I know this sounds like a basic question, but it really is an important one that you may want to ask yourself as an owner. Lets look at the reference that most people have initially. They worked for someone else and they bring their experience with them to your salon. This means that if you don’t set clear expectations with your new employee, then they will assume that who they worked for before you will be ok. That means that if they didn’t have to clean up after themselves, if they didn’t have to answer the phones when they weren’t busy then they won’t, if they weren’t expected to help fold towels when they weren’t busy they WON’T. How do you find this out? You ask them.
Inner viewing your applicant is about finding out what their experiences were before you met them. Have them describe what it was like at their previous job. What they liked and what they didn’t about the owner. Ask them what their job was like and what was expected from them. The more you find out about them, the more you will learn whether that person is right for you. Look beyond what you see. It’s beyond the credit report, it’s about what they believe. Do they believe that taking care of a family member in need, do they talk about helping them? Do you hear them mention goals or life’s dreams? Speaking of dreams, I recently had interviewed 5 people that wanted to be hired as stylists. All of these people had experienced beauty school up to 8 years of experience. All of them had aspirations but no real hard driven goals that would be a focused plan. None of them. All knew they wanted something more however; dreaming and taking action steps towards the goals were not so concrete. Certainly, you could say they were interviewing to improve their skills and location of work. This is a step towards the right direction. None of them were qualified to work in our salon. As an owner, we have to discern the difference between what we want and whom is interviewing in our salon. Again, hire the right person with skills for the right position. If you want to learn more about this, we are having a webinar on attracting and hiring the right person for your business. Register here.

Today I want to talk about management. I’ve hired all types of managers. Some worked out and some didn’t. In my experience, managers are hired to operate, manage, analyze numbers, interview and hire employees and manage the day to day operations. I’m sure you know this too but maybe you didn’t know how to put this position into words. Do you have a job description for this role? I recommend highly that you have a job description that shares the vision of the role you are hiring for and accountability for the role. Accountability for this role would include sales, payroll %’s, retail sales, new client retention and regular retention of clients. Some of the other responsibilities could include inventory management.
If you are a small salon and doing everything yourself this is ok while you are small. As your business starts to grow, you will need someone to assist you to help you grow your business with the day to day activities. Some of those activities might be answering the phones, paperwork including opening and closing procedures, managing the customer data to use for marketing, marketing the business, cleaning the salon, meeting with the beauty supply vendors and much more.
If you aren’t sure what to put into a job description for a manager, email us for support at warriorsalonconsulting@gmail.com. Feel free to join our conversation at facebook.com/warriorsalonconsulting