Business Portfolio Paper
Brittany Abner
BUS/211
May 2, 2015
Jason Clark

The salon owner resides at the head of the organizational chart. While specific day-to-day responsibilities vary based on the individual salon, the owner primarily concerns herself with customer service, human resources and financial details. The salon owner makes hiring, marketing, property, inventory and design decisions, while staying involved in staff licensing and business certification requirements. If the salon owner is a licensed cosmetologist, she also styles hair and executes other beauty processes for which she is appropriately trained. Reporting to the salon owner, a salon manager provides orientation to the salon staff, explaining operational procedures and functions, which are based on company policy. The manager works with staff members to improve performance and ensure quality service while maintaining cleanliness and customer satisfaction. In cooperation with the salon owner, the manager also analyzes personnel records, requisitions supplies, participates in disciplinary procedures and assists in resolving customer complaints. Hairstylists, nail technicians, color specialists, and makeup artists commonly work as peers within a salon, reporting to the manager, though some organizations have senior and junior-level stylists or technicians, based on experience or tenure. Each performs his own specialty service and recommends the services his peers provide, as his customers require. A salon receptionist reports to the salon's manager and answers the telephone, schedules appointments, greets customers, explains services to callers and visitors, and operates a cash register. Because the receptionist is usually the first person a customer encounters at the salon, she is responsible for creating a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. For this reason, she is held accountable for the entire reception area, including its arrangement, organization and cleanliness. The salon assistant provides additional support to the staff through taking responsibility for laundry, handling retail sales, sterilizing equipment, sweeping floors and even preparing clients for services. Client preparations that a salon assistant may execute without possessing a cosmetology license include offering a salon robe, draping for services or even shampooing the hair. Assistants may report to the manager or to other staff members, such as hairstylists. As a salon owner, you may run into issues that require you to step back and examine your own policies, standard operating procedures and ethics. Every time we learn, every time we go through change, we have an opportunity to improve. By approaching each challenge as it arises with a cool head, reason and patience, you give yourself, your business and your staff an opportunity to grow from a challenging experience. After you are able to gather whatever resources necessary to help you handle an issue facing your salon, your ethics and general operating philosophy will continue to evolve as you as an owner lay out policies and guidelines for what is acceptable and not acceptable. It will be your responsibility to communicate and demonstrate personally to those working with you and for you what your expectations are. But it’s always important to remain open to every situation that arises and trust your instincts that you will do the right thing. Small businesses, even those with one or only a few employees, must follow state and federal labor laws. If you hire contractors, make sure you do not cross the line in their job descriptions, which might classify them as employees. Know the rules and regulations governing any limitations on hours worked, overtime pay, wrongful termination, workplace harassment, discrimination, right to organize and equal opportunity regulations as you add employees. Secure all necessary permits, licenses and insurance necessary to operate even a home-based business.
Here are some tips for motivating your employees in the salon: * Involving your team in decision making will make them feel like an important part of the business – plus, if your team aren’t on board with new initiatives then they could turn out to be non-starters. Your staff are in contact with your clients every day, so if anyone knows what the customer wants then they do! Listen to their ideas, and consider them when making decisions. * It’s all too easy to forget to say “thank you”, but acknowledging your team’s efforts and good job is important for staff to feel valued in the workplace. * As award-winning salon owner Leo Bancroft points out, “It’s really important to remember that the salon should be just as welcoming to our team as it is to our clients.” Allowing a few home comforts and offering a great staff room where your team can relax on their breaks will ensure that they come back to work revitalized and re-energised. * Offering your team something they want, in return for them doing a good job is one of the best ways to motivate them. It’s important to reward the team as a whole for the good work they have done, as it is the whole team that works together to ensure the smooth day to day running of the salon.
Don’t be afraid to incentivize individuals as well, if you feel that they have personal targets to achieve. Rewards can range from a free treatment, cash bonuses or even gifts such as experience vouchers or a digital camera, whatever will motivate the individual most. * Encouraging your team to work together can really improve the atmosphere and welcoming feel for a client walking into the salon for the first time. No matter how big or small the gesture, it goes a long way to promoting a happy team. * Encouraging your staff to work as a team is really important, but so is a bit of good, healthy competition. Offering team and individual incentives will encourage a certain type of staff to be more successful, and this positive competition within the team will encourage everyone to work hard. * Setting up your own “company awards” no matter how low key, can be a great way to promote competitiveness in your team. It’s also something for team members to look forward to! * Education and training is key in not only continually developing a strong team but also keeping them passionate and motivated about the career, as well as internal training in the salon, look at external courses too, to make sure that the team is constantly learning. * “We really try to push home the idea that each hairdresser or beautician is responsible for their own column, and at the end of the day, how busy they are will be financially beneficial to themselves”. Reminding your staff that your success is theirs too, can be a great way of motivating them to work hard. * Nourish your staff with exciting discoveries and new techniques, and always make sure they have access to trade magazines or online inspiration. Keeping them up to date with key trends and hot industry topics will continue to motivate them in the salon, and encourage them to experiment with new looks.
A Salon Human Resources Strategy is concerned with creating congruence between what your salon staff should do, their understanding of their responsibilities as "profit centres" and their ability and willingness to perform their duties profitably for you and the salon. Also a Salon Human Resources Strategy will help you the salon owner or manager to promote a really happy and stable working environment where everyone is growing professionally and the salon is growing profitably. Members of the Salon Managers Academy and delegates on Salon Mega-Manager Course receive both the Salon Human Resources training and the complete set of documents needed to conduct the strategy and make it work to lift your salon profits and your staff's professionalism. Operations management is the management of processes, people and resources to achieve the provision of the required goods and/or services at a certain level of quality and in the most cost-effective way. It is responsible for a successful implementation of corporate strategy by integrating thoughts about an organization's future as well as the effective operation of the present; thus providing a way of bringing together all various management disciplines (such as marketing, finance and accounting) to help build a realistic strategy capable of effective implementation.