Staffing problems?

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How many of you are employers?

  • Small is beautiful ... I'm a one man band!

    Votes: 42 48.3%
  • Hell no ... I rent tables to other technicians in my salon.

    Votes: 6 6.9%
  • I am ... I employ one other technician in the salon.

    Votes: 5 5.7%
  • I employ 2 technicians or more.

    Votes: 7 8.0%
  • I am mobile and do not have a salon.

    Votes: 27 31.0%

  • Total voters
    87
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geeg

Judge Gigi-Honorary Geek
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I want to talk about staff .... love em? or hate em?

It seems to me that these days in the UK, the way for a Nail technician to 'get on' is perceived this way....

"Oh I'll just work in a salon for a while until I have a bunch of clients and then I'll secretly tell them all I'm setting up on my own and take them with me when I leave!!"

Ever had that happen to you? Or .....

You have found that a member of staff is 'doing nails on the side' and using salon products to do them with??

When did we become such a nation of thieves?? Because that is what it is ... stealing something that doesn't belong to you whether it be clients or products. Whatever happened to business ethics? Doesn't anyone teach that anymore?

I think others could benefit form your staff horror stories and how you dealt with them. Can we offer some good constructive advise on how to keep staff happy as well as the bad stuff?
 
Well, I am planning to leave where I work as you all know and take my Customers with me! :D :D

But I have recently learnt that that Lads are booking appointments to see estate agents specifically for when I am not there! :twisted: Sly! (Well thats if you call sly leaving notes to each other about the above in full view of myself! :x )

They don't know that I know they are up to something, but I feel a lot better about what I am doing because they are not trust worthy! :evil:

When my own shop is doing well I will have to tackle the staff question, which is worrying but I already have a new tech in mind in case I do get too busy, and I feel that they are trustworthy! :D (I hope anyway!)
 
Well some years ago I had on Nail Tech working for me.........
She turned up late, took stock to do private work, bad attitude, showed no respect or else she wouldn't have been such a bad worker..........
The girl was on pretty good pay and work related bonuses......
But it still wasn't enough!!!!!! She tried to take all the clients with her, but that didn't work, as her work wasn't all that great and the clients, our clients, stayed loyal to the one who gave a better service ......ME .......
What did I do??? I sacked her, smartish..................

Then on to happier times..............
Trained my daughter to a high standard , she is never late, never takes stock without asking, fab attitude, great asset............ and her wages reflected her skill and perception of our business............
Her reward was, at the beginning of this year I made her a partner......
So now where ones was an employee, she is now my equal in business and I don't regret this step for one minute........

So the only thing I have to add is, if they don't shape up they have to ship out..............
Harsh but the only way, I feel ..........


love Ruth xxxx
 
Beautiful Nails 03 ... you are perfectly entitled to take your clients as you are running your own business from that salon and they had no nail business before you came. You have built it up yourself. The clients are yours babe.
 
Sawasdee

Before i have 3 staff 1 she learn every thing i pay money she learn she go open shop 1 she go study and 1 i have dirty in my shop i speak 3 time and after number 3 i pay money and finish now speak bad about me before make me not happy but no problem them bad heart .

Now i make shop with family because like ruth say family have good heart for the shop and work together now shop very happy every body .

I have 1 lady work now she very nice and she tell me she not work long time my shop she want open coffee shop that i happy because she tell me when she start work me .

I have 1 lady start next month number 2 and she very nice and do every thing salon very good i test her and i think she have very good heart .

Staff can make problem but you must not let them make you headache because you know how you want your shop every thing .

Kop khun ka mui
 
Come on you guys ... everyone on this site can't be a one man band or mobile!!!

Let's hear from you employers out there!!
 
hello!
I am a salon owner that employs five nail techs/beauty therapists, two receptionists and then myself! All the nailtechs are full time and the receptionists are part time!
We all get on brilliantly!!!!!!!!
This week alone i have got one on holiday and one off sick!
We have really good times where everything is ticking over just nicely and then things like this happen and it all goes mad!
Oh well! i shouldnt moan.I would not change it for the world. Being my own boss, employing staff and seeing them enjoy their work gives me a great satisfaction.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
Hello
I am a salon owner, took over an existing buisness that had been established 5 years, One year this saturday when i got the keys and i have enjoyed and still do every moment i am there.The buisness is only small, myself and lovely sarah who works for me, sarah actually held the fort for awhile until i took over, due to certain problems the previous owner had.and this girl was so brilliant, she dealt with everything that got thrown at her from painful, awkward clients (believe me there are some terrible ones, but they come back so they must be happy with us LOL)
to a terrible burglary. Sarah took all this stress and hassle and handled it like a trooper.We work well together and have become good friends, she is only 22yrs of age and somtimes i think she is more mature than i am.(my age 38!) lol. I forget to mention sarah came with the buisness she had been there 3 years previous.and now one year on the clientelle has doubled so i am thinking of moving on to bigger premises and hopefully another therapist as good as sarah. So a big hand for fantastic employees. :thumbsup:
easypeasy
 
Hi
I am a salon owner i have hair downstairs and nails and beauty upstairs. To be quite honest staff can be a real nightmare my motto is what goes around comes around!
I had one girl leave and take loads of customers very sneakily with her it really damaged my business ( so i invested in a comp to data protect everyone) and i have just heard (this was about 7 years ago and she has since opened her own salon) that one of her staff has done the EXACT same thing to her and she is really stuggling. I know its nasty to gloat but i am pleased that she now nows what it feels like. :twisted:
You know the saying one bad apple and all that! so if i spot a bad apple now i chuck them out as fast as i can so it dosent contaminate the rest of us! :p
 
Over the 10 years of having 3 salons devoted to nails I had my share of nightmares -- and I was a careing, thoughtful generous bossette!!

The biggest problems I had were with the few technicians I got really close to. I trained them and put them into competitions (which they won). I treated them like family etc etc. I paid them well. I'm sure you have heard it all before. THEY were always the ones that tried to dump on me.
I have had theives and poachers the lot. thankfully it was only a very small minority of the many staff that have worked with me over the years.

My advice is to keep a professional distance. Jealousy is a terrible thing and all your employees want what YOU have and consder the salon's clients as their clients. Using your back to step up the ladder. Keeping that distance is a very hard thing to do as it goes against the very nature of what women are about .... the professional approach is far better in my opinion than being everyone's mother!!
 
I feel bad now!!!!! :o

I wanted to work in a salon, to get some experience. But i also wanted to work from home on the side....... not sneakily mind, i wouldn't have hidden it, and i certainly wouldn't have stolen products to do work from home.

Is this a major faux pas???
 
Hi...
Having trained with 'Creative' in June 2003 it was my intention to be a mobile technician but more and more people asked to come to my home. So i took over the study...out went the playstation etc (what a selfish mother!)
It still takes me two and a half hours to complete a set of nails as i am a bit of a perfectionist (so i am told!).
I don't feel good/quick enough yet to have a salon of my own and the reason i decided to go it alone rather than work for someone else was because of the time limit you have to stick too and also the wages here in the local nail bar paid sooo badly.
Maybe oneday i will have a place of my own and i will certainly be coming to you girls/guys for all the advice i can get.
Would love some ideas on decor etc of my room at home if anyone has any?
Many thanks.
denisejacqueline.
 
Would love some ideas on decor etc of my room at home if anyone has any? Many thanks.denisejacqueline.
Hi denise
we have just decorated our nail room with used a lovely soft cream paper and put up some nice framed nail posters (creative do some quite nice ones dont know what brand you use)
We have acsessorized with plumy coloured towels. The nail desks are a pale beech and were a bargin from ikea (pinched the idea of the desk from ilona @ biosculpture)
It looks really nice warm but prof!!
well i think so :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Me im a one man band and that just suits me fine :lol: i should imadgen for all you employers past and present it must present quiet a responsibility!!
hope you dont mind me asking tracey ? Iwould love to know what the name of the desk is that you have from ikea i rencently bought a mobile table for well errr mobile but then over xmas have decided to redo the dining room as a 'nail room' and invite people to me as i will be able to fit in many more hours work from home as opposed to waiting around for hubby to arrive home from work so i can go out on my appointments (he looks after the kiddies where as if im at home i can work as and when! :green: ) I have kitted it out with some plants and put up my certificates and plan on getting some nice creative posters too, but now my diddy mobile table is lost in the room and Im looking at getting something much sturdier and more of a focal point would love to get my mitts on one of designer nails desks but unless i win the lottery :lol: its not going to happen! would you be able to fit an extraction system in the table you have? would also be realy interested to here what desks other peeps have at home! anyway have gone right off the topic!! but would just like to add i have upmost admiration for your employers with the ongoing battles you may face!
 
geeg said:
Jealousy is a terrible thing and all your employees want what YOU have and consder the salon's clients as their clients. Using your back to step up the ladder.
Oh Geeg I'm sorry you got so badly burnt, but please don't feel that ALL employees would do such a thing.

I worked for Justine Crick for a period of about 3 months when she first opened her salon back in 2001. One of her teks fell down the stairs and broke her arm (not good timing) so I was asked if I could step in to help. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and as you would expect had my own (small) client base. At the end of the 3 months I left without telling any of my clients, as at the end of the day they weren't really my clients to take! Just in case you were wondering, I was asked to remain, but I couldn't do the hours required (kids).

This is my point..........please don't tar all with the same brush, as some of us do actually have a conscience.

Adele;)
 
Hi nicola have pm you
 
i have 4 girls working with me and i can't say a bad thing about them, they work really hard, will stay late if its a busy time and start early if it means it helps me out.

but i treat them well also, and i'm realistic! this is their job and not their life. if its quiet or they have a cancellation and need to do a message they know they can go. if they want to do nails in thier own time they just pay me for the products used and they can give a reduction to family if they want to do them in the salon (its thier commission).

i trust them completley and have told them that if any of them ever wish to start out on there own all i ask is that they give me enough time to find another nail technician to replace them, but they keep telling me its never gonna happen!!!

i think that keeping a distance would work in some cases, but each salon is different. i like that customers don't know who the boss is and have to ask who owns the place, they comment on the atmosphere and how well we all get on.

it works for me, but if one of the girls wanted to have her own place then how can i be annoyed, thats what i wanted! i gave my boss 6 months notice, mind you i moved 200 miles away so there wasn't a chance of me stealing her clients away!

maybe i've just been lucky.

Amberx
 
hiya all
i will try to keep this brief(ha,ha!)
i opened my salon bodylines in 1987.
i've had more than my fair share of nightmares, most of them similar to geeg's.
they range from a member of staff that most probably stole my engagement & eternity rings(just never could prove it :mad: )
to 2 long standing members of staff leaving on a weeks notice, to open a salon up the road taking 75% of the salons clientele with them.
this one almost bankrupted me.(i still come out in a cold sweat when i see big built men in dark suits!)
but...the strange thing is, i didn't see the positive side of all these staff that i'd trained to a high standard leaving to set up on their own, untill i entered the british beauty awards in 2001.
i had to compile a c.v.
as i opened my salon straight from college, i'd never (at the age of 35) written out a c.v for myself.
while wrighting it i listed things that i'd acheived, compitition wins etc.
however, my friend who was helping me suggested that i list all the staff that i'd trained & what they were doing now.
the list went like this:

trained 12 full time staff, over 17 years.

6 staff have progressed to become salon owners.

3 staff have progressed to become self-employed nail techs.

3 continue to work in bodylines.

we regularly have students from schools & colleges.

obviously, now i'm an educator for creative, i see a lot of budding nail techs coming thro the academy.

the point to this is once i'd listed these members of staff, what they'd acheived while they were employed by me, & how they had moved on to run their own businesses etc, it hit me that this list was a positive thing & something to b proud of not to b negative about.

my personal opinion of how we progress is that i'm glad that no-one can look back & say that i took or "stole" anything from anyone.

in my heart i'm glad to say that my achievements came solely of my own making, but inspiration & guidance came from a few mentors along the way, 1stly geeg, then people like ketan, & samuel.

i am always happy to help anyone acheive their dreams if they r genuine.
i am often asked if i can have people for work placement in the salon.
my answer is... if you come to the salon as often as you can, help on reception, & the day-day running of the salon, then you can spend a min. 50% of your time here watching & learning.
you won't b payed, but i won't charge u for the training.

the one's that accept that as a good deal will progress greatly.
the one's that don't, won't.

when ready they can choose to do their 4-day foundation course, & they will already have that all imortant salon experience.

what i'm no longer prepared to do is employ someone for a few years, training them for free, paying their wages, holiday, sick pay etc, etc, for them to POSSIBLY leave with all their training & clients for me to start again.

as adele said, not ALL staff will do this, but sadly, in my experience., out of 12 (& thats only the full-time ones) staff, only 3 remain.

i must point out at this stage that my most senior member of my team, amanda started with me on w/exp. from school age 14, & 10 yrs later she's still with me!

all my team r now renting space from me, they earn more money, are more self motivated, but we r still a "team".

i know, i failed AGAIN to keep this brief! but believe me it could've been a LOT longer

lol liza smith xxx
 
Hi Lisa
god that is what happened to me! You never forget either do you?
It has made me a lot more cautious about who i trust.
It was years ago for me and i still feel as pissed off about it!
(excuse bad language!!!)
 
Looking 4 Nail Tech with experience. Good Site and Nice Staff. Great Earnings with flexiable hours. 7 day a week Salon. Will consider 50/50, Salary or Rental of Nail Station. In London SW15. Ring 07985 527 135.

N2D4 :rolleyes:
 
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