What can my husband do?

[Britecolors]

I am planning to open a salon with my husband who has a background in business, marketing, management, training. Ideally he would be the manager, and would do marketing to bring in clients and help the salon grow. What are some other ideas for things he could do in a salon as a non stylist/beauty professional?

We envision that he would lead the team towards financial and personal goals, run the front desk, promotions, retail (in store and online), online marketing, business training. We think he could even be a great asset for male clients to coach them on how to look professional for interviews. He’s very business savvy, great with talking to people and making them feel comfortable, great at reading people and helping them find solutions.

We are looking for any ideas for him to bring in money to the salon to allow this to be a full time or close to full time job, so we can make a living from the income the salon generates. Also, any ideas for extra things related to the salon that we could retail?

 

[CFBS]

I hate to put a dampener on your plans but I doubt if you would be able to make enough profit to take two good wages out of the profits.
Yes, it's excellent to have someone to take on the marketing (I do this for my husband's business) but it doesn't actually need much time per week once you have everything up and running.
I'm guessing that you will be there full time working on clients yourself? If this is the case then I think you will find that when it comes to doing staff motivation, appraisals etc, they will not respond positively to him because he himself is not qualified and experienced in the industry.

You would be in a stronger position if your hubby has a part or full time job and then just supports you with the marketing, accounts etc.

Sorry to be negative but over the last 30 years in the industry I've seen salons try this route and they never lasted.

 

[jamiereid92]

Running the front desk can be a full time job in itself, however, as you know it doesnt generate money unless he is selling products like crazy.

Is he already in the salon and helping with training, i would be worried that the staff will not respect him as much as you, as he is not from the industry like CFBS said. If you are giving them targets then its coming from an experienced stylist, if its from him its just business talk.

When you say extra things you could retail, what are you retailing atm? I'm really interested in callus peels atm so am looking in to getting some of them x

 

[HBerry]

I currently work in a salon with a husband and wife team as their senior therapist and although they are nice people it’s a bit of a nightmare situation to be honest.

I’m afraid my comment isn’t a positive one although I’m sure there will be people out there to give you those - I hope! But I may just give you a different perspective so I hope you don’t see it as negative? Constructive perhaps...

I’ve been qualified 16 years and have worked with lots of different people over the years. The wife is a therapist and in treatments mostly. I’ve found working alongside her husband; he is full time at reception and takes care of all our online stuff, stock and numbers, mostly a hindrance to be honest. He is from a sales and marketing background so very business savvy however he is not savvy to the beauty industry and quite often leads the business in the wrong direction. He is far too focused on service and retail percentages of the staff and numbers and forecasts on a spreadsheet to the point now where four years on where it’s affecting our client experience and our clients rebooking. He also has a very very basic untrained understanding of the treatments, products & stock ordering which again doesn’t help at reception. If clients have a question and he’s on his own and unsupervised he often gives terrible advice! As a team they then fail to own up to mistakes or understand their own downfalls and inexperience in certain situations or if you ask them what happened.

They really should’ve employed an experienced therapist to work on reception as I also find a lot of my ladies avoid booking through him as they don’t wish for a man to know what waxing or intimate treatments they will be having done - this has lost the salon a lot of waxing / body clients.

They are also struggling to pay themselves both a wage. The business just isn’t busy enough to support both of them well. The salon would be much more successful if he had gone back to his city job part time and given his wife an extra cash injection for when it’s needed.

I personally find it extremely hard when he runs my appraisals or general salon meetings regarding how things should be done in the salon and how he thinks I should work. He’s not trained! He knows nothing about my job yet expects to direct me in my day to day treatments and for me to follow orders which are detrimental to the salon and his staff. As a team we don’t have the respect that he would like us to have. We work hard and show respect but we don’t really feel it. As a team us girls also feel very unsupported. When the going gets tough some days we’ve found he and his wife stick together like glue leaving us girls with nobody to turn to. They may be small matters such as an inappropriate way someone has booked treatments or the need for annual leave or even just a break but when it doesn’t suit them they band together which is difficult to deal with on a daily basis.

He would’ve been so much better utilized one day a week at home for marketing and sales ideas and kept out of the salon.

Good luck with your salon. I hope you find a fit for your husband.

Xx

 

[RED STAR]

You run the salon, and keep hubby in his day job!
IMO there is no way you will be taking enough money to pay yourself a decent wage - let alone him as well.
Sorry to sound negative, just want to inject a bit of realism.

 

[piersstanaway]

The staff wont respect your husband as he wont understand the process behind the hair colouring and whats involved, in my experience business savvy non hairdressers have been eaten alive by staff who get “pushed” to perform and bring in dollars rather than someone who knows how long services take to do in order to build/maintain a clientele

 

[colormebright]

The money aspect is something worth considering. But wouldn't bringing in new customers be bringing in money? If you have a few stylists working who have a bit of a book already that's a beginning. And where does it say that he would be pushing stylists to perform? I think the business background is something many salons are lacking now, and a lot know very little about marketing as well. Every salon I've worked in basically just hopes stylists rebook their clients, maybe does a little with promotions and facebook or Instagram. How would you feel if you had someone to be able to REALLY explain in detail the ways your business can improve? Such as tracking what works and what doesn't for retention. Having the skills to perform the services is one part, business is another that most of us do not learn in school. I'm willing to think outside the box here because it could be something different that could set the salon apart from others. I don't have the experience to know how much money salons make or salon managers usually make though.

 

[jamiereid92]

He can help with the business without being there though, so can help make decisions and market whilst having another full time job.

I dont agree at all about clients not wanting to speak to a man about waxing. We have names like brazillian and hollywood so that you dont say exactly what part you want waxed. If a receptionist is warm and welcoming only very few clinets will feel uncomfortable that its a man. ( From my experience of working in salons for 10 years as a man)

But in all honesty, just looking for jobs for him to do.... you could employ someone else to do it and pay them less. You are creating a business not a job for yourself and your husband x

 

[piersstanaway]

Its a shame a creative industry has turned into a figures game
Buy an accounting business for ur husband
And let the qualified hairdressers do what they do
You will find it hard to keep good hairdressers
Just a bit of reality for you

 

[Britecolors]

I appreciate everyone’s feedback! There are many valid points.