Often times if a new employee is not performing as expected you can trace it back to improper training.  During the first few months of employment the employer and employee decide whether or not the union is a fit. Here in Alberta the probation period for a new hire is 3 months and in that time both the employee and employer can terminate employment without notice. Be sure to check your province or states labour regulations when setting your probation schedule.

The goal of any training process is to provide the easiest and most accurate avenue to integrate a new employee into your company. If you have clear expectations and guidelines it should be very evident if your new hire will become a long-term employee by the time the probation period is up. To better demonstrate this I will break down the elements of a training process and describe their purpose.

The Training Guide: When employment commences, provide the employee with a complete schedule as to the events that are to occur over the duration of probation. For example if day 1 is meeting the staff and orientation, day 2 may be the introduction to the handbook and signing of contracts, day 3 may be front desk orientation and so on. State when performance reviews are to take place and when the permanent contract will be signed. This guide should outline the exact probation schedule.

The Probation Contract: Simply put, this is the contract stating starting salaries, service, retail and referral goals and the expectations to be met to a permanent employment position. Also included should be the conditions that would terminate employment such as late arrivals, failure to pass certification, sick days and any other things that would warrant an immediate dismissal. Although it is not always required by law that you provide a dismissal reason during the probation period I think it fair to let people know your guidelines.

The Employee Handbook: If constructed well, your employee handbook should be the question and answer guide for new hires. It deserves a complete article on it’s own to list the contents but in a nut shell it should contain everything from where you keep the toilet tissue to the vision and mission to how they advance in the company to what warrants a dismissal. But it MUST include your company policies and training procedures.

Policy Certification: This is the process used to certify new hires on your salon policies. These are your scripts used in service procedures and explanation of salon rules, guidelines and a “how we do it here” documentation.  What happens in certification is the employee is tested on the employee handbook and is required to achieve a pre-determined mark to secure employment. The goal is for the employee to have a full understanding of the company when it comes time to conduct services,

Procedure Certification: Now it is time for the technical training procedures. The reason this is left for last is because it is the sum of all components in the training process. Because policy certification is complete, the employee is expected to serve all clients they recruit during this process with the salon brand, marketing strategies, scripts or policies and front desk procedures. Also in this certification, include a passing requirement to secure employment. It is up to each salon and the employees experience as to how many technical services are required to complete certification. Even senior technicians should be required to conduct one of each service in the salon to ensure all components of the visit are being implemented.

There you have it, the training process. If your salon does not have an employee handbook or training process and you want an easy convenient way to get started, you can purchase a ready made template at http://www,sossalonoperatingsystem.com/SOSOwners.html

Years ago I learned a very powerful lesson from Stephen Covey. In his book entitled “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People”he explains the concept of principle based leadership.

In the last message I shared with you how to respond to the important and not the urgent. Now that you have more time and leading your life based on your priorities I want to give you the next tool that will make you the author of your relationships. 

Today I am going to share with you an exercise that involves you being at your funeral right now, today. Imagine all your loved ones, spouses, kids, family members, friends, employees and business contacts standing up at the podium and reflecting on their relationship with you. I know this may be difficult and you may not like what you discover but there a reason so I encourage you to carefully examine what you think each person would say about your relationship with them as it is right now.

Would they say you were kind and loving, always therefor them or that they wish they had spent more time with you etc. Would your employees say that you were a great leader, fair and honest or would they say that you were always stressed out and unavailable?

Now, imagine you are standing at your funeral again and you get to choose what each person would say about you. Repeat the process by above but this time write out what you would like that person to say about you.For example; in the first part of this exercise you think your spouse would say that you were a very hard worker and gave a lot to your company but wished they had spent more time with you. You now get to rewrite the script. You could imagine them saying that you had always put your relationship with them first,they felt loved and knew because you always made time for them.

The script that you wrote is your agenda to create the relationships you desire. Because this is about your business and we are referring to leadership, take this opportunity to evaluate your relationships with your team. You can choose to be the leader you want to be with action and intent.

I wish I could make it as simple as putting this task in your day timer but to develop new attributes is an internal process, a shift in behaviors. What I can tell you is to make it a priority by scheduling the time in your agenda to research and commit to getting involved with leadership groups, taking classes and seek coaching.

I was very fortunate to have found this exercise when I was a salon owner and as a result of it I am able to say that I have remained in good standing with every person who had worked in my company. I’m not saying they all liked me but I do know they would all say I was honest, respectful,approachable and dedicated to helping them succeed. Even those I had to let go still felt comfortable coming into the salon for their services when they nolonger were employed there. That is the gift of writing your own scripts as to how you choose to impact the relationships in your life.

Are you feeling overworked, stressed out with too many things to do and not enough time to do them? Are you letting important things slide due to your lack of time and then feeling guilty because they too have gotten ignored? Those tasks when left unattended can have a very negative impact on our ability to be productive not to mention the energy it takes just worrying about getting them done.

To best be of assistance, I must reference the exercise of a mentor of mine, Brian Tracy. He showed me how responding to the important not the urgent is key when deciding how to handle all the” to do”lists in life. I can tell you that if you invest a few minutes now you will experience a clam and focused attitude by placing value and priority to your tasks and once identified, everything else just doesn’t seem that urgent or important. So let’s begin.

To begin, I want you to imagine that you were just given 3 months to live  by your doctor and on the 90^th day you were to drop dead. Who would you want to spend your last 90 days with here on this earth? What would you want to be doing and whom would you want to be doing it with? I really urge you to play with this and think about those things that you really must do whether its goon a trip, eat more ice cream or take more time to nap. And whom most would you want to be doing those things with?

From the first exercise you have developed your bucket list or goals as well as identified those whom matter most to you. Your goals are what gets you out of bed each day by providing you with a sense of purpose and value for your own life. Take these dreams and desires and put them in an action plan of 2, 5 or 10 years with all the steps you are going to take to make them a reality. You may need to take classes, make investments, save money or spend money, either way, write out exactly how you will achieve them.

Once you know the action steps, place them into daily things you will do, weekly and monthly. Then transfer them to your day timer and monthly and yearly planner so that you have put yourself first.

Then look at the people on your list. These are the people that add meaning to your dreams and desires. Take those people and schedule time with them in your agenda. Some of them may need 10 minutes day and some may need 1 hour a month. For example you may choose to take 10 undisturbed minutes each day to chat with your spouse, read to your children or call a friend.You might also schedule a visit with your parents once a month or dinner with the girls. Whatever you choose to do is not as important as prioritizing those that matter first before business meetings, and appointments.

Those things that are not of importance can be delegated freeing you from the urgency and responding to the important!

Stay tuned, next week I am going to share with you how to take this one level deeper, yes deeper into the salon or spa by teaching you how to build relationships and foster your leadership skills.

Recently my friend Mick Say and I were chatting on face book about the sad state salon owners are in by the time they contact us. They are in desperate need of our help and most time cannot even afford our lowest end programs. You have no idea how it feels to know people are suffering and knowing that you can help them if they would have come to you sooner. Although we do give away a lot of information for free we agree that we find those clients that hire us to be most successful. Why?

It is a proven fact that when you are being paid adequately you give more value and purchasers expect more when paying rather than getting something for free.

I know this first hand. When I was a salon owner seeking business solutions in a state of desperation, I took advantage of any free training that was offered. I implemented a little of what I learned but not all of it. And because I didn’t do what they recommended, I didn’t get the results they guaranteed. This lead me to discredit my teachers rather than see how my own attitude created my passive learning.

It wasn’t until I hired my business coach that things really changed and I became more profitable. At $500/ hour you can bet your booties that I sucked up every bit of advice she gave me AND I never missed doing my homework. I can’t tell you the changes that happened to my salon as a result of that experience. Not only was I making money but I had the systems and structures in my business that gave me the freedom to live my ideal life which didn’t involve being behind my chair 10 hours a day 6 days a week.

Good news for you! You get the expertise a $500/hour business coach and all the strategies and systems I created to take my salon through every level of growth just because I have had the experience of being a salon owner. Don’t make the mistake of waiting till you have to do something desperate to get your salon on course, or wanting and needing the support of a salon consultant and thinking you can’t get it. Help is everywhere, just reach out and get started before it's too late.

Does this sound like you? You have an ongoing challenge in your salon and you keep trying different things to solve it and although it may get better for a period; it never seems to change permanently. You are disillusioned with trying and feel like if you just had the answer to this one thing everything else would fall into place.

I wish I could jump up and say “I have it, I have that one thing that will totally transform your business”, take away your problem and hand you the key to success. Well at this point you probably wouldn’t believe me and I’m sure skepticism would step and say ”wait a minute, we’ve heard that before”. You probably have had many people tell you this before and in all fairness, to some degree they were right. They may have been able to offer you a solution to your most pressing challenge and if implemented, would change your business. But the truth of the matter is that a successful business isn’t  the sum of just one component but rather a succession of components that when put together create a strong business model.

Even knowing this I can hear the reluctance and I must tell you gently that the real problem is usually with the salon owner themselves. Sometimes they have lost so much faith that they stop trying all together. And most times they want the solution but they aren’t willing to do the work. They feel that making one change won’t make any difference when the opposite is true. It’s those small changes that when strung together have a powerful impact on the business.

Most of the real work in changing the business comes when you can change the owners attitudes and experiences.

The first thing that needs to happens is to take the emotion out of the challenge which is usually fear and once relieved of that you can then think logically about the situation. Then action plans play a major role followed by commitment. No one else can change the course of your salon but you. You must be willing and you must develop an attitude of seeking help and being open to it.

So the next time you find yourself searching for that one thing that will make it all better, begin where you are and start with what’s looking you in the mirror.  Take one small step and little by little each change no matter the size will grow your salon into a fabulous company.

My Mastermind Group is where salon and spa owners get the solutions to their challenges and the support to make it happen.

A lot of time and energy can be spent marketing to get new clients in the door and although when you need business this seems like the logical thing to do but what about the acre of diamonds in your back yard, your existing clients. These are the people who already love you and see value in patronizing your salon and they have friends just like them. Yes I am talking about referrals. Now before you say that you already have a referral program I want to challenge you to be honest with yourself by asking just how many new clients you’ve had as a result of your referral program?

I want you to get your clients talking about your salon again, a new rush of activity and a new surge of ideal clients!

Now before I tell you how to promote referrals, I want to share a quick story about my learning lesson, which I know a lot of you will relate to and will help you understand the power of implementing a new referral strategy.

I had been cutting this clients hair for over a year when one day I saw her in the mall and she had a new look and it wasn’t mine. Awkward as it was we chatted and I discovered that she had been walking by a salon and saw this new cut in the window when she stopped in and asked to have it done. She explained that she didn’t know if I could do it!

Imagine my shock when I found her so easily lost when I was at the same cutting class and was fully capable of initiating her change! After my ego quieted I examined our time together.  I had mentioned the class but I had not given her the reason to get excited that the other salon did and I didn’t bother mentioning that specific cut because she never wanted change.

Now, even if you are telling your clients about what’s new in the industry, how are you promoting it?  I mean promoting to get new clients? If you want to new clients from the one in your salon you have to give them a reason to talk about you. Ask yourself what your client would be sharing with her friend after a visit with you?

Consider the following when you want to get your clients excited about your salon, keep them loyal and get them talking to their friends about you again.

1.     The first and most powerful step is to have the conversations in the client visit that peaks their interest. Step 9 in the Standard of Service (Salon Operating Systems tool for salon branding) is called “industry trend updates”. It is a script technicians use to educate clients on what’s new in the industry, classes they have taken etc. Even if your client doesn’t want change they may tell their friends about your conversation.

2.     The next step is using the other avenues of communication in the salon to promote these updates like your website, emails, signage, and telephone messages.  Make it easy for clients to pass on the information!

Anything you do to educate your clients gives them the opportunity to get them excited about the client visit and rave about your salon.

If you want to start the 2010 salon marketing classes visit  http://www.sossalonoperatingsystem.com and sign up today

Today I want to target the salon website and give you a couple tips on how you can use it to capture new clients that are the ideal match for your salon.

Now don’t get upset by what I say but try to see this from your clients point of view. Most websites I see it looks as though we in the industry are trying to impress each other with our talent rather than appealing to the clients who we are wanting to do business with. They are usually contain photos of young pretty girls, thin girls, who have perfect hair and skin and are wearing suggestive clothing sporting hair no one would ever wear on the street. Being in the beauty industry I can truly appreciate and admire the artists talent but how does the client perceive this and will it capture their attention long enough to browse your site or intimidate them? I also see salons trying to sell to the client by telling them how wonderful they are rather than giving the client what they want.

If you have a lot of clients and your public profile is all your website is designed for then by all means put up the flashy pictures of hairstyles and impress people with the talent of your team. But if your primary purpose is to attract clients with your site then build it to work for you How do you do this?

1.     Know who you are looking to attract by knowing the profile of the person who will see value in being a client of your salon…your ideal client.

2.    Capture their attention by giving them something they will value.

3.    Gain their trust that you are the expert to care for their needs.

What to include with your strategy:

Include a very brief “tip” of the week so visitors see value in returning to your site. I know a salon blog can serve this purpose as well but clients don’t always spend enough time roaming your site to get the good stuff, offer it right there on the home page.

This “tip” when promoted right is your golden opportunity to subtly introduce them to your salon brand while giving them a piece of valuable information. For example; if your salon is famous for doing  corrective color, share with your visitors just how a proper color consultation should be done to ensure client satisfaction. Be careful not to say “this is how we do it here” but adapt the tone of “look for this is the salon you choose to care for your tresses”.

Have an opt in box where you can collect their name and email address. These days people are reluctant to give out this information for a simple newsletter so you must make the offer so appealing that they can’t wait to get what you are offering. Again, if you have done the work to know your ideal client and position the offer as something they WANT, not need they will be happy to provide this information in exchange for the gift.

Your gifts could include; hair and makeup photo shoots for company portfolios if you are attracting corporate clients. Couple massage lessons for the active dual income earners or a series of how to videos to keep the glow in aging skin if your ideal client is the mature generation.

*Remember when making your offer that it is purely a gift that you know will change their lives. Once you give them value they will be more inclined to buy from you and now that you have their name and email address you can follow up with salon specials, promotions and events that will bring them through the door.

Please share your ideas in the comment box that proved successful with my readers

The biggest opportunities are  being presented in your salon and today we are going to talk about capitalizing on them. Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some great marketing tips on how to reach prospects, package your offers and add incentives so you can use the upcoming season to boost your business in the quieter times.

Gift certificate sales are the most under marketed asset the salon has. If you are a salon that has low holiday gift certificate sales or if you are a destination spa where gift certificate sales are a huge portion of your revenue I know you will start to look at each transaction you do with a new pair of eyes when you read the following.

Sometimes salons view gift certificate sales as additional revenue rather than an opportunity to build brand recognition. And sometimes they actually enjoy the extra cash without being concerned whether or not the receiver ever uses their gift.  But what about your salon getting the chance to “wow” that receiver with your incredible client experience. I say never miss out on the opportunity to show the world just why your clients love you.

When you sell a gift certificate you have just made a connection with 2 prospects, the person purchasing the gift and the person receiving it. Both are opportunities to gain new business. So let’s talk about making the most out of this perfect scenario that is presented to you. Because we are targeting quiet times consider the following ideas with gift certificate sales:

• Offer an incentive to the purchaser for buying the gift certificate. If they are a current salon client you can get creative and give them an incentive to try a service they have never had but have been talking about if scheduled before January 31^st.

• If they are a new client purchasing for a friend you can offer them a 2 for 1 or bonus service when purchaser schedules their services in January.

• Put a bonus service in with the gift certificate for these appointments booked before March 15^th.

• Put a “bring a friend incentive” in with the gift certificate and provide lunch, special drinks or a paraffin.

If you do not like the idea of giving incentives and consider them a form of discounting, think of the client who purchases the gift certificate as referring someone to your salon and reward them just as you would a referral. After all, they just paid you the biggest compliment, they have recommended you.

Get creative and be prepared with the above options by providing scripts, policies and procedures for all persons taking sales at the front desk. You will need to incorporate a good tracking system and take time to role play check outs so they are speedy and efficient. And most importantly, make sure your printed materials are stocked and ready to go.

Please share any ideas you have with my readers on this page, your feedback and creativity is appreciated!

When making changes you can sometimes experience doubt, fear or anxiety in your ability to reach your goals or to set them in motion. Credited to Brian Tracy, this tool provides relief by thinking logically and being proactive by focusing on the solution.

For intent of purpose let’s imagine a situation in your salon that involves the team as a whole. Perhaps the back bar costs have been extremely high causing the salons profits to be diminishing. To date the stylists have not had a product charge and after many attempts to try to control usage you have decided to implement one.

It is the one thing that will put the salon back into a position of being profitable which makes good business sense but you are afraid that implementing the change may backfire on you causing them to leave.

You have been avoiding the conversation due solely to your fear and feel immobilized to make a decision. Use the following 8 steps and you will gain the clarity and focus to get the right message across.

I have found that when I use this particular tool you change the language and look at the problem as a situation, which tends to deflate the fear. Also, when you apply this tool when dealing with people it removes the person and acts on behaviors. Behaviors can be changed where people can’t (unless they plan to on their own). I have used this tool in many areas of my life time and agian I hope you too find it useful.

Think logically when answering the following questions.

             1.     Identify the fear, worry or problem. (Be specific and direct; I am afraid of, I am worried about, the problem is. For example: I am afraid my staff will leave if I change things.)

             2.     Change the language from a fear, worry or problem to a situation and define the situation. (Changes are being made and people are angry.)

             3.     Identify the cause. (Lack of knowledge about the changes.)

             4.     List the possible solutions. (Educate staff, point out the benefits, bring in an expert on the topic, set up a reward system when change is implemented.)

             5.     Make a decision on what to do.

             6.     Assign responsibility. (Delegate the help needed by setting goals with the people responsible to helping.)

             7.     Set a deadline.

             8.     Stay focused on the actions you are taking when the mind wanders back to the problem, fear or worry!

After completing this exercise on your own you can do it with your team as well. 

Being the salon owner you have probably already filled each and every position in your company at one time or another but have you filled the job description of leader?

What does that mean exactly and doesn’t owning the salon ultimately make you the leader?

Being the leader means that you have a personal vision and mission for your salon and are committed to making them happen. It means that you live your life with purposeful intent each day and inspire those around you to join you on your journey.

Today I am going to attempt to make it as clear as possible as how it “looks” on paper when you lead your salon and I am going to do my best to communicate this in “industry terms”.

There are 4 basic things to consider in any job description; the goal, the objective, the characteristics or personality traits of this person and duties of the individual; they can look something like this.

Objective: To build a team of peak performers who respect and honor the company. I do this by leading with integrity and honesty in my commitments to helping them succeed and in turn the salon. 

Goal: To grow the salon business to be attracting and sustaining a thriving client base with superior service.  

Personality Traits: Strong sense of commitment, confident, good communication skills, positive attitude, visionary, calm rational demeanor, good time management skills.

Duties: Creating a vision and mission for your salon and setting the goals to fulfill them. Creating positions in the company to support employee and company growth such as training, research, marketing and management.

The value of creating your job description will give you clarity to know what it takes to be the leader of your salon.