In any growing organization, people will come out of the woodwork to have "more responsibility" so that they can grow in their careers. Some people are built for this and others flame will burn out quickly.

Be careful who you put in charge of what. I've learned the hard way, you should never put a service provider in charge of anything outside of the education and/or creative departments.

Giving them the keys to the castle can be devestating for you in terms of what happens when they leave.

Case in point, I had a stylist that begged me for a job in the first place right out of school, then eventually wanted "more responsibility". I gave it to her along with extra compensation. She scheduled front desk people, helped with payroll, backbar ordering and other tasks alongside her full service schedule. She had full access to client data, financial data, etc.

Eventually she turned in her two weeks notice, not only for the supervisor position, but also giving up her lucerative stylist position. Do not let a service provider work that two weeks!

Unfortunately, this was before I was smart enough to have everyone sign non-competes (This is a must!) and she moved 4 miles down the road and discounted her service and took about $1,500 per week of business with her.

Even my #1 person, someone I gave the keys to the castle to, who was in charge of all 45+ hairstylists and managed one of our locations, slowly slacked on her management job about 6 months before she quit. I'm still finding out what all she dropped the ball on and it's a mess I will be cleaning up for a while.

The point is, there is no staff loyalty any longer. Everyone is out for themselves and has the potential to do your business harm if you don't have the proper systems in place.

I've learned a very valuable lesson with these people. Here are some non-negotiable's:

• Non-Competes that keep your client data, trade secrets and limits your employees from going down the street and directly competing with you
• Contracts and confidentiality agreements for management and supervisory positions
• Probationary clauses that makes new employees temporary ones for 90 days which let's you cut bait if you need to with no hassle

Salon Forward offers consultation on complete employment contracts, agreements and other HR packages. For more info, please contact us.