’Tis the season for vacations and relaxed schedules for both stylists and clients. School’s out and sometimes that summer-time mentality of kicking it into low gear hangs on well into adulthood. And well into fall.

If you’re worried about stylists at your salon getting a little lax over the summer, now’s the time to do something about it. Qnity, an education company that provides training and tools to stylists, managers and owners, has the perfect antidote to the summer-time slump. Tom Kuhn, Qnity founder and CEO, just released results for a group of graduates of the Qnity Q+A Program.

These graduates were part of a national pilot program, called the “17% Challenge” where 198 participants from 19 salons across the country committed to 13 weeks of tracking their numbers to reach 17% or greater growth.

The Results

This pilot program took place February 15 through May 16. Kuhn was highly impressed by the participants’ commitment and overall performance.

“We compared their performance over the 13 weeks to the previous 26-week period average,” he says. “Of the 198 service providers, 68% had double-digit growth. The overall growth for the group was 18%.” “It was an increase of $661,000 for the group.” Kuhn adds, “If we were to annualize this growth, it would be more than 2.6 million dollars in additional revenue.”

The average person was up 18%, which worked out to an average annualized increase of $13,364 of additional sales per person.

Summer Challenge Infographic

In addition to impressive numbers, Kuhn also believes, for the majority of the individuals who went through the program, the numbers will stick.

“We would have expected people to lose focus at the end. In the second half of the challenge, numbers went up though,” he says.

“As a result, it’s highly likely this will be a permanent increase in their business. A new normal for them.”

So why 17%?

Reaching 17% (or greater) growth is taught to participants of the Q+A Program. Several simple and visual tools are provided to support service providers reach this goal. Kuhn says that through research and testing, 17% emerged a great growth target.

“It’s significant, something that can be felt in the pocketbook” he says. “But it is also highly achievable for the overwhelming majority of service providers. For the average person, 17% is just two to three more clients per week and $3-$5 more per ticket.”

The Challengers

“With the national pilot challenge, we wanted to further support salons with Q+A graduates. So we put a group of salons together, we made some mutual commitments, and created a large scale national challenge,” says Kuhn. Everything was done virtually. Qnity set up the trackers for each company, collected numbers each week and sent out weekly recognition e-mails to the group.

“It was a BIG hit. With both service providers and salon leaders. It created accountability, encouragement and focus for everyone. Since it only took minutes per week for service providers and leaders, it was easy, and most found it fun.” “I knew the results would be there,” says Kuhn. “The hard part was going to be the tracking. What shocked me was that these 19 companies stuck with their commitment to send in numbers for 13 consecutive weeks,” says Kuhn.

Collaboration and simplicity was key. Service providers just had to spend minutes hand tracking a few numbers each week. Qnity provided its’ 13-week “Tuesday Tracker” tool for participants. Q+A graduates were properly trained on how and why to use the Tracker during their class. Leaders also tracked and shared with Qnity on a weekly basis.

As to the length of time for the challenge, Kuhn has found 13 weeks is a long enough time period to see real rewards. And long enough for the simple behaviors that cause the higher performance to become second nature so that the increase in business is maintained after the end of the challenge.

Challenge Yourself

Qnity’s next 17% Challenge group starts July 5 and goes through October 3. Need to get motivated through the summer and into the fall, to go strong into the holiday season? This is how to do it. Qnity sets up trackers and does further analysis to help celebrate team members throughout the process.

There’s also a private Facebook page to go to for inspiration. “We’re opening up this next challenge to salons that are serious about growth but don’t want to create disruption,” says Kuhn. “The 17% Challenge takes very little time to set up and monitor. And Q+A graduates have the training and tools to jump right in.”

“For service providers, the rule of thumb for participation is whether the person is ‘willing’ and ‘able’ to grow. Our data shows that the vast majority of stylists are ABLE to grow 17%. The question to ask is—are you WILLING ?”

Qnity provides several focusing tools to help right-brainers. They also create “QMunities,” so there is peer accountability and encouragement. “It’s amazing to see how many creative people really get into this. Stylists are tracking because they want to track. Because it’s a challenge and not a contest, everybody is supporting each other,” says Kuhn.

For salon leaders, their commitment is to send ‘baseline’ data in for each person at the start. And to then enter three numbers per person each week into a tracking spreadsheet that is shared with Qnity. Qnity furnishes and sets up the spreadsheets for each salon/participant. Salon leaders also agree to notice and celebrate the small (and BIG) wins as they occur during the 13 weeks. Service providers need and thrive on the encouragement. There is no charge, although you do need to be a Q+A graduate to be part of the Challenge.

Click here or contact adrienne.tousignant@qnityinc.com for more information. Enrollment is limited and closes June 30.

Want more information? Give us a call – (952) 474-2447.