Hiring a Personal Salon Assistant: How do you know you're ready and what to expect

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to The Modern Hairstylist Podcast. I posted on my Instagram story, and I asked y'all what you wanted to hear me talk about on the podcast. And I asked you what's going on in your business, what's top of your mind right now, and I had one of my lovely students answer the, uh, question on my story and said, "How do I know when I am ready to hire?"

Whether that be a personal salon assistant or a virtual assistant, like a social media manager or somebody who can take care of admin tasks in the background, et cetera, et cetera. Love this question. I personally have my own experience of hiring, leading, and managing a team up to seven. Um, I have been taking a shit ton of classes about leadership and hiring over the past couple years because my business has demanded me to.

I've also had the experience of hiring personal assistants within my salon suite. So, I have a bit of experience in this and I have a lot of trial and error that I've gone through, a lot of theory that I've learned, um, and I'm really excited to share that all with you. I originally was going to make this one episode, but it was really difficult for me to address both a personal salon assistant and a virtual assistant all in one episode because there's so many nuances to each of those situations. So, I'm gonna split this into two episodes.

So today we're gonna be talking about hiring a personal salon assistant, how do you know that you're ready to do so and what you should expect. And then next week, we're gonna be talking about hiring a virtual assistant, maybe a social media manager or something like that. Now, the tea is, is in this episode specifically, it might sound like I'm trying to convince you out of getting a personal salon assistant . Um, and the reason why is because I wanna make sure that your expectations are set realistically.

I'm not gonna sell this idea to you as something that's super sexy and that's gonna make you a million dollars and that's, like, the next step in your s- in your journey as a business owner. I- I truly believe that you need to understand what you're getting yourself into from personal experience. I had no clue how absolutely difficult it would be to hire a personal salon assistant, not to mention when it comes to all of my experience in hiring, um, stepping into a n- into the role of being a leader. A leader not just for yourself, but for others.

And hiring and having difficult conversations, it is a whole new skillset, it is a whole new set of responsibilities that I believe not many people really realize what they're getting themselves into when they do. And so my tea for you is, is that I am gonna be sharing with you all the things to consider to really set your expectations straight. If you hear everything I say today, the worst of the worst, right, and you still feel like this is something that you wanna do, congratulations. Sounds like y- it's the perfect fit for you then, because if you're willing to take on all these risks and all these cons, then that means that your pros will outweigh those things, and it might be a beautiful decision for you.

So, if you're ready to get into it, then let's go . What's the tea, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So if you're ready to get into it, welcome to The Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay, so I first wanna talk about why you would hire a personal assistant, or actually hire anybody in your business. The reason why you should be considering hiring anybody in your business at all, ever, is because they should be making you one of these two resources or both. Money and time, right?

Money and time or money or time, if that makes sense. Both. So, with a personal assistant, a personal assistant is most likely going to be making you both, right? Because normally w- what you should be doing with a personal assistant is increasing the amount of availability that you have in your calendar without increasing the actual amount of time that you are working to be able to fit in more clients, right?

So then you get more time to be able to offer to people, but then you're making more money, right? So, you're kinda getting both. So it's a pretty good thing to consider hiring. It's why our industry has historically hired personal assistants in the first place.

But there's a lot of different things that you should consider before understanding if you're ready for this or not. Now, the very first thing we have to consider is, are we gonna get the return on our investment? I think that's our biggest nerve-racking thing when it comes to hiring. I think there's two biggest things, uh, when it comes to fears with hiring.

Number one, are we gonna get our return on invest- on our investment? Is the money that we're gonna spend actually be- is it going to actually be worth it for us in the long run? And also, I'm terrified of delegating something to somebody else and giving this person control of my clientele. But honestly, my friend, that's another episode.

I'll probably tal- be talking about that a little bit more, um, and some throughout this episode, but also in next week's. But yeah, those are definitely the two biggest fears when it comes to hiring. I know for a fact because I've been through them and I hear it all the time. Now, to ensure your return on investment, number one, you need to understand the math, right?

You need to sit down and you need to theorize, "If I was able to take X many more clients in a day by reducing my service timing and/or by double booking, either way is fine, then how many more clients would I be able to fit into that day? How much more money would I make in that day," right? And you wanna take that extra amount of money that you'd be able to make, and then you wanna subtract it by the amount of money that you would be spending on a personal assistant.And you should be able to make a profit.

You should be able to make more money than you lose on hiring out that assistant, right? That might seem a little bit obvious, but just really cracking down on making sure that you really know what that number is, to make sure that it's actually worth it for you. Because if it's only break-even, or you actually lose money by paying out that assistant, then it's not gonna make any sense for you, and you might as well just keep on doing it yourself. There's only two key scenarios that I can really think of in which where hiring a personal assistant and breaking even or taking a loss on that personal assistant would make sense.

And number one is, if your body is failing you but you wanna continue doing hair, and you need another human to actually help you carry out those services, to be able to physically continue doing hair, that obviously makes sense, and I'd be willing to take a break-even or take a loss on that. But then, also, maybe you- this is, uh, somebody that you wanna invest in to be a money producing service provider under your business eventually. Maybe they're taking your clients or their own clients under your business, and you're taking commission from them in the future. That is a very risky investment, right?

And it-it- you are taking a huge loss in the beginning, but it might be worthwhile for you in the long run if you truly trust and believe that this person could be a part of your long-time- long-term vision in your business, right? Those are the only two case scenarios where it's like, if the math is like break-even or you lose profit, then I'm like, okay, maybe, but still a sketchy decision. You should be making a profit if you are hiring a personal assistant, and you should be getting a return on your investment no matter who you're hiring. Now, my next question for you, and this is going to help with the fear of delegating and the fear of trusting somebody to be able to take on helping you with your business and helping you with your clients, right?

I mean, this is, like, your client experience. This is your reputation. This is how you serve people. This is how you make an impact in people's lives.

This is how you make a living, right? So, in order to make sure that you are ready, you need to make sure that your client experience is systematized, documented, and proven to work, right? So, by systematized I mean you follow the same procedure every single client, every single time, with your client experience. And of course, you personalize it to each and every one of those clients.

However, you're offering the same umbrella, the same step-by-step of each of those steps in that experience every single time. Then, you wanna make sure that you have that documented somewhere, whether it be a digital document, whether it be a piece of paper, whether it be a laminated something or other that you hang up. Whatever it may be, you want this system of your client experience to be documented, so that way you can very easily share it with somebody else, such as your new personal salon assistant, so that way they can repeat those things, right? That is going to make your life so much easier and make you trusting somebody else so much easier, is if you already have documented processes and systems that you can hand off to somebody else, that they can just follow step-by-step-by-step and memorize and master.

And this also helps you set expectations and helps you have hard conversations, because it's just facts, right? There's no arguing. If you handed somebody a piece of paper with a documented step-by-step-by-step and they miss step number two, it's just the facts. And it makes it so it is very easy for you to address that thing, write on paper, no emotions about it, and then course correct very quickly and easily.

Lastly, I said proven to work well. You should have a great reputation for how you're delivering your experience already. Your retention should be excellent. You should have great reviews.

Because you really wanna make sure that you have built that trust with those clients that makes them want to come back and trust you when you bring on somebody else into the picture, so that they trust you so much that they, that they know that you would never put them in the hands of somebody that you did not trust, right? So, you wanna make sure that you systematize your client experience, it is something that is repeatable and predictable and step-by-step-by-step, it's documented, and then also it is something that is already proven to work. Because it's really difficult to replicate something or expect somebody else to do something the way that you want them to do it if you don't actually communicate that. And it's going to be a wash if you're having them do something that is not already good, right?

If you're not already doing well with whatever you're offering or serving with clients, then to give it to somebody else is just a huge waste of time and money, because you're just gonna make it even worse. My next question for you is, are you ready to become a leader? This is something that is so important, that you truly think about. Being a leader is becoming so selfless, wildly self-aware, taking all of the attention and focus on- off of you and focusing it on others first and foremost, and making sure that you are showing up correctly to set everybody else up for success in the long run, including yourself.

It's not that you, like, you don't benefit from being a leader. However, normally, you do have to put other people first. You have to extend a lot of energy to make that happen. There is so much unpredictability and there's so much sacrifice that comes with it.

But again, it is very gratifying, if you're willing to take it on. But are you truly ready to become a leader? Or do you have this- the natural skillset or do you have the natural motivation or drive to lead others, right? Even if it is just one person.

Because you are literally about to set this one person up for the rest of their lives and the trajectory of their careers, and also setting them up to- ha- for how they affect you and your business and your success. That is a big fucking deal, and it requires you to step into a whole new version and level of yourself, one that you are not even expecting. You can't even visualize and expect what that looks like. But I'm gonna try to give you a good idea.

Number one, you're gonna have to have a lot of difficult conversations, and you're gonna have to get really good at having them and be very comfortable having them. Because if you don't communicate something, you're just gonna become resentful and you're gonna blame the person...And also, we just expect people to do things the way that we do them when we don't even set the expectation in the first place. And in reality, it's like, people need to be told sometimes when they're so ignorant to how they're acting or wh- how they're behaving.

Because maybe they weren't raised the same way that you are. Maybe they haven't had these same experiences that you have had. But maybe they do in their core values, in their soul, and what they believe in. They want to act that way, but they just need a leader to actually communicate to them how to make that happen, because they weren't aware, right?

And so you can't expect somebody to be aware or carry out things the way that you want them to do it if you aren't willing to have the difficult conversation to share with them what's going on. I mean, if you can't have a difficult conversation with your clients right now, you're probably not ready to have a difficult conversation with a, a, an employee. It's, it’s honestly, I would probably say 10 times harder . Truly, it is 10 times harder.

There's, you have to see that employee every single day, um, it is somebody that you're working a much closer relationship with, it is, it can get very emotional for both you and the person. And so, if difficult conversations aren't already something that you're willing and ready to have, then this is definitely, it might not be the best fit for you, I'm sorry. But if you are willing to learn how to have difficult conversations, if you're willing to show up and give that, that constructive feedback, then that's great. And speaking of constructive feedback, that's also something that you're gonna be able to figure out how to do in a way in which it truly is constructive.

You can't just tell somebody, "You're doing this wrong because of this," you also have to tell them what they need to be doing moving forward. You need to be able to explain to them what success looks like instead, and why. Why is it successful in this way, and why is it when we do it this way, it doesn't yield us the best results that we possibly could get? You know what I mean?

So get ready to have a lot of difficult conversations, get ready to provide constructive criticism, and get ready to take full responsibility for others' actions. If your salon assistant mixes up the wrong toner and turns your client's hair purple instead of blonde, that is on you, right? And that is something that you are signing up for. You may have a massive fear of delegation, and guess what?

The fear is not gonna go away. And also, yes, there are going to be times where the person that you hire is gonna fuck up. My team fucks up all the time. All the fucking time.

I also fuck up all the time. And that is okay. I have come to a, a place in my leadership journey in which I am fully okay with my team messing up, because it provides opportunities for us to figure out how we could be doing things better. And every single time I course correct something, it becomes a learning lesson for everybody, and it makes that person perform even better, if I approach it the correct way.

But nonetheless, you are relying on a whole other human being to carry out things, and you cannot expect everybody to be absolutely perfect every single time they do something. No matter how many expectations you set up front, no matter how many times you've communicated it, no matter how obvious it seems to you, somebody is going to F something up and then you have to take full responsibility for that at the end of the day. Are you ready for that? Are you ready?

Are you willing to take on the pros of having the salon assistant, the gratification of being that leader for that person, right? Are you willing to take on the cons that come with that? Okay, so let's say the math is mathing. Let's say that your client experience is now systematized, documented, and proven to work well.

Let's say that you are truly ready to take on the responsibility of becoming a leader. Now, my next question for you is, are you ready for your income and schedule to be reliant on another human? So not only are you relying on this person to not make mistakes and not mess things up and provide a great experience, but also, now your income and your schedule are fully reliant on this person, right? So let's say that you start to have a system in your business where it is very much, like, reliant on the personal assistant.

Like, you're only able to double book if you have another body in the room, right? You are only, uh, able to make X amount of money if you have a personal assistant. You're only able to just work X amount of days if you have a personal assistant, right? That is very much setting you up to be fully reliant on another person for your revenue and your schedule.

That is a big risk to take, and one that you may be willing to take on. And yes, your personal assistant will get sick. They will call out. They may run late.

There may be traffic. They may get into a car accident. They may be going through a hard time. Not to mention, oh my god, when you have employees who are going through a hard time and you have to handle that with, with empathy and love, but also have to watch out for your own business at the same time, it is so fucking hard, but that's another conversation.

The tea is, is that, like, now are you fully ready and willing to be able to rely on another human being for how you're expecting your business to go moving forward? Also, if you lost that personal assistant, are you able to course correct quickly? Are you able to problem solve, and are you able to have resources or backup plans for how you're going to manage it if that person is not available for you in one day or in the future, et cetera, et cetera, right? Are you willing to take that on, yes or no?

And this also comes with the conversation of, you have to become an excellent hirer and trainer. So you have to be somebody who's really good at recruiting. And the reason why is because this is a very high churn role. The nature of this role is that it's very temporary, if you think about it, although it may last a year, and some assistants maybe last two years.

This is a role where you're hiring for somebody who's most likely looking to have a career path, where their trajectory is, they are a personal assistant, they learn and get educated for a little bit, they get that experience, and then they become a hairstylist, right? They take on their own clients. That is what the majority of personal assistants actually want when they get into it. You'll f- if you find a magical unicorn who is not really trying to get into the industry but just wants the money and loves this stuff, then fantastic, you found the goldmine, right?

But the majority of the time, that personal assistant is looking to become a stylist one day. So therefore, they are going to leave you at a certain point, unless you have some sort of growth path for them, and even then, some. That role still needs to be filled if you are going to put them into a higher-up role where they're taking on their own clients, right? And so you're always refilling this role.

So you have to be ready to become a great recruiter and a great trainer, because you are going to be consistently, maybe on a yearly basis, finding somebody else to hire, going through the hiring process, which is not fun and not easy. And also, something that you can very easily eff up. I've had plenty of bad hires where three months later, after spending a bunch of money and time on them, I realized that they were not the right fit for me, unfortunately. You may waste, you gotta be willing to waste some time, you gotta be willing to have some trial and error.

Um, and also, you're gonna have to train this person every single time. So are you willing to deal with the fact that this is a high churn role?And that you are going to have to refill it on a con- on a consistent basis if you wanna continuously move forward with the way that you have structured your schedule to make more money with a personal assistant. Last, but very much not least, and I think that we've had this conversation a fair bit in the industry recently, but, you know, are you ready to fucking educate this person, right?

This person is coming to you because they are setting themselves up for a career ahead of them. And every single one of us probably could think about a mentor who was really amazing, who have helped us get to where we are today. Or we've thought about really shitty mentors who never took the time to educate us, who treated us like dirt, and we had to figure shit out on our own, right? What mentor do you want to be to this person?

Also, when you're hiring this person, this person is going to have expectations of you educating them and taking the time out of your day to make sure that you are actually providing them with the skill set that they need to do this shit on their own. So are you ready to become an educator? Are you ready to take on more responsibility? You have to remember, this is not just a selfish decision.

It actually has to be one where it's gonna be pretty selfless and there's a strong why behind it. You can make a lot more money in different ways besides hiring, okay? You can make more money in different ways besides hiring. But if this is the way that you want to make more money, know that it comes with the cost of you making an impact in another human being, and all of the things that I already listed throughout this episode.

And to set the next generation of hairstylists up for success is something that I do not take lightly at all. It's why I do what I do every single day, and I don't want you to take that lightly either if you're going to be hiring a salon assistant. Please don't. And last but not least, are you ready to have your heart broken and be disgustingly frustrated when you pour your entire life into educating this person and, and nurturing them and setting themselves up to be super successful, and then they leave you?

Are you ready for that? If you are, then congratulations. You are ready to hire a personal salon assistant or even a stylist, right? 'Cause same thing could be said for them.

S- salon owners come to me all the time sharing about how upset they are that their highest performing producer, or even somebody that is completely brand new that they poured their life and soul into, just left them. It's inevitable. This is business, and people are gonna be doing what they, what they have to do, what is best for their lifestyle. You can probably think about a time that you had to do something for yourself too.

Y- when you are in the business of people, when you are reliant on other people, these are the risks that you take as a leader. On the flip side of everything that I'm saying, being a leader is the most gratifying, most beautiful experience. I would not change it for the world. There are so many times that I have wanted to give up and throw it all out and just do shit myself moving forward.

I still experience that all of the time. But what I will say is I have become much more resilient. I have learned so many lessons along the way, and there's so many lessons to learn, and I don't no- I no longer look at the hardships and the emotions and the difficulties that come with leadership as something that is, like, a disappointment or something that I dread. I look at it as an opportunity to learn and to grow the business.

And hopefully, if you are coming to the table with that type of mindset, then I think that you can make hiring anybody in your business something that is really beautiful for you and also hopefully beautiful for the next generation of hairstylists who are coming in. So, my friend, I hope that this episode was helpful for you. I'm so sorry that it was so dreary and intense. You guys know I like to keep it real with you.

I wanna set you up for the most realistic expectations as possible. I don't like to sell you a sexy dream. I like to tell you what's actually, what you're actually getting yourself, self into, 'cause I think protecting you and also protecting the little salon assistant who's about to come join you is important as well. So much love to you.

I hope that you enjoyed the episode. If you did, let me know. I think right now, you can, like, text me. If you go to, uh, the, uh, the description, the show notes of this episode right now, there should be, like, a little link where you can text me your thoughts about this episode.

Or you could tell me what you want to hear about next, or you have questions about it, whatever it may be, I would love to hear from you. So make sure to shoot me a text with that link in the description at the time of recording this, at least. Um, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate it if you just hit the subscribe button, so that way you don't miss an episode every week. And next week, I'm gonna be talking about hiring a virtual assistant or a social media manager or administrative assistant, et cetera, et cetera.

These are the people who are gonna be helping you with the backend of things, and they're, they could possibly be the people who take the things that you hate the most off of your plate, so that way you can just show up to your business and be the creative artist. So, make sure to tune in to next week's episode. So much love to you. Peace out, girl scout.

Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2024 Hunter Donia LLC.