Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

074: How to Hire the Right Esthetician Without Wasting Time, Money, or Your Sanity

• Kari Jo

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Hiring the wrong person doesn't just hurt your bank account—it steals your peace of mind. After guiding countless estheticians through the hiring process, I've discovered that most well-meaning spa owners are making critical mistakes that cost them an average of $14,000 per bad hire.

Think about that number for a moment. At 30% of the average esthetician's annual salary, bad hires create a financial black hole that many small businesses can't recover from—especially when you realize you won't see a return on any employee investment for at least six months. The traditional "submit resume, interview, skills test" approach simply doesn't cut it anymore.

Your hiring journey must begin long before you post that job listing. It starts with crafting a mission statement specifically for your team—not your clients. This internal mission should function like a memorable slogan that every employee can repeat and embody. From there, develop a job description that doesn't just list duties but tells your company's story, highlights what makes working with you unique, and clearly prioritizes responsibilities from most to least important.

Understanding working styles is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of successful hiring. I've found tremendous value in identifying my own strengths and weaknesses using the Five Working Geniuses assessment. This allows me to hire people who excel precisely where I struggle. Remember when I hired my first receptionist because I couldn't say no to clients? Or my second esthetician because I disliked permanent makeup? These strategic hires complemented my weaknesses rather than duplicating my strengths.

Don't underestimate the power of a thoughtful application process. I've completely abandoned resume reviews in favor of detailed questionnaires that reveal a candidate's communication style, attention to detail, and alignment with my values. The length and care of their responses tells me more about their work ethic than any resume ever could.

Ready to transform your hiring process from guesswork to strategy? Stop hiring like a desperate entrepreneur and start hiring like the CEO your business deserves. Check out my comprehensive course "How to Hire Like a Boss" where I walk you through each step of creating a hiring system that consistently brings the right people into your business.

To learn more about coaching please visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

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Links You May Want to Check out:

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Kari Jo Patterson:

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, where passion meets prosperity. Your host, Kari Jo Patterson, transformed from a solo esthetician into a successful business owner, achieving ultimate time and financial freedom by the age of 38. Kari is the author of Fearless Prosperity, empowering estheticians to build their empire and achieve financial freedom, and the creator of the Empire Growth System for Estheticians. Get ready for some empire-building wisdom Now. Welcome your host, Kari Jo Patterson.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Welcome back to another Esthetician Podcast. Guys, I got to tell you what I did the other day and then I'm going to jump into the episode. But okay, my daughter. If you have followed me along for a while, I have a 17-year-old and she is the sweetest thing in the world. But, guys, I'm not kidding you, she has gotten in six different car accidents within a year. We have two spare cars and they are both in the shop because of her driving off the road. Like, so bad, we have spent. I swear. I mean, I love her, she's so sweet, I'm not bashing her and she, she's to her credit, she has never gotten an accident when someone else has ever been in the car and she doesn't like it's always just like driving off the road because she's not paying attention or something.

Kari Jo Patterson:

And then she like like ruins the tires, what? Okay, anyways, way too much information. So, anyways, we're like what are we gonna do? How are we gonna solve this problem? I was like, honestly, I don't think. So we were like we don't think she can drive, like we can't do this anymore, like she's costing us thousands of dollars, you know. And then we came to the realization we're like I don't think she can drive unless she literally has a self-driving car, which ended up leading us to tesla. Guys, I just have to tell you about how amazing this deal is really quickly non-political. I know there's a bunch of stuff in the media right now about tesla, but I'm just going to tell you this car is amazing. So we went in there and I was like, listen, I don't want the expensive car, I want the cheapest car, but it has to be able to self-drive. Listen to how amazing this is. And I got to tell you about the price, because that's what's even more incredible.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So this car, it self-drives. Right, you get in and you can either tell it or you can type it in. It has its own Wi-Fi system. And you tell it, like, take me to Chick-fil-A. It pops up on the screen, you click on the one and literally it goes. You don't do anything, you don't even touch it, okay, and then what it does do is it has this camera that is watching you. Then what it does do is it has this camera that is watching you. So if you go to pick up your phone, the car will alert you and it will flash like these blue lights. That's like warning get off your phone, pay attention, and if you don't get off your phone right away, it flashes again. It's like pay attention, warning, pay attention.

Kari Jo Patterson:

And then if you do it a third time, it literally stops the car. It stops the car. You have to literally pull over, put it in park and you have to turn off your car and even restart it. It's a pain. Well, if you do this, and so that's how it keeps you, you have to stay attention Even though you're not driving and it drives for you. You have to focus. And then what's really cool is if you get notified three times, you can only do that Like and you can set the limit. But like, say, three times in a week, your car will not start. Like it, you can't use it for like a week.

Kari Jo Patterson:

And I'm like why do all teenagers not have this car? Like it may. And here's the thing is, it drives better than me. I'm not even kidding you. There was okay, it was like during I tested this during high traffic there were three cars going, okay, like all three lanes, and I mean like busy, busy, busy traffic, and I was like we're going to be here, like all three lanes, and I mean like busy, busy, busy traffic, and I was like we're going to be here like all freaking day and we had to get through three lanes and get in the fourth lane, which is a turning lane, to make a U-turn. Okay, I'm sitting here and I'm like dude, we're going to be here forever. No joke, I would not have made this move, but like it worked. It was able to cut all the way across Cause it just it does the math and it knows when it can go and when it can't. It drove so beautifully Like I was like I would have been stuck at that stop sign forever, cause I wouldn't have trusted myself and it just knew exactly what to do. And it worked so incredibly.

Kari Jo Patterson:

And it's like, and they were like yeah, the truth is, is that in reality, he's like we are the last drivers, like our generation is the last generation to drive, because in five years, all cars will be automatic. And I really do believe that, because we're talking about how I'm like well, what if a car starts getting over? Well, it's like's like it has so much data, so much YouTube videos, so much like like, so much data out there, that it knows how to reason, so it reasons. We're like teenagers they can't reason. Do I like turn to the right, do I slow down, do I break Whatever? Well, when it happens, chat, just like chat, gpt, you know what I mean. It takes in all of the things, all of the knowledge, and it knows how to handle that so you don't get in a car accident. So he was telling me how, like right now, like all these older people that can't drive anymore, like people are starting to get these cars for the older people because they just, you know, old people can't drive worth crap, but this way they can still drive. And the car has this option where you can do like in a hurry, in a rush, or not. So if you're in a rush, it kind of will swerve to get you there quicker, and if not, then whatever. But he was telling me that, basically, right now it is not. You still have to like watch that's why it has the alert system but in like June or July, the new updates coming out, where it is completely self-driven. You could read a book. That's like what's coming out in like June or July, but right now you still have to focus and pay attention, like anyways. So super, really cool.

Kari Jo Patterson:

But this is the part that I had to tell you, guys, this is the insane part. How much do you think this? I mean, the car is expensive, yes, but how much do you think this car is like the? I don't know why all parents don't have this car for their teenager. You can lease this car. Okay, you can lease this car with zero down. You don't put any money down. You can lease it. And it is $340 a month. I kid you not. This is also what's crazy, because it's electrical. Right, I, right now, we did the math and we live out in the country, so my daughter has to drive further and she does have a gas guzzler car. But I, my daughter, because I feel like it's my responsibility to pay to get her to school, I give my daughter $120 a month for gas. Okay, I'm not going to be paying for gas. So, like, out of that $340, 120 of it I'm saving from the gas. It's insane, guys, and it drives better. It's aware 24-7. Your teenagers are not aware 24-7. Why don't? And I was like this is stupid, why aren't more people doing it? And he's like, honestly, people don't know about it, we don't advertise it. So there's my little plug I'm advertising it if he has the same promise to me, okay.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Anyways, let's jump into what I was really coming on here to talk to you guys about, which is tonight or today's episode. I am talking about the hiring process, because this is something I'm literally been working on with a bunch of my clients over and over again and I see and they're all doing it wrong, but not doing it like they didn't know any better. Most people don't, and so I want to teach you guys how to hire right. If you listen, if you don't hire right, you don't do it right, it is going to cost you time, it's going to cost you money and, most of all the biggest one is it's going to cost you peace. Okay, so if you hire someone a bad hire and they don't stay, they're going to cost you 30% of their annual salary. That's how important it is to get this rise.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Now I'm just going to do the math. I'm going to use my phone here because I didn't do it, but $47,000 is what the average esthetician makes across the country Average. I said Some people are higher. Sometimes, don't come after me. I said some people are higher. Sometimes, don't come after me. I said average. And let's find out what 30% of that is $14,000. A bad hire is going to cost you $14,000.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So do you want to know why that's why it's so important to get this right? So do you want to know why that's why it's so important to get this right? On top of that, here's one other truth is a lot of times when I am working with a business owner, I'm like, why did that's why you're hiring? Like that's not gonna happen for a while, especially if you're still working behind the chair. It's gonna be like really rough, and so it's gonna cost you money. Here's the hard truth when you hire, you will not get a return on your investment from that employee for six months, six months. So if they leave before six months, six months, so if they leave before six months, you are out anything that they earned for sure. Do you know? Because everything up until six months, you do not make anything on them, and that is like a true fact. You're just not going to.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So the goal is is, you want to stop guessing and you want to have a system that you can, that is going to bring in the right person, and you want to create an experience of like I'm a real business. You know, like when you go to all these other test stations and they think they have a system and their system is something like this like, yeah, submit me an application. Okay, they hire, they come in, they do the interview and maybe they do a skills test and then they hire him. That sounds like a good system, but it's not a good system. That's not how you hire and you're missing a lot of key steps, which is why I do have a course it's called how to hire like a boss where I'm going to teach you, where I literally teach you the whole entire process and walk you through it. But in this episode I'm going to start with like the top three things and if you want to learn more, you can go look into the course. But to get you started because I mean it is a long process and hard to get into everything on one freaking phone call I can't even do that with my clients.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So the first step is is before you hire, you need to have a mission statement. So what do I mean by mission statement? Most of you probably have a mission statement, but there are two types of mission statements. So you have a mission statement and it is talking to your ideal clientele, right? It is how you're speaking to your clients and everything like that. But then you also have to have a different mission statement, and your mission statement it has to talk directly to your employees. Who works for you, it needs to talk to them. Your mission statement should be something that I like to call a slogan and every single person in your company should be able to repeat it like this, and it's like kind of like Nike's just do it. You know what I mean. Like, your mission statement needs to just like when people ask you what do you do? You know what I mean. There's your mission and it's an elevator pitch. I want you to think of your mission statement as an elevator pitch. It's got and you're, and you're talking directly to your employees.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, you also need to think about what are your core values, your core principles? So, like, what are you about? You know, are you about professionalism? Are you about being selfless? Like, what are your values? And, honestly, your company's values are basically your values. I mean, it can be anything really, but if I'm being honest, like, so much of your company is you? So what your company is going to value is probably the same thing that you value. So what is it that you value, and that is ultimately where you start. So first you need to craft a mission statement for who your company is. What are you guys trying to do? What is your values? Because those are the type of people that you have to attract to your company.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Okay, after you have your mission statement, then you've got to go in and develop a job description. Okay, your job description. It should start with like five sentences summary about your company. It's your elevator pitch and it needs to say what is interesting about your company. Why would somebody come, want to work at your place? You know, wow me. The next part of the job description needs to be your about the company. Okay, so this is why should somebody come and work for you, versus anywhere else? What makes you unique and different? What is your vision for the future? Where is your company going? Right, what are your company values? Okay, it's almost like putting this picture and people are like, yeah, that's me, that's what I want, right. And then after that, in your mission statement or in your job description, you need to go in to your objectives. So you need to list out what it is that you want them to do, and you got to list them in order from the most important down to the very least important. Okay, after that this is the third step of the job description is you need to put down what competencies do you need them to have?

Kari Jo Patterson:

So one thing I always like to talk about and I tell people that when you're hiring for someone to come on, it is not I'm just hiring an esthetician. What I really want to do is I'm not a whole person, right, I'm not the best at everything in aesthetics, I'm not the best of everything in business or anything like that, so I want to fill my holes and I'm trying to hire somebody that is going to do that. So I want you to think of it like this the first person I hired was my virtual receptionist. Why did I do that? Because I couldn't say no, so I needed to hire someone else who could say no. The second person I hired I hated doing permanent makeup, so I hired them on. Yes, we both did everything. We did facials together. We did everything, but she did permanent makeup. The third person I hired on I hated waxing. So she was the waxer. She loved waxing.

Kari Jo Patterson:

You're always trying to find what you suck at or you don't want to do anymore and you're like off hiring that. So, like, what competencies do they need to have in order to have this job? Like, do you need to know how to do lashes? Or there's this test that you can take. It's a book your five working geniuses. I I'll put it in the show notes, but there is a test you can take. It's $25 and it tells you what your working genius is. And so when you're doing these things, that's when you're the most happiest, right, and we all have our working geniuses which we're really good at. But then there is things that when we are in this other working genius, we are not good at it, we don't love it and we hate it and we hate that job. Okay, so I like to take that test because I like to know what I'm good at and where, what working geniuses that I hate, and hire for those working geniuses.

Kari Jo Patterson:

For example, I'm an idea. I am not a task doer. I do not. That's like, if I'm having to sit here and complete tasks, I hate it, it's not going to work. But dude, my receptionist, have always been task doers and they all should be like my personal assistants. They're all amazing, but see, that is their working genius and they love it.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So what happens if you hire someone creative to be your, if, like, they're working genius is being creative and then you put them in a receptionist job, right, are they going to love their job? No, they're not. They're going to not love it. They're going to want to be creating, not sitting behind a desk doing all of the tasks that you have for them to do, right. So they're going to be unhappy. They're probably going to leave. You're going to have a higher turnover rate.

Kari Jo Patterson:

So, knowing what kind of skills, what kind of things inspire certain people to have certain jobs or certain roles Like if you, if you have an esthetician and you need them to help build your schedule, you might need someone who's creative to come up with ideas of like, yeah, let's try this, let's do this. You know what I mean. I don't know. Maybe you want somebody who is a task doer, esthetician where it's like I want you to go do these things and then they go and do those things, but know what it is that you want them to do, and then, of course, you want to add any benefits that your company has. So this is super important because people don't realize. Even when you're a small business, you don't realize the benefits that your company has, even if it doesn't have health insurance or dental.

Kari Jo Patterson:

I think a lot of times we look at ourselves like a big corporate. We're not a big corporation or anything like that, but it doesn't mean we don't have benefits. Maybe you do have PTO after a year. Maybe you have continuing education reimbursement after a year, and also, just like, working underneath you, they have an in-house mentor. You get a mentor right. Like you already built your business, you already know how to do everything, and so the value is is you don't have to pay for mentoring. I've got you, I'm going to help you, I'm going to grow. That is so helpful. Maybe you help them learn to read their numbers. Maybe just think of all the. Maybe you get free treatments, like every month. You know whatever it is. Think of all the little tiny things in your company and list them.

Kari Jo Patterson:

And then, of course, okay, this is the next thing where the very last part of the job description is how to apply. So you need to tell them how to apply. Now, guys, I don't. Okay, I'm trying to think of how to say this, but basically what I do with resumes are pointless to me. Everybody lies on a resume. They're completely like they're useless, right? So I don't base my job interviews off of resumes. I don't even care. In fact, I don't even want one, although I always enjoyed. I never asked for resumes, but I always enjoyed when estheticians brought one in. Anyways, it was really nice because I didn't ask for it and it showed them, showed me that they went up and above and beyond, which makes me think, oh, they're going to go up and beyond for my clients because they're doing that for me. See, it's a good like. Hmm, yeah.

Kari Jo Patterson:

What I do instead is I want them to fill out a form, so I will tell them to go and apply. Guys, where do you, where should people apply for your company? Do you want them to come into your office? Where do you want them to come in? That's another thing that you got to understand. I wanted them to apply and fill out a form. So when they filled out this form, I ask questions and I get a fill for them, and I always have a secret question in there. And if you want to know what the secret question is, you definitely need to go take my course. But I always have a secret question in there. But one of the things that I love about having them fill out a form is that you basically, when you do it like that, you can compare everybody's answers already, so you can already see the difference.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Another thing is is like sometimes I would have people on my questionnaires and I'm asking a question and I want to see how much effort they put into these questions. So if they ask a question like or I'm like how do you feel about being on social media? And they're like it's fine, you know, and they're all of their questions are like yes, no, like short girl, I don't want you working for me, like you don't care to put in enough details and enough time into like responding. And then I would have these other ones that put in huge, massive, like D, you know detailed descriptions of everything, and I'm like okay, that person's super detail oriented, like if I'm looking for a detailed person, the one that's giving me like a whole whatever that makes sense. So I loved to use questions.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Now, guys, you want to develop. What I want you to take away from this is you've got to develop a system of hiring and it needs to go from the very beginning and making a description of the person so that you can advertise correctly for the type of like. If you're like, need somebody to be a waxer, then you know you're like. If you don't like waxing, don't apply here, right Like? You gotta know who you're hiring and then you need to know how to get them to apply.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Like I said, I do have a course. It is how to hire like a boss I think that's what I named it, but I'll put it in the show links either way and you can take that course. You can learn the secret question and then you can learn the rest of the steps of walking them through the interview, the offer letter, all of the different things. Learn it all. And, guys, I hope that you found this valuable. Make sure that you hire right. Stop guessing. Hire like a true CEO, don't wing it. Get an actual system. This is something that should be a system in your business.

Kari Jo Patterson:

Bye, guys, thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one-on-one VIP coaching opportunities and more visit www. kari jopatterson. com. That's www. karij opatterson. com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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