Book: 3 Day Work Week

Written by: Wendy White McCown

Available: The e-book is complimentary and can be downloaded at edayworkweek.biz.

Reviewed by: Nathan R. Reedy, executive director of sales and development for Be.Creative House, the Bumble and bumble distributor for Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

SALON TODAY: What is the book about?

Reedy: “3 Day Work Week is a wonderful explanation and exploration of a unique model to salon efficiency. Signatures Salon and Signatures Consulting have piloted an innovative model for salon success, built on maximizing time for all employees and stylists while working and increasing productivity. Without adding more chairs, opening a new location or increasing the fixed costs of running their salon, the Signatures team has increased their overall net income by an incredible 82 percent in two years! The efficiency with which they have executed their ‘3 Day Work Week’ is built on the strong culture of their salon, the roots of which are shared in 3 Day Work Week. Understanding the importance of a vision for your business, your life and the lives of the people with which you work, is a key driver of overall success and 3 Day Work Week lays out very simple processes for helping to refine this vision.”

ST: What did you like best about the book?

Reedy: “I very much enjoyed that 3 Day Work Week is laid out in a simple, approachable manner. Too often, “simple” is confused with “easy”. Through McCown’s very candid description of their own process of adopting the “3 day work week” into their everyday, you can begin to imagine how this may play out in your own salon. For me, it is so important to understand the bigger picture of what we do on a daily basis. I love that so much of groundwork for 3 Day Work Week is built on the vision that you as an owner/management team have for the salon. This said, I love that 3 Day Work Week incorporates not only testimonials from the owner/manager prospective, but from the stylists as well, sharing the impact of less, but more effective time in the salon. Equally impressive is the manner in which Signatures has woven in the involvement of their front desk team in maximizing the profitability of the salon while helping them to see a path in their own development – a sometimes elusive element to success.”

ST: For you, what was the biggest takeaway message?

Reedy: “Culture isn’t just important for the success of your business – Culture IS the success of your business! Everything begins and ends with having a greater vision for what you are trying to accomplish. As McCown says beautifully in 3 Day Work Week, people often look at salons from the outside and mistakenly think, “What an easy business to run!” Like any other business, salon success takes work! In order to think outside of the box, you have to have a clear understanding of who you are, what makes you special and how can you capitalize on this to trail-blaze new and different paths to success.”

ST: What’s the one idea from the book that owners can implement in their professional or personal lives?

Reedy: “Our salons – our businesses - are not just places that we go and, at the end of the day, turn off the lights, close the doors and forget about until we next arrive. They become extensions of us. How we view the world. How the world views us. Understanding the importance of a clear vision for this business, and all the people it touches, is an incredible concept. 3 Day Work Week lays out some very clear steps to begin examining and diving deeper into this immediately to establish what will work for your own culture”

ST: Why would you recommend this book to peers, colleagues and customers?

Reedy: “I’m fond of saying, and I’m certain I’m not the first, ‘We’re none of us an island.’ In today’s rapidly evolving, competitive business and salon climate, with so many demands on our time, it is so important to maximize efficiency and remove waste. 3 Day Work Week is built on this concept and revolves around maximizing not only salon profitability but stylist and employee happiness and health. To me, that is a truly winning combination!”