Four people in business attire gather around a conference table with laptops and documents, listening to a woman presenting charts and graphs on a whiteboard in a modern office. - Intercoiffure Canada America

By now, most salon owners have their plans in place for the final months of 2026. The holidays are approaching, schedules are filling, and the focus naturally shifts toward finishing the year strong.

But this is also exactly the right time to begin asking a different question:

What do we want 2027 to look like?

There is no question that these are challenging and changing times. Consumer behavior continues to evolve. Appointment patterns are shifting. Costs remain a concern. Finding, developing and retaining great people continues to challenge many salons.

But challenging does not mean opportunity has disappeared.

Zenoti’s 2026 salon benchmark data offers an interesting perspective. In 2025, same-store revenue grew 2% among full-service salons and 5% among specialty salons, even as new-guest visits declined.

That points to an important idea:

Growth does not always require finding more people. Sometimes it starts by doing more with the opportunities already in front of us.

As you begin planning for 2027, look beyond the revenue goal and think about the things that actually create that revenue.

Are you retaining enough of the guests you already have?

Are enough guests leaving with their next appointment booked?

Where are there unused hours on the schedule?

Is online booking making it easier to do business with you?

Are your best clients visiting as often as they once did?

Where could technology eliminate friction for your team or your guests?

Zenoti’s data provides another interesting comparison. Median online booking among full-service salons was 28%, compared with 54% among businesses at the 90th percentile. Median staff utilization was 49%, compared with 76% among the top performers.

Every salon is different, and benchmarks are not prescriptions. But numbers like these remind us that meaningful opportunity can often be found inside the business we already have.

START WITH FOUR QUESTIONS

As you begin shaping 2027, consider four areas.

  1. Are we keeping the clients we already have?

Retention rarely gets the excitement of new-client acquisition, but it remains one of the most powerful drivers of a healthy salon business. Look closely at visit frequency, rebooking and the clients who may quietly be slipping away.

  1. Are we making the most of our available capacity?

A busy Saturday can hide a slow Tuesday. Look beyond the overall revenue number and understand where open time still exists by day, hour and team member.

  1. Are we making it easy to do business with us?

Today’s consumer expects convenience. Booking, confirming, changing an appointment and communicating with the salon should feel simple. Every unnecessary step creates another opportunity for a guest to give up or go somewhere else.

  1. Where can technology give people more time to be people?

Technology should not replace the human connection at the heart of a great salon experience. It should remove repetitive tasks and friction so your team has more time for consultation, creativity, hospitality and relationships.

Planning does not have to mean predicting everything that will happen next year. None of us can do that.

It means deciding what matters most, understanding where the opportunities are and putting systems in place to act on them.

So perhaps the first question for your 2027 planning meeting should not be:

“How do we do more?”

Try this instead:

“Where are we leaving opportunity on the table?”