KC, WHY DID YOU DO THAT? TODAY WE’RE TALKING ALL THE POINTS.

There was a point in my business where I was at a breaking point. I was burned out, exhausted, resentful of my friends and clients, and worst of all: my income was completely stagnant. I had a come to Jesus moment when I realized if I want to grow anymore – I needed to hire help.

I had no work life balance, no free time, and I was crying because I was literally so overwhelmed I wanted to quit. Not to mention the amount of time I was putting into my work outside of “business hours,” meanwhile I was making no money.

You CAN’T do that, sis!

So, I said to myself “eff it” and took a risk and began my search for someone to join my team.

THEN CAME JORDAN.

MY FIRST ASSISTANT.

Finding someone who will not only care about your business, but who is also hungry to grow is crucial. I wanted to be different than other salons and I’m not in business to take advantage of others. I believe when we help and support each other we all do SO MUCH BETTER! So, with that in mind, I promised myself that my assistant would have a different experience working for me. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but I was determined to figure it out and have something special for the future of my mini team. I’ve been told that I’m “blunt,” a “work-a-holic,” “too serious”, and maybe a bit “neurotic”, so when it came to building a team, I was so scared that maybe I would scare any potential team off. I knew I had a lot to offer, but I had to push all those negative thoughts out of my damn head and rip the band-aid off.

Build a TEAM, not an ego.

I get so many questions about what it’s like to have assistants. How do you find the perfect one? What do they do? How does it work? Do they have anything to actually do? What do you pay them? How do you know if you’re busy enough for an assistant? How do you train them? Do you actually make more profit even if you’re paying payroll? “Must haves” in an assistant? Is it actually worth it? And the list goes on and on and on…

LET’S ANSWER THESE!

First off, let me just just say:

Babe or Dude, STOP freaking yourself out before you’ve even done anything. Stop letting other stylists, who maybe had a bad experience with it before, taint your future vision. Chances are – your experience will be completely different and, if you’re smart with your decisions, you will succeed. I’m here to ease some of the stress and to actually TALK and COACH you little extra achievers so you don’t have to worry as much as I did.

Why are people so damn secretive?? I’m here to spill the tea!

“AM I BUSY ENOUGH?”

• That’s up to you and your books. My rule of thumb is, if you’re busy ALL day with zero downtime, eating your lunch while you pee (yes I was doing), and have a waiting list… YOU’RE BUSY ENOUGH.
• If you’re booked for 4-6 weeks out and struggling to fit your guests in, you’re ready for an assistant! If you’re booked, but losing clients due to a wait period, you can hire an assistant!
  

HOW DO YOU FIND AN ASSISTANT?

• Make a cool-ass flyer (I use Canva, and Unfold) to make a great and informative job posting.
• Send it to ALL the schools and have them send it to all their soon-to-be graduates. Hint: Paul Mitchell The School is the best school to work with! They’re the ONLY school who has forwarded my flyers and I’ve hired two of their grads.
• Get a catchy photo to start advertising on all your social platforms. Hashtag that beauty to your heart’s content. Don’t forget to add it to your stories as well.

WHAT DOES YOUR ASSISTANT DO? I DON’T WANT MY CLIENT EXPERIENCE TO SUFFER.

• Let me just shut that down real quick. If anything, hiring an assistant will actually IMPROVE your client experience. Let me ask you a question: why do you think you have to mix your own color, cape your client, wash, blow out, then finally sweep your client’s hair, or else your client experience will drop?
  
  IT WON’T! And don’t give the excuse of “I don’t trust anyone to mix my formulas or blow my clients out.” If that’s the case, you’re either a control freak or you need to TRAIN YOUR TEAM BETTER!
  
  Now, out of all that, how much time has just freed up for you? Your clients want great service, but they’re paying you for your excellent color application, not your shampoo job. There’s a reason why high-end salons have blow-out bars, you will be perfectly fine. Train your team to do a killer blow out and style, and you will have no issues.

WHAT ARE THEIR DUTIES?

• Inventory
• All client intakes
• Laundry
• Shampoo and Style
• A lot of client education! I expect my assistants to communicate just as well as I do regarding products, styling processes and much more.
• Administrative work (data entry, emails, check in and out, rebooking)
• Watch and observe. Yes, I tell my team to watch everything I do. I want them soaking up as much as possible.
• BTS pics and vids
• Brainstorming ideas for newsletters, posts, etc.
• Packing my travel kit
• The List goes on and on…

WHAT DO YOU PAY THEM?

• I pay mine $10/hr + sign on bonuses and other occasional bonuses.
• I pay half of education costs for them. I want my team to be talented so I have zero issues investing in them.
• I also give them access to any of my educational material.

HOW DO YOU TRAIN THEM?

• We have mandatory monthly trainings (yes, I pay them to train) where we come in three hours before work and focus on coloring, cutting, business, social media classes, and styling techniques.
• I have my team think about what kind of business they want to build. We pick their dream client and I help them work toward it.

AREN’T YOU SCARED TO INVEST TOO MUCH IN THEM AND FOR THEM LEAVE YOU WITHOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT?

• Of course! I’m human! Any good business owner stresses over investing too much in their team to just have them walk out. However, I fully believe if you treat your employees like you wish your employer would have treated you, they won’t screw you over.
• I would rather invest time, energy, money in a team in hopes they will respect me and my business rather than giving them NOTHING to respect.
• I’m creating an environment that I wish I had early in my career. I’m giving my team a fighting chance at surviving this industry.

No More Old School Business.

DOES IT IN INCREASE MY BOTTOM LINE?

• Yes! I’m going to have another Vlog about this, but I instantly doubled my revenue.
• I compared numbers from three days I worked last November at max capacity by myself compared to the same three days from this November… Literally almost tripled my revenue!

DO YOU THINK IT’S WORTH IT?

• ABSOLUTELY – if you’re smart!
• It was the best decision I’ve ever made and now I have TWO!

Guys, it’s time to take back our industry and to stop devaluing it. I don’t know why we have in our minds the idea that, because we’re a creative business, we’re not worth investing in. I’m here and calling bullshit.

Own it. Invest in it. This is not a social hour. It’s business.