How to hire your first employee as a solo esthetician or hairstylist
Raya Schwartz has clocked 14 years in the beauty business, and 10 years as a business owner. She owns both Flirt Aesthetics and Bosses in Beauty.
Her passion in life is educating salon and spa owners on how to go from a solo entrepreneur to a bustling team and a thriving business.
Like many other waxers, estheticians, hairstylists, and spray tanners, Raya started from scratch with no clients when she moved from a small town in New Mexico to a large hub in Florida.
During the quiet hours between clients, she began to form a vision for her business.
So she got to work bringing her vision to life, and within a year and a half of moving, she went from a rented room to a storefront location and hired her first employee, a fellow waxer.
These days, Raya proudly manages a team of 11, and her waxing biz does over 1 million in annual sales.
She has her time to herself back and has, for the most part, put her business on auto-pilot.
How did she get there so fast?
By hiring the right people.
And she’s glad that she did: a few years ago she experienced some scary health problems that made it hard for her to get into the salon, and she needed a lot of rest.
Thankfully she had a great team supporting her, and her business continued to grow even during that challenging time.
Life happens quickly. Sometimes things we never imagined possible take place and turn everything upside-down. In order to keep from functioning in survival mode and worrying about your business failing, you need to set up a support system to help you through tough times.
Today’s blog post covers how you can go from a solo owner-operator in the beauty business to a thriving team that’s building your dream.
I had a great conversation with Raya during my live event, The Engine Room, where Raya shared a refreshing and visionary take on hiring for scaling in your beauty business.
If you’re thinking of hiring your first team member this year, this conversation is actually the fuel you need to get it done.
Stephanie: You've got eleven team members [and] you do a million plus a year now. When you started, was that your goal? Did you ever think that you would get to that point?
Raya: No, not even close. When I first started, my initial goal was ‘Can I get to $5,000 a month?’ If I can make $5,000 a month in my business, I will be so happy.
Then you make 10,000 and you [think], ‘Oh wait, this is actually possible. What else?’
Every milestone I feel like that you hit - revenue wise or whatever the milestone is for you - if you just build up this bucket of proof for yourself that [shows you] ‘I can do that. What else can I do?’
S: [When] you opened up Flirt Wax Bar…you were on a budget and just looking for a place that you could afford but make it your own. How did that go in the first few months?
R: Yeah, so the first year was definitely rough. I definitely put a lot of sweat [and] equity [into it] in the beginning.
I signed for a location before I moved. So I didn't get to see it until I got here and I saw it and I was like, oh my gosh, what did I just do?
But I really put in the work and I always had that vision in mind of [my] dream. I always dreamt of this really cute location.
I saw this little storefront location and I just told myself, ‘At the end of my lease this year that's gonna be my location.’
[I’d] drive by it every single day believing that it was mine. So I was able to move into a storefront location at the end of my first year.
S: When did you get to the point where you decided that you were ready to take the next step and hire somebody?
R: When I moved into my first storefront location and it was just me waxing and doing the buildout…I was in charge of marketing, I was in charge of checking people in and out, and calling people back. I was booked solid in the treatment room all day, every day.
So I was literally 24 years old working every single day of the week, and I was already getting burnt out really fast.
I had the vision but I also recognized really quickly [that I] need[ed] to hire someone quickly because there were parts of my business that were suffering because I was in the treatment room. If I'm not able to call someone back until seven o'clock at night and they call at 10:00 AM in the morning, that doesn't look very good [for my] business.
So the first person I hired, I had her do both. I hired a licensed professional and…we traded days in the room and then I'd also have her work the front.
S: What kind of things did you look for in this person to make sure that she was going to be a good fit?
R: I feel like in the beginning, you're just kind of guessing. You [think], ‘Well I need to hire someone that I like…that I get along with and that's licensed.’
I always knew that I could train someone to be a really good waxer. So I really did look for more personality.
She was actually one of my clients that were looking for a job and we really clicked well. So I hired her for that reason.
Now I have other reasons that I hire people, but I do still think that personality is so big because you can't really train someone to have a good personality or to be talkative with clients or educate themselves and really take on that ownership role within your business.
I'm also looking for people that are my opposite and that are better than me at what they do.
I'm more of a Big Picture [person], [the] visionary in my business. So I need people that are really detailed because I can go to them with the big picture and say, ‘Hey, this is the vision and this is what I need.’ And someone really detailed and organized can go in and like make it happen. So hiring your opposites is really important.
I think a lot of times what happens is people are looking for people that either [have] their own clientele or they think they're just going to train them and [then they will] go out and find people to bring in. But no, you are the business owner and it's your responsibility in my opinion to help that person get booked.
S: [You once said] that for your microbladers you hired people who were artists and hadn’t done microblading before, but you trained them for that. Is that right?
R: Yeah, so I hired artists and challenged my own belief on this. My initial microblading artist was an actual artist. She could draw really well. She had never worked in the beauty industry, but I believe that it's an art. And if you already have that natural ability and natural talent, it's like a built-in advantage.
I hired someone to train her and it took a couple of times. We did three microblading trainings until I found a trainer [for her]. [After] that, she mastered it really, really quickly and you could see a difference in people's work.
When she had a three-month wait list [and] I was booking three months in advance, I [decided to] hire another microblading artist.
Once you find something that works, you just repeat what works. I found another artist that could draw really well. He was a bartender before he worked for me and I got him the same training and now they're both booked about a year in advance.
S: Once you started building up a team, you changed locations because the other location only had one room. More of your time was spent finding and training people. How did you manage that transition?
R: What I always told myself [at the beginning] was, ‘Right now I'm spending time hiring and training and giving my energy to people, but ultimately it's freedom.” [Now] when I hire, I have systems in place that it doesn't take a lot of my time. And I have other people training people.
S: You haven't lost an employee in nine years, which is crazy. The turnover in the beauty industry, especially in the past few years…You're doing something right.
R: There are a few things and it's not [just] that they're busy and they're paid well, it's that they're cared about.
I think it was Harvard that did a study on what matters most to employees and everyone thought it'd be pay [that] matters most. But the number one thing employees cared about was being cared for and their boss acknowledging them as humans.
A lot of people that hire think that their business is number one to their employees and the truth is even for employees, their life is number one.
I think a big part of why I keep people for such a long time is that I truly care about them as people. I will never say no to vacations. I want my employees to go on vacation and have fun, get charged up, and come back refreshed and ready to work.
So I would rather take that temporary loss in revenue the week that they're gone for them to stay long-term because ultimately if they stay long-term, it costs me a lot less money.
S: What you did do to help build up the clientele of your employees?
R: If you are ready to bring on an employee, you should be ready to invest in that employee. Not only in time, energy, and training, but in paid ads.
I will run paid ads for my employees because it's an investment. I'm helping you spread the word and get you busy and booked. And it's temporary. It's not like I have to run paid ads forever for that person, but in the beginning, it definitely helps.
(P.S. I teach a course all about how to attract your ideal client to you with an irresistible offer using Facebook and Instagram ads…check it out here!)
S: A lot of salon owners I know have a really hard time finding employees. What advice do you have for that?
R: I think it's a story that people are telling themselves. The truth is there are more people than ever that are wanting to work. There were a ton of layoffs during COVID. A ton of people were looking for jobs.
Are you posting on Indeed, or are you posting on your social media? Are you asking clients to help you? Are you doing paid ads? Are you doing Facebook hiring? There are so many different places to find people. Are you looking at schools?
It's gonna take time to find the right person. [You can’t be] in a rush because otherwise you might think you'll hire someone in two weeks and it actually takes you six weeks.
But the truth is there are so many good people looking for a good job with a good boss in the world.
Referrals have been really big and Indeed has been really big, but you definitely need to filter it because you will get hundreds of resumes from Indeed.
S: At what point in your business growth did you hire a manager to oversee your business and the employees?
R: I worked really, really hard for like four years in my business, every single day. And after four years of work, I was really burnt out. I was ready to have some fun because I spent most of my early twenties building this business and not having fun. So by the time I was 27, I was ready to travel and go to personal growth events and business events - do something different.
That's when I brought in a manager, so that when I was in France in the middle of the ocean, I wasn't getting my phone blown up with questions and stressing me out. I had someone handling it.
When I got the right manager, the right person in the right seat of the business, my life became so much easier.
This girl Tru, my current manager is my true opposite. As I said, I'm very visionary. I don't like the little details - I can do them, but it's by force versus something that I really love to do.
She loves that stuff and she's very creative. She'll think of ways to make the business better and instead of coming to me asking me how to do something, she comes to me with an idea and says, ‘Hey, I have this idea to make the business better. What do you think?’
She gives me all the options that she already researched and just implements everything herself.
I don't know how to do half the stuff at my front desk anymore she has implemented these really cool things to make the business better and I'm okay with that.
A big part of growing your business is just letting go of control. I used to think I had to know how to do every single thing and I can't even tell you how to work our phone systems anymore. I don't know what the phone system is - I don't know how to do it - but it's really cool. It texts people back, it records calls, and it does all these cool things. And she did all the research to find it and set it up and train everyone at the front.
S: What do you recommend starting your employees at - commission or hourly rate?
R: It really depends on state laws and what you're comfortable with.
I paid my service provider's commission - I have from the beginning. In the beginning, when you hire, it's a lot more affordable to pay someone a commission. You only have to pay them if they do a service that brings in money. So you both get paid and that's why a lot of people go that route.
But now, after being in business for so long, if I were to start over, I would start people at an hourly rate, plus the much smaller commission plus tips. It might stretch you a little bit more than paying commission in the beginning, but ultimately you have a [wider] margin in your business.
S: What kind of culture do you have at Flirt Aesthetics?
R: I would describe our culture as a family. It is a small business and I do have 11 employees, but there are usually anywhere from seven to eight people working every day in the business. And I really try to create a culture of non-competitiveness. We're all there to help each other…if [someone] calls out and we can reschedule her clients with someone else. [We’re] all telling [our] clients, ‘You know, this person is just as good as I am and if you know you ever need someone and I'm not here, she's excellent.’
I feel like that across the board with all my service providers - it's not a competition, we are on the same team and we're all part of this brand called Flirt. And so I would say there's definitely, it's not a culture of cattiness, which is really important to me.
S: Last question. Do you have your employees sign a non-compete so they don't steal clients?
R: I have had people sign that at one point in my business. I don't have people sign it anymore.
I'm not saying you shouldn't have people sign a non-compete, but at one point I did it because I was operating a lot out of fear. The fear of training people and them leaving and all that goes with that.
If someone doesn't want to work for me anymore, all the best to you, I'm not going to help you go, but you go, do you.
I'm going to make my business and brand so strong that anyone could leave and it's not going to affect my business…because I have the core structure in place.
But would I give that advice to people? Probably not. I'd probably tell other people to sign at least non-solicitation, but go to hire a small business lawyer and have him customize an agreement for you that would work in court. They're going to know best.
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You can find Raya and keep up to date on all the cool things she’s doing to change the beauty industry at Bosses in Beauty.
