She’s talented and the clients love her attitude, so I don’t want to fire her. Quarterly performance reviews are coming up and I’m not sure how to explain that she needs a lot of training without sounding like a total bitch.

I’m not good at these types of conversations. I don’t want the employees to hate me and I don’t want to cause drama. I like to keep my interactions with them positive because I know keeping them happy is really important. Plus, she’s pretty new to the business and I don’t want to discourage her. What do I do?”

NEW MANAGER ALERT! NEW MANAGER ALERT!

You’ve held your position for what? Four months? Maybe less? I’m willing to bet my left arm that this will be your first time conducting quarterly reviews. I can smell inexperienced management from miles away. You know how? It’s your soul—specifically, the fact that yours is still intact. (Enjoy your conscience while you have one. Eventually, it’ll start to deteriorate and you’ll be left a cold, hollow shell who lives and dies by the salon’s performance metrics.)

Effective communication skills are a manager’s most critical asset.

You’ll have to learn how to use language extremely well so you can have difficult conversations without flinching or destroying the morale of the employee you’re evaluating. Those conversations require confidence, tact, and a complete disregard for the employee’s personal opinion of you. You’re not at work to make friends, Madam Manager.

When conducting performance evaluations, a lot of managers use the “sandwich” method. They give good feedback, then bad, and then good, so the meeting ends on a positive note. I’ve never found the sandwich method very effective, mostly because it seems to trigger a condition I call “selective deafness.”

People tend to hear what they want to hear and not what they need to hear.

What this employee needs to hear is this: “We’re going to spend some more time refining your technique and helping you master the point-of-sale system.”

Notice the plural pronoun: We.
Not you.

What you need to hear is this: Your team’s shortcomings are an extension of your own.

As the manager, you are responsible for ensuring your team members are adequately trained. It’s your job to ensure they’re staying on task and that they’re confident in their product and service knowledge so they know how to upsell and retail.

In a perfect world, all of our graduates would come to us with these skills built-in, but the responsibility for providing critical job training often falls to us.

These issues sound as if they’ve been going on for a while, and you’ve been waiting until quarterly reviews to address them. That stops now.

To efficiently eliminate bad habits, address and correct them immediately.

From now on, you’re going to keep a clipboard. Clip some notebook paper on that bad boy—the college ruled stuff.

Do you have a daily agenda?

If not, you make one. If you’d like, you can download mine and adapt it to suit your needs.

Put that on top of your crisp notebook paper, then print out a fancy cover sheet like this one. Print it on decent card stock, though. (If you can see through it, that defeats the purpose.) Stick that cover sheet right on top of everything.

Now that your clipboard has been situated, grab a pen. Never again will you be seen at work without these two items in your hands.

Why do you need a clipboard as a constant companion?

Because you need to be writing things down when you see them—and walking around, typing notes on a phone or tablet looks unprofessional. Plus, it’s easy to forget the notes you’ve made on a device if they’re not physically where you can see them.

What kind of notes should you take?

All kinds. You will notate maintenance tasks (like paint chips and malfunctioning equipment), client and employee suggestions, and—most importantly—lapses in professionalism and performance that you will need to address before closing time.

Stop waiting until performance review periods.

If someone’s lagging behind, overusing product, not cleaning up after themselves, inciting riots, or otherwise stepping out of line, you’re going to be having a one-on-one with them that day.

Why is immediate correction so important?

• You want the behavior to stop before it becomes a habit. Bad habits are expensive.
• Negative behaviors poorly reflect on the business, equating to a loss in clients (and consequently, revenue).
• Product overuse can cost the salon a ton of money over time.
• Low productivity adversely affects profit margins.

If you don’t correct them fast, bad behaviors can infect the other employees like a virus.

You know the saying, “Not my circus; not my monkeys?” As the salon manager, you’re the ringleader. This absolutely is your circus, and those absolutely are your monkeys.

How does that other saying go? “Monkey see; monkey do.” If you think that doesn’t apply to grown adults, you’re wrong. Never let employees set precedents. Employees need to be told what your expectations of them are, and sometimes they need to be reminded.

The salon can’t afford for you to neglect your duties. Your job is to actively manage the employees. That’s what you’re getting paid for. Besides, by not addressing these issues in a timely manner, you’re only making your job more difficult. Don’t let undesirable behaviors slide. Always be swift and consistent with your discipline.

How do I address the problems with the employees?

You don’t get to go home until you’ve dealt with employee-related problems. Serious infractions (outbursts on the salon floor, for example) require emergency meetings on-the-spot, but if you’re routinely addressing problem behaviors on a same-day basis, those emergency situations will be few and far between.

When you have disciplinary discussions, place blame where it belongs.

A slow employee who fumbles through services and can’t work the POS has likely not been properly trained—and who’s in charge of training? You are. By not training this employee up to the salon’s standards, you’ve not only cost the salon money, you’ve tossed an inexperienced professional into the ocean without a life raft.

If you have set an employee up for failure, you owe them an apology.

Sometimes the most difficult conversations to have are the ones in which you have to admit fault. To learn how to apologize the right way, I recommend reading my article, “How to Admit Fault and Apologize.” You would think apologizing would be pretty simple and straightforward, but too few salon managers and owners know how to do so effectively. Communication isn’t always as easy as we’d like it to be, so do yourself the favor of developing the skills necessary to successfully navigate your relationships with everyone you interact with at work. Both the continued success of the salon and your management career very much depend on your commitment to continual improvement.

Should this be a recurring problem, evaluate the corrective measures you’ve taken.

• Why were they ineffective?
• Could you have done something differently?
• Could this problem have been avoided with better communication or more training?

If the answer to all of those questions is no, then you’ll have to straighten your spine, face the employee, and hold an accountability discussion. (If you feel like it might be time to have that discussion, my article, “How to Hold Others Accountable” will tell you exactly how to prepare for and conduct that meeting.)

You’re a manager, now. Tough discussions are going to be part of your weekly routine, so get used to them.

Audio Version

Season 2 [2018]

[2.7] "What does suite and booth rental cost on average?"

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 5:09

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

If you’re looking for an “average” cost, you’re going to have a hard time finding one. Like residential and commercial rental rates, booth and suite rent varies by region and from facility to facility, as do the inclusions and lease terms. Typically, booth rental costs less than suite rental, but even for that general rule there are exceptions.

Before you proceed, I want you to complete the following exercise:

Instead of asking yourself, “How much does it cost?” ask, “What can I afford?” If you’re a new graduate with no clientele to speak of, you’re unlikely to succeed unless you have:

• self-discipline and the ability to manage yourself,
• enough savings to carry your business and personal expenses through your first year, and
• the money and expertise to successfully launch and maintain an aggressive marketing strategy.

Remember, you’re going to be establishing a brand-new business—likely as a completely unknown professional—within the immediate vicinity of your most direct competitors. As a self-employed microsalon owner, you aren’t entitled to walk-in business and it won’t be your landlord’s job to advertise on your behalf. (Their job will be to keep the lights on and collect your rent payments.)

If you aren’t financially, professionally, or personally prepared to handle that level of responsibility all by yourself, regardless of how affordable the rent may seem, you cannot afford it.

Your costs of doing business will impact your pricing. Rent will, without a doubt, be your largest overhead expense (aside from your wages and self-employment taxes). I recommend treating your business like a business and doing your math ahead of time, otherwise you may find yourself in a situation where your costs push your prices far outside the realm of what your target clientele can afford, hamstringing your new business and dooming it to failure before you’ve even started.

Instead of asking yourself, “What should the rent include?” ask, “What am I looking for? What do I need? Why?” This will help to determine your readiness. Laundry facilities and towels, for instance, tend to be pretty high on the list for most beauty professionals. (After all, nobody likes lugging home bags of laundry every day.) Are your other needs as practical and reasonable or do they indicate that you may have some unrealistic expectations?

Understand that self-employed means self-employed. As a renter, you’re a business owner in every way so you will be responsible not only for your rent and marketing but your products, equipment, tools, software costs, insurance, and every other business expense you incur. Landlords aren’t responsible for providing renters with backbar, laundry facilities, client amenities, or anything other than a space to work in, unless the lease states otherwise. Some landlords will provide additional amenities beyond four walls or a station, but often, those additional amenities will come at a premium price, either in the form of higher rent rates or optional added fees.

If you feel you need the landlord to provide you with continuing education, reception services, or any other perks or benefits that would normally only be appropriate in an employment-based salon, you’re likely not prepared to be on your own. Those needs and wants aren’t reasonable and are indicative of significant self-management deficits, so if they appear on your amenities wishlist, you need to reconsider going solo.

Evaluate your list. Assuming you’re one of the rare new graduates who has the savings, the drive, the discipline, and a solid understanding of what self-employment entails, you should be left with a pretty clear picture of your ideal rental arrangement. Finding a space should be as simple as comparing your needs to what the facility offers and attempting to negotiate until you reach a compromise that suits both you and the landlord, just be certain that the arrangement doesn’t violate your rights. Your rental rate should be a fixed dollar amount (not based on a percentage of your sales) and you should be paying the landlord the rent (not having it deducted from checks they write to you).

• You should not be obligated to provide client contact information, sales data, or other performance metrics to your landlord, nor should you be required to use the landlord’s salon software.
• At no point should your landlord be collecting money from your customers.
• Your landlord should not be dictating which specific services you perform, how you perform your services, what you charge for your services, or which products you use.

To see every article I’ve published about self-employment and rental, click here.

Did you start your career in the industry as a renter? Were you prepared? Why or why not? How did it go and where are you now? Tell us in the comments!

“It seems people in this industry are all about money. Isn’t it about watching each other succeed?”

Current and aspiring salon owners, are you ready for some hurt feelings?

Nobody cares about your journey. Don’t let motivational memes fool you into believing that people want to see you succeed. A good deal of them do not. Many are indifferent and a few others would love to see you fail. Some of those who want to see you go down in flames will be people you like and people you trust. The feeling of betrayal you experience when you make that realization can be crushing. Those disappointments have sent professionals and salon owners running from the industry.

Audio Version

Season 2 [2018]

[2.6] Understanding Competition

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 7:26

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Females—pay attention. Over the last five years or so, “entrepreneurs” and their glassy-eyed worshippers on social media have promoted this #girlboss #empowerment guilt trip—perpetuating the message that we should all be holding hands and “elevating” each other, as if we’re obligated to on account of our shared gender, and while that’s admirable, we need to remember that we’re running businesses.

It isn’t your responsibility to enable anyone else’s success and you shouldn’t expect anyone else to ensure yours.

Female entrepreneurship groups often pressure us—female business owners—to network and share advice, to mentor and give other women opportunities. They’re all about “uplifting” and “empowering” others. If you feel compelled to mentor someone, you should, just understand that it comes with inherent, unavoidable risks and very little potential reward (especially if they’re local).

While I can’t tell the future, I can promise you that someone will betray you, sabotage you, and/or take advantage of you at some point in your career as a salon owner. It will likely happen more than once and it will hurt every time—but it will hurt a lot more if you don’t hold your cards close and keep your expectations in check. Stay sharp.

I object to the notion that anyone should expect others to care about their success—that isn’t what this or any industry is about. For many people, the beauty industry very much is all about the money, and that’s a completely valid position to have.

Ambition and competitiveness aren’t inherently evil qualities.

We’re allowed to be motivated by money, achievement, and winning. But we also need to accept that for there to be winners there must also be losers, and we must be aware of the fact that some people play dirty.

We aren’t “sisters.” We are business owners. If you expect others to genuinely care about your success, you’ll be giving people the power to make you feel badly when they don’t behave the way you expect them to. You’ll also be letting your guard down, which never ends well—especially if the person you’re letting your guard down for happens to be the “super nice” competing salon owner from the place across the street or the competing microsalon owner from the suite down the hall.

Don’t make it easy for people to take advantage of you, and don’t ever feel sorry about refusing to “elevate” someone else.

By accepting that a.) most people don’t care about your salon’s welfare whatsoever, and b.) a good deal of people put their interests first and foremost with complete disregard for the feelings or welfare of others, we can stop being negatively affected by their behaviors. People typically can only hurt you and your business if you let them.

Stay alert, be a little paranoid, but keep things in perspective. Your competitors aren’t your BFFs, but they’re also not your archenemies or bitter rivals. You are not in business to “vanquish” them and if you truly believe that you are, adjust your attitude and your expectations immediately—you will never eliminate all of your competitors, you overly optimistic egomaniac, so get over yourself.

Your job is not to damage a competitor’s company but to build your own. You are in business to profit and grow but understand that a competitor’s gains are not your losses—in fact, their gains can be your gains too. For instance, when one full-service salon’s small nail department has booked to capacity with standing customers, they may refer their nail clients to your nail salon. That referral relationship will never exist if you’re an immature jerk who treats business like a deathmatch.

You can and should have a cordial relationship with the other salon owners in your local area. You shouldn’t share your secrets with them but you also do not have to act like teenagers from rival cliques. More than anything I would like to see professionals and salon owners in this business behave like adults. It is completely inappropriate to treat another adult with the contempt and hostility that many people in this industry inflict upon one another.

You will very likely be making phone calls to your competitors throughout the year whenever you need to check an applicant’s references. Wouldn’t it be nice if those calls could be friendly? When a client passes a bad check for several hundreds of dollars’ worth of services at another salon, wouldn’t you appreciate a phone call from that owner warning you that there’s a scam artist in town? How about when the state board or the city building commissioner attempt to pass new codes or regulations that could potentially impact you and the way you do business? What about when business trends begin to shift, and both of your salons now have to pivot in order to survive? Don’t you think it would be strategically advantageous to brainstorm solutions to major mutual problems together? This might rock your perception of reality, but it actually isn’t abnormal for competing businesses to cooperate at times.

Worthy competitors will force you to work harder (which ultimately is for your benefit), so don’t be petty. Try to establish cordial professional relationships with the other salon owners in your area. Invite them to tour your facility. Show them and their businesses respect. Never communicate negative opinions about them personally, speak negatively of their salons, or denigrate the quality of their work. You don’t want them doing the same to you, and you never know when you might need each other.

However, in your interactions with other salon owners (and even with employees who may become competitors), be cautious.

Keep the worst-case scenario at the forefront of your mind. Suspect that they may have ulterior motives and be protective of your secrets. Don’t allow yourself to feel obligated to “elevate” anyone who stands to benefit from your downfall.

Not every competing salon owner will be mature enough to handle a cordial relationship with you. Consider it their loss. Don’t let their behavior influence yours. Continue to maintain high standards and respect their business, even if they don’t respect yours. At the same time, remember that you are responsible for your own success. Be nice; never naïve.

This article is a short excerpt of Salon Ownership and Management: The Definitive Guide to the Professional Beauty Business.

Have you ever been burned by a professional you considered a friend or another industry colleague who took advantage of your assistance, or have your mentorship efforts paid off in fulfilling ways? Have you ever mentored (or been mentored) by someone? How did it go? Tell us in the comments!

You know the conversation has to happen. You know ignoring it and hoping the fracture you’ve caused between yourself and your employees or coworkers will somehow correct itself just isn’t the right thing to do. Maybe you’re having problems sleeping or you’re feeling a pang of guilt and the awkward tension that hangs heavy in the salon every time you enter the room.

Listen to the Audio Version

For salon owners and managers, apologizing can be particularly difficult. According to a global survey conducted by The Forum Corporation, when asked if their boss ever apologizes or admits their mistakes, half of employees stated that their boss never or rarely apologizes, a third complained that their boss rarely even acknowledges their mistakes, and just five percent reported that they get an apology every single time one is warranted.

How did the managers respond to the same question? Half of them claimed to “always” apologize to employees for mistakes, 38% reported that they “often” do.

Only 19% of the employees agree with the managers’ assessments of their willingness to apologize.

So what excuse did these so-called “leaders” give for their reluctance to admit fault and express remorse? 70% claimed they were afraid of appearing incompetent. 30% stated they were afraid to look “weak.”

Ironically, your refusal to admit fault causes you to look incompetent and weak. (As does your refusal to admit your limitations and ask for help when you require it.) Those behaviors undermine employee confidence and trust in you, ultimately resulting in a loss of respect.

Employees who don’t respect you will never accept your leadership.

The longer you continue to obstinately act as if you’re blameless and faultless, the harder it will be for you to ever regain that lost respect.

When should you apologize?

Usually, you’ll instinctively know when an apology is warranted and necessary, but because so many professionals have a tendency to apologize for everything (including things that weren’t their fault), here are some general guidelines.

You need to apologize when you:

• make a mistake.
• must make a tough decision that will affect someone else negatively.

You typically do not need to apologize anytime else.

“Sorry, can you come into my office? I need ask you a few questions real quick?”
“Sorry, I need your help with something.”
“Sorry, but could you fold these towels?”
“Sorry, our prices aren’t negotiable.”

Pay attention to how often you’re apologizing and ask yourself if the apology is actually necessary, or if you’re just saying “sorry” to keep from appearing demanding. Women in particular tend to apologize constantly. We don’t need to apologize for being busy, requiring assistance, or for 99% of the things we tend to reflexively apologize for. These unnecessary apologies undermines our confidence and robs the power and authority from our words.

Either omit your unnecessary “sorry,” or substitute it for “please” and “thank you.”

“Please come into my office. I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Would you please help me lift this?”
“Please fold these towels. Thanks!”
“Our prices aren’t negotiable.”

This is an entirely different subject, but it’s important to take apologies seriously. It’s okay (and necessary) for you to be authoritative–no apology required.

Save your apologies for when they’re needed.

How to Apologize

Here are some tips for handling those instances that require a genuine apology.

Arrange a meeting. Like accountability discussions, apologies are sensitive issues that have to be handled well. Gather the person or persons who require an apology from you. This meeting should take place in person–not via text, email, or phone call. (Remember, words themselves only comprise 7% of the message you’re trying to send.)

Eliminate all distractions. Leave your phone elsewhere. Let others know that they should not interrupt the meeting.

When it’s time to say you’re sorry, the recipient of the apology deserves your full attention.

Don’t make excuses. Fight the urge to explain yourself or try to justify what you did. Diverting attention and blame from yourself is the worst thing you could possibly do when trying to apologize.

Follow the apology formula. An effective apology requires specific sentiments and statements to be made at particular points in the apology. You’ll find many different variations of this formula on thousands of management, leadership, and communication websites, but for the most part, they all follow the same pattern:

1. Express remorse. This is the easiest part. The first words out of your mouth need to be, “I’m sorry.”
2. Specify the errors. Make sure the recipient (or recipients) know exactly what you’re apologizing for, in detail. Don’t be tempted to brush over your actions by being too broad. Pinpoint each mistake you made.
3. Expand on it. Have you ever reprimanded a child, received an adorable apology, but when you ask them, “Why are you sorry?” they can’t answer? It’s not enough to point out your mistakes, you have to explain why you know they are mistakes.
4. Own the damage you caused. A person making a proper apology will know the consequences (or potential consequences) of their actions. Regardless of whether the worst came to pass, acknowledge the ramifications.
5. Show growth. Let this experience serve as a learning opportunity for you. Explain that you will do your best to ensure you never repeat the mistake.
6. Show appreciation, but don’t expect forgiveness. Thank the recipient(s) for their time and hearing you out. Take this opportunity to express gratitude for other things as well.

In the first post about accountability, we used the example of a nail technician who was pressured into working outside of her scope of practice by a pushy salon owner to show how that technician would hold that salon owner accountable for her behaviors. Let’s build on that example by illustrating how the salon owner in that situation may apologize for her mistakes.

I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to pressure you into accepting that client and it was completely unacceptable for me to confront you that way at all, let alone in the presence of the customer. Allowing you to work on that client would have been a violation of board regulations and could have put your license in jeopardy. Both of us could have been fined, but on top of that, the health and safety of the clients could have been compromised.

My behaviors made you feel disrespected and uncomfortable, and that was absolutely wrong. I appreciate that you’re willing to give me another chance and promise that I’ve learned from this incident. I’ll do my best to ensure it never happens again.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to apologize. You’re a valuable employee, always prompt, professional, and cordial. I admire your dedication to your profession and to client safety.

Apologizing requires courage. It isn’t always easy to allow yourself to be vulnerable.

For leaders in particular, it’s important to put your honesty and integrity above your pride, ego, or personal comfort. Showing humility and humanity inspires others to do the same. Most managers understand how critical it is for leaders to model behaviors they expect so employees will emulate those behaviors. Apologizing lets employees know you prioritize their welfare and happiness.

When employees know they have your support, they’re far more likely to support you back.

Preventing employee turnover is simple. Apologies from leadership are an important part of securing employee loyalty, but more tips can be found in my post, “How to Keep Your Employees Happy, Inspired, and Loyal.”

What about you? Do you have a hard time apologizing or does it come easy to you? Why? Have you ever worked for someone who was great at apologizing, or someone who was terrible about it? How did that work out?

Personally, I can’t stand knowing when I’ve done something wrong, especially if that wrong thing negatively affected (or had the potential to negatively affect) someone else. It eats at me until I say something about it. I take apologies seriously, which is why I recommend only apologizing when you’re truly sorry.

Tell us about your experiences in the comments!

Here it is.

“One of my employees stole the client database and opened a new salon down the street. Can I sue her?”

It depends.

Was the “employee” actually an employee?

If the employee was a booth renter, you have no right to their client contact information. Your business, with regards to the tenants you lease space to, isn’t a “salon,” it’s a small-scale commercial real estate operation. You should not store any renter’s client contact information in a central database to begin with since you aren’t a their employer—you’re their landlord.

If the employee was a “1099” or “independent contractor,” there’s a damn good chance you weren’t using the classification appropriately. If you choose to sue a misclassified employee, you run the risk of incriminating yourself for violating federal tax and labor laws (and probably state tax and labor laws also). I have seen this happen. Don’t be a dummy. Let it go, learn your lesson, hire an attorney and straighten out your business so this kind of thing doesn’t happen in the future.

If the employee was actually an employee, were you complaint with prevailing wage legislation? Before you even think about bringing anyone to court for anything, you better be sure your business practices are as pure as the driven snow. That means you’ve been tracking hours and ensuring prevailing wage compliance. That means you’ve been reporting tips and cash income and compensating for overtime. That means you haven’t been charging for product or deducting arbitrary fines from your stylist’s wages.

If there’s even a slight possibility this legal endeavor could
backfire—DO NOT.

Did the employee sign a non-solicitation agreement? If so, you can likely seek legal action for database theft and solicitation. (I personally have and would do it again.)

When an ex-employee downloads a database or steals a binder full of client contact information, they are doing so deliberately with the sole intention of harming your business. Those clients did not entrust that information to the employee; they entrusted that information to your business, and by extension, you.

It is your responsibility to ensure the security of client information. Your databases should have strict controls prohibiting export. If you’re still on a paper filing system, get with the times and go digital. (At the very least, buy a locking file cabinet.)

Data theft is theft. There’s no justification for it.

“I’m a renter. My landlord stole my client information. What can I do about it?”

This can be a sticky situation if you used an online booking system “the salon” provided. If so, the odds of you receiving a favorable outcome are questionable. In my opinion, your client contact information should be given to you. End of story. The basis of my argument is that the landlord should not have been using a central booking system to begin with, since it constitutes an inappropriate degree of control over your business. (The other side of that coin is that you had absolutely no business using it. What were you thinking? Did you truly believe it was a good idea to hand over your most valuable business asset to your landlord? Maybe be less trusting in the future, mmkay?)

However, there’s a slight possibility a judge may not agree with my assessment since the booking system was provided by the landlord and the account is in their name. I consider that possibility incredibly slight—like, one chance in ten, depending on how irritated with the stupidity of the situation the judge is. Really, it was a dumb idea to use a system you didn’t have full control over. A judge may rule in the landlord’s basis on that fact alone, especially if they aren’t very familiar with the industry.

The situation is less sticky if the salon owner actually stole the information. For example, if a salon owner confiscates your paper records or your client binder, that’s definitely theft. They took an item—a business asset—that belonged to you. You purchased the binder/paper. You filled it with your salon’s proprietary business data. It was yours. They took it. There’s little room for debate there. They didn’t have a right to take your book.

In either case, I’d personally hire an attorney and pursue the landlord in court.

“One of my coworkers is soliciting my clients. We’re both employees but we’re on commission. Every client who leaves my chair for hers affects my performance numbers and, of course, my paycheck. What do I do?”

This is a situation for the salon owner/manager. Tell them immediately.

Any employees who try to poach clients from other employees in any of the salons I’ve managed get fired. It’s one thing if a client chooses to switch to another professional, but when an employee is actively attempting to sabotage another employee’s clientele, that’s grounds for immediate dismissal. It is unprofessional, causes resentment in the workplace, and makes clients uncomfortable. It destroys the team environment employment-based salons strive to establish.

If your salon owner gives a crap about their business, at the very least that employee will be written up.

“I was fired. Can my salon owner refuse to give me my client contact information?”

Were you an employee? If so, absolutely. The client data doesn’t belong to you; it belongs to the business. It’s not actually yours, even if the salon owner required you to “market yourself.”

Did you bring the clientele with you to the salon? If you brought the clients but didn’t sign an employment contract excluding them from any non-solicitation agreements you signed or agreed to at the time you accepted the position, there’s likely nothing you can do.

If you weren’t an employee, the owner likely had no legal right to fire you, let alone take your client data. Read my post, Know Your Rights. You probably have bigger problems than client theft right now.

“If I quit… If I get fired… If I fire or evict a professional… Who gets the clients?”

Finally, the question I receive the most frequently—the generic, “Who do the clients belong to? Who gets to keep the clients? Me or them?”

Where did you get the idea that you had the ability to make this determination? It’s like the two of you (owner and professional) are “breaking up” and have to figure out who gets to keep the dog.

Clients aren’t pets. They don’t “belong” to you and neither of you can choose to “keep” them.

Clients have the right to choose where and how they spend their money. Neither the professional nor the salon “own” the customers themselves.

In an employee/employer situation, the employer owns the client database.
In a landlord/tenant situation, the tenant (who is a business owner) owns their client data.
But when it comes down to it, neither of you get to control the clients themselves or  ultimately dictate where they go for their services.

People deserve to be given the ability to make their own spending decisions. If an employee or tenant resigns or is terminated, their clients should be informed of their departure and given the information necessary to find their preferred professional.

And when I say “the clients need to be informed,” I mean they need to be informed in advance of their appointment.

Too often, salon owners will shift the clients of a departing employee to the remaining employees. That client will arrive for their appointment only to find their trusted professional is gone—and not only did the owner not have the decency to tell them, but they had the audacity to put them into the hands of a complete stranger. This is a poor management practice that’s guaranteed to cost the salon a client’s business and their respect for the establishment.

“Should I tell the clients where the departing employee went if they ask?”

Don’t disrespect your customers by lying to them or attempting to hinder their ability to find their stylist, nail technician, or estitician. By and large, clients will always be loyal to the professional and not the establishment. Respect them and the relationship they have with their professional. It takes some clients years to find the person that’s just right for them.

Don’t be petty.

If a client asks where the professional went and you know, you need to tell them. Nothing is more pathetic than a bitter salon owner who smirks and says, “Sorry. That’s confidential information,” when a customer reaches out to them for help. As silly as it may seem, the sudden loss of a trusted professional can put some clients into an outright panic (especially if they’ve finally found “the one”). Again, respect their right to choose. Don’t be an asshole.

Before the salon owning keyboard warriors who are new to this site try and come down on me, let me tell you who I am. My name is Tina Alberino. I’m a salon owner too. I know we invest in our professionals. We advertise, we educate, and we bend over backwards to generate client loyalty. We work hard to build our businesses, and that’s why I’m advising you not to crap on that reputation you’re working so hard to build by acting like a spiteful teenager.

“Can I force clients to return to my salon since my ex-employee signed a non-solicitation agreement?”

No (because that’s ridiculous), but why would you want to?

IF A CLIENT DOESN’T SEE THE VALUE IN WHAT YOUR BUSINESS CAN OFFER THEM, DO YOU REALLY WANT THEM THERE?

Don’t embarrass yourself. Those clients don’t belong in your salon. They’re replaceable, but your dignity is not. There are plenty of clients out there for everyone. Let it go.

If an employee violated a non-solicitation (and you can prove it), you can take them to court for breach of contract if you’d like, but the judge isn’t going to be able to somehow force the clients to return to your salon.

There you have it! I hope you’ve found whatever answer you’re searching for in this post. If you have anything you’d like to add or discuss, leave me a comment below! If you’re interested, you can buy my book, The Beauty Industry Survival Guide here.

Oh lord, I’m about to get all kinds of ugly with you and other professionals who think like you, but first, I’ll answer your question.

If you’re being classified appropriately (as an employee–not an independent contractor) and you’re being compensated at least the prevailing minimum wage when your paycheck is divided by the total hours you’ve worked in the pay period, then yes, your owner can ask you to do anything they need done. As a properly classified employee, you have an obligation to obey or forfeit your position.

You’re correct, though. If your salon owner is compensating you 50% of gross sales, paying her share of your employment taxes, and covering the cost of product, then NO, she likely CAN’T afford support staff to clean up after you while you sit on your precious hydraulic throne and screw around on Facebook, waiting for clients to arrive.

Why can’t she? Because 50% of gross sales is way too much to compensate, especially in such a high-overhead business.

I can’t help but take tremendous offense to your ignorance, even though your attitude is so very typical of salon professionals who have never owned or managed a salon. You’re completely unaware of and inexperienced with the costs of salon ownership. You simply don’t know any better, but you should. Since you don’t, I’ll help you figure it out.

First of all, know your place. You’re an employee of a business.

Nobody is taking 50% of your money. Your employer is compensating you 50% of her salon’s gross sales.

If you were to try to negotiate 50% of gross sales as compensation in any other industry, you would be laughed out of the interview. Every day, more salon owners are realizing that the compensation model we’re used to is not good for our businesses or our workers. Pretty soon, salon owners will also laugh you out of an interview for requesting such a high pay rate.

50% of gross sales as compensation is unsustainable. I do a lot of turnaround consulting for salon owners who learned this lesson the hard way. Salons are obscenely expensive to operate, so costs must be carefully managed. The highest cost, by far, is labor. Even when the salon owner structures compensation so that payroll doesn’t exceed 35% of gross sales, more work must be done to streamline the protocols, cut down product costs, and structure the service pricing achieve a healthy balance so the owner can pay the salon’s bills and–god forbid–make an actual profit.

Are “greedy salon owners” out there? You bet. (Those owners are the basis of 75% of this blog’s content.) Is yours one of them? I highly doubt it. For one, you’re compensated and classified legally. You’re not being charged fees and your hours are being tracked. You’re given detailed pay stubs. To me, this doesn’t indicate that your salon owner is some greedy slimeball squeezing you and your coworkers dry. She seems uninformed, inexperienced, and/or stupidly generous. (Has she been a stylist too? I’m willing to bet she has. Only other stylists find this compensation model acceptable.)

I’d love to have actual numbers from your salon owner so I could show you how silly your assumptions are, but here’s what I know for a fact: you are not a doctor or lawyer. Aside from beauty professionals, they’re the only workers who receive comparable compensation in relation to the prices charged for their services, and unlike us, many of them have invested nearly ten years of their lives to their education and are carrying hundreds of thousands in student loan debt.

Your qualifications and talents, however impressive they may be, do not justify 50% of gross sales. Period.

For those of you who are new to this blog, let me make this clear: I have been in this industry for fifteen years. I’ve worked as an employee, a booth renter, a manager, and a salon owner. I’ve been a salon management consultant for three years now and have brought salons back from the brink of failure. I went to beauty school just like you did. I did my 1,500 hours, earned my license, and have taken over a thousand hours of continuing education since. My qualifications and experience are far above and beyond average. I’m not trying to belittle you or disparage our education, our skills, or our profession. Even with all my qualifications, I do not deserve 50% of gross sales as compensation, not even when I function as a full-time salon manager. That expectation is absolutely absurd. The beauty profession doesn’t have high barriers to entry, so as workers in general, we’re just not valuable enough to demand that much from a business in compensation when our initial investment is considered.

The salon owner who is “pocketing that cash” is also paying all the bills and assuming all the risks of business ownership. You see her sitting in her office replying to emails, running errands, and going to lunch with your color distributor. She comes in late sometimes and leaves early some Saturdays. You see these things and think she’s living the life, but here’s what you didn’t see:

• You didn’t see her working 60 hour weeks for 2+ years to save up enough money for the salon you’re working in.
• You didn’t see her hand shaking when she signed the five-year lease.
• You didn’t see the look on her face when she’d wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, wondering if she’d ever make enough money to repay the loan for the stations you don’t want to wipe down, the washer/dryer unit you avoid using, the floor tiles you refuse to sweep, and the reception desk you refuse to sit at in your down time.
• You didn’t see her walking through the half-built salon in a hard-hat, staring at the framed in walls and exposed wiring, wondering if she was in way over her head.
• You didn’t see her on her hands and knees, installing the flooring herself so she could put more money toward the break room you and your coworkers sit around and bitch in while arguing over how she’s spending “your” money.
• You didn’t see her signing checks for attorneys, insurance companies, architects, plumbers, product distributors, accountants, regulatory agencies, and the ten thousand other professionals she had to pay to make your workplace happen.
• You didn’t see her crying over her stack of bills during that first shaky year, watching her savings dry up and her line of credit max out before the salon got off the ground.
• You don’t see her writing your paychecks before she can even think about writing her own.
• You don’t see her liability–the risk she takes every day by entrusting you and your ungrateful coworkers with real, live clients.

You saw none of that overwhelmingly stressful, complicated process–nor did you aid her in it–and yet you think you know it all and deserve it all. You think you deserve more than what your employer earns, despite having done none of the work she did.

You come with a sense of entitlement, claiming ownership of something that isn’t yours.

When you’re an employee, the fruits of your labor don’t belong to you; they belong to the business. It’s up to your employer to determine how much to compensate you in return, and your employer is paying you too damn much. If you had a single clue how much time, effort, and stress went into establishing and managing a salon, you’d realize just how wrong you are.

Salon owners absolutely deserve to see a profit from their investment. How dare you begrudge your employer for expecting to reap a reward from her efforts?

Your salon owner didn’t open a charity. She opened a business. The expectation was that it would eventually pay off.

Nobody opens an establishment just to gift you a place to earn a living.

The only time you have a right to get angry about “your money” is if the money being taken is actually yours. When salon owners steal your wages, get pissed. When they’re late delivering your paycheck, rage out. When your employer misclassifies you and doesn’t compensate you the prevailing wage you’re entitled to, set the world on fire.

I’ll be right behind you–the Eminem to your Dr. Dre–with a can full of gas and a hand full of matches–but in this instance, you are dead wrong.

…but let’s talk about that receptionist/assistant you think your employer should provide to you so you and your coworkers don’t have to fold towels or answer phones. We’ll do some math. You’re making 50% of gross sales. Since your owner pays her share of your employment tax, she’s actually paying 57.25% to you, right off the top. If you live in a state that charges a state income tax, go ahead and tack that on there. That’s coming out of her chunk of “your money” too.

Then there’s rent, insurance, product, marketing, accounting, commercial banking, web hosting, utilities, internet, and probably a loan payment or two she has to make every month to keep the doors open before she can even consider taking home a profit. Those costs I just listed might not sound like a lot, but believe me, they are, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. Salon software systems alone average $80+ per month, and if she’s taking credit cards, she’s paying fees on every single transaction.

On top of all that, any amount she brings home is reduced by 15.3% (if she’s registered as a sole prop or an LLC). She’s self-employed. Nobody pays her federal employment taxes, so the full amount comes right out of her pay. Again, this is assuming you live in a state with no state income tax. (If you don’t, she’s paying the entirety of that herself too.)

A support employee (like an assistant or receptionist) isn’t capable of generating any real income. They’re hired to help increase the productivity of the high-performing professionals by taking care of menial tasks so high-performing professionals can focus on cranking out their services (which are usually priced higher to account for their demand and superior skill).

The fact that you have “downtime” tells me you aren’t a high-performing professional.

You’re not capable of generating enough income to justify an assistant. At the very minimum, working full-time under the federal minimum wage, this assistant would cost your employer $21,000 per year. That’s at the absolute, bare minimum.

Can the 42.75% of “your” money support that salary and the salon’s expenses? I highly doubt it. In fact, I can virtually guarantee that it can’t.

Many of the salon owners whose salon finances I’ve restructured are barely making minimum wage.

Without seeing your salon owner’s financials, I can’t say for sure that she’s one of those owners who would probably be earning more as a manager at Target or Victoria’s Secret, but there’s a pretty good chance that’s the case. Even if it weren’t, there’s a lot more that goes into salon ownership than you realize, and you have the nerve to talk about “your” money?

Stop it. Just, stop. If you think you can do better than your boss can, go open your own salon. You wouldn’t be the first to do just that and you wouldn’t be the first to fail within the first year with a new appreciation for what salon owners actually go through.

Don’t criticize your employer until you’ve been where she is.

I’ve been there myself. Now, I stand beside owners through all phases of their startup and turnaround projects. If you had the same breadth of experience, those childish assumptions you have about your “greedy” salon owner would evaporate with your profound ignorance.

EDITED TO INCLUDE:

Hi there. If you’re new to this blog and this post is the first article of mine you’ve ever read, get familiar with my content before bashing out your hate mail to me. Typically, I advocate for exploited beauty professionals, but I don’t play favorites. I call it like I see it, whether you like it or not.

It is my sincere belief that salon owners need to take ownership of their salons and manage them appropriately. That means paying your workers a wage they can actually survive on, compensating them for their time (not just their services), classifying them appropriately, providing them with benefits, and doing your job as an employer by marketing the salon, staffing it strategically, and owning your responsibilities.

Professionals, you have to know your rights and be willing to enforce the laws that are designed to protect you from exploitative owners. You also need to understand what you’re legally entitled to and what you aren’t.

This blog is full of information–300+ articles (most of them super long, like this one) full of linked references and informative comments. Dig in. Go through the archives in the sidebar or hit up the search bar. Go crazy.

If you like books, I wrote one that you can buy here. Like this blog’s page on Facebook or subscribe via email if you don’t wanna miss a thing. (Also, I sometimes link completely random, unrelated things. You’ll have to get used to that.)

Comments here are moderated to avoid pornspam and advertisements for penis enlargement supplements and knockoff Nike’s. Leave one that doesn’t fall into those categories and you’ll get a reply. 🙂

Can the client sue you? Sure. Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Welcome to America: the land of the free and the home of the frivolous lawsuit.

Was it legal for the salon owner to disclose your address and contact information without your consent? I’m unaware of any specific law prohibiting it aside from California Civ. Code §1798.81.5, but it certainly wasn’t a smart move, especially when the reason your employer disclosed the information is considered. However, I’m not sure whether or not that information would be considered “private,” since home addresses can often be found through public methods (YellowPages, for example). If your contact information could be obtained by anyone capable of searching a directory, it’s likely not protected by any privacy laws.

Can an employer refuse to take responsibility for the actions of their employee? Typically, no.

Generally, employers are legally responsible for the actions of the employees if the employee is acting within “the course and scope of employment,” which you were, since you were doing your job when the injury occurred. This is called “vicarious liability” or “respondeat superior;” the responsibility of the superior for the acts of their subordinate.

In this case, the injury you caused was a known risk of doing business–one the employer was certainly aware of, and should be insured for. Allergic reactions to products are not a new phenomenon in our industry. We’re explicitly warned about them in beauty school repeatedly and all major brands direct professionals to perform patch/predisposition tests on clients in their instructions. At the very least, the employer should have required patch tests prior to any chemical applications.

Both of you knew better, but I ultimately hold you responsible for failing to safeguard this client by not performing your due diligence here. Why do I consider you to be responsible and not your boss?

Without a doubt, a patch test should have been performed, whether or not the employer’s protocols required it.

You consulted with her. As an educated, licensed professional, when the client informed you that it would be her very first color application, you should have performed the patch test and planned to meet twenty-four to forty-eight hours later to evaluate her results. With as fast as she began showing symptoms of an allergic reaction, I’m positive you both would have determined not to proceed with the service, since her skin would have reacted almost immediately.

If you prioritized your income before your client’s welfare, you deserve to suffer the consequences of that decision just as much as your employer.

Luckily for you, a judge probably won’t see it this way and the employer will be held accountable for what I consider to be your professional negligence. For now, all you can do is wait to be served. Let a qualified attorney direct you from there.

Salon owners, if you don’t already have a patch test protocol at your salon, implement one immediately. If you don’t have professional liability insurance, get a policy. (Employees and renters, that goes for you too. Policies are dirt cheap. You can get them from from pretty much ANY professional association at a discount with a membership: The Professional Beauty Association, Associated Hair Professionals, Associated Nail Professionals, Associated Skin Care Professionals–take your pick.) Just keep in mind that a PLI policy might not cover you if you disregard the usage instructions of a chemical product. I’ve run through several major brands (Paul Mitchell, Redken, L’Oreal, Schwarzkopf, Pravana). All specifically dictate that professionals perform proper patch tests.

Don’t let the infrequency of these reactions deter you from making patch testing a priority. Many color allergies are caused by the PPD in the dye. According to this DailyMail article, Julia McCabe slipped into a coma and died after a severe allergic reaction to the PPD in the L’Oreal hair color she used frequently. The coroner in that case said there is a massive gap between beauty industry figures, which suggest four customers in a million suffered such a reaction, and academic research which suggests it was as many as 14%. Here’s another case where another woman, Aurora Figueroa Lumen, died after suffering from an allergy to the ammonia in the dye.

You have no excuse to keep from taking appropriate measures to protect your clients.

I side with the clients on this issue. We’re professionals. We can do better than this, and they deserve better from us.

I told her this, but she immediately dismissed me, telling me that I’m wrong and that she’ll just stick to what her lawyer advised her to do, since (in her words) ‘he’s more qualified than a beautician to make legal recommendations.’

I’m pissed that she was so rude, and since this is one of many issues I’ve been dealing with from her I will definitely be finding a new salon to work in, but before I go I want to present her with the actual laws.”

Well, lawyers are more qualified than we are to make legal recommendations, but I highly doubt a lawyer advised her to commit wage theft and told her not to comply with the recordkeeping requirements.

In my experience, most salon owners don’t prioritize legal advice, but are happy to lie about having done so to silence inquisitive employees.

For many of these salon owners, their first contact with a lawyer is after they’ve been served with a civil suit or visited by a DOL investigator for violations (and by then, it’s too late).

Fun fact: attorneys will not advise people to break the law or encourage them to neglect compliance.

Recordkeeping is mandatory in all states for covered employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and most states also have their own recordkeeping requirements as well. The FLSA recordkeeping requirements dictate that employers are to retain records for up to three years, and some states require them to be retained for longer. The FLSA requires no particular form for the records, but does require that the records include certain identifying information about the employee and data about the hours worked and the wages earned, and requires this information to be accurate.

The following is a listing of the basic records that an employer must maintain:

1. Employee’s full name and social security number.
2. Address, including zip code.
3. Birth date, if younger than 19.
4. Sex and occupation.
5. Time and day of week when employee’s workweek begins.
6. Hours worked each day.
7. Total hours worked each workweek.
8. Basis on which employee’s wages are paid
9. Regular hourly pay rate.
10. Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings.
11. Total overtime earnings for the workweek.
12. All additions to or deductions from the employee’s wages.
13. Total wages paid each pay period.
14. Date of payment and the pay period covered by the payment.

If your employer isn’t keeping these records, they’re not in compliance, and that’s a big deal, especially if they’re making impermissible deductions from your wages.

Failure to comply can result in fines, penalties, and all kinds of other nasty consequences. For instance, when it comes to proving compliance with prevailing wage and overtime laws, the burden lies on the employer. Meeting this burden of proof is impossible without time records, so theoretically, an employee can claim they worked far more hours than they actually did, sue the employer for unpaid time, and potentially win if the employer can’t provide records to dispute the claim.

In addition to the FLSA recordkeeping requirements, multiple acts (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Federal Income Tax Withholding, and Federal Insurance Contribution Act) require employers to record the amount of wages subject to withholding, agreements with employees to withhold additional tax, the amounts of actual taxes withheld and dates withheld, and reasons for any difference between total tax payments and actual tax payments, along with copies of withholding forms. These records must be kept for four years.

Bonus Round! The Occupational Health & Safety Act (for businesses with 10 or more employees), requires owners to retain a log of occupational injuries, illnesses, and exposures to toxic substances, along with all related records and summaries. These records must be retained five years following the year the records pertain to, except for medical exams, MSDS sheets, and exposure to toxic substances records, which must be retained for the duration of the employee’s job tenure PLUS 30 years.

Not only is she required to keep these records, depending on your state laws, she may be required to provide detailed pay stubs routinely, or immediately upon request. Regardless of the applicable laws, if she’s using a computerized system for payroll, she has no excuse not to provide those records.

Visit those links, fire up your printer, and bust out your highlighter. If I were you, I’d put it all together in a neat little packet, with my resignation letter right on top.

Salons are not exempted from federal law, which requires the Fair Labor Standards Act poster outlining employee rights, The Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law (EEO) poster, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) notice, and a handful of others depending on the circumstances, the state, and the organization itself. The salon may be exempted from some posters (for example: FMLA posters, USERRA posters, federal contractor/subcontractor posters), but definitely not all of them.

To determine which posters the salon requires, the Department of Labor has a handy Poster Advisor tool. For state poster requirements, state websites typically provide a list of their poster requirements also.

Posters must be displayed where both employees and applicants can see them.

If you accept online job applications, the Department of Labor indicates that employers should place a prominent notice on their job posting site stating that “Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws,” which should be linked to three postings: Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).

Putting these links online is not a substitute for posting them on the salon’s premises.

Required posters must be located in an area where employees frequent on a daily basis, like break rooms, lunch rooms, conference rooms, employee lounges, kitchens, or near a time clock. So, putting them up in the salon owner’s office may not be acceptable. If the salon has more than one location, unless the employees visit all locations regularly, the posters will have to be displayed at each. They also can’t be placed in a binder, even if that binder is available to all employees.

The posters also can’t be resized.

Laws require that posters be of a certain font size and minimum paper size to be compliant. If your salon employs workers who predominantly speak Spanish, you may be required to post notices in Spanish as well as English.

The following states require an employer to fill in information on some state posters, regarding company-specific information like emergency phone numbers, payday information, or worker’s compensation policy information: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. In addition, employers in the District of Columbia must also add information to their poster.

The penalties for failing to post required notices are no joke and can result in fines up to $17,000.

• The penalty for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) posting requirement is $7,000.
• An employer who violates any provision of the federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988, including the posting requirement, faces a fine of up to $10,000.
• The penalty for failing to display the Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law posting (required for employers with 15 or more workers) increased to $210 in 2014.
• Employers with 50 or more workers are required to display the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) notice, and the penalty for willful refusal to display it is $100.
• State posting requirements can also carry penalties. For example, failure to display the Cal/OSHA safety and health protection poster carries a $7,000 fine.

On average, there are 150 posting requirement changes each year, and half of them require mandatory updates. The government typically doesn’t notify businesses when these changes occur, but they expect you to be compliant.

Services are available to small business owners who don’t have time to stay on top of compliance, or who don’t want to risk non-compliance. Personally, I have no experience with these services, since keeping on top of compliance is both my weird hobby and an important part of my job responsibilities, but it may be worth the money for a salon owner who doesn’t have the time or desire to keep up with all those changes.

For more information on workplace posters, read this article from the U.S. Small Business Administration. In the meantime, tell your salon owner to get over her aesthetic aversion to the posters and put them up as soon as possible. It’s better to be safe and wallpaper the break room than risk being punished for noncompliance.

I’m about to offend some coaches.

In my experience, coaches are worthless. The ones I’ve met in my travels collect money and tell their clients what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Many of them lack experience, which isn’t surprising since there’s no education or licensing requirement to become a “coach.” Additionally, coaches can’t be held liable for the bad advice they give you. I’ve seen salon owners get absolutely taken by coaches so I’m completely against them. Instead, I recommend finding an appropriate mentor.

Every professional needs a mentor, especially salon owners. Mentors also don’t require certification or education and can’t be held liable for any bad advice they give you, but at least you won’t be bankrupted by them. The best mentors are those who have walked in your shoes and have taken the path to success. They’ve beaten that trail so they’re in a better position to help you find your way. At the very least, they’ve likely experienced the same troubles you have and can relate to you on a level generic “coaches” can’t. (Never underestimate the strength and value of a sympathetic shoulder to commiserate with.)

Mentors can act as cheerleaders also but the best ones are those who won’t put up with your excuses and those who are willing to lend a helping hand when you need it. I’ve mentored many new salon professionals and it’s not all hugs and high fives. Good mentors assign tasks and due dates. If a mentee slacks, they’re called out for it. If a mentee isn’t capable of performing a certain task (for example, writing a resume), a good mentor will walk them through it so they can learn how.

If accountability is the problem, serious thinking is the solution.

You are accountable to someone, in all instances.

That person could be you, it could be your employees, it could be your clients, or your business itself. Someone or something will always suffer for your failure to complete important duties. That damage might not be visible upon cursory inspection, you can always find it if you look deeper. For some tasks, the damage is nothing more than a lack of benefit or missed opportunity. (For example, failing to run a timely promotion or participate in a networking event may not necessarily hurt your business in an immediately obvious way, but the lost opportunities come with hidden consequences.)

Getting motivated to consistently execute can be difficult, but these motivation issues generally stem from one or more of the following factors:

1. Self-doubt (“I’m a failure.” “I can’t.” “I’m not smart enough.”): Those negative inner voices can kill your motivation faster than anything, turning your focus to how inadequate you are instead of turning it to solving the problems at hand.
2. Confusion (“I seriously have no idea how to do this.”): When you have no idea how to proceed, or do know how to proceed but don’t know how to get from Point A to Point B, the end result can be a road block.
3. Upset Equilibrium (“I’m overwhelmed.”): I’m not talking about vertigo or any of that “discombobulated Chakra” stuff. Upset equilibrium is that feeling of being torn into ten different directions at once. It’s that feeling you get when you’re overwhelmed, and usually it’s caused by both personal and professional discord. When your “To Do” list has fifty things on it, each comes with one or more issues preventing or complicating your ability to complete them, and you have no idea how to prioritize each task, you’ll begin hearing that static in your brain and feeling that tightness in your chest. That’s how you know your equilibrium is all out of whack. You’re reaching but can’t grasp anything.
4. System Breakdown (“Nothing is getting done.” “Everything is going wrong.”): When you lack systems or your systems aren’t designed properly, finishing anything becomes impossible. By far, this is the biggest issue salon owners deal with. When there’s no schedule, tasks are forgotten. When there’s no protocol, operations fall apart.

So how do you deal with those productivity killers?

Suppress those inner voices telling you that you’re “not,” or that you “can’t.” Those voices aren’t productive, useful, or worthy of your time. They’re doing nothing for you, so silence them. If you feel yourself being pulled into a pity party, take a few minutes to recognize your achievements and shift your focus to your tasks.

Make a list. Put all your problems down on paper in a list format. Prioritize those that are time-sensitive, followed by those which are quick and easy to accomplish. All the others go at the bottom, ranked by how damaging the consequences are should they not be completed. Put these problems into perspective. Is redesigning your business cards really that pressing of an issue? Unless you’ve recently changed your number, address, or website URL, the answer is a big “nope.” Stop losing sleep over stupid shit and focus on what matters.

Strategize.  Come up with as many ways to complete the tasks as possible. Choose the methods that make the most sense and require the least effort.

Delegate. Compare outsourcing costs and benefits. For example, if redesigning your marketing materials would take you a considerable amount of time, would it not be better to outsource that task to a graphic designer and focus on the tasks that really require your direct involvement (like training a new hire)? Assess the time investment on each task and determine whether or not the job is simple enough to assign to someone else, especially if that “someone else” is more qualified to do the job than you are.

Design systems and schedules, and stick to them. The easiest way to keep from getting overwhelmed is to have efficient processes, especially for recurring tasks like inventory tracking and replenishment. Schedules and processes will keep you focused and keep you grounded. When your personal management systems are functioning well, you’ll never feel overwhelmed or lost again. Salon owners in particular should have systems in place for hiring, training, performance assessment, routine quality assurance, continuing education, inventory management, social media management, progressive discipline, and all other operational tasks.

Ask for help. If you’ve hit a wall, seek assistance. Networking groups are great for this. Get an outside perspective, take a class, search the internet, consult with a mentor, or read a book on the topic. Don’t plow through a problem from a position of limited knowledge or you may end up creating more problems for yourself.

Execute. When you review your list of tasks, set reasonable due dates for them. If it helps, break the task into smaller tasks. Give 100% to the tasks on the list, in order. Don’t spread your effort between them or allow yourself to become distracted by new problems that aren’t immediately pressing. (Leaking ceilings and plumbing are immediate issues; making time for a meeting with an annoyingly aggressive new product vendor isn’t.)

Self-congratulate. Too few people do this well, or at all–myself included. When you’ve accomplished something, take a few minutes to feel good about it. It’s done! You did a thing! Awesome! Gold star! Now, go do another thing, you productive maniac!

What about you? What techniques have you used to pull yourself out of your professional ruts? Let us know in the comments!