Ward’s World
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HITthe
fog lights
Managing through this period of constant change has been a challenge for all salon owners, so we need to ask for help from our suppliers, writes HELLEN WARD
A
t the time of writing, we’ve just received
Government guidelines. With hair salon owners facing so much to sort out in order to create the “new normal”, the beauty industry is left just waiting, and hoping. With no date for reopening, swathes of nail bars, beauty salons and spas are no doubt keeping their team furloughed until they get their precious date. I cannot say I’m surprised. Beauty is the closest contact work of all so it always seemed unlikely that we could forge ahead as safely as something like barbering. Prohibiting manicure and pedicure surprised me, but in discussing it with my spa director, there’s risk that even I hadn’t thought through. We use gels and polishes on clients; so do we have to ask them to buy the bottle for their own singular use and bring it back every time? It’s a logistical nightmare. Our beauty team are raring to get back to work and salons that do both hair and beauty, like ours, will feel incomplete without them. Their loyal following and their expertise is a huge part of our brand.
Change management
summed up the experience. “It’s like driving through thick fog,” I said. “You can only see what’s just in front of you. You cannot look any further forward because you just can’t see what might be coming.” All successful businesses need to plan and forecast. Of course, plans need a degree of fluidity, but trying to make them as clear cut as possible is key. Black and white – no grey. But the trouble is that grey is all there is right now. And that is as unsettling for the salon owners as it is for staff. So what can we do? Well, now is the time we need help from the suppliers and manufacturers that provide our products and create our treatment protocols. Please don’t leave it to us to come up with Covid-friendly versions of your services. Help us figure out if there is anything we can adapt or re-invent to enable us to get some options for not just the immediate future, but that we can keep under our hats for further waves, more restrictions At the time of writing, I’ve not heard from any beauty product supplier with any information on how we might carry on conducting the services they’ve sold in to us. We need the people selling us the raw materials and the equipment to help us come up with some fresh ideas on how we might adapt. We may need these revised treatment protocols more than ever in the future, so putting the work in now will help them survive as much as it will help us. PB
Now is the time we need help from the suppliers and manufacturers that provide our products and create our treatment protocols
Managing a business through this pandemic has been one of the biggest tests I’ve endured in my 30 years in the industry. Keeping a loyal team positive while making the very necessary changes to safeguard the future of the company has been extremely challenging. Fighting the landlord, praying for a successful insurance claim outcome, waiting for updates from the chancellor, keeping on top of legislation – all with the aim of trying to ensure we are ready. Hard enough, but when the goalposts are constantly moving, only the strong will survive. In one of my regular meetings with our core management team ahead of opening, I thought of an analogy that
Hellen Ward is managing director of Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa in London, one of the most profitable independent salons in the UK. She is beauty ambassador for the National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF). Send your feedback to hellen@professionalbeauty.co.uk professionalbeauty.co.uk
