149: Dress Codes

Do you have a dress code? Do you even need a dress code? What does a dress code do for your culture and your brand?
Let me share what has worked for me in the past...I'd love to hear what's working for you.

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Transcript

Unknown: 1:32

Hey there, welcome to the salon ownership Made Easy podcast. As a former salon owner, I know how tough it can be to deal with things like hiring new team members, managing your KPIs, and fixing everything that seems to break in the salon. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. But don't worry, I'm here to help you navigate the ups and downs of the industry. Let's face it, beauty school didn't prepare us for the real world of Salon ownership. But with the right techniques, systems and mindset, you can achieve amazing success. With over 30 years of experience and for successful salons under my belt, including two that hit over seven figures. I've learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. So buckle up and get ready for some practical tips and real talk. Let's do this. Well, hey, guys, what's up? I want to talk about what's been going on with me. We have moved again. Yeah, you got that right. About 16 months ago, we moved from Virginia to California because we always wanted to. And because we used to live there. 25 years ago, 30 years ago, I don't know, getting old. And we'd always wanted to move back. So we got the opportunity to move back to California. And we loved it. Don't get me wrong. But now we're back in Virginia, we picked up and moved cross country again put the dog and the cat in the car. And we are but no regrets at all. We love California and we will visit there. My daughter is still out there. But a lot of our family and friends are back in Virginia. So we got a little spot on the York River and we are fixing up our forever house. We're really excited about doing that. So with that anybody who knows me knows that I love DIY projects. I love it. I love everything from laying floor to tiles to making furniture to painting. The only thing I hate doing is drywall and plumbing. Just being serious. So with that I thought I would add to my salon ownership made easy. I'm going to add some DIY stuff to it as well. Because that's all part of it. All the hats we have to wear a salon owners right. So not only are we going to talk about oh, KPIs and profit and loss, and I don't know, coaching and hiring, things like that, we're also going to talk about how to change an electrical outlet, or how to fix your blow dryer, or how to pick out the perfect paint color for your walls, or how to build salon stylists stations that won't break the bank. Because you know, those styling stations that you see, they could be$1,200 on up per styling station. If you have a big salon 810 12 stations, that adds up pretty quick. In my salons, I always made my own cost me a couple $100 for the whole setup. So I don't want to share that kind of stuff with you. And I love doing it. So hopefully you'll subscribe to my YouTube channels and see it in action. But if not, we'll be talking about some things on here as well. And probably talking to some vendors like you know, the freestyle systems, the hanging blow dryers, maybe some lighting companies, some paint companies, things like that. And I hope you enjoy it, let me know, why don't you just email me or you can on social media, send me a direct message, send me what you think you would like to hear about, or see a video on. I love feedback, but I'm just enjoying the ride to tell you the truth. So today, we're going to be talking about something that some people agree with some people don't dress codes, okay. In my salons, I always believed in the full dress and black. Okay. And the reason for that. So many reasons. But the reason for that number one was it was really, really easy to set up the culture, meaning everybody's dressed in black. So when I client would walk in, they pretty much assume who worked there, right. Also, it's very cohesive. The team was a team. But you know what the most important thing was, was that the hair was the star of the show. The client was the star of the show, not the outfit that the stylist is wearing. And I hope you don't take that wrong but you know, in like Broadway plays or in the theater, a lot of this stage hands in the back. They were black so they blend in with the background. Right. Same thing. If you're wearing black, the hair is the star The show. So that was another reason also, wearing black is so easy, so easy, boring. But so easy. It's so easy to make it look professional. You know, even if you wear a pair of leggings, and a T shirt and throw on a jacket on top, get some cute tennis shoes, and you're good to go. Or if you wanted to dress up a black dress with some jewelry, or belt or high heels, even you're good to go. I know not everybody agrees with that. But it's easy. It's easy. So after COVID and we went back into the salons, you know, a lot of things changed in, you know, people were leaving left and right for doing their own thing. And one of those things that I kept hearing feedback about was dress code, they wanted to not wear black anymore. So to tell you the truth, we tried it, we said Hey, okay, let's change things up a little bit, let's change our dress code. You don't have to wear black anymore. Just black. First, we changed it to you know, one article of color, could be any color, but the rest of your outfit had to be black. Try that for a little bit that went over, okay, but, and then we switched it to Hey, you can wear whatever you want for your personality, and your own personal brand. But if you're wearing like casual shoes, the rest of the outfit had to take it up a notch. Or if you had a casual t shirt, your bottoms had to be dressed up and not you couldn't just come in looking like you just rolled out of bed. The thing that really gets me about dress code is, frankly, I don't care how you show up, but just show up like you give a little bit. If you know what I mean. Just show up like you want to be there. Don't show up like you just rolled out of bed. Don't just put in a loose ponytail bun on your head, barely any makeup, make some chapstick, you know? Come on, if you want to, if you are a stylist and you want to be able to charge these your clients what your worth and your talent, you need to show up looking the part. What if you came into work and you knew you were gonna get in ready to do? I don't know. I don't know who's Katy Perry's hair or I don't even know, right. But you You knew that they were coming into your salon, would you dress up? Would you look the part when you look sharp. So that's what I'm saying is dress the part that you want to be. So if you want to be a successful stylist, if you want to be a successful owner, even dress for the part you want, meaning already be there. I know it's it's terrible that people judge us, within five seconds, they judge you by what you look like what you're wearing, how you show up. Um, that's just our culture. Sorry. So if you're a salon owner, and you're struggling with this, there's a couple ways you can go about this either dress black, that's not real popular these days, or habits. So you have your stylists come to work with their personality, but you show up professionally. Now, you might need to write that down in your handbook. What is professional in your definition, because everybody's different. And it depends on where your salon is located and what community you're located in. But if as a salon owner, if you have a vision of what your salon is supposed to be looking like on the inside of your four walls, you might want to spell that out. Now then they can dress in effect of what that is okay, in our dress code, too. We had this thing. We used to joke saying if you don't sell it, you don't show it meaning. You don't show cleavage. Nobody wants to see that. You don't show your belly. It's not about your body. And I had this thing about armpits. I really did. I hate armpits. I think they're ugly. And plus, we are shampooing. And our armpits are right over their eyeballs and their nose. Nobody wants to be looking up into your armpits. So I know it wasn't a popular thing. And sometimes in the summertime when it gets hot, people want to wear sleeveless tank tops and things and we just didn't allow it. I think that our clients like that. Tell you the truth. Anyway, hopefully this gets a conversation going if you have a dress code and it's working or not working. Could you just comment? DM me? Let me know what's working for you. I'd love to hear it. I'd love to hear if you even have it. Dress code. If it's in your handbook, it might be going out of style since since everybody's wanting to do their own thing, I don't know. I'm still team black. I still say, if you're working in salon, black is back. It's the easiest thing and it always looks good. But I'm old fashioned like that, too. So, anyway, thanks, hope this helped. And until next time. Thanks for hanging out with us on today's podcast. We hope you found it interesting and learn something new. If you liked what you heard, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on future episodes. We're always open to your feedback and suggestions for topics to cover in the future. So don't be shy. Drop us a line on social media or shoot us an email. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you on the next one.