Developing a manager for your salon business

One of the biggest issues facing salon owners today is how do they free themselves up and still have a successful business, says salon business expert Ryan Fox.  The answer is you need to replace yourself in the role of running the salon. To achieve this you need to develop a manager to run the salon day to day for you. Define the role The clearer you can be in defining what it is you want them to do and what your expectations are the better. Draw up a job role and a separate list of duties. Document your vision so you are able to describe what success looks like. This could be a picture, mind map, spreadsheet of figures or a combination of all three. Use these to clarify and inspire. Defining the role first means you know who you are looking for. Find the right person The next thing to do is to find the right person to develop. You can train management skills and techniques but they need to firstly really want the job for the right reasons not just the pay rise. Secondly they need to have some natural leadership ability, and thirdly they need to have a great attitude towards people. You should  test these abilities before choosing. Create a management development plan Even the best candidate will need development. They may already have experience but you still need to show them how you want it done. Map out a management development plan as a calendar of activities to include: Induction, in-house culture training, one-to-one  shadowing and mentoring from you, role definition and leadership training from an external consultant and one or two appropriate external courses. Don’t undermine The worst thing you can do is undermine your new manager, so explain to the team what the manager’s role is and what they are responsible for. Do not let them bypass the new manager by coming directly to you; instead direct them back to your manager. Delegate, support and mentor Once you have the right trainee manager in place, allow them to take responsibility by giving them management jobs to do gradually by showing them first. Offer them your full backing and support, don’t expect perfection at first, but correct them by showing them in a positive way. Once you have delegated a job to them, resist from doing it again yourself, but instead check the quality of the work. Give them feedback on their performance both positive and negative and offer guidance. Ryan Fox is a hair and beauty salon consultant who improves salon performance through training and innovation. For further help and advice on developing a manager role contact him by visiting www.umbrellaconsulting.co.uk