Ever wonder why stylists move around so much? (Interesting Post)

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Found this post posted in '06 and thought it was interesting:
The Salon Biz « Keith Kristofer Rants & Raves

Ever wonder why stylists move around so much? There are a couple fairly consistent reasons. The first is that some styists are always looking for a better deal ans willing to believe what they want to hear. Unfortunately, there are more than a few salons that will tell prospective stylists whatever it takes to get them and their clients in the door. It's common for salons to hire stylists without mentioning hidden fees, service surcharges and the truth about their new client rotation policies. Also, you will frequently find that a more experienced stylist with a loyal following has left to "rent a chair". This happens because the salon business is one of the few where employees can become entrepreneurs with zero capital outlay and just about that much planning. It's also one of the least regulated and policed businesses requiring a state license.

Any stylist with sufficient clientele can hang out a shingle and make more money as an independent contractor than they can as an employee (in the short run anyway). Of course they also have to deal with their own taxes, pay taxes on their own tips and become their own collection agencies, but a lot of independent contractor stylists avoid these issues by only accepting cash, which is helpful when it comes to paying the IRS. Some salons are perpetually in the business of building up stylist's clientele, then losing them as soon as soon they can support themselves in a rental situation. It can become a vicious cycle for salons. Turnover time takes anywhere from 2 to 3 years in a fast growing salon like this one.

To combat employee loss and it's associated client loss, salons have typically taken one of several approaches.

One is to hire mediocre stylists with low ambition and let them stagnate. They're less likely to leave and people are less likely to follow them. Seems incredibly counter-productive, but some salons do it.

Another approach is to become an "education" salon. You know this salon when you walk in because there are only a few older, experienced stylists and everyone else looks like they're fresh out of school. And they are. Employees at these types of salons come for the great training, get paid almost nothing (frequently on salary) and generally leave when they complete their apprenticeships and are good enough to find work at a salon that will feed them clients and let them charge more. These salons rely on a constant stream of fresh new faces through the training program which are then sorted into "keepers" and "cannon fodder". Keepers pay the rent and cannon fodder does all the dirtywork for dirt cheap, allowing more senior level employees to benefit from the their cheap labor.

Another thing many salons do to combat employee turnover is to departmentalize. Stylists do either cut or color, but not both. This way, when the stylist leaves, the client is faced with a hard choice. Go with the stylist and trust them with a skill they haven't been performing, or stay with the salon and trust that the salon has the talent to keep them happy. Salons will tell you they departmentalize because having people specialize in one area produces greater expertise, and that's true, but client loss is usually a big reason that most salons choose this route.

Another route that some salons take is to change from being an employer to being a landlord, becoming lease salons, or "booth rental." This option is absolutely the end of the line for a salon that wants to have any control over it's destiny. With this option, the "salon" has no control over quality, no incentive to make clients happy, no real worries about reputation and no way to enforce dress codes, ethics, on time arrival, professionalism or sanitation standards. When a "salon" reaches this point, it's basically just a landlord.

One other option is a non-compete agreement. These agreements are not easy to enforce, but it is possible if you really pursue them. Typically, the agreement will ban the stylist from working within a five mile radius for a period of one year.

A really dumb thing that a lot of salons do is try and "hide" where the stylist has gone. When asked by clients, they'll say "we don't know where she is". This is a horrible strategy, because people are going to go where they want anyway and pissing them off does no good. Keith Kristofer started out by giving departed stylists client lists, but that was before we realized that not everybody wanted their personal information in the hands of their stylists. Current policy is to provide clients with the location of the departed stylist and let them make a choice on where they would rather be.

Of course the best strategy for an employer is to offer a combination of work environment, client influx, training, pay, and benefits that keep employees around. Even with a great compensation package it can be hard to compete with the lure of self employment and the promise of bigger paychecks. There are definitely pros to working for yourself, but there is also a big list of cons that most stylists never think about until they're out there doing it.

So…the next time you find that your stylist has moved yet again, maybe you'll have a better idea of what went on behind the scenes.



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