Day Spa Magazine - 2006 

 Developing a Winning Management Team

The key to a More Productive and Profitable Spa

By Ana Loiselle

Have you run the gamut on finding new ways to keep a handle on your business, only to be frustrated?  Are you wearing all the hats and feel like you’re going crazy?  Have you tried hiring a manager, coordinator or director and are disappointed by the outcome?  

I know the feeling.  After owning a salon and spa myself I can relate.  The demands on spa owners in this ever changing society are more intricate than ever. No longer is it possible for one person to effectively handle all the functions of a successful spa business. 

Well, imagine a highly motivated team who shares in your company vision, goals and objectives, who is committed to your organizational success! A team working together who is highly motivated to achieve your company's objectives.  It all begins with a Management Team.  A Management Team is the catalyst for your future business' success.  And let me tell you… it saved me and my business.

Your company is a reflection of those who manage and over see it.  A Management Team provides your salon or spa with the developmental direction necessary to keep pace with the changing competition, environment and your organization's growth. Organizations are more effective when teams of people, with the right mix of skills, work together to achieve a common goal or set of goals. This team approach can help companies overcome the common stumbling blocks of misaligned goals, slow or no growth and lack of profitability.

Running a successful company in a Management Team structure is hardly a new concept and has been an industry standard for decades in large corporations.  If you take a look at any Fortune 500 company you will see this system of duty distribution at work.   Several years ago, after watching some of these successful companies Mark Donovan, a twenty year consulting veteran, brought this view to the salon/spa industry. Now, many salons and spas across the nation have adopted this style of management and are reaping the benefits it brings.

The fundamentals of building a successful spa must address the five functions of a customer service business – Marketing, Finance, Education, Sales & Customer Service and Human Resources.  Making decisions by viewing topics from five different vantage points simultaneously increases the chances of making correct decisions.

I spoke with TJ Weaver, partner of the highly successful Douglas J Salon in Okemos, Michigan (www.douglasj.com) “We recognized our business wasn’t growing.  It seemed we hit a peak and were stagnant for nearly five years.  So, we put together a group of professionals who rallied around our vision and created a Management Team.”

The purpose of your Management Team is to facilitate your vision.  The owner’s job is to show them your destination; where you have been, where you think you are now and where you want to go.  When everyone has the same goal (vision) and everyone has their “area of responsibility”, then a real sense of team is established.  In a Management Team one person is responsible for a specific function of the business and “represents” the people who are affected by their area. The concept of “areas of responsibilities” is important because one person is not expected to have the know-how to carry out all the functions on their own.  Instead, they have an innate interest in their area, and are committed to the company’s success and are better equipped to get things accomplished   A winning Management Team has members with individual strengths and knowledge of their areas. Each team member needs to be exceptional at what they do, but not necessarily great at everything.  “We were always very aware of who we were hiring.  We knew that just because people were top in their salon specialty, didn’t mean they would be right for us as a manager. They needed to buy into our mission and vision in order for this thing to work”, added Weaver.

In well-run organizations, managers must understand that they are a piece of a puzzle that helps to complete a big picture.  This management structure enables your staff to understand everyone’s position and how everyone’s responsibilities help to complete the puzzle. A Management Team addresses problems simultaneously from the five functions of a customer service business (Marketing, Finance, Education, Customer Service and Human Resources) to insure proper decisions are made which support the organizational goals. Only when people work together, seamlessly, can there be hope of accomplishing the company’s vision.

So you’re asking, “What exactly do these managers do?”  The people who head each of the five functions make up your Management Team.  Let’s discuss the responsibilities of each of these areas separately:

Management Structure

                        Marketing – The marketing manager is responsible for generating new clients and increasing client frequency through promotions, advertising and public relations. They are in charge of creating your consumer brand; the outer image of your company.

                                Finance – The finance function is coordinated by the finance manager.  He or she represents the company’s financial assets.  Any ideas that are formed from the other four areas are reviewed by the finance manager to see if they are affordable.  The role of the finance manager is more than a bookkeeper recording transactions.  He or she must take a budgetary approach to controlling the company’s financial resources in order to fund the growth and make sure expenses are covered, especially during slow periods.  The role of the finance manager, in addition to cash management strategies, is to ensure the proper and efficient use of the company’s money.  “We understood that in a society where cost of living is constantly rising, when our sales were stagnant, that meant trouble.  So, we put someone in place whose sole purpose was to focus on our numbers.  In a matter of a few years, we saw major growth.  Our financial expert, in conjunction with our other Management Team members, helped our relatively reasonable sales jump to multi- million dollar sales”, reports Weaver.

                        Education – The education manager represents the company’s technical skills and heads the company’s technical education department.  The continued education of employees is necessary in a customer service environment.  This is an industry where growth depends on the talent of the employees.  A continuing education program is a worthwhile and needed investment.   Most owners agree that the skill learned in beauty school and on-the-job training is not enough to satisfy and ever-increasingly demanding consumer.  An in-house training program will provide clients with the quality and consistency they crave.  It is imperative to continually develop your employees to be better than your competitor’s workforce.

                        Sales & Customer Service - The responsibility of this manager is to increase your company’s sales growth and represent all of the customer needs.  He or she is responsible for the appointment book and time allotment, and can dramatically improve the productivity of each service provider by efficiently utilizing and distributing the workload.

                        Human Resource - The manager in this position is responsible for helping everyone understand how their jobs compliment one another’s and how, by working together as a team, they can more effectively and efficiently achieve their own personal goals, as well as that of the company’s.  The main focus behind Human Resources is coaching.  In this demanding era, now is not the time to accept mediocrity but to insist on excellence with the coaching function firmly established. Coaching is an activity that enhances overall organizational performance by helping others identify, understand, and leverage their strengths to achieve results.  Done well, coaching can turn performance management into collaborative process that benefits everyone and helps individuals contribute to the success of the company. 

So, are you ready to take your business to the next level?  You’ll need the right managers in the right positions, NOW!

Now, that you understand the five functions of a service business and how by delegating some authority you can more effectively manage your company, it’s time to decide who will fill the roles described. You may be thinking all of this talk about Management structure is great, but who should be responsible for each area, how many people do you need?  Nothing was ever done before unless I made sure it got done. How is this structure going to miraculously make things easier? How can I afford this? 

I recently talked with my former Management Team and business partner from Anna Luis Salon and Day Spa, in Saginaw, Michigan (www.annaluis.com) to get their feedback on some of these vital questions.

“Building a winning management team is all about developing a group of managers with commitment who are aligned with the goals of the company,” says Luis Jimenez, owner and Education Manager.  “Plan for the future with the 'right' people, if not, you will fail all of your people, including yourself,” he continues. “If I didn’t have people helping me run this business I would not have the success I have today,” Jimenez retorted.

“I just can’t image trying to run this entire salon alone; the Sales and Customer Service division keeps me busy enough”, says Chad Corbat.  “I’m much more effective and productive when I can focus on an area that I enjoy and have had training in.”

Human Resource Manager Scott Jordan had this to say about working in the management team, “Human Resources is a full-time job in and of itself.  This is my specialty and I love what I do in HR.  I

don’t want to run any other part of this salon.”

 

“We all know that we have to work as a team, but we also understand that in this spa, our team is made up of a bunch of “mini-teams.”  We are all strong links in this long chain of success and we all know that one weak link can ruin our entire salon,” Corbat added.

 

Ten Steps to a 9+ Management Team
To survive and thrive in the spa world, you need a top-notch Management Team. Here is a ten-step process for developing a world-class Management Team:

1.      Have a complete understanding of the subject yourself and decide which if any positions (besides President) you would like to have. Remember you only want to take on areas that you like and are good in.

 

2.      Develop job descriptions for each position and look first for talent already within your company. It’s is completely possible depending on the size of your company that someone may fill two roles. NOTE: Just because someone is a “star” aesthetician or massage therapist doesn’t mean they’re automatically a candidate for your Management Team.

3.      Decide on compensation - All of these positions (depending on the size of your company) could more than likely be part-time. I recommend paying an hourly amount for time served in the position – If hiring within, a 20 to 40% increase over what the potential candidate is currently making servicing clients or working the front desk is what I typically suggest to my consulting clients.  You might be surprised, with all of these people you usually end up shelling out less than if you had one single manager (and you’ll get a lot more accomplished). The rule here is though; you must keep your payroll in-line.

4.      Hire people who are aligned with your company purpose and core values.   Your purpose is an articulation of the reason for your company existence.  A quote I love that sums it all up is by John Cougar Mellencamp, “You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.”  If you haven’t taken the time to know why you got into business and what your core values are, now is the time to do so.

5.      Have a clear and well communicated vision so your people know where you want to go. When you begin the process of strategic planning, visioning comes first. When visioning the change, ask yourself, "What is our preferred future?” The process and outcomes of visioning may seem vague and superfluous. The long-term benefits are substantial.

6.      Unleash the creative energy of the entire team by permitting their participation in decision making.  As the President the most important action you need to take with your Management Team is to encourage contribution.  Your team needs to know that they will not be discouraged or chastised for their input.

7.      Measures and targets must be established for key areas of the business (new clients per month, retention, productivity, retail sales, average ticket, etc) Creating and measuring goals are essential so that when they are not being met, analysis and strategy can be changed mid-stream to ensure success.

8.      Address problems simultaneously from the five functions of a customer service business (Marketing, Finance, Education, Sales & Customer Service and Human Resources) and how they are affecting the overall performance of the company.
Internal issues must be addressed and resolved if a team is to be successful in meeting its agreed-upon goals and objectives.

9.      Make everyone accountable for achieving the company vision and high level of participation. Clarity, Agreement, Reporting, Transparency - together they add up to self-accountability. Think of the pilot and co-pilot of the last 'plane flight you took. You think they have a high degree of accountability to each other (and to all the passengers and crew)? Do you think their pre-flight checklist gets 'forgotten about'? The Air Traffic Control instructions are quietly ignored...? Of course not - they'd be up before a court of law instantly, the first time they did so. And the main reason there is such a high degree of accountability in the cockpit...? There's nowhere to hide. Every action is monitored by the co-pilot and the Air Traffic Controllers in real time - no hiding in the restroom and waiting for someone else to do the job, or for the latest new policy announcement to pass by.

10.  Hold regular Team Management meetings and communicate, communicate, communicate.  Asking questions is communicating, but so is giving updates. Check in with others. Get their input.  Update people on your progress. Communicate!

 

Your new team will regularly accomplish things which seemed impossible in the past, and your company will attain a position of leadership in the marketplace.

 

A Better Company through Meetings

Now that you have your Management Team in place and plan to have meetings, what do you talk about? To turn your Management Team meetings into crisp, fast-paced sessions that accomplish meaningful outcomes, I recommend the following topics to get you started:

1.      Does our consumer brand match up with our employer brand? – Are our employees delivering the expectations we are setting up through our marketing efforts? (Read: Brand From The Inside by Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann)

2.      How is our Spa’s technical skill?

3.      How is our Spa’s customer service?

4.      What do our sales look like?

5.      And how can we improve on the above?

Your Management Team meetings will also help you define your vision.  The decisions you need to make will force you to revisit your vision and come up with better strategies to express it.

Make Your Team Successful

The discussion here is far from complete, but I have attempted to dip into the notion of Management Teams. It took a few years of working intensively with management team concepts before I finally "got it”, with my own salon/ spa - true collaboration takes time. My own decision making process tended to be unilateral. But when I entered the world of management involvement, and was forced to collaborate and involve others in work-related problem solving, it slowly became clearer that the ultimate decisions resulting from this process were better.  Weaver does have a warning for those interested in exploring a Management Team approach,”keep in mind you can’t do this on your own.  You will need a strong facilitator like a spa consultant on your side.  The expertise and know-how of someone who has been in your shoes will be a huge benefit in this process… strategic planning is a must!”  Those owners who persist with this concept will see their business’ improving steadily.  To recap, the trick is:

·                     Have a clear vision for the future of your company?

·                     Translate that vision so that your managers understand it?

·                     Have their buy-in to the vision?

·                     Help them develop their capacity to make change happen?

Once that happens everything clicks and you will soon see your spa running like the well-oiled machine that you intended it to be. 

 

 theSECRET Salon & Spa by Design             Albuquerque, NM               866.288.7353