Mastering Time Management for Solo Spa Professionals
Welcome to the Spa Business Building Podcast, where we're diving in and having real conversations about all the things that are helping us attract clients and build thriving businesses as solo beauty and wellness professionals. I'm your host, Tiffny Nodolny. I'm a licensed esthetician, massage therapist, and spa business mentor to solo spa bosses who are ready to take their business from surviving to thriving.
So whether you're a new solo spa boss or seasoned, this podcast is for you. As a solo beauty and wellness professional, you wear all the hats, service provider, business manager, marketer, and everything in between. It's no wonder that days feel too short.
The to-dude list never ends and burnout starts creeping in. If you've ever wondered how much longer you can keep up the hustle, you're not alone. Today's episode of the Spa Business Building Podcast is all about working smarter, not harder, to help you manage your time effectively, staying focused on what truly matters, and carving out space for rest and self-care.
When you're able to feel less overwhelmed, you're able to show up as your best self for your clients, your business, and your personal life. Here are some tips to help you balance the chaos. Number one, and this is huge, and I think that we all fall victim to this, especially in the beginning.
I know that I was guilty of this, but once I decided to take back my time in setting boundaries, it really all started to fall into place, and that burnout and overwhelm was just more manageable for me. I established dedicated work hours and contact hours. So, there was a time when clients were emailing, texting, calling, like early in the morning, late at night, and I felt this pressure to respond right away, even if I was like in the middle of doing something like bath time or getting my kids ready for bed, or even early morning like up for school or in the middle of my workouts.
And then I realized that it wasn't as urgent as I was making it out to be in my head. Mostly, my clients just had a moment and they didn't want to forget that other question or if they needed to cancel. They wanted to make sure that they were doing it in advance of my cancellation policy.
So, they were emailing or texting when it was convenient for them, when it was at the top of their mind. And it wasn't that it was that they were necessarily expecting a response from me right away. I had to remind myself of this and I would respond within these hours that I had dedicated to response times.
And I actually started putting that in my social media messaging. If someone messaged me on social media, it would give an immediate response reminding them of when my response times would be. And you can set up email responses like out of office responses to give an automatic response when a client emails you that you will respond within these business hours.
So I was making sure that I was responding within those hours that I had dedicated for response times. And I found that clients were understanding. And if there was some sort of urgency, like if a client was sick or they needed to contact me right away, like their appointment for that day, they needed to let me know that they weren't able to make it, then I would respond right away.
But that doesn't happen that often. So I found that by doing this, I was taking that stress and anxiety off of myself to always be accessible to my clients. But that also meant that I had to remind myself not to work outside of my dedicated work hours.
So I was taking that time off. When I got home from work, when it was 8 o'clock at night and I worked my hands-on service hours and I would come home, I wasn't doing more work. If I was taking a day off, I was taking a day off.
I wasn't working before a certain time in the morning, after a certain time in the afternoon, and I didn't work on weekends. And I was making sure that I wasn't responding to clients and that I was giving them those notifications of or those reminders of when my work hours, my response hours were. When you're hustling to build that client list, sometimes it feels necessary to try to fit in clients.
And coming in on your days off or staying later than you usually would, what I find is that this leads to an express ticket to burn out. And what starts to happen also is that your clients will start to expect that you will come in or stay late whenever something comes up for them or they need to reschedule. If you're constantly bending because you're afraid of them not coming back or them getting angry, but you have to set those boundaries and say, this is my time.
Unfortunately, I cannot come in late. I cannot come in early for you. And if that's a problem for them, unfortunately, that's a them problem.
But you have to respect yourself and respect your own boundaries so that you don't lead to burnout. And if this becomes a problem for the client, then they can either respect your boundaries or they can go somewhere else. Number two is using tips and strategies to help you prioritize, delegate as needed, create systems and multitask for effective time management.
As a multi hat wearer, it's important to effectively manage your time to reduce overwhelm and burnout. And there's only one you and so many hours in the day, and you can't do it all and be in all the places at once. So here are a few ways that you can manage your time effectively, so that you're not stretching yourself thin and leading to burnout.
Number one, utilizing tools that can help you streamline your workflow. Tools like appointment scheduling platforms. So when you're able to set up that system where clients can schedule online, you don't have to be answering calls, texts, and emails 24-7, which I mean in an awesome world, having that many appointments coming in would be amazing, but you don't want to have to be the one to be responding all the time, and you don't have time to respond all the time.
You will be in services. So setting up that scheduling platform, there are a few out there. Vigaro, Glossinius, Square, Notero, Acuity, Jane, Boulevard, Mangomint, those are just a few.
And depending on what your needs are for your business, they are so many different platforms out there that have different benefits for your business. Looking into social media scheduling platforms can really help you as well. This is another system that you can put into place.
There are a variety of scheduling platforms for social media scheduling. I use Later, there's also Planely, Loomly, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, SocialB. Those are just a few I enjoy later.
Social, but Planely is really good. Hootsuite is really good. But it's nice to just be able to plan your social media ahead, schedule it to go out, and then it's set it and forget it.
And it's done for you, instead of having to remind yourself that you need to post something. If you're able to sit down and create your social media plan ahead of time, this reduces the stress and overwhelm than when we're like, oh crap, I totally forgot I needed to post something. When you already have it planned and scheduled, that just takes the stress out of your life.
Another system to have in place is email management system. Now, a lot of the appointment scheduling systems also have email management system, but if you have a system like me, I use Acuity for my scheduling. They send out like email reminders, but they do not have an email marketing system, so I have a separate email marketing system.
I use Flodesk. It is very simple. It's easy to use, but it also makes very beautiful emails.
So I can add images, videos, customize it however I want, but it's got like these drag and drop features. Super easy. You can set up funnels.
You can even set up like a sales page for your business, like an opt-in page. So let's say you're trying to capture emails. You can create this opt-in page that has a link where you can put that on your social media, on your website to capture emails.
So it makes it just so much easier in managing your business. Some email management systems out there, I use Flodesk. There's also MailChimp, Constant Contact, Active Campaign, Clavio, ClickFunnels.
Those are just a few. I find the simplest ones to use. It's probably Flodesk and MailChimp, Clavio, Active Campaign.
Those are a little bit more complicated. You have to really understand like the funnel system and how to create those. It's more about funnels than just creating a beautiful email and sending it out.
But those are a few that you can use. And like I said before, when you are able to plan ahead, set it and forget it when it comes to like your social media and your email management. You have more time for yourself that you can prioritize like tasks that actually bring you more money than just sitting and focusing on, oh, I got to send out an email this week.
If you have a plan, you know what that plan is, you can set up that email, schedule it to go out, set up your emails for the month, edit them as needed, but then you can set it and forget it and it reduces stress. So number two in the effective time management is prioritizing tasks. So focusing on the most important tasks first.
And I think a lot of times we get sucked into kind of these busy tasks, but prioritizing the tasks that are actually going to move the needle in your business is where you want to put your time, effort, energy, then just getting stuck into something that makes your brain feel good because you're feel like you're doing something. But if it actually isn't going to move the needle in your business, then you're wasting your time. So knowing what tasks are the most important for your business.
So following up texting or emailing, responding to clients, those are important tasks that can be done that should be done because it's important to build connection with your clients. But sitting down and organizing your shelving may not be a super important way to utilize your efforts versus something else that is really going to help you move the needle in your business. Now, that brings me to number three, and that is delegating tasks.
Now, as Solo Beauty and Wellness professionals, and especially if we're just starting out, a lot of times in the beginning of our business, we don't have the money to delegate tasks or hire out other service providers so that we can do tasks that make us money, right? So we have to figure out what that priority is in our business. But if you get to a point where you can start delegating tasks, and maybe that even means that you are maybe bartering with someone who can help you trade service for service.
If you have a family member who can help you out, a like teenage child who can come in and clean for you, they can be the one to organize your shelving while you are writing the emails for the month. Delegating those tasks can help you free up time for yourself that is going to help you prioritize what needs to be done, get those tasks done that are going to make you more money, and in the overall big picture of your business, your business more successful making you more money. So knowing when to delegate tasks.
The first task that I started to delegate in my business, I did hire a VE. It took me a long time to hire a VA. I had tried several years ago, I had hired a VA, I used to do a subscription box in my business, and I hired a VA to do the images for the subscription box.
So I would send her pictures of the box that I had taken, and I would have her create the social media posts for me, and she would also create some emails for me to go with the subscription box. So it was helpful. VAs can do so much for your business.
If you are not one that loves writing emails, you can hire a virtual assistant to help you write some newsletters or maybe even put together a template for you. They can do any sort of scheduling calls. If you're still taking calls, they can answer phones.
They can do inventory. So if you give them inventory, they can organize your inventory spreadsheets for you. Any of those type of things.
Sometimes it is worth it to delegate those tasks out that you may not be the best at, but someone else is better at it. They can do it faster and get it done quickly for you. Maybe some social media posts.
If you are taking pictures, some action shots of yourself in your studio, and you just don't know how to arrange them into social media, you can hire a virtual assistant to do that for you and schedule them out for you. So knowing when to delegate those tasks so that you can get them done if you know that you are not the fastest at doing it. To finish out the episode with number three, having a strong support network.
Having that support and community with those in the industry to share experiences and advice. Finding mentorship to help guide you through your stress and overwhelm. This is what we're all about in the Solo Spa Bosses Society.
Support, guidance, mentorship, friendships. Being a part of a group of people who have been or are where you are right now. There's just something so reassuring knowing that there are people there who are in solidarity, who you can connect with and talk about things that are going on in your business.
Because let's face it, I mean, whether you have a great support system at home, you have people that encourage you and support you. Sometimes they just don't understand what's going on in your business, or they don't understand the stress, the overwhelm, your worries. They just don't get it because they're not living it.
They're not there. They're standing on the outside. So being a part of a group of people who actually get it, who have been there, who you can connect with and bounce ideas off with and share those feelings of burnout and overwhelm and help manage that.
So we talked about setting boundaries in your business to help you deal with that stress and overwhelm. We also talked about effective time management systems, prioritizing tasks and delegating. And then we talked about finding that strong support network for you to really connect with other industry members, those in the same industry as you, to help you manage and get through those feelings of overwhelm, stress, and burnout.
Thanks for listening. I hope that you found this episode to be valuable. Until next time, my friend, stay fabulous, stay inspired, and happy business building.
Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Spa Business Building Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show and don't want to miss another episode, you can follow on Spotify or subscribe wherever you usually listen. If you haven't done so already, I would really appreciate it if you leave a rating and review to let me know what you think, and to help others find the Spa Business Building Podcast.
If you have a specific question that you would like answered on the next episode, send an e-mail to thrive. That's t-h-r-i-v-e at spabusinessbuilding.com. If you want to learn more about my offerings, head to my website at spabusinessbuilding.com.
Or check me out on Instagram at solo.spa.bosses. Until next time, friend!
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