My pastor, Ed Young, of Fellowship Church uses a term, “tethered to technology”. I truly believe that business in the 2000’s cannot meet it’s potential unless it is “tethered to technology”. Salons, which are supposed to be on the leading edge of things, fashion, the social economy, etc. are most of the time the last to utilize the latest technology to promote, streamline and make them more money.

At Tangerine, we utilize technology in every area. From marketing, to our client experience to our employee contact and human resources. This has made everything faster, better and allows us to manage day to day much better. The clients are better taken care of because of our technology integration and that only makes us more money.

To learn more about how Tangerine utilizes technology, join the Salon Forward network and get all of the great insights and resources of successful salons.

I’ve gotten to the point in my business where I receive 50+ applications per month. This gives me great opportunities to only hire the right and best person for the job, yet I still fail miserably many times. My management team is constantly on me to check references and go through all of the systems I’ve had them put in place for hiring, yet my wife still asks me today how I hired (name withdrawn).

Yes, I do a majority of the hiring, even though I tend to make mistakes. Why? Our people are who makes us who we are and I want to make sure that every person that represents Tangerine is a person I approve of. So I do the initial interview and then turn them over to educators or managment for the next steps. However sometimes I just hire them on the spot (like the person my wife was talking about). That’s just plain dumb!

When we go through the proper steps, the hires turn out to be home runs, and sometimes the ones I hire on the spot are too. But it’s important to check references, have them do several interviews and come in and do a “non paid working interview” where they interact with other staff members and you can get great feedback.

If you don’t have 50 people to choose from, try and recruit people who stand out to you, whether it’s the person who waited on you at a restaurant or checked you out at Target, but try and get great people.

And check references…

I’m always in critique mode. Wherever I go, I always see some minor (sometimes major) thing that tells me that that particular business is not on top of their game. I think that’s why I love Vegas so much. Everything is in it’s place and has a purpose.

I recall consulting for a salon in Texas and there were so many glaring obstructions that there was no way they could go to the next level until they took care of the little things. For example, when you walked into the salon, you were greeted with a glob of wires coming out of the wall and snaking behind a tattered and out of place enormous homemade front desk. As I looked around, I saw that the sunscreen blinds were torn and desperately needed replaced.

I walked up to the front desk and was greeted by a printer reserved for major office use and junk everywhere. As the first thing clients see, the scenario i saw was catastrophic. I could go on and on about this particular salon, but it would take up this entire post.

As the overseer of your domain (salon) take notice of what the clients see. I often ask my front desk staff to sit with me in the client waiting areas and view the dust under shelves or the empty cups from the last client. I have the stylist sit in their own chairs and look at the mess they call a workstation.

If you put yourself in the perspective of the client, you will be able to control what the client sees and thus perceives about your salon. I challenge you to look at your place an entirely different way, as a client would see it and see if you approve.

Take care of the little things and the rest takes care of itself.