Week 14 - RESILIENCE
What makes a system fail?
Let’s look at the system of my appointments within the barbershop. I’m usually booked out about 4 weeks solid. This is ideal for me as a business owner, because I can (for the most part) know that when I go in to the shop, I will most likely have a full day of work. Most of those clients will either rebook, or they are on a rotation, so I have a balanced equilibrium that allows for the inflow of clientele alongside the outflow of capacity I require for maintaining my bills getting paid as well as not burning myself out on a mental level. However, 4 weeks is a long time to wait for a new person who wants to get their haircut today. I don’t have much opportunity to be able to gain new clients in the event that my existing ones make different decisions for themselves. Now, if I lose a fair share of clients, let’s say 10%, I’ll start to see gaps in my schedule and a loss of income, but I will also be able to bounce back by having a new found ability to attract new clients into the mix.
My system works simply for one reason. After enough time has elapsed, I have resiliency built into it. If I have a day where I have a long lunch because someone canceled last minute, I enjoy the long break. If the rare occurrence of a half day shows up, I’m not stressed because I can look ahead and still see appointments coming through over the next few weeks, and I know that a lot of those services are “renewable resources” as the hair grows back and the clients need to come back consistently.
Now, that’s simply the system of me as a barber. Let’s complicate the matter a little, and look at the system of being a shop owner. I currently run a four chair barbershop, and only three of the chairs are occupied. In order to maximize the capacity of my system, I need to be able to run with an opportunity to reinvest into the system at large, and I dont have those resources while operating at 75% capacity. Should I lose a client, I can recover, but if I were to lose a barber, the situation becomes different.
Being able to recognize where your resilience lies within the systems that you operate can ensure you are focused on the correct things. I stopped focusing on gaining new clientele a while ago, and now my focus largely is aimed on recruiting a barber to fill that 4th chair. Thinking in systems allows me to ensure that my priorities are aligned on the aspects of my business that need the most attention, and considering I manage all of it, it would burn my candle too brightly to give 100% attention to 100% of the concerns.
Having said that, anybody know of a good barber looking for a shop?
