Taking over beauty salon-do I have to keep staff?

[xkayla_herex]

I'm looking into taking over a beauty salon, the salons turnover is really good however the outgoings are huge! Looking at the accounts I'm trying to see things I can take out to make it more profitable.

The biggest outgoing is of course the wages. The owner works full time herself, has one full time therapist and one part time therapist as well as three part time receptionists.

I was thinking of getting rid of all the receptionist (who's hours in total work out as like having a full timer) and replace them with one part time beauty therapist (this basically cuts their wages in half so rather than paying roughly 20k on receptionist I can save 10k by having part time therapist- one that I have lined up already from my current salon)

My question is if I'm taking over a business where do I stand with staff (employed- one permanent and two on zero hour late contracts) do I have to keep them on (as the owner says because of their contract or something I would have to keep them on) or if I did how do I go about getting rid of them? Could I make a deal with the current owner saying she would have to make them redundant, or would I have to make them redundant? Obviously this would mean paying them out money- I'm not sure yet how long they have been there or how this works/how much this would be.

If I have to keep the therapists (which I would want to anyway) could I lower their wages slightly or do I have to stick to what they are on now? The full time lady that's there now gets paid a lot and she currently earns more than the owner!! (Although not sure if lowering their saleries would be a great idea anyway but just curious if I really really had to)

My current salon is 5 minutes away from this salon I'm planning on buying - my salon is going to shut down because my landlord is turning the shops there into a supermarket- so basically I will have more clients coming to this new salon from my current salon- therefore more money and hopefully by lowering some of the outgoing as much as possible will enable me to make more of a profit.

If anyone has any advice about the employees or any of this I would really really appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Staceystandeven]

Yes I think you are liable under Tupe Law as a transfer of sale (I may have the terminology wrong) but I'm sure you would be expected to follow employment law to dismiss or make them redundant however get a copy of their employment contracts beforehand

 

[AcidPerm]

If you're taking over an existing business, the staff will have a number of employment rights. Sounds like you need to get clued up on employment law to ensure that you do things properly, before you commit to anything.

Also, it will be worth seeing how the salon currently runs before making any big decisions. Sometimes you can go into something convinced its needs major changes but once you've had time to review it, it might only need tweaking a bit so don't be too tempted to make sweeping changes immediately. For one thing, you don't want to frighten off the existing clientele.

 

[laurakate]

If you damage morale then you might need to get a whole new team together at speed. Regardless of the law, you don't want to create a situation of high staff turnover because you alienate people from day one. Maybe the established system works well. Especially with stuff like time off in the form of holidays and sickness to be considered.

 

[xkayla_herex]

Thank you for all your advice, I don't want to get rid of any of the therapists only the receptionists as I personally don't think this is essential ( if the business was making more profit then fair enough but it's not) the receptionists havnt been there that long either.
I think one way is to make them redundant- the business can't afford them and there isn't really a need for them so I definatley think this is possible.

 

[AcidPerm]

A successful salon isn't simply a matter of the bottom line unlike say a grocery store, because it's part of the service industry. You're not just selling basic commodities but an experience. In a beauty salon the last thing you need is a bad atmosphere amongst the staff as that will send clients running for the hills.

Without regular clients, you don't have a viable business!

I'd caution against any immediate redundancies. What do the reception staff currently do and who will carry out their duties if you get rid of them?

The remaining therapists might not be willing to pick up the slack and you can't simply change someone's job description to incorporate extra duties without their agreement, especially if the therapist has worked there for a while.

 

[laurakate]

Receptionists are vital to a good salon. There is nothing worse than a therapist having to sort out several clients at once because there isn't a receptionist there to do it. Trust me. I worked somewhere without a receptionist and it did not run smoothly. The customer dissatisfaction that occurred was probably not worth the money that it may have saved ("saved" because unhappy clients are costly to the business anyway).

 

[GD BG]

adding to advice offered by other members here....
you need to see their existing contract terms in detail.
you should let the things run the way they are for a few months. then, you might be able to make out who is offering the best value for money. if they are good in bringing in business, you might even keep all of them.
maybe in few months, you will want to open another salon and you could shift a couple of your current employees there

regards
Victor

 

[Hairyclairey]

I agree with all the above, however if two are on a zero hour contract (I'm taking it they are receptionists?) could you just not give them hours? They will then probably leave without you having to make redundancies??
It maybe a pain for them not to receive any hours but for you it may save you a few quid?

 

[squidgernetball]

Within two year you can get rid of pretty much anyone with pretty much any reason. If you take over the salon, their contracts stand from when they were employed, not from when you took over, so if they're under two years, it should be pretty straightforward. However, contact ACAS and make sure you're doing everything by the book. Don't forget employers have the joy of pensions as well. It may be that they haven't had to introduce them yet, so don't let that one pass you by x