There’s a massive communication breakdown between stylists and salon owners that’s creating dysfunction because lack of profitability causes frustration which leads to walkouts and resentment.
But all we need is the tools, guidance, and direction to be one big happy family. The challenge is most people are operating from a place of confusion because there’s just not enough business-based education in the industry.
If we as salon owners can set proper goals and expectations, we will attract a much happier community. We won’t be faced with walkouts and actually love showing up to our business every day.
If you create a happy, healthy mindset around your expectations as a salon owner, you won’t be consistently let down, frustrated, or living in a state of fear. Today, I’ll walk you through how to properly set those expectations and goals, whether you have a commission or booth rental salon.
How to Finally to Step Back and Let Your Team Take Control
We have to own up to the fact that we all became salon owners because we wanted those around us to become successful. No one wants to have an incredibly mediocre salon that barely pays the bills.
So what does a successful salon look like? Your stylists are all incredibly busy, right? There are big smiles on the faces of your stylists and clients, and the money is flowing.
It’s up to you as the salon owner to create that, but you have to let go of the fear that they’re going to take away what you’ve built, that they’re not driven enough, or that they’re going to poach your clientele. Let your stylists step up without being fearful of them taking control.
Grab a pen, paper, and dive deep into the next six questions.
1. Why did you become a salon owner?
Think about it for a second. Take a moment and reflect on the original vision for salon ownership. This journey is not for the faint of heart, and it’s certainly not the easy way out. You became a salon owner because this fire was burning in you to create something nobody has seen before. Go back to that place where you decided to be a salon owner and circle back to that vision.
2. What would make your salon the best in town?
I know a lot of you are thinking, “If I were able to do that, I would’ve done it already,” or that you can’t afford to make it happen. Stop. I didn’t say what’s realistic or how much money do you have your bank account right now. I said what would make your salon the best in town. What would make your salon the place that everybody would want to work and every client would want to be seen at?
3. How do you rate your salon compared to the others in town on a scale of one to 10?
Looking at other salons in your town, where do you rate on a scale of one to 10? Think about what factors determine that for you. Is that salon full? It might look shiny and exciting, but if it isn’t full, it’s not a 10. We all have room to grow. Consider all the factors when you’re rating yourself against those other salons.
4. How could you make your salon a 10?
What does a 10 look like to you? Is your salon a 10 if it produces $3 million in revenue a year and 25% of that is profit? Is it a 10 if you have the best team, you’re split shifting your chairs and the salon’s open seven days a week? Maybe the salon’s only open four days a week, and you only have four stylists, but they are the best stylists you could ever imagine working with.
5. How could we make our salon so incredible that no stylist would ever want to leave?
I’ll give you a little hint: It has nothing to do with money. Stylists will stay making a 40% commission if they’re happy in all other ways. Unhappy stylists start fighting for more because they feel like something is lacking or they know you’re set in your ways and you won’t change what they want to change. So what would make your salon so phenomenal that no one would dare consider leaving?
6. What kind of life do you really want as a salon owner?
A lot of us want to work less and have a staff that can cover the cost of our chair so we can choose when and how we work. But we get in our own way because we worry about things like our stylists poaching all of our business. Wouldn’t it be ideal if your team served all of your clients and there was enough profit in the business where you could step away from the chair? It’s possible; you still need to get out of your own way to get to that place.
If you get out of your own way and release that fear of your stylists stealing your business, you can create an unbeatable salon that no client and no stylists would ever want to leave. That’s the new game, you guys.
3 Guidelines to Set Team Expectations
Whether you’re a commissioned or booth rental salon owner, there’s three, very realistic things we can expect from our team: for them to be motivated, achieving, and retained.
Motivated
Motivated doesn’t mean they do what you want them to. It means that they have their own goals and are motivated to achieve them. They don’t have any goals? Then you made a mistake because you hired somebody who is not driven at all. If you’re not screening for drive and motivation in the interview, that’s your problem. Start asking better questions to be certain you’re bringing motivated people into the business.
Achieving
Achieving means consistently fulfilling their own commitments, not growing. Understanding where everybody on your team is at and motivating them to that level is very, very important.
Some stylists feel their family’s really balanced, so they want just to sustain. Then that’s their commitment and they need to achieve that. If they’re not achieving that, it’s part of a bigger problem.
If you have a booth rental salon, you might think it doesn’t make a difference how busy a booth renter is, except we want them to be busy, so they’re happy and stay at our salon. The achievement for booth renters should be that they show up happy, pay their rent on time, and actively market themselves.
In a commission salon, you’re going to have a totally different set of guidelines because your people need to make more money year over year. Did you lay those guidelines out at the interview? Did you let them know before you hired them about the growth goals that must be met every single year? Because if you didn’t tell them, you didn’t set them up for success.
Retained
Retained might be the third piece we can expect from our team, but it’s on you. It’s on you to be the best salon in town that staff wouldn’t want to walk away from. If you want to know what that looks like, listen to episode 65. Let that be your checklist because if you aren’t doing those things, it will be incredibly difficult to attract and retain staff.
I hope your wheels are spinning and you put a little bit of focus onto the fact if you can provide a phenomenal experience where your stylists can have their cake and eat it too, and be incredibly successful stylists in a beautiful, happy environment, we win.