This past year for many aesthetic practices and tattoo removal businesses was challenging. You had to learn about personal protective equipment (PPE), set up new sanitization practices, stay up to date with local health ordinances, and continue to keep your current clients satisfied while trying to get new clients to keep the doors open.
In 2020 every aesthetic practice faced unprecedented challenges and difficulties. Aesthetic practice owners learned something in 2020 that’s been true for hundreds of years, that your aesthetic practice is only as good as the people running it. Having a well-trained, customer-oriented team of learners might have been the differentiated factor that separated the practices that made it in 2020 from those that failed.
Culture and Your People
If you have ever read any management books from the late 80s, you may have heard of “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap. He was notorious for coming into a company, finding where costs could be cut, who was expendable and then letting them go. Yes, it does seem callous to willy nilly cut jobs and decrease headcount for the sake of cutting expenses. However, while this practice may sound outdated, mean-spirited, or wrong, taking a look at who is on your team each year and determining who you want to keep and who you want to leave isn’t unheard of and is something we recommend. After all, who do you want to run your business and interact with your clients? People that you trust and would love to have a dozen more of or those you have to micromanage and consistently reprimand or get onto them about work issues?
Each year, it’s essential to do an inventory of your team and categorize everyone at your aesthetic practice according to these two questions: 1. Who do you want more of? and 2. Who do you want to leave?
You would be surprised at what the answer to these questions tells you about your current team structure and the tough decisions you need to make.
Who Do You Want More Of
Can you imagine how productive and profitable your aesthetic practice would be if you could clone individual members of your team? When you are thinking about who is on your team and the qualities you desire in your team members, what does that look like, and how can you create a workplace that embraces your top team members’ traits and skills? If you can figure that out, you can make better hiring decisions upfront, and you can weed out non-performing team members and reward those you want to keep around.
One of the best hiring tips that successful companies embrace is “hire slow and fire fast.” Having a well laid out job description, clear understanding of your company culture, and what skills, traits, and qualities you are looking for in new team members can help you determine what you are looking for and make sure that you get it. After all, if you don’t have a list of critical skills or traits and understand what the ideal candidate looks like, you won’t be able to effectively hire the right team members.
Who Do You Want to Leave
We have all had those team members that caused problems. Whether it was a bad cultural fit, issues with tardiness, job competence, poor customer service skills, or other issues. If you have been in the aesthetic industry long enough, you can probably visualize a few people who fit this description. These are the members of your team that take more of your time to manage, harm customer satisfaction, and have an overall negative impact on your business. These are the team members who you secretly hope never return from their lunch break and end up at your competitor. These are the people you file into the category, “who do you want to leave?”
If you hire someone that falls into this category, you are best to part ways with them sooner rather than later. After all, if they interact with clients and are not portraying the values and company culture you have established, they are doing much more harm than good. Fire them today versus waiting for them to quit. After all, the worst thing that can happen to your business is that the employees you want to leave end up staying and ruining your reputation and aesthetic practice.
2021 Aesthetic Practice Planning
To help you prepare for what 2021 has to offer, Astanza is very excited to welcome Mark Fenner, Scaling Up Coach and Strategist, to co-host a webinar with our VP of Marketing, Brian Hasenbauer. During this one hour webinar, we’ll dive into five key points to support your business planning and success, no matter what comes your way:
- What are you passionate about? – Do you have core values or are you “soulless?”
- Your Culture and Your People – Who would you keep? Who don’t you want ever to show up again?
- Huddles – Not for just when it’s cold out
- Metrics – We do beauty, not data, so why does it matter?
- Strategy – What do hedgehogs have to do with anything?
Learn how to assess your culture strategy routines, optimize your strategic goals, enhance your team’s focus and measurement, and nurture planning routines for increased accountability and success.
Webinar Information:
The webinar, “5 Keys to Success for Your Aesthetic Practice in 2021” will Livestream on Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 1:00 PM CST. All registrants will receive a recording after the live stream. Register to watch this free webinar by clicking here or below. See you then!
