25. Salon Business Benchmarks: Growth, Profit & Client Retention with Antony Whitaker

[upbeat music] Hey, everybody. Welcome to The Connector, Intercoiffure America/Canada's weekly podcast connecting salon owners and professionals with the leaders, artists, and innovators shaping the future of the professional salon industry. I'm your host, Gordon Miller, General Manager of Intercoiffure America/Canada, the industry's only not-for-profit association representing employment-based salons across the US and Canada. To learn more about us, go to intercoiffure.com. I'm gonna get to my guest in a moment. Um, I'm chuckling to myself a little bit. Um, I'm actually coming out of bronchitis. I'm highly medicated today. Um, [laughs] I've got caffeine and I've got DayQuil, so I might be talking a little bit fast. I, I will apologize for that, uh, in advance. Let me remind you, the Intercoiffure Fall Atelier: The Tapestry of Beauty is right around the corner, October 3rd through the 5th in New York City. It's just three and a half weeks away. Go to intercoiffure.com for more information about that. We've got so much good stuff coming up, um, at the Atelier. Tabitha Coffee is back for the first time in a while. Jason Evers making his first appearance of High Performance Salon Academy, a brilliant speaker. Rumble on Bunble's back. They've, they've not been with Intercoiffure for a while. And so many great, great educators and brands. Go to the website to learn more. Not too late to register or book your hotel. Um, [laughs] the hotel block, uh, runs, uh, through the 11th of September. On to today's episode. Um, one of my favorite guests, and, and someone I've recorded with both on his podcast and on, on my own various podcasts over the years, uh, more times than I think anyone, and I... and he's the number one, uh, repeated guest here at Intercoiffure's The Connector podcast, and that is Anthony Whitaker, growmysalonbusiness.com and Grow My Salon Business, uh, Podcast, um, now sponsored by Zenoti. So I had a cancellation at the end of last week for this podcast, and, uh, getting that rescheduled, but I, I needed a last-minute guest, and there's nobody I enjoy more than spending some time talking business in particular, um, than Anthony Whitaker. And, again, he's, uh, working now with Zenoti, and so are we, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, let's talk benchmarks and the kind of things that excite me that Zenoti's up to." Welcome to the podcast, Anthony Whitaker.

Gordon, thank you so much. It's, uh, always a pleasure, and, uh, I, I'm glad to hear that you're not sick of talking to me because, uh, I know I've been on your podcast a lot, you've been on mine a lot, but yeah, we always have great conversations. So, uh, it's a pleasure to be here once more.

You know, I'm a regular listener, uh, of your podcast, um, Grow My Salon Business, and I, I, I, I'm always recommending it. It's one of the few podcasts o- on my own social that I share regularly and say, "You know, this is fantastic content everybody needs to listen in." You recently had an episode, number 360, Numbers Don't Lie. I wanna dig into numbers with you. Again, your podcast, uh, episode 360, Grow My Salon, uh, Business Podcast, The Numbers Don't Lie. You and I share a passion for numbers. And