If you can’t manage yourself, how can you expect to manage your team? Whether you like it or not, you are captain of your team.

If you expect excellence within your staff, then you must lead the way in developing excellence within yourself as a salon owner.

It’s important to understand, that your teams winning attitude starts with you. Your ability to develop a team spirit where everyone shares your vision and goals will be a key leadership skill.

It is your challenge and responsibility to take your business and your team to a higher level.

I formed Hairdresser Career Development Systems to help you and your team succeed personally, professionally, and financially.

Follow these tips with an open mind:

Set Positive Examples — lead by example. A good leader not only knows where he’s going, but he can persuade people to follow him. Learn self-control before attempting to manage others.

Give Your Team Educational Guidelines — invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential — educate your team. Give them the educational tools to succeed. how can you expect your team to grow if they don’t know your expectations and how your expectations will be measured. Click here

Create a Team Culture — salon owners must work hard at being a positive influence in creating a team spirit within their business. A house divided will never grow. 

Work Hard to Educate Your Team —-  if you can show your team how to double and triple their income, they will double and triple profits

Create Conditions that Foster Loyalty —work hard to create a positive and professional salon environment. Create an atmosphere of trust, not an atmosphere of fear. Let your team know your door is always open if they need help or support. 

Praise,Incentives and Rewards — rewarding your team for their hard work by praise,incentives and sometimes just a little pat on the back can do wonders.

Whether you like it or not,it is your responsibility to take your team to a higher level, and that level starts at the top. I urge all owners to develop powerful leadership skills, help is available. Click here.

“I’m always asked the same questions by salon owners. How do I deal with a problem employee who refuses to be part of my team? How do I deal with salon gossip and pettiness? How do I avoid staff turnover? How do I improve staff performance and productivity? The list of questions goes on and on.

First of all I do not believe hairdressers perform poorly on purpose. Most of these challenges can be solved with a terms of employment section in your employee hand book. Many of our challenges as salon owners are caused because of poor training and education of many hairdressers during their formative years. Unfortunately many of our young people that enter the beauty profession do so with unrealistic earning and career expectations. They see all the glitter and hype and fail to learn basic salon skills for our everyday customers who want easy to manage hair styles; experience outstanding customer service, and hairdressers that are skilled at listening and committed to working hard to exceed client expectations. Without the proper education and mentoring, many of our young hairdressers soon become discouraged and eventually leave the profession. Many more go from salon to salon searching for that perfect salon.  Along the way they develop poor work habits and form negative attitudes. There are no perfect salons!

I think you will all agree that 9 months of beauty school is not enough time to teach them all the skills they need to work in an upscale salon.

In the absence of an apprenticeship program,I suggest you educate and develop your own. This starts with your terms of employment.

Assuming you already have developed  your own  staff development program and have chosen your new team member I suggest the following:

Probationary Period –- I suggest that you set a six month probation period. Make sure you state that your salon is an at-will salon which means that you can let them go at any time during their probationary period and they can quit at any time as well

Employee Hand book — How can you expect your staff to perform if they don’t know what is expected and how those expectations will be measured. Your employee hand book should be the foundation to developing your team and help you avoid being a baby sitter.

Salon Orientation— Make sure you cover everything from draping, customer handling procedures, telephone etiquette, quality control guidelines etc.

Quality Control — Before you allow them to work on payping customers, let them assist , observe other hairdressers, and when you feel they understand your high standards , elevate to junior stylist at reduced prices under your supervision.

Define Your Goals and Expectations — during their orientation period, make sure they share your goals, vision, and team culture.

These tips can and will help eliminate many of your internal challenges and help you take your business and team to the next level. For complete additional information. Click here.

The following recruitment  tips are geared to help you attract young talent, so you’ll have  more applicants to choose from when adding a  new member to your team. When I say recruitment, I do not mean recruiting or soliciting a hairdresser from another salon. Getting ahead at the expense of others is wrong and a tremendous mistake many owners fall into.

As I travel throughout the United States and Canada conducting my business seminars, the number one question I am asked over and over is how do I find and keep outstanding hairdressers?

As an owner I’ve always had great success hiring and developing young talent, they are much easier to train and mold into your team concept. I have found that young talented hairdressers are eager to learn,and excited about the opportunity to be part of your team. One thing for sure, they haven’t formed too many poor work habits and negative attitudes.

Do not rule out experienced hairdressers, as long as you feel they share your vision, and will follow your quality control standards. If you do hire experienced help I would suggest that  you do not encourage them to bring a clientele; you want customers that are loyal to your business not the hairdresser. Hiring hairdressers who taking phone numbers and addresses from a former employer without their permission should serve as a red flag. They will probably do the same to your business when a better deal comes around.

Honesty and a code of ethics is the only way to build a successful and profitable business and career.

There are many  candidates to choose from, but with the influx of booth rental, young talent are unable to find jobs, especially at upscale salons that attract upscale customers. Lack of experience and knowledge will prevent them from learning and earning a good income in a booth rental situation. This creates  a wonderful opportunity to find outstanding young talent, provided you have your training and junior stylist program in place.

The following 6 tips will help you attract more applicants for employment.

Recruitment Brochure — a recruitment brochure listing the benefits of working as a member of your team will be a valuable recruitment tool to pass out after you give a presentation at one of your local beauty schools.

If you accompany a letter of congratulations on your stationary to recent graduates, this will be have more impact. You can purchase a mailing list of recent graduates at your state board of cosmetology.

Guest Speaker at Beauty Schools — Offer your services as a guest speaker at your local beauty school sharing your thoughts and experiences in building your own career.

Make sure you have your recruitment brochures available and post on the schools bulletin board.

Web Site Presence — make sure you add your recruitment brochure under employment opportunities , as well as application form on your business fan page and web site.

Post Cards -– inviting applicants to join your championship team stating that you’re accepting applicants for employment,listing the educational benefits.

Advisory Board Member — offer your experiences as a salon owner/hairdresser on an advisory board at your local beauty school. Get to know all the teachers and supervisor offering your opinions and expertise

Booth at Local Hair Show — a booth at a local beauty show can be cost effective and allow you to meet hundreds and possibly thousands of young and experienced hairdressers, listing your salon name and passing out your recruitment brochure and salon brochure and answering their questions.

Building your championship team will be a key element in your salon’s success and profitability.  I urge you to visit my educational books page for many more guidelines. click here

Earning the trust and loyalty of hairdressers is a constant challenge for salon owners. Why do some hairdressers perform so poorly? Why do some hairdressers allow themselves to be drawn into salon gossip and pettiness? Why do some hairdressers constantly change jobs? Why do some hairdressers always blame the boss for not being busy? Why do some hairdressers refuse to be part of your team? The list goes on and on. Who’s really to blame? Is it the owner? Hairdresser? Our beauty schools?

I think we are all guilty? Simply put, our educational systems did not change with the times.

I really don’t believe that hairdressers perform poorly on purpose, they just were not taught properly in the beginning  of their training and education.

Many salon owners do not develop the leadership and communication skills to improve staff loyalty,so they can better communicate  and inspire their team.

Hairdressers also must look in the mirror and ask themselves do I really go all out to maximize my full learning and earning potential? Am I always looking for excuses to fail?

The following Tips will help salon owners bridge the gap and misunderstandings between staff and management.

Earn Their Trust and Loyalty -– excellence begins at the top! When you chose to be a salon owner, it is your responsibility to help your team succeed. You lead by example, excellence does start at the top. Let your staff know you value their hard work and loyalty.

Select the Right Team Members — carefully screen out the people you hire. Will they be compatible with your other staff members? Will they share your goals, vision and educational guidelines? Will they contribute to a team culture?

Invest in Educating and Training Your Team—do you take the time in investing in your salon’s greatest profit potential — educating your team? Did you clearly define your expectations and how those expectations will be measured in your employee hand book?

Praise and Recognition — from time to time, allow for job evaluation meetings starting the conversation how am I doing as your boss? A little pat on the back once in a while will do wonders.

Mentoring —  like a flower booming,carefully take a personal  interest in helping your team member reach higher levels of excellence. Carefully nurture their development.

Seek Employee Feedback — let them know you value their opinions, give them permission to criticize you without taking it personally. Let them know you value their opinions.

Keep Them Busy — The higher levels of excellence in training, the higher your referral rate will increase. Work hard to develop powerful marketing skills to attract customers. Make sure you monitor their referral and retention rate

It is my desire that these tips will help bridge the gap between staff and management so we can better understand each others career and business needs.

We as hairdresser’s and salon owners need each other more than ever before, let us try to communicate and understand each other so we can grow our careers and business to higher levels. your invited to view my educational programs that will help meet the growing challenges we all face.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by
helping others to succeed. – Napoleon Hill

Here are some of my suggestions for creating teamwork and growth in your salon:

Maintain staff stability — combat staff turnover, no salon or staff will grow when you have a merry-go-round of staff turnover.  Naturally your other staff members will question their job security and your leadership qualities if turnover is a constant problem.

Work hard to keep your staff busy — after your staff has proven that they understand your quality control system, work hard to provide them with a measured flow of new customers.  Be sure to monitor their performance as well as their referrals and customer return rates.

Work hard to create a team culture — so everyone shares your goals and vision.  Remember, a house divided will never grow. Teamwork helps contribute to a very positive and fun salon environment.

Maintain a positive & professional salon environment — where everyone is happy.  When you add a new member to your team, make sure your new team member will be compatible with your other employees.

Leadership — whether you like it or not, you are captain of your team, it is your responsibility to take your team to higher levels of excellence. It will be your challenge to earn the trust, confidence and support of your team in sharing your goals and vision for your business. Always lead by example.

Mentoring –- take time to seek out feedback from your salon staff in private one on one meetings.  It lets them know you value their input.  Make them feel that they are a valuable member of your team.  Let your staff know that your door is always open if they need help and support.

A suggestion box — ask your staff for suggestions on how the salon can be better then reward the person who offered the best suggestion.

Show that you are organized — an important part of leadership is to show your staff that you are organized and monitoring all aspects of salon performance.

Education — invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential by educating your staff. Your challenge is to help your hairdressers and other salon staff members to build self esteem and self confidence in themselves and in their artistic skills. I urge you to work hard to help your staff become successful. If you show them how to double and triple their income, you will double and triple your profits.  Always present information in terms of the benefit to them, not you.

Treat each employee with dignity and respect — create an atmosphere of trust, not an atmosphere of fear.  Always treat people the way you would want to be treated.

Following the above guidelines will enable you to build a staff of artists that thrive on teamwork and growth.  Watch for my next blog post, “7 Ways to Increase Salon Performance & Productivity” for ways to take your staff to an even higher level of performance and excellence!

Click link to learn about my Salon Leadership Guide – “Developing Your Skills” which will help you create teamwork in your salon as well as help you acquire the 26 Traits of a True Leader.

The following guidelines can help you avoid staff turnover:

Develop Your Championship Team — a team atmosphere where everyone shares the same vision and goals of management is a trade mark of strong management. A house divided will never grow. Make sure when you add a new member to your team, they will be compatible with your other staff members. Be very careful in your hiring decisions. Refer to my book Creating Your Salon

Invest in Educating Your Team — invest in your salon’s greatest profit potential — educate your staff. As leader of your team it is your responsibility to take your team to higher levels of excellence.If you can show them how to double and triple their income, you will double and triple your profits.

Create a Positive and Professional Salon Environment — No professional wants to work in a salon where salon gossip,pettiness,and negativity runs rampant. This type of behavior affects  your staff, customers and your bottom line.

Praise and Recognition –– a little pat on the back from time to time will work wonders. Maybe a little note in their pay envelope saying your doing a great job. As coach of your team your challenge is to make your staff feel valued and appreciated. Always look at the positives of each staff member. Work hard to build self esteem and self confidence in all your team members.

Let Them Know Your Expectations — how can you expect your staff to perform if they do not know what your expectations and how those expectations will be measured. Your employee handbook will be a good start.

Be a Mentor or Coach –- as leader of your team lead by example,create working conditions that foster loyalty. Work hard to help your team be successful. Let them know your door is always open,create an environment of trust not fear.  Always invite employee feed back by one on one meetings from time to time.

Keep Them Busy -–with a measured flow of customers through marketing and advertising. Make sure you monitor their performance and client retention rate.

Develop Your Own Employee Training and Development System — develop an easy to understand quality control learning system. As owner of your business you must develop your own quality control standards.

Incentives and Rewards — give them incentives and rewards for being a peak performer, Perhaps a gift certificate for dinner, tickets to a movie, a picnic for the entire family,etc. Contests for highest retail sales for the quarter, perhaps best client retention rate, perhaps bonuses for attendance and tardiness. There are many ways to reward your team cost effectively,the bottom line is to try to make their jobs fun and rewarding.

Despite your efforts  there will always be the challenge of potential turnover, but if you follow these guidelines you can help prevent staff turnover, there will always be people you will never please, that’s alright they are probably people with negative attitudes and will be doing you a favor. For more information please visit my web site at www.hcds4you.com.