The salon industry. Hair salon challenge:
Old habits die hard: The hair salon challenges. We can oh so easily perpetuate them. what am i talking about? The basic notions and thoughts that seem to exist about the relationships between salon owners and stylist! the hair salon industry!
Do and should stylist come to terms with the notion that if someone has the money to set up a salon nicely and invest in everything to make is a success. That they are then doing the stylist some kind of favour in allowing them to work and build a nice living for themselves, this is out of date thinking.
But More: If a owner has several stylist working then yes they are making more money than the stylist. After all, that is the whole purpose of setting up a salon. Stylist need to stop complaining and comparing themselves to owners. Stop thinking about who has more stop thinking they are getting ripped off because they can't keep all the money they made. That would be as silly as a waiter saying he wanted it all just because he brought out the food and drinks! Does a nurse get paid all of the money a hospital makes? Does the fast food worker get all the money that Mc Donalds makes? They are just a part. They forget quickly about who helped them get established and provided a place for them when they were not making any money. Mentoring them into what they are today. weeks, months, years of remaining loyal to them supporting them. Why does this seem so hard for stylist to understand? Has the hairspray clogged all of our thinking? lol Geez, should not be this complicated on any level in this industry. It almost sounds like basic 101 and yet all over the place people are struggling in all this mess.
Strong views ha!
With these attitudes no wonder stylist want to go it alone.
It was these professional business minded salon owners with the stylist best interest at heart! That decided to set up salon with space for stylist to rent? Who decided that renting space was easy money with no hassle? Why do these stylist think they would rather go it alone? Certain elements of our industry introduced this actively encouraged it in some cases made money form it! Some stylist went to it because of that element of employers who were far from ethical in standards code of practice and pay structure. Whilst I agree that some stylist through action should take responsibility for them selves. I also think responsibility has to be put where it belongs! Like it or not our industry fellow professionals started this by action and want for easy money!!!
How we deal with it is going to take time a re building of trust and professional attitudes all round a collaboration and a want to move forward having learned some lessons!
just some thoughts but it's far from a one sided issues. It's certainly not just stylist with to much hairspray in there system!!!!
Industry habits continued:
What about the account from the renter who became the owner who rented out space who eventually joined up the dots!................
An Account shared.[ with permission]
I also believed the lie. I was told "Oh yah, do it! You don't have to worry about doing taxes, everyone does their own thing, come and go as they please. You don't have to be a boss! You don't have to buy their products etc. You will make a bunch of money!!! Just hearing the words No taxes responsibility and a bunch of money was my foot in that easy door. I was always under the false impression that taxes were too difficult to understand and I was never ever good at math. It scared me to death actually. Isn't that what accountants and people good at math do? The owner of the salon I "rented "space from wanted to sell because she got married and moved.I thought about it, and began doing what was done to me. Your right again, we just do what we know to do. I look back and realized that out of the several salons I worked at around the USA, not one of them was ethical even when it was commission salon. I remember being encouraged to take a draw out of my check every week for the weekends, party! Of course I would and thought how nice my bosses were. Not realizing like I know now that it would be less tax on less money they would have to pay and could show just the checks and credit card services. Unless it was a chain-salon who kept the books to a T. I guess that is why the IRS knows their is ton of unaccounted money in this industry.
With all that being said, I was guilty of it also. It began to dawn on me that the company my husband worked for never offered him draws or gave him half cash and half check. He had so much medi,soc.sec,state,fed 401k, insurance taken out of his checks! Then I began receiving my chart from soc sec. in the mail and seeing how little I made if I began today and needed it..... lol, I would get less than some people who have never worked that are on it!!! And trust me I have worked my butt off over the years always rebuilding clientele because of moving out of state. When it came time to get a house loan, my income showed very little income therefore did not qualify for what we knew we could handle. I could not get credit on my own with out my husband. I finally got the big picture! I started in this profession at 18 and continued all this time knowing the business was different than regular jobs because of it being a commission based job, not because what was going on was illegal or unethical etc. It never occurred to me to ask about paychecks because "some" was being deducted and it was considered rude to ask. Lots of nice, good, giving people just doing what they knew to do. I have acquired a lot of wisdom along the way (the hard way) and constantly seek out the right way today just because I am supposed to and I want to.
You are correct in every way and it is a big elephant under the rug. So what would a healthy salon look like? financially, morally, ethically, educationally? It could say the word "Profession" proudly without people smirking. Our dysfunction runs deep and probably are not wanting to look at it too closely. So much junk not sure where to start... I'm telling you, a few of these kind of testimonies at hair shows and not placing blame or attack anyone. I believe the the graphs, stats and visuals would get everyone thinking. I bet some would be relieved and surrender the game immediately.
The above:Happens all the time day in day out it's the nature of the business, for some it's the way things are done as it's is suggested we need to stop and look and be honest about ethic's employment professional attitudes industry codes. Maybe we need to overhaul these practices that have lead to discontent amongst employees that has led to higher wage and commission demands. This begat booth and suite rental that has created much greed and chaos!
Can we fix this? Yes of course it just takes a willingness. there are enough professional, passionate, motivated, salon owners, stylist and industry leaders who can make this happen. How? With collaboration openness and a real willingness and want for change to happen for the better. Getting back to level field of respect between salon owners and stylist raising of industry standards and profile.
It is so easy to lose focus on those visions and goals we had. It's easy to fall into a trap of taking short cuts putting things off. Through net working with others openly discussing and sharing things can be turned around.
Mike B2MR.
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