Generation Z and Colour

The parting

of ways Beauty business expert, LIZ MCKEON, provides tips on what to do if your most in-demand therapist leaves

When your superstar therapist walks into your office, closes the door, sits down and asks if you can talk, you get that sinking feeling in your stomach telling you what is coming next…..she is leaving.

It’s natural to take their resignation personally and to panic and get upset. You may feel angry, disappointed, confused and even betrayed. However, now is not the time for these emotions as you have a business to run and clients to keep. Instead, stay positive, calm and focused on your salon.

Don’t let your star therapist’s resignation get to you. Accept that not everyone is committed to your business for life and that’s ok. As the business owner, you are probably giving at least 10 years of your life to working really hard on a single goal – turning something you are passionate about into a successful business. And, you are willing to make a lot of sacrifices in the pursuit of that goal. It is unrealistic to expect that of anyone else who isn’t the business owner.

PERSONAL GOALS

Your top performers don’t just work hard on your business. They also work hard on themselves and are constantly working to better themselves and their position in life. You can (and should) help them to achieve their own personal goals, but the reality is that you simply can’t provide that for everyone.

For many employees, you don’t have what they’re looking for in their next career step, whether it’s a management role or any number of other roles that just don’t exist in a small company.

If you want to hire the best, expect that they will behave like

No matter where No matter where the the therapist is therapist is going to or going to or what what the circumstances the circumstances of their departure are, of their departure do not let your team are, do not let your gossip to clients. team gossip to clients.

Photo by Keagan Henman

talented, ambitious people do. Sometimes they will outgrow the role you’ve given them. If you can’t provide their next step, then they need to move on to where they will get their needs met.

Acknowledge that they have worked hard and brought value to you and your team. Maybe they will again someday but for now, accept that their time with your business is over. So wish them well and mean it. Accept that despite your best efforts, employees will move on.

REMAINING STAFF

Next, start to focus on protecting your salon business from unnecessary employee churn. No single employee should hold the keys to the kingdom of your business. If they do, then you take too much of a financial hit when they leave.

A useful exercise that you can do in this situation is to ask yourself: ‘If employee X moved on tomorrow, what would that do to us?’ Then think about that for every single person on your payroll. If your business is too reliant on one individual, start to upskill other team members and spread the load.

Not letting it get to you means putting things into context, so you can go home and switch off. When an employee leaves, you will get over it, your salon will get over it and all will be fine again.

5 STEPS

If your star therapist decides to leave, move quickly and do the following.

1Contact the therapist’s clients immediately

It is preferable that the clients hear the news directly from you and it gives you a chance to book them in with another member of the team. If you cannot contact them by phone, then a letter or email is another good way to get in touch. A text is too short and impersonal and it may send out the wrong message as it might look like you’re not that bothered about their custom.

2What to say to clients

Stay positive and keep the message simple. Remember that the star therapist’s clients are the salon’s clients. The client doesn’t need to know the details just that you will continue to look after them at your salon. Acknowledge that you are sad to see the person leave, but you wish them all the very best, and now back to you and your next appointment…

3Manage the gossip!

No matter where the therapist is going to or what the circumstances of their departure are, do not let your team gossip to clients. Give your team their instructions. If necessary, give your team – particularly your reception staff – a script, so they have a well-rehearsed response at the ready. Some clients may feel a little let down, so it is important to manage the situation.

4Social media

Keep an eye on your social media accounts, just in case clients are being poached via this channel. Now is the perfect time to increase your own marketing and shout about just how fantastic your salon is.

5Pull out all the stops

Do everything you can to keep your clients, but if they follow the therapist, don’t give up – continue to market to those clients and make it easy for them to return to your salon.

Remember, you are an amazing entrepreneur and this is just a bump in the road! In no time at all your salon will be back to normal. Everybody is replaceable. Accept that not everyone Accept that not is committed to your everyone is business for life and committed to your that’s ok. business for life and that’s ok.

EXIT INTERVIEWS: THE INSIDER’S GUIDE

If the departing employee agrees to an ‘exit interview’, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Exit interviews are useful as they do the following • Provide an opportunity to ‘make peace’ with the disgruntled employee • Are seen as a positive activity by existing staff • Provide relevant and useful data for future training needs • Might even result in giving you a chance to retain your superstar therapist • Are a unique chance to survey and analyse the opinions of departing employees, who are generally more forthcoming, constructive and objective than staff still in their jobs • Hearing and handling feedback is a powerful development process for the salon manager.

Liz McKeon is an author, business coach, trainer and mentor, specialising in salon turnaround. liz@lizmckeon.com

Send & Receive Send and Receive

With many of our clients and team members still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing limited social interaction, it’s important we listen and respond to their emotional needs, writes HELLEN WARD With many of our clients and team members still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing limited social interaction, it’s important we listen and respond to their emotional needs, writes HELLEN WARD

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Whatever might be happening at the moment, at least 2020 is now firmly behind us, even if the long-term ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic are not. The emotional toll of Covid-19 is still alive and kicking, even if the longed-for vaccine hopes to kick the virus down the road until herd immunity properly overtakes it.

Speaking with my best friend Heather recently, she was describing a family member as being ‘permanently on send, never on receive’. We were laughing, talking about how some people are terrible listeners but great talkers; how even those close to us sometimes fail to really hear us among all the noise they are making – missing the vital clues that we train our teams to watch for, which hone their consulting skills.

But our conversation seriously

Salons are not just Salons are not just about delivering about delivering hair hair and beauty and beauty treatments, they have proved themselves to be a community service. treatments, they have proved themselves to be a community service.

got me thinking. Now, more than ever, if you’re a manager of people, you need to be firmly in receive mode; listening for the clues and hoping by just being there, and being a sympathetic ear, you can help ensure the wellbeing of your team, emotionally as well as performance-wise.

Long-term impact

One of my oldest friends, Ali, works in social services, managing a team of people in her county dealing with all types of domestic abuse and family issues. Her job is extremely challenging and she has always worked from home for the majority of her working week. The real toll of coronavirus lockdown 2.0 will not be fully known for some time to come, she tells me.

Children of abusers and abused partners will die as a result of zero interaction with, and therefore intervention, from the outside world. Abusers and those who use coercive behaviours with their family and partners will have maximised the controlling benefits that lockdown brings, and working from home is undeniably a contributing factor.

In the UK’s recent lockdown 2.0, I decided that our small crack squad of senior managers, rather than Zooming a few hours a week to catch up, should go into the office – more for the social interaction than anything work related.

“Good shout,” said Ali; it’s proven that the small photocopier moments, the chats in the staff room, the seemingly unimportant banter about what we’ve been watching on Netflix or other little anecdotes is the very thing that is vital for our social interaction, and, therefore, our sanity.

Home working

Another friend, Pat, does the accounts for a fast-food restaurant chain. Finding out their head office, where she worked, was closing for good has floored her. The company was forced to make redundancies, as many have been, so she, as a single mother, has turned her small living room into an office and now she is doing the work of five former colleagues with two synced giant computer screens. Poor time management hasn’t helped – she regularly finds herself doing emails at stupid o’clock, failing to compartmentalise her work-life balance and not taking regular breaks.

Some days she hasn’t even been outside, bar school drop off and pick up. Food shopping is budgeted carefully so monthly online grocery shops help control her funds. But the lack of interaction with other adults has left her mental health in tatters. She longs to go back to her office, where work is fitted into the structured working week and that is where her job role finishes.

We’re lucky that, as a sector, working from home isn’t an option for most of us. The image of how permanent home working will have affected us in just a few short years’ time is truly scary. Fatigued humans shuffling around in slippers and tackling obesity, their mental state in dire straits.

People are not People are not designed designed to live in to live in isolation. isolation. How many times do we How many times hear from clients that do we hear from the therapist’s couch is clients that the much more than a hairdressers chais is revitalising facial? much more than an essential cut?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Human connection

People are not designed to live in isolation. How many times do we hear from clients that the therapist’s couch is much more than a revitalising facial? We are, as one of my regular clients termed it, an escape from Covid-19 angst – a place where the world feels comfortably normal.

Salons are not just about delivering hair and beauty treatments, they have proved themselves to be a community service. No business owner can take responsibility for their staff’s mental health outside the workplace, but ensuring we listen, look for the signs, and above all invite the discussion, may just prove an invaluable and severely lacking element of our roles as leaders.

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

Shift your focus to one of abundance Shift your focus to one of abundance

MARISA DIMITRIADIS reveals how changing MARISA DIMITRIADIS your mindset when times reveals how changing are tough can open up your mindset when times your business to new are tough can open up possibilities your business to new possibilities

“I’m working so hard but not making enough money!” Sound familiar?

In the past two or three weeks I have had at least 40 messages or calls from industry professionals using these exact words, so I decided to detail a few tips towards starting to change this scenario.

Firstly, stop saying or thinking that you are not making enough money. It all starts with mindset and thoughts. I can just imagine some of you rolling your eyes now and saying what nonsense, as thoughts have nothing to do with reality. Well, you are wrong. The first step you can take towards changing how much money you are making is by thinking abundantly. And don’t ever say the words, “I am not making enough money”.

The definition of the word abundance is – a very large quantity of something, while the word scarcity is defined as – the state of being in short supply.

Abundance vs scarcity are two mindsets that you get to choose to believe. Let me give you some examples.

Scarcity is when you are constantly thinking that times are getting tougher and that it’s harder to make money in our industry. Scarcity is avoiding risk and fearing change. Scarcity is focused constantly on the bank balance

Abundance is welcoming competition and, in fact, regarding it as inspiration. Abundance believes the best is yet to come and that the pie is growing. Abundance shares knowledge and freely offers to help others.

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Upsells on every Upsells on every single single treatment treatment are easy if the are easy if the team is trained on how to team is trained on do it. Sell treatments from how to do it. Sell most profitable to least treatments from profitable. most profitable to least profitable.

State of mind

Your state of mind does not need to match what is actually currently happening in your current circumstances. You might very well be in the middle of a massive cash flow crunch and having staff challenges that are real and

happening. But, if you continue to make decisions based on ‘not having enough money’, well then you will never get out of the situation because you are continuously focused on the same thoughts of watching cash flow and not having enough money. Sound familiar maybe?

So, how do you change this? Simple, shift your focus. How do you do this? I am not saying lie to yourself and pretend it’s not happening, however you can change your state of mind and then your thoughts have the ability to keep you focused on the possibilities.

Opportunities vs threats

If you believe the best is yet to come and you focus your energies on opportunities rather than threats, then you will most likely make it through your cash flow crunch. Make a list of what you will be doing with the money that is going to come into the business.

A big part of having an abundance mindset is the ability to focus on what you already have and being grateful for it.

Gratitude is about having appreciation for all the good things in your business and your life and the lessons that you have learned along the way. When you focus on the good feelings you get when you show gratitude, the positive feelings will increase and so will all the other good things because you are going to be more aware of them. When you become more aware of all the good things, you feel more abundant! What a brilliant spin off!

Sense of worth

Lastly, accept that creating more abundance starts with a deep sense of worth. You must believe that you deserve abundance in your life. When you believe that you deserve to have a lot more and that there is more than enough to go around, then this abundance mindset creates more opportunities, opens up creativity and more possibilities.

Product is the main expense in any spa/ salon business. Check your brand profit margins. No matter how much you like a brand, now is the time to partner with profitable brands that are priced right and that will support you with excellent value promotions that will create sales.

I speak to salon owners who think their brands are profitable until I ask what the percentage cost of goods for a treatment is and they are not sure, or they think that 30% to 40 % is a good percentage cost of goods. Well, it’s not. A 10% to 20% maximum cost of goods average is where you should be, with retail at 50% to 55% cost of goods. Also, supporting local suppliers is a sustainability initiative on its own, so consider carefully where you can rather support your local suppliers.

Image by Shan Ejai from Pixabay

If you believe the If you believe the best is best is yet to come yet to come and you focus and you focus your energies on your energies opportunities rather than threats, then you will most likely make it on opportunities rather than threats, through your cash flow then you will most crunch. likely make it through your cash flow crunch.

Cut expenses

Get ruthless and look at everything from consumables usage and pricing, laundry costs, insurance, Wifi, rent, staff salaries and so much more. At this point I am sure you are saying, ‘I have cut everywhere I can’, well, look again and go and find another 10% to cut.

Increase revenue

Get obsessed. Sit with your team and until you have a solid plan on how to increase revenue by at least 20%, don’t stop. It IS possible.

Retail is a huge opportunity if you have the right brands at the right price with the right margins. Upsells on every single treatment are easy if the team is trained on how to do it. Sell treatments from most profitable to least profitable. Do you have a list like this? The list should be at reception and with each therapist so hairstylist so everyone knows which treatments make the most money. Sell those first.

Change your treatment offering to meet the ‘unmet’ needs of the market and watch your turnover sky rocket. The bigger the gap between cutting expenses and increasing revenue, the bigger the profit. It’s that simple – the expenses need to go down and the revenue needs to go up, and the profit should grow bigger.

Training

How much attention to training are you giving your team or yourself, if you are a solo business? No matter how long you have been in the industry, you simply cannot know it all and what’s most important about training is the morale boost and mental stimulation it gives. Training makes you think about ideas and stimulates brain activity.

The above are simple but powerful tools you can analyze and implement today and I guarantee you will see a difference in your business in as little as two weeks. But you need to be obsessed and have razor focus.

Marisa Dimitriadis is the founder of The Spa Consultants and co-founder of The Spa Professionals Guild, a training network for the industry. marisa@thespaconsultants.co.za

Little over a year old, Medellin Gentlemen Groomers – The Barber Cartel, does not resemble a traditional barbershop in look, feel or concept. NATASHA CHISESE and JOANNA STERKOWICZ infiltrate the cartel to get the details. Man-cave difference with a

It was while watching the TV series, ‘Narcos’, about the notorious Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, that Marlon Naidoo began thinking about the potential of creating a version of a ‘cartel’ for his barbershop in Johannesburg.

Says Naidoo: “It was not my intention to sensationalise the ‘drug cartel’ and its activities but rather to associate it to a man-cave set up, where men and boys would feel comfortable. Where they would be willing (and find it cool) to have their grooming done. So, with the ultimate goal being to attract and win over a loyal following of customers, the concept of The Barber Cartel was born. We then sat down and threw around ideas on how we could carry this through in the decor, set up, service offering and experience.”

He points out that Medellin is the name of the Colombian city

For centuries, most teenage boys and men had the view that a male has to look like he is dangerous or capable of danger, to seem cool to other men. Masculinity was built around power, strength and roughness.

that was associated with Escobar’s cartel. “Most people know about this association but our focus is on men being their better self and encouraging others to do the same by becoming part of The Barber Cartel.”

Décor and style Some 70 square meters in size and currently employing seven barbers, Medellin is situated in Pineslopes, Fourways. This area was selected primarily for its high volume of traffic.

To create the ‘Narcos’ theme, attention to detail was key and every design element had to work seamlessly together. Medellin’s layout ensured that there is ample space for products, barber chairs, a waiting area and a stockroom.

The colour scheme is a mix of matte black, grey and white. Tiling and work stations follow the colour theme, with a black and white chequered pattern. Glazed concrete sheeting was used on the floors, and at the heart of the room you will find the Medellin logo.

All the furniture is vintage, with the highlight being a custom made table featuring the Medellin logo. Floating shelves are used to display products, with matte black piping enhancing the vintage rustic look.

The walls are primarily black with grey strokes. A wallpaper illusion of an exposed brick wall is used with typography murals featuring information on Pablo Escobar. This information is not to be taken as idolising Escobar, but to create a system that motivates men to take selfies, known as mugshots in the barbershop.

Subtle lighting brings the cartel theme together by complementing natural light with warm lighting. And, just when you thought the barbershop could not possibly offer more, the reception desk serves complimentary drinks and triples up as a perfume bar for the man on the go.

According to Naidoo, the interior design goal was to create a barbershop that is family friendly, encouraging a ritual for families going to the barbershop.

Mugshots In this selfie-obsessed world, Medellin clients are encouraged to have mugshots taken instead.

“For centuries, most teenage boys and men had the view that a male has to look like he is dangerous, or capable of danger, to seem cool to other men. Masculinity was built around power, strength and roughness. As such, selfies were not very common and mostly seen to be feminine.

“Our mugshot wall seemed like an interesting idea to encourage men and boys to take their pictures without feeling awkward. Not to sensationalise getting arrested but rather to provide the positive alternative, whereby males don’t feel that they need to do bad to get a mugshot taken. Our spin on this is to take a mugshot to capture your ‘best look’ rather than your worst. We do know that some males, especially the younger generations, seem to think it is fun and cool get arrested and have a mugshot taken,” explains Naidoo.

Personal attention Rather than focusing on pushing huge volumes of clients through the door, Medellin is centred on the customer experience.

Naidoo continues: “It is all about the experience and this has always been the intention. My wife, Maheshnee Nair, and I were always big on grooming and being regulars at most beauty and grooming establishments, we knew what worked for us and what didn’t. What kept us satisfied and what prevented us from going back. We took our own experience, considered our own needs and began thinking through what we wanted to invoke in customers’ minds and experience when they come through our doors. From this we built the customer ethos and the unique elements/ touch points that would create it.

“Off course there will always be a need to tweak or enhance our offering as customer needs are everchanging, but again, this is something we

Spa Focus Salon Focus

decided from the start to never compromise on. Very importantly, we will never offer a service or product that we would not purchase for ourselves. I am all about people, and if you focus on the person, the rest will come. So, whereas the list of services and products are mostly common in the barbering world, this cannot be replicated.”

He notes that Medellin has just launched its own booking app, which has proved very popular. Customers can shop for products on the app, as well as book appointments.

The Medellin team plan to open four new stores in 2020, some of which will be franchised.PB