As a business owner, you're there to give ulcers, not get them. Be demanding of your staff. INSIST that it's your way or the highway.

I get a LOT of questions from Members all over the world, and some of them resonate with almost every salon owner.

Our own surveys show consistently that apart from the challenge of getting customers (marketing), THE elephant in the room for 99% of salon owners is staff – how to find good ones, how to train ‘em, how to get them to do what you want them to do.

Untrained in the ruthless management of resources and people, many salon owners allow their staff to call the tune, and resentfully dance to that tune while the hired help look on with a baleful gaze and contempt in their eyes.

This from one of our Members just this week, and my response below. (If you are unaccustomed to brutal reality, if the idea of confrontation makes you weak at the knees, better stop reading now.)

I have put on a new receptionist last Tuesday and she won’t answer the phone the way I have asked her to.

I want her to say “(Name of salon),  Sharon speaking, how can I make your day fantastic?”

Sharon says she is uncomfortable, saying this it sounds like a sex shop

She has made many other mistakes.

How long do you give someone a go?”

Do I call it quits now as I cant stand wasting my time on things that may not work

Please let me know what you think.”

I certainly will, but you might not like it. Here’s what I wrote back to this Member:

“I  have zero tolerance for staff who will not do what they’re told. You own and run the business, not her. It is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship.

Patience and tolerance in business is over-rated.

The WSM Staff Finder service – free for Inner Circle members, $195 for non-members – uses a combination of offline and online systems to drive quality job prospects direct to the salon owner.

Mario Raia of Ethos Salon in Washington State - instant respones from Staff Finder system

One of our recently-joined members in the US, Mario Raia of Ethos Salon in Washington State, got an instant response when he used the system, starting with a small ad on the online classifieds services craigslist (www.craigslist.org)

“I already got 3 prospects today. Wow!!  I used a service called www.craigslist.org in the Portland, Oregon Market.

Here is my copy:

Free Report for Stylist and Esthetician Jobs

Attention Hair Stylists & Estheticians! FREE Special Report – valued at $29 – reveals the crucial questions you MUST ask – and get answers for – BEFORE you agree to take on a different job. There are no obligations, and we will not be trying to sell you anything. This is just our commitment to try and improve the industry we are in. Download the report at: www.saloncentral.com/ethos-salon.html

IC member Carolyn Evans of Zash Hair Design in Sunnybank Hills, Queensland - 14 job applications from a single online ad.

IC member Carolyn Evans of Zash Hair Design in Sunnybank Hills, Queensland, had even better responses, when she placed her small ad on another online jobs service, driving prospective staff to the special web page we set up for her:

“Just to give you some feedback, I have had 14 contacts from my job ad – and the quality of applicants is much higher than any other means of advertising I have used in the past.”

To find out more about how the Staff Finder service works, go here.

MEMBERS: It’s FREE to use, all you have to do is contact Karan at our office, karan at worldwidesalonmarketing.com

NON Members: it’s a mere $195 to use the Staff Finder system, go here to find out more, complete the Order Form and we’ll instantly set it up for you.

But many of our Inner Circle members are finding that problem solved with our free (to Members) and unique Staff Finder service.

“100% improvement in the quality and calibre of candidates…”

Inner Circle member Mel Withington of Pella Bella in Victoria used the free Staff Finder service and got 16 quality applications

I have recently joined World Wide Salon Marketing and learnt a lot about myself from the word go, especially about how I have attracted staff to my business. I could never have imagined that staffing would be the single biggest problem I faced when I opened my salon. I come from a nursing background and hiring beauty therapists is no mean feat when you are not one of them! The Staff Finder Service provided by WSM has been fantastic for me for a number of reasons.

To find out more about how the Staff Finder service works, GO HERE.

There is some truth in it. No, the customer isn’t always right. But there’s more truth in the frustration we often hear from our Inner Circle members about staff. Apart from finding customers to fill chairs and treatment rooms, the biggest challenge faced by any salon owner is finding, training and motivating employees to do what the owner wants them to do, when the owner wants it done, and exactly how she wants it done.

Unfortunately, most people in the beauty industry open their doors, hang out their shingle, and sit by the phone, having spent no more than a nano-second on how to systemise a) the getting of customers, and b) the hiring and training of staff to deliver the service and products to those customers.

Yet it is the systems which set you free, free to work on the business instead of in it, free to take a vacation and know that because of the systems, the business will operate efficiently without you being there.

Thousands of salons around the world have been using our tried and proven Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit to systemise the process of getting customers, getting them spending more money.

David Osborne took Kendal Degraaf through his Staff Recruitment and Training process with remarkable results

More and more are beginning to use the system we developed in conjunction with the “thinking man’s” recruitment specialist David Osborne (who until late last year was a Coach with us here at WSM).

David is quietly revolutionizing the way salon owners think about hiring and managing staff. His “Salon Owner’s Recruitment System” manuals, psychometric testing modules and coaching are getting rave reviews (see the website) and as you’ll discover in this 18 minute interview with one of our Members, Kendal de Graaf of Shendals Signature Salon, the results are remarkable:

If YOU want the kind of success with staff that Kendal is obviously enjoying, get David’s system. You can order it online here for a paltry few hundred dollars, and that includes a bunch of bonuses – and a coaching session with David.

NOTE TO INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS: Listen in – and ask questions – as we interview David live in our next Group Coaching call. Next TUESDAY (Australia/NZ time) or, if you’re in North America, next Monday evening. Check your email for details of the dial-in number. All Inner Circle members who employ, or wish to employ staff, should be on this call.

New Video: Inner Circle members reveal how their lives have changed since they joined the program and started using the Toolkit:

Staff deliberately promoting other people's products are the ticking time bomb in your salon....

How ruthless would you be if you caught one of your staff members deliberately sabotaging your sales?

Some do it simply out of ignorance. Others do it because they just don’t care. Either way, it costs YOU money when your staff don’t sell your products, or worse, promote other people’s products…

But there can be few cases worse than this one, just posted on the SalonCentral.com forums this week, from one of our Inner Circle members in Ireland.

“Hi everyone I am very new to the (Inner Circle)!! Just on the thirty day trial but I am amazed at the response I have gotten to an ad I ran last week so I think I am going to be joining for the long haul …

“I do have one dilemma that I would love some advise for…I over heard one of my staff members recommending a Clarins hand cream to a customer during her manicure and for the bad bit , we dont sell Clarins in our salon. Now to make a situation worse this staff member went to her handbag and got her Clarins handcream and used it on the client ….can you believe it ?

“I am so cross and upset and don’t know which is the best way to deal with this as she is very popular with clients. Any advice?”

Go here if you have some advice for Maria, but if it was my money this employee was flushing down the toilet, she’d get an instant warning, and if she dared do it again she’d be out the door, with a swift boot up the backside for her trouble.

But the business owner must bear some responsibility for this. In most such cases, it comes back to a failure of the business owner to set the rules in the first place. It starts with a written Policies and Procedures manual which ALL employees must read, agree to and sign as part of a formal induction process.

And backed up firmly with a cover letter which in effect says “Here is how things are done here. If you agree to abide by these rules, please sign below. If not, go find another business to sabotage…”

If you’ve had similar situations arise, or can offer Maria some advice, log into the Forums and fire away.

Which is perfectly true, and in the beauty business, one of those costs is unavoidable; staff to deliver the innovation (or service) to the customers your marketing is bringing in.

Aside from marketing issues, finding the right staff is by far the biggest challenge facing 99% of salon owners. Which is why we developed a unique way to at least partly solve that challenge, and it’s brilliantly successful.

The Worldwide Salon Marketing Staff Finder Service

“We’ve used this method twice… both times, we had inquiries from prospective staff members within minutes of placing the ad. In fact the first time we used it, we had no fewer than 47 applications within two weeks, and hired two fantastic new team members right off the bat!” says Rachael D’Aguiar of D’Aguiar’s Hair.Skin.Nails in Auckland, NZ

And this works no matter where you are in the world. (And it’s FREE for Inner Circle members.) Here’s how it happens…

Step #1: you download a Free Report in Word format. The report is titled

“The Crucial Questions You MUST Ask – and the Answers You Need – Before You Sign Up for Any New Job.”

Step #2: You modify the report to suit your salon, and email it back to us.

Step #3: We upload the report to a special web page we create for you.

Step #4: You run a classified ad in the employment section of your local paper, and/or online. This ad (we give you the wording) directs prospective staff to the website where they can enter their name and contact number, and only then download your Free Report.

Step #5: You get an instant email with that person’s contact details.

Bingo! You’ve instantly captured the names and contact details of anybody who is obviously wanting a change of job!

We provide this service free for Inner Circle members. Non-members pay $329 and they can run the ad for as long as a month.

IF YOU WANT NEW STAFF NOW:

Inner Circle members: email Karan in our office karan @ worldwidesalonmarketing.com and he’ll organise it all for you, free.

Non-Members: call our office to inquire about pricing. Australia: 08 9381 6621, USA 602.490.0637.

Like most salon & spa owners, Michael Curtis’ Blush Day Spa has suffered for years from the whims of some staff members who would habitually, without notice, report in ‘sick’ – and leave the rest of the staff to carry the load, upsetting clients, costing revenue and profits, and causing Michael to lose hair he can’t afford to lose.

But four months ago, Michael ‘cracked the code’.

Michael Curtis eliminated staff sick days with some rigorous filtering

Traditionally, Blush would lose between ten and 21 staff days every single month. Add it up, and it amounts to an awful lot of distruption and lost business. But for the past four months, Blush has

not lost a SINGLE DAY!

How could this be? Well, Michael first purchased a simple, but powerful system of staff recruitment developed by our own recruitment specialist, David Osborne. (It’s called the Salon Owner’s Recruitment System and you can buy it here for $AUD597)

Using the system, Michael put every single job applicant through a rigorous ‘filtering’ – and then, once he’d got it down to a short-list, sent it to David who put each applicant through a special personality/suitability test that had nothing to do with technical skill and everything to do with a person’s psychological ability to contribute to a positive and enthusiastic team.

According to Michael, ‘aside from joining the Inner Circle program, getting David’s system and putting our staff through this testing process is the single most profitable and biggest business-building thing we have ever done in the ten years we’ve been in the spa industry’. If ONLY we had known about this a decade ago we’d be that much further in front, it’s not funny’.

Listen in as Michael talks about this ‘company-making’ advance.

As I’ve said many times, any fool can get customers in the door, given the right marketing tools and enough action. Shake enough trees, and you can’t help have money fall out of ‘em. But many good marketing campaigns have been ruined by sloppy systems, lousy staff and an active Sales Prevention Department at the back end.

If there’s enough interest among Members, I may run a special Group Coaching call (IC members only) with both David and Michael as my guests, so more of our Members can get the obvious business-building benefits of zero staff absenteeism that Blush is enjoying.

Want to comment on this post? Click here to leave your comments.

with David Osborne, recruitment specialist

What one of the world’s richest men realised…

John D. Rockefeller said “I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any other ability under the sun.”

Why?…..

Before reading on please think why this quote is so important.

Most people communicate without thinking about the implications of their  behaviour. Good communications is not just about being understood it is also about the communication being respect and it should not trigger negativity and resentment.

Why do I have this view?

Well I used to study the managerial communications between the trucks and diggers in an open pit gold mine. What I noticed was the way they communicated and the consequences of that communication. Often the communication was a barked order that sometimes verged on verbal abuse.

This type of communication ensured the primary activity was done, E.G Moving earth, but it caused negativity and resentment. The dollar impact of this situation was apparent when machine operators rammed the bucket of their machine into rock so the bucket’s teeth broke. The truck drivers would run over sharp rocks to split a tire that would then cost at least $50,000 to replace. The machine operators admitted to me they adopted these ‘payback’ behaviours when they were rudely spoken to.

Masterful communication

I have learnt in life that the masterful communicator is one that ensures the message is understand, respected, honored and action is taken if required with a positive disposition. The alternative is you will pay one way or another.

In a six year longitudinal study on workplace sabotage, researchers found that 65 percent of all acts of sabotage stemmed from discontent with the management and its perceived unfair behaviour toward the workers.

Dissatisfaction with management leads to reduced loyalty and once the loyalty is destroyed, an employee is more likely to commit an act of sabotage.

The Union Carbide plant explosion in Bhopal, a Pacific Southwest Airline crash in California, and a devastating hotel fire in San Juan, were allegedly initiated by disgruntled employees with a score to settle.

The recall of Firestone’s tires in 2001 revealed similar patterns of corporate damage. Examining all the data on Firestone two economists from Princeton University found, circumstantial but broad and consistent evidence that a disproportionate number of flawed tires were made at the firm’s Decatur, illinois plant, when labour and management were battling.

More of the tires that were likely to fail were made at a non unionised plant.

“There is great force hidden in a gentle command”.

George Herbert

So John D. Rockefeller did have some great insight when he said “I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any other ability under the sun.”

Psychometric testing

I have looked at and used numerous psychometric tests and if your want to eliminate hiring someone who does not have the ability to get on well with people I would use the Harrison Assessment. In the Worldwide Salon Marketing Recruitment Manual you will have a chance to try out the Harrison assessment tests for FREE and I am happy to discuss its application in your work place if you would like.

A psychometric test is only at best 30% of any selection process. However they are a brilliant tool to ensure you only hire staff who have the “ability to appropriately deal with people”. I have been using these tests with Blush Body Day Spa and they have gone from 28 sick days a month to Zero Sick days a month. What is the value to you to have staff that can get on with people and to eliminate your sick day problems?

by David Osborne, our recruitment specialist

Have you ever been out socialising and met someone who had fantastic looks a great body and an okay personality and thought that would someone you would like to ‘hook up with’. It’s probably happened to all of us at one time or another and then we find out a short time later, that the person we hooked up with might have had nice looks, a great body, but even though the lights were on, no one was home. In other words they were a DUD!

Well this is the same hiring technique that most employers use and it is deadly for their business, it’s called the appearance trap. Most salon owners place an advert for a new staff member, and then after vetting the resumes invite the applicant in for an interview.

You have now just stepped into a mine field and

someone is going to get hurt.

When we see good looking people we believe they are more sensitive and intelligent, interesting, exciting, and worthwhile. In short we are more likely to employ them on their looks than on the facts. Many companies place a premium on image and looks, because attractiveness and height is subconsciously linked to a perception of greater intelligence, vitality and dynamism.

However, good looking tall people are no more effective than the rest of the population.

And this is what the rich know, they know there is an epidemic of dishonest employees, in the market place. They also know 37% of resumes are phony and 25% of employees make up their work history. So you don’t judge a book by its cover but what they what they actually can do for you.

Secret One: The very last step in any recruitment process should be the interview!

Before you invite anyone in to see you, they must have either filled out a selection criteria or an application form.

Secret Two: You then need to ring the candidate up and screen them over the phone. The whole screening process is laid out in the World Wide Salon Marketing Recruitment System.

Secret Three: After the phone screen you need to then check references. Yes check references before they come in to see you.

How do you EVER find out about anyone’s past record of work? Not from what they tell you, but by using behavioural reference checks. Proper reference checks are crucial. Why would you hold an interview, decided you like someone, only to find out later from a referee they were a DUD?

Secret Four: And here is another crucial piece of knowledge. They don’t tell you who you can talk to for references you tell them who you want to talk to.

Research undertaken at a college dance revealed that even though the males were told they had been paired with someone who was more suitable, by a computer, the males rated how well they got on with the female based on their looks.

So in summary, going from advert to interview is highly dangerous, it’s like stepping into a mine field, someone is going to get hurt. Smart businesses don’t reinvent the wheel they find the tried and tested answers. If you want a recruitment process that is tried and tested, then have a look at the World Wide Salon Marketing – Salon Owner’s Recruitment System.

“Learn from the mistakes of others.

You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

(1884-1962)

First Lady of the USA 1933- 1945.

Resource: Never want to make a mistake recruiting staff again? David is the author of Salon & Spa Recruitment Secrets Revealed, the best beauty industry recruitment manual we’ve ever seen.

Click here to find out more.

with David Osborne, WSM’s Recruitment Specialist. Go here to find tools you can use to create a profitable salon/spa team.

The First 3 Steps To Creating a Money Making Team.

Impossible I hear you cry, employees can be an absolute pain.

Trying to get the right people, keep them and then there’s the motivation stuff. Such a drain on my energy.
Okay, let me ask you this, have you ever been in a team that won something important? And I am talking a State Title, a National Title.

If you don’t believe in teams, it’s because you have never been in a team where you really learnt the power of ‘Mateship’, ‘Camaraderie’ and felt the power of a United Purpose. There is not one successful person that didn’t have a great team of people around them.

“I never got very far until I stopped imagining I had to do everything myself.”

Frank W Woolworth
The founder of the Woolworth’s retail chain.

Leading researchers suggest “Teams and good performance are inseparable and you cannot have one without the other”. So if you want to perform as a business owner you need a great team around you and one that performs. As Sam Walton, The founder of the giant Walmart retail chain in America said “The secret is we are working together”.

Step One: Understand you can’t create great wealth alone.

Step Two: Understand you need a team that knows how to perform individually and as a team.
“How do I get that sort of team?”

By using a good selection processes. Great managers and business owners know how to select great staff, however here is a key point, you can’t obtain A Grade staff with a B Grade selection process, it just doesn’t work.
Those people who hire star performers are often well trained in selection. Poor people selectors will never hire A Grade staff, it’s just straight forward and down- right common sense. If the team around you are not building you wealth, then either your selection process is B Grade, or your selection knowledge is B Grade. Sorry, but you can see the connection, if the team isn’t right look in the mirror.

“Don’t complain about the snow on your neighbour’s roof when your own doorstep is unclean”.
Confucius

Step Three: Understand that if your team is not creating wealth, you need advice.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard, and just because the applicant has been to college, looks good and says the right words for one hour on one day, does not mean they are the right person for you.

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”
Erica Jong

So here is some advice: You need to learn or adopt a selection process that works, and stop ignoring the facts. And this is where World Wide Salon Marketing can assist with the Salon Owner’s Recruitment System. This recruitment system has tried and tested advertising templates, for finding and selecting beauticians, hairdressers, salon managers, and salon receptionists.

The manual also has a letter of offer, a contract, position descriptions to generate high performance and much much more.
This what Jane Markac of Oxhey & Bushey Hair & Beauty said about the advertising templates in the manual:

“By changing the way I normally would write the ad to the way you set out I managed to attract at least 10 apprentice applicants and have hired one apprentice who I am very happy with”.

And Michelle Weston form Northmead Beauty Therapy says “Every salon owner should get this manual”.

So back to taking advice, have you ever heard Greg say “don’t reinvent the wheel?” There is great wisdom in those words. Business can be hard enough, why stumble along when you can have a winning team, and remember all the greats only really got ahead when they realised they did not have to do everything themselves.

WANT MORE? You’ll find David’s complete Salon & Spa Recruitment & Training System manual here…