Myths that stop your solo beauty business from going digital

You are a solo beauty business owner. Maybe you rent space in another salon, work from home, are mobile, or perhaps you run your own little salon. You use a paper calendar to note appointments, store customer records in a notebook, send reminders by hand and analyse your finances by making tables in Excel. Whenever someone recommends you salon management software, you just smile and shrug your shoulders. "It’s not for me", you say, "I don’t even have employees to manage, I’m good with my pen and paper." Sometimes, when you get lost in your notes and things go south, you catch yourself wondering if a management system would help you with such situations - but you are still uncertain and afraid of the costs.

Do these doubts sound familiar? It’s time to debunk some myths and find out why salon management software works just as well for solo businesses.

It’s better to just get free software

You are a business owner, you know perfectly well how the world works - you cannot operate a business without money. So whenever you see a product that is said to be free, ask yourself: “Why and how?” Some seemingly free software have hidden costs, forcing you to purchase an upgrade to use the core functionalities of a system. Others include annoying ads or even do the most horrible, illegal thing a software developing company can do - sell your data.

Moreover, most free solutions have to sacrifice something to stay alive - usually, it’s customer service (no live support, poor email support) and/or software maintenance, as it requires constant work and outflow of money. This is the reason why such programs are prone to bugs and can offer a poor data security system. As a result, apart from being completely unreliable, they can be dangerous for the user - you risk customers' data being leaked, while taking legal responsibility for its safety.

It requires signing a long-term contract while you aren’t sure if it will work for you

Contracts are scary, aren’t they? You have to be very conscious and always look for some sneaky things written in small print, otherwise, you may end up paying for a system that you don’t even use for the next ten years. Fortunately, Booksy does not require signing any contracts - and you can test-drive the software, using it for two weeks for free without any consequences.

We genuinely want you to find our solution useful - and if it doesn't meet your expectations, we will be more than happy to know why, so that we can keep improving. However, we will never try to tie you to us by force, using questionable contracting methods.

A solo business is perfectly manageable with just pen and paper

Technically, you can manage any business with pen and paper. You can also cut bread with a butter knife, send messages by pigeon post and light up your rooms with candlelight, the only question being - why? Notebooks cannot store an unlimited amount of data, do not ensure advanced data protection, do not allow you to reschedule clients by drag and drop, do not provide multiple payment methods. Paper calendars don’t send automatic appointment reminders, birthday wishes or bulk messaging campaigns, don’t deliver financial statistics, don’t check stock levels, don’t support online booking. You can work yourself dead trying to do it all by hand and it still won’t be enough.

Moreover, as a conscious and sensible person that you surely are, you should try to control the amount of paper you waste - it takes 5 litres of water to produce one piece of A4 paper and as for now, paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste and 33% of municipal waste. Moreover, solo businesses can actually gain the most from a managing system. You don’t have a beauty salon receptionist, assistant or financial manager to help you. You have to take care of so many things, it’s scary - providing the service itself, ensuring perfect customer service, keeping track of appointments and customer records, sending reminders, controlling the inventory, checking statistics, running marketing activities… a reliable salon system can give you the self-sufficiency you crave by automating the processes that can be automated, while you can focus on providing the services and nurturing relationships with clients.

It’s too complicated

We know that feeling when you are so busy and so tired that you prefer to keep things as they are - because the sole thought of carving out time to change something, even if it is to bring you great improvement, is unbearable. We are doing everything in our power to make the process of getting on board with the system easy for you. We provide free setup, onboarding, data uploads - and most importantly, you can always count on our live support. The system itself was designed to be fool-proof, easy-to-use and very intuitive - and we are sure that after a few days of testing, you will be able to master it!

Your relationship with clients won’t be as personal

When you run a business all by yourself, oftentimes you build strong bonds with your regulars. There is something very personal about your services and understandably - you don’t want to lose it. In effect, you are afraid of digital business enhancements, such as online booking, as they seem so detached and inhuman. At the same time - you have to admit that you are tired of all the contact attempts waking you up in the middle of the night, interrupting your time off and stressing you out when you are on holiday leave. A stalemate all the way through.

Online booking doesn’t have to lack a personal touch. Using Booksy, you are provided with a free booking profile your clients can book through, and you can personalise it to fit your business style. Moreover, the software allows you to store an unlimited amount of data regarding your customers and provide numerous tools that were designed to boost customer loyalty. It will even remember their birthday and send them best wishes automatically!

We understand your love of independence, the need to be in control and able to oversee everything. Our system will be there to support you and take care of the elements that can be done by an artificial helper. You are managing your business and Booksy is there for all your demands. Pair up with your first and most hardworking employee and grow your solo beauty business the way you like it!