Rickey Barcheers has been a stylist for 10 years, and has worked at Brieshi Salon and Spa in Rogers, Arkansas since 2008. As the salon’s coach/educator, he knows the importance of continuous growth through improving his numbers.

About 14 months ago, he became even more in tune with evaluating and analyzing his client stats when he went through the Qnity program along with his salon owners, their Aveda advisor and five other stylists.

“It made a lot of sense to me,” Barcheers says.

Trial and Error

Barcheers wanted to increase his growth by 20 percent over the previous year and figured the best way to do it was to see more clients.

He decided to shorten his women’s haircuts from one hour to 45 minutes in order to squeeze more clients in—a plan that failed quickly.

“I was constantly running behind,” he says. “I felt rushed and it stressed me out.”

Feeling like his clients weren’t getting value with their service, Barcheers tried another approach and began to use an assistant for blowouts before he finished the look.

But that plan didn’t work either. “I felt like I was bossing the assistant around—our personalities didn’t mesh well.”

Then, last January Hauns Korpela, creative director for Scott J Salons and Purefessional Mentor, visited Brieshi and gave Barcheers an idea.

Barcheers still spends an hour with his clients who want a cut. He uses the fresh talent for his color clients only. He applies the color and then sends clients to an available assistant to process and get their blow out.

The result? Last year Barcheers saw 20 percent growth from an increase in clients.

“My tickets from my salon business grew from 1,450 clients to 1,700 clients,” he says. “Getting rid of process times and blow outs on color services while still charging the same amount has given me more time to see more clients.”

During this time, Barcheers also made a change in his men’s cuts by raising his price by $10.

“I felt like I needed to raise my price or get rid of my male clientele—it was bringing me down,” he says.

He didn’t lose a single client—instead, his men’s business has grown.

New Year, New Challenge

This year, Barcheers is challenging himself to grow again.

“I’m putting myself on the same track as our level-one stylists—18 percent growth,” he says. “They’re still building their books and have room to grow, but I’m going to have to get a little more creative.”

Barcheers is already booked solid, so increasing his guest count is not an option.

Rickey Barcheers, educator at Brieshi Salon in AK

“Since last year I focused on tickets, this year I’m going to focus on the amount of money clients are spending per service,” he says. “I would like to grow my business another 18 to 20 percent, so I’ll work on upselling to build my dollars. I also have a goal to grow my retail at 18 percent every quarter.”

And he already has a plan for retail. “We focus on the eight seasons calendar,” he says. “Right now it’s the ‘fresh start’ season. People are getting new looks, so they need new products. In the highlighting/spring break season I’ll focus on selling sun care and Damage Remedy.”

He’s also a big fan of the salon’s Botanical Hair Therapy treatments.

“We have lots of different options, and they can be done on all clients,” he says. “It’s a simple, five-minute add-on that improves the condition of the hair. We charge $25 for it and it lasts four to six weeks.”

While his path to growth is clear this year, Barcheers knows growing your business can be overwhelming to many stylists, especially if they’re used to being on cruise control.

He tells stylists to try different methods until they find something that works for them.

“I would advise a stylist to meet with his or her manager or salon owner and look at a breakdown of their numbers to see where the biggest opportunity for growth is,” he says.

Due to reaching his goals, Barcheers has experienced more financial freedom and ability to do the things he loves in the past year and is looking forward to an even more profitable 2016.