Many of us hold the belief that “it won’t happen to me” – that is, until it actually does. Not sure what I’m referring to as it relates to your salon? I’m talking about the unexpected disaster that could occur. We live in a geographically diverse nation where it’s possible that one salon can be affected by a natural disaster such as hurricane, another by a wild fire, and yet another by a tornado. And then, there are those man-made disasters that can occur anywhere on the map, like blackouts or cyber-attacks.
Even if you think that the chance of a natural or man-made disaster at your salon – the business that you’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into building – is unlikely, you should still have a plan in place to not only handle a disaster, but to also help prevent the effects of one. The actions that you take before, during and after an unforeseen event can make all the difference in terms of the impact that a disaster can have on your business.
Hopefully, the use of a disaster recovery plan is not needed if a calamity occurs where your salon is located, but you will surely be glad you have one if it does!
Unless you are still using index cards to manage your salon guests and their packages and memberships, you’ve surely experienced an increased dependency on information technology to operate your salon. Since you can’t prevent a disaster from occurring, there are things that you can do to minimize the negative effects on your business and maintain some stability during a potentially tragic time.
As your customer database is the lifeblood of your business, one of the most vital components of your disaster recovery plan should be a regular schedule for data backup. This backup should be stored off-site; after all, if the location where your server is housed is affected by a natural catastrophe, it may not survive. Make sure that this backup can be easily restored, and that you have an available resource to assist you with the restoration if needed.
Another important preventative measure is to ensure that you have anti-virus and monitoring software on your server and workstations in an effort to deter a malicious hacker from damaging your computer network.
What if a disastrous flood occurred at one of your salons, and although power was restored to the area, Internet service was not? Would you have to resort to the “honor system,” trusting that your guest really has that active membership, and would you have to keep track of your sales with a pen and paper? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you may want to consider implementing software that includes a utility which allows you to operate “business as usual” even when you’re offline and can’t connect to your database.
Have you considered pre-configured backup workstations? Do you use certain peripherals in your salon that are imperative to your operation, such as timers or receipt printers? If so, do you have extras on hand in the event that one becomes inoperable following a catastrophe?
It’s important to document your disaster recovery plan once you’ve laid out the procedures that should be followed if an unfortunate natural or man-made event presents itself. Equally important is the testing of the plan. Remember those fire drills you had to do every year as a child at school? Make sure that you train your staff on your plan, and that it is easy to understand, especially during what might be a chaotic situation.
Melissa Damiani is the Sales Manager of SunLync Software, Inc. a member of the JK-North America group of companies. With the company since 2002, Melissa has served the organization in several capacities, and has extensive knowledge of all aspects required to deliver robust salon management software solutions that are designed to enable measurable growth within its users’ ever-evolving business models.
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