After 43 years in the trenches as a working hairdresser/salon owner and 10 years as an educator, business consultant , author, motivational speaker on personal growth and development , I feel I have earned the right to speak out and voice my concerns and opinions about the plight of hairdressers, salon owners and our profession as a whole.I know many of my colleagues feel the same way.  Below are just some of the challenges that salon owners face in building their businesses.

Before we can find solutions that are needed to stop the bleeding of hard working salon owners and hairdressers, we need to identify the dark side of our profession.

I am committed to finding solutions to the challenges that many of our colleagues are facing every day as salon owners and hairdressers. I formed Hairdresser Career Development Systems  free of special interest groups  in an effort to help turn our profession around.

These are some of our challenges :

  •  Staff Turnover — many of your top members of your team will be bombarded and encouraged to enter into booth rental, suites,salon walkouts, and other salons offering higher commissions, etc. Many more will make poor decisions by going from salo to salon,searching for the perfect salon.
  • There are no perfect salons.How can you grow a successful business with a constant threat of losing key staff members by trial and error? This is just too costly.
  • Rising Business Costs — As the costs of business  and the cost of living continues to grow, the only  way to combat these growing challenges is to raise prices, and if we are to raise our prices we need to raise our standards of educational excellence.With the growth of low coat franchises,should we not be raising prices? With the new minimum and over time mandates, our efforts are daunting.
  • Combating Staff Pirating (recruiting hairdressers from other salons offering booth rental, salon suites, price and commission wars by desperate owners. When you are a victim of turnover, your other staff members livelihoods will also be threatened.Getting ahead at the expense of others is wrong.There are many ways to combat unethical salon owners. I will address this at my next business seminar soon.
  • Lack of Unity Among Salon Owners —you do not have to fight these battles alone in isolation, united we have  the power to address these obstacles. A return to honesty, a code of ethics and an equal playing field will be our reward.
  • Lack of an Apprenticeship Training Program — I think you will agree that beauty school curriculum is not meeting growing business and consumer demands. We need a curriculum to  better meet growing job market demands. Far too many of our future hairdressers are leaving the profession because they are unable to gain hands on experiences  in beauty schools needed to earn a good living.
  • Booth Rental Issues — many salon owners are being penalized for honesty by following the rules, paying their fair share of taxes etc. while others are not ; sadly we have developed an underground economy. If everyone played by the same rules we would truly have a profession we could all be proud to be  a part of. An equal playing field would provide a fantastic opportunity for everyone.
  • Inability to Find Quality Help — why is it so difficult? There are many reasons and solutions to this topic I will  also address at my two day business only seminar in Las Vegas in May or June.
  • Poor Business Management Skills— studies show only 5% salons make it beyond 7 years. Lack  of business management skills is one of the leading causes of business failure. Excellence does start at the top.
  • Inability to Market and Promote Your Salon — There are many cost effective ways to attract and keep customers.The power of social media is awesome.We are in the tech age. This is another topic I will address at my business only seminar.
  • As salon owners we can no longer fight these obstacles and challenges in isolation.  We as professionals must unite and make our salons and our profession a profession we can all be proud of.  We must address the above deep rooted obstacles and challenges that salon owners face daily and we must do it now, especially in today’s tough and uncertain economy. Soon I will release information about my Alliance Network for Entrepreneur Salon Owners

Although I am expressing my own views and opinions, I know many of these concerns are shared by thousands of hairdressers, salon owners and open minded educators I have had the privilege of meeting personally at my presentations and seminars seminars I teach throughout the United States and Canada. Meeting committed salon owners who work hard daily in their salons and trying to reach higher levels of excellence personally, professionally and financially for their benefit and that of their families has been honor.

Unlike the large product companies, manufacturers and special interest groups who have manpower, money and resources to promote their products and viewpoint, the working hairdresser and salon owner has very little time, money or resources to fully express their views and their educational and business needs. We have no voice.

I am sure many of the special interest groups may not agree with this article and will profess everything is well in keeping the status quo.  But isn’t it time that those of us who work daily in the trenches of our salons have an opportunity to voice our concerns and take control of our own destiny?

As a fellow salon owner/hairdresser you can be assured that I will continue to seek out quality education and information you can trust and count on.  As President of Hairdresser Career Development Systems I am committed to excellence in education

Together we can and will make this industry respond to our educational and business needs. with others.I need your support, please hit the like and share button