Teréze Taber
Co-Founder, BTB Salon Services – Written with Lynden Mason
When you’ve built one business from scratch, you learn a few lessons. When you’ve done it twice – across completely different industries – you start to notice patterns that transcend the product or service.
I started with a single optometry practice, and grew it to ten. Then I co-founded a hair salon brand and scaled that from one to 85 locations across the country. And here’s one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty:
Your numbers are always talking to you.
Most business owners just don’t stop to listen.
It’s Not Just About Profit – It’s About Patterns
Whether you’re selling glasses or glossing hair, running a business gets chaotic. There’s stock to manage, team issues to juggle, clients to keep happy, and a thousand decisions that feel urgent. It’s easy to push the numbers to the background until end-of-month rolls around.
But by then, you’re reacting, not leading.
The strongest business growth I’ve ever seen didn’t come from focusing on revenue alone. It came from understanding what created the revenue: behaviour, consistency, experience.
Because numbers don’t exist in isolation.
They’re the result of what you do (or don’t do) every day.
Let the Data Ask Better Questions
Here’s a good example. In one of our salons, I noticed a dip in rebooking. When I looked closer, one stylist’s numbers had dropped sharply. Nothing else had changed, she was still popular, still busy on the floor. So we had a catch up and I asked her what was going on.
Turns out, she’d simply gotten bored of saying the same rebooking script to clients and had stopped saying it altogether. That tiny shift in wording created a massive drop in her forward bookings.
One small habit. One big impact.
This happens in every industry. Numbers dip and we jump straight to blame – “the market’s quiet,” “it’s the season,” “people are spending less.” But often, the truth is buried in behaviour.
Your rebooking rate, conversion rate, client return rate, all of these are breadcrumbs. Follow them, and you’ll find the story underneath.
Small Tweaks, Scaled Success
When I scaled our salons to 85 locations, we didn’t largely rely on massive, flashy initiatives. We focused on tiny tweaks, replicated consistently.
We tracked these things religiously, because we knew that one small shift in client behaviour – say, visiting every 6 weeks instead of every 8 = meant a 20% swing in revenue annually.
This is true whether you’re running a clinic, a café, or a creative agency.
“Don’t Use Numbers as a Report Card – Use Them as a Compass”
Too many small business owners treat their numbers like a grade they get at the end of the month. But numbers are more powerful than that.
They’re a compass. They show you where to steer next.
Look at your numbers weekly, not just monthly. Train your team to understand the behaviours that drive results. Don’t just track sales – track the things that create sales:
That’s where the gold is. Literally.
Step Back So You Can Step Up
If you’re feeling stuck, or like your growth has plateaued, zoom out.
Get curious about the data. Dig into the story behind the numbers. Don’t wait until your bank balance forces you to ask hard questions, be proactive. Short term pain for long term gain!!
Because in my experience, the businesses that thrive are the ones that listen early, adjust quickly, and never stop paying attention to the story their numbers are telling.