIs, you will gain valuable insight into your overall business performance and will be able to make informed decisions about how to improve and grow your business. If you aren’t tracking these, start today.
Written by Matthew Mendoza
Licensed barber, educator and consultant based in California. He is passionate about helping barbers pass their barber exam, develop their business and diversify their income. He hosts a podcast, writes a weekly newsletter and offers 1-on-1 consulting.
