Hi, I bought my hair salon in December 2007. I spent a fortune on refurbishing it and putting in 2 beauty rooms. I intended to rent the room out to a beautician, (the other one is a shower and sauna). Anyhow to cut a long story short I heard a beautician was looking for some work closer to her home as her previous boss was selling up. I interviewed her and she looks the part etc. She didn't want to rent or be self employed but promised lots of clients, (as she was only 2 miles away this didn't seem unlikely). I took her on full time and she was also getting a split commission which was working out at an extra £40ish a week. Well, she has not been paying her way it has been costing me, the business to keep her and it was ridiculous paying commission when she was not covering her wages. The clients didn't materialise, a few did and picking up some from the hairdressing side. So after 3 months I took her to one side and said it had to stop. Either she had to pull her finger out and try her hardest to get more clients, go self employed or go on a part time basis. I had tears and no to all of the suggestions. I stopped the commission and said she had to be reasonable. I was under no obligation as the contract was on a 3 month trial. After lots of talking and trying to understand that yes, Rome was not built in a day, that she could go on for one more month and try harder. The last 3 weeks she has just covered her wages. I am now being asked to review things ie, when her wages are covered to take out the cost of treatments, I am being told things like a brow wax only costs me 10p full body massage 20p etc the list goes on!!!! so she wants a full contract and any remaining profit to be split 50/50 with her! I am at my wits end as there has been no profit what so ever since she started in March. I had to kit the room out at great expense......I could go on but I dont know what way to turn. I have spent all this money, I am a hairdresser not a beautician, its all new to me. But trying to find another beautician, its like hens teeth!! so help please. I really need to be able to go into work in the next couple of days armed with some good strong points to talk to her. So any advice from all you professional beauticians out there would be greatfuly received.
I really do feel you're being a little unfair on her...why did you agree to take her on on a comission basis, when it's so new to you? Surely if you had worked out the maths beforehand, you would have seen that you would be likely to be out of pocket some weeks, if the work was slow? I feel it would have been better to pay her a basic wage for the first 3 months, and agree to discuss commission after this...
Unfortunately, beauty is a different ballgame to hairdressing, as I'm sure you have found out; clients will always need their hairdresser, as very few of us are talented enough to be able to cut and colour our own hair, and when we find someone we like, we tend to stick with them and be loyal. Beauty therapists I always feel have a slightly tougher time of it, being that most of the treatments we offer can somewhat be replaced by home waxing kits, razors, our partners pounding knots out of our backs at home, or painting our own nails. In short, when money is tight, as it is for everybody what with the looming recession, clients may cut back on what they view as "non essential expenditures"
What I am trying to say is that it's not necessarily your therapist's fault that she is having quiet days. It takes a while to build up a reputation, and while clients say they will follow, sometimes this doesn't happen. When I changed salons I had about 5 clients who followed me immediately...the others did follow me, but it took one lady over a year to come for an appointment!! Also, you cannot force people to come to your salon, they have their own minds, and their own reasons for following a therapist or staying put.
You say it's time she works harder and "pulls her finger out" to get more clients in, but what are you doing to help her? You obviously have an existing client base; are you telling every single client about your new beauty venture? Are you working with her to offer treatments at a discounted rate for an initial period? Have you put anything in the local paper? Held an open evening for her to introduce her and to allow clients to meet her? Taken every single client to view the new beauty rooms (When not in use) and put a price list in every single client's hands? Until you have done all these things, I don't feel you can tell her to pull her finger out. It is your business after all; she is your employee, and if I was in her shoes, I would be expecting my boss to do all she could do.
A lot of beauty treatments are fairly cheap to perform per treatment; I would say that 10p for an eyebrow wax actually isn't too far off the mark (If she's just talking about the cost of 2 tiny little bits of a wax strip, a quarter of a spatula and a tiny amount of wax...but obviously it won't cover electric, couch roll etc etc etc)
My advise would be to please give her longer to build up her client base, and please help her. It's all very well being a brilliant therapist, but if you don't know how to market yourself nobody will know about you. If you have any skills you can use to help her, your business will benefit from it.
Sorry if this post sounded a little harsh, it wasn't intended, but I don't quite know how else to put it!
