Is this the Answer to Keeping More Woman in the Beauty Industry Long Term

By Kara Lehmann

We all know that finding and retaining staff over the last few years has been a challenge for our industry. From more independent freelancers to career changes there has been a lot of challenges.

What if we could aim to keep more of our women working for us instead of leaving?

From my own personal experience owning a salon for 10 years where I had a team of 11 employees, as well as my experience working within the Beauty Industry for the last 5 in various roles, women are craving more.

More time with their loved ones. More time with their children. More time learning new skills. More time to travel and experience the world.

Now more than ever, women want to feel freedom of choice.

One of the most common scenarios I used to see play out in the industry was the loss of amazing Beauty Therapists and Managers due to the inability for salons to offer flexibility when employing mothers. This can be a really challenging area to navigate - as I understand the importance of stability in a business, however my solution was to always be flexible, split one full time role into multiple roles so that we could share the shifts and encourage my team to know and understand what their motivations were so that I could help them reach their personal goals. The key was to always have an open mind and be willing to put myself in their shoes.

If I was still operating my salon today, I’d probably do things a little differently. I would look at ways in which I could offer my team remote roles within my business to help keep them working for me, but also to help grow my business. You see one of the most powerful things you can do for your business is to train your employees to support you in your business on the daily.

How can they learn new skills and stay inspired while not being physically in your salon?

It all comes down to great leadership and understanding what motivates and drives your team.

If you have not been sending those follow up SMS, emailing your clients regularly, writing blogs or creating social media content you could enlist your team to do it and they can do this from anywhere!

Having them take responsibility for nurturing your business from a different perspective, can often allow them to gain a better understanding of what it takes to run a successful business.

So how do you approach the idea of transitioning your employee to a remote support team member?

Start by looking at what they are naturally good at. What skills or experience do they have that could be transferable to other areas? What do they enjoy doing the most?

They may love customer service, so they could start by replying to all emails, social media messages and enquires. They could make follow up calls for products or services, they could send those lapsed client SMS or emails.

By having someone support you in this capacity and often, you can gain a huge boost to your bottom line.

Here’s a few ideas on how you can offer remote roles to your employees: - Marketing - Social media - Customer Service - Updating & Creating Business Systems - Updating your website or online store - Updating your database - Virtual Receptionist - Bookkeeping - Creating training materials and videos And so much more.

The more and more our industry struggles to retain staff, the more and more we will be outsourcing help. So, let’s look at ways we can outsource to these women we already know, like and trust. Let’s give them the freedom to create a lifestyle that lights them up around their growing families.

They can work hours that suit both of you, reduce your workload, create, and implement new systems and improve the overall efficiency of your business and life!

The benefits of having a remote support team can really impact your business on a large scale. If you’d like to find out more about supporting your employees through the remote working alternative, reach out and the team here at The Beauty Boss VA can assist you.

Kara Lehmann is the The Beauty Boss VA and Mentor We help you gain back more time to do the things you love www.virtualbeautyboss.com Instagram: @kara_thebeautyboss Facebook: The Beauty Boss VA