When And How to Prepare For Your Next Spa Hire

When and how to prepare for your next spa hire? This is a question that has a more nuanced answer than one may think!

But let’s start from the beginning: this topic solidified itself as the talking point of this blog’s accompanying episode of Spa Business Mastery because, a few weeks ago, I was talking to a few prospective coaching clients who thought that they were ready to hire.

However, even spa owners who already have teams and have been through the wringer of hiring and recruiting can fall prey to common missteps and misconceptions. And the two most common areas of the process that I see mistakes are, you guessed it, not knowing when and/or how to prepare efficiently.

Why is this a big deal? Because hiring is expensive. As a former spa business owner myself who has been in your exact shoes, I know just how expensive a mistake it can become. Whether it’s that the person wasn’t the right fit for their role or your business in general, that you were not sufficiently prepared to bring another person on, or that your spa business wasn’t actually in the position to benefit from another work-hand, those expenses can add up… quickly.

Bookmark today’s blog to keep it as a reference for the next time hiring crosses your mind: as someone who has been in the industry for nearly 30 years, trust me when I say you’ll want to have this on-hand!

Spa Hiring FAQ #1: “How Do I Know When I Actually Need to Hire?”

When it comes to hiring, the pressure can feel immense.

Appointment requests piling up in your email, text and voicemail?

Shelves barely staying stocked?

Clients consistently asking for more varied services?

At their boiling point, these situations can make it feel like hiring is your only option.

However, instead of buckling to this sense of urgency, instead turn to your statistics to ensure that you are acting on logic vs. emotion.

Here’s how:

• Measure the metric of productivity, not how busy you feel your spa business is. My favourite rule of thumb is, that when your spa as a whole is booked up by 80%, it’s time to activate your recruiting system

• Go into your reports and view each team member’s productivity metric. Even if your spa business as a whole is tracking well, see if each of your team members is performing adequately. If they are not, analyze what the situation is to see if there are any chinks in your training process that are making it so these team members are underperforming. This will ensure that you don’t repeat these mistakes when training new recruits and, in turn, will provide you an opportunity to provide these existing team members with additional training to max out their productivity!

Spa Hiring FAQ #2: “As a Leader, What Are the Signs That I Should Be Stepping Out of the Treatment Room and, In Turn, Hire More Workers to Make That Happen?”

As we chat about frequently in my spa-owners only Facebook group, Spa Business Mastery, spa owners can’t be in two places at once… as much as we wish we could be!

When you are a spa owner who is in the treatment room full-time and you also have a team, it is a big green flag that you should be either thinking of recruiting someone for a management position OR make plans to cut down your service hours so that you can step back and start focusing on how to run your business.

To determine this, ask yourself this simple question: “Am I in the treatment room because it is my calling to work one-on-one with clients, or am I in the treatment room because I haven’t shifted out of my ‘service provider’ mindset?”

Simply put, to grow your business and your team, unless it is absolutely your calling to work one-on-one with clients, you need to gather the courage to step away from the treatment room and fully into your position as your spa business’s leader. This ensures that your business’s vision, marketing plans, and admin tasks are realized while spa clients are being served fully. 

To do this, analyze which roles and skill sets are needed to have your hours in the treatment room replaced. You may even have existing staff that you could utilize via some advanced training if you are adamant about working with hands on with clients. 

If not, consider this your sign to kickstart your hiring process. 

Spa Hiring FAQ #3: “What Would You Say is the Most Important Factor in Knowing When You Should Hire?”

This is the point that I cannot stress enough: if you need to hire, hire when you can afford it.

If you have the cash flow to support a new esthetician for three-to-six months and need more hands on deck, you should feel comfortable in hiring more help. If you’re unsure if you can afford it, my recommendation is to begin putting away your estimated bi-weekly pay into a savings account ASAP. That way, you will start to get used to the adjusted cash flow and, as a bonus, will have a nest egg for payroll when you do onboard your new team member.

Prepping to hire can also help you determine if your compensation structure is solid, profitable, and up-to-date. For example, straight commission for spa compensation can oftentimes leave spa owners out of pocket (especially if it’s anything over 35%, which can be a disaster for you to be able to take a wage); instead, an hourly rate plus a small commission based on performance will likely be more profitable for you and more of an incentive for your team members.

Let Me Know: Do You Feel Confident About How and When to Prepare For Your Next Spa Hire?

Hiring can be time-consuming, expensive, and hands-on. Remember: “Hire slow, fire fast!” The worst thing that can be done is to take on hiring only to find out that you weren’t sufficiently prepared (or had your timing wrong!)

If you’re still in doubt, reach out to me today: I’d love to get you set up for hiring success!