Salon advice?

[Adowa]

Hi guys,
I bought a hair salon in October 2018. I have had it now for 2years. Now the lady I bought it from worked for me, as self employed she gave me lots of advice, but slowly I could see she was trying to take over. With her demands, and how i wasn't doing things properly. She told me she will help me for a year then she will go, either move to Cyprus so she said, sadly I had to let her go, she is now working 10min away from my shop, and sending messages to my client as to where she's now working, as the clients are showing me the text messages, I am really trying to build up specially after coming back from lock down...she has been calling my staff if they want to work for her.
Some of the clients are upset because they signed a waiver for their details to be stored on the computer. She now has their details and they are not happy about it.

Any advice would be great as to how I can approach this.

 

[AcidPerm]

Lots of salon owners are struggling coming back from lockdown so you’re doing well even to re-open.

She was self employed in your salon, so effectively running her own business within your salon. She’s not only legally entitled to hold her own client details, she’s obliged to by law because they're her clients. If they also visit you (or other employed staff in your salon), you must hold their data too.

Ever heard the saying ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’? I think you were probably a bit naive expecting her to help you build up your (her) business for very little in return, especially if you appear to be more successful at it than she was. She was never working for you.

Some of the clients are upset because they signed a waiver for their details to be stored on the computer. She now has their details and they are not happy about it.

I don’t understand what you mean by this? Can you clarify what this waiver said?
Waivers are rarely legally binding and in some cases can be used as evidence of someone trying to circumvent the law.
She isn’t entitled to access client data for salon clients that she has never provided a service for. If she deliberately looked up their details in your salon, both you and she could be held liable for breaches of Data Protection (GDPR).
If she has accessed their data unlawfully, you could write to her telling her to cease contacting your clients otherwise you will report her to the Data Commissioner.

When running a successful business with well managed productive staff, it’s sadly inevitable that other business owners will attempt to poach your staff. That happens in all businesses so don't take it personally.

To ensure your staff stay with you, you have to provide a working environment that they won’t want to leave. Decent levels of pay, regular training sessions, and other benefits. If you are a respected and supportive manager, deal proactively with disputes (especially difficult clients), few staff will choose to leave.

Going forward, put your energy into building your business and attracting new clients. Try out new marketing strategies. Read through the sticky topics in the Business forum section for some ideas of novel ways to attract new clients and forget about the ex salon owner as she’ll become old news soon enough.

 

[Adowa]

Thank you for your reply