Leadership skills have a direct impact on the business profit of your salon or spa.  Building a strong, cohesive salon and spa team is vital for the growth of your business.  Eighty-two percent of salons and spas are not profitable without revenue produced from the owner.  In most cases, the business would close within three months if the owner was not able to work due to injury or other absence. In many salons and spas, the owners also are not able to take a regular paycheck for themselves. 

“By building a strong salon and spa team, owners can have peace of mind. They will have a plan for success that their entire team is working towards to ensure the growth of the business," says Oscar Valencia, an instructor with Inspiring Champions, a business training and coaching company specializing in the professional beauty industry.  "In an ideal world, the business would generate profit without any of the salon or spa owner’s revenue.”

To begin to build a strong salon and spa team, get your team working for the mission and not just the paycheck. You should have a clear vision of what your business is striving to achieve.  Your vision should be written in a concise statement reflecting your values and goals.  If you already have a mission statement, consider recreating it as a team effort.

Valencia notes, “What you co-create with your team members will be supported by them, as they will then have ownership in it.  When an owner has laid out a clearly defined vision and business plan, then that allows the team to fully support it because they will then know what the finish line looks like.”  You should have a detailed business plan that includes established policies and procedures to clearly explain your expectations of your team.  Establish goals and accountability for every process in your salon and spa and fully explain and support those processes.  If you expect your team to retail professional salon and spa products, upsell haircare, skincare, bodycare and nailcare services or cross market those services in your business, then your team should be actively working daily to support those goals.

Regular meetings will be a must to communicate your expectations of your team.  Use meetings to teach your team methods to support new salon and spa systems, provide feedback on their progress and motivate them towards your common business goals. Valencia says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.  I come from a background in professional baseball. Sports teams always hold pregame locker room meetings. As a ballplayer, I had 162 games in a season.  That’s a lot of meetings!  Yet without those meetings, our chances of winning the game would have decreased immensely.” 

Fearing that meetings will turn into complaint sessions, owners often avoid them entirely.  Yet not having regular meetings is missing a valuable opportunity for growth in your business.  Productive, supportive meetings will feed that growth and become an exciting venue to share ideas, inspiration and support for the team.

Your role as a leader should be to help build your team up, help them to recognize their own value and what they can achieve. Once smaller goals are accomplished, help your team to raise the bar with new, bigger goals. Positive reinforcement works much better than negative to help inspire your team.  Valencia shares, “Take personal responsibility for your team members if they are falling behind.  Always publicly praise and privately reprimand.  Privately meet with team members if needed, to go over your business policies and ensure that they understand your expectations and are in agreement with them.  Involving them in the process ensures they have co-created the outcome with you.” 

Using repeatable systems in your salon and spa will solve many common business challenges and create clarity with your team.  Systems should be in place for your front desk, client consultations, professional product retailing, upselling treatments and rebooking appointments.  Use your staff meetings to review your systems, practice techniques and share feedback.  Motivating your team is important, yet Valencia shares that motivation alone is simply not enough.  “While people may love inspiration, I always say that inspiration will only last until Thursday!  After that, your repeatable systems are what will save you.  Systems are the tools for transformation for your business and they make that transformation sustainable. The positive outcome of your strong leadership is that you will find your voice in confidence to become an agent for that change.”

Inspiring Champions Wants To Inspire & Empower YOU to LIVE your Dreams!  For more information on Lauren Gartland and the Inspiring Champions collection of live training camps, coaching services, mentoring and educational resources, call 800-496-9305, email info@inspiringchampions.com or visit them at www.InspiringChampions.com.