The Beauty Salon Organization free essay sample

The Beauty Salon Organization Jane Doe Management for Organizations John Doe Monday, August 1, 2011 The organization that I work at is a salon. I have been at this establishment for 6 ? years. I have worked side by side with the owner, operated as manager, and I currently work in this organization as a self-employed manicurist. I have seen firsthand the outcomes of the functional and dysfunctional control systems, experienced how to develop control systems, analyzed and illustrated essential techniques, and seen the impact they have on my professional life and my personal life. In 2005, I began working as a licensed esthetician and assisting the owner on daily duties. Working in a small business and being one of two full time employees I was able to work close with the owner and collaborate on ideas. The business started out as a tanning salon and later incorporated skin care, which is where I came in. We will write a custom essay sample on The Beauty Salon Organization or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Not only did I perform the duties of a skin care professional, but I also worked as a customer service representative for the company. We began implementing goals for the organization which included expanding the skin care department, expanding the tanning salon, adding members to our team of staff, and adding a hair salon as well. By achieving these goals we had to plan, decide what strategies to use, and allocate the companies resources to pursue the strategies. The owner was the manager and as the manager she did most of the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The staff assisted her in her final decision making since we were so small. Our brainstorming would take hours and sometimes days to figure out each step to attaining our goals. We did some demographic research to find where this industry fit in our community. Demographic forces are outcomes of changes in, or changing attitudes toward, the characteristics of a population, such as age, gender, ethnic origin, race, sexual orientation, and social class. Like the other forces in the general environment, demographic forces present managers with opportunities and threats and can have major implications for organizations (Jones, 2010, P. 145). With the research we were able to narrow our playing field down to women. We offered services for most anyone from ages 14 and up, but we knew our largest consumer would be women. Our products and services offered the public beauty enhancements from darkening light skin, reducing cellulite, anti-aging to toning the body. We tried our hand in marketing the business on a small scale, word of mouth. Word of mouth lead us through the spring and summer months when our products and services were most desirable. During the slower months we dabbled in newspaper advertisements as well as billboard advertisements. We arranged a menu of our services to allow clients the opportunity to share information about us and to learn about all the services and products that we offered. We researched the larger cities around us as well as the smaller communities that compared to ours. We looked for similar services and products to find a starting point in applying prices. A low-cost strategy is a way of obtaining customers by making decisions that allow an organization to produce goods or services more cheaply than its competitors so that it can charge lower prices than they do (Jones, 2010, P. 9). With this strategy in mind we adopted a theory, it’s better to have lower prices and more clients than higher prices and fewer clients. We wanted the competitive advantage. Planning strategy is complex and difficult, especially because planning is done under uncertainty when the result is unknown. Managers take major risks when they commit organizational resources to pursue a particular strategy (Jones, 2010, p. 19). Trying to hang with the â€Å"big dogs† we committed too much of our financial resources to offer bigger and better services for our small town. Lacking in money management and having a big vision the owner began splurging on high tech and high priced items with hopes of making the business boom. With little demand of the newest line of equipment that our organization invested in we realized we became too big too fast. We became the largest salon and spa in our area with 15 staff members, 12 tanning beds, over a hundred services, and thousands of dollars in inventory. Our staff included 3 part time receptionist and tanning bed operators, a massage therapist, an esthetician, 2 manicurists, and 8 hairstylists. Our goal was reached, but it was spiraling out of control. After evolving for seven years and after gambling over $600,000 in equipment and products our owner was in way over her head. The business was not sustaining itself any longer. The financial resources were depleted and the owner was forced to sell at a salvage price. Her intentions were good, but her management skills were weak and in the long run her strategies to succeed caused her to fail. Her task was to plan, organize, lead, and control and no self-evaluation was taken to measure her own performance. Before the next owner, a retired insurance branch manager, purchased the business he had one requirement. The requirement was that a manager would be hired to run it with little assistance from him. The manager hired was me. The new owner was under the impression that the business was self-sustaining and thought since I had 4 years’ experience assisting the previous owner and I was knowledgeable of the business that I would be a great candidate for management. I had little business management education, a large ego and I lacked most of the important skills to managing a business. Three important skills to have when effectively managing a business is: conceptual, human, and technical skills. One of the biggest problems that people who start small businesses confront, for example, is their lack of appropriate conceptual and human skills. Someone who has the technical skills to start a new business does not necessarily know how to manage the venture successfully (Jones, Gareth, 2010, P. 26). I was more skillful with conceptual skills than I was with human skills and technical skills. As a young inexperienced woman my first task was to gain confidence. My emotions were in it and I desired respect. Gaining respect from a group of women that had been in the industry for a combined total of over 70 years was tough. I did not have the ability to manage my emotions very well. I struggled for months with one particular employee that knew what buttons to push on me. From the beginning my job satisfaction was low. I allowed her personality to get to me and it disrupted my decision making. When the situation was at its peak I asked her to leave. Another obstacle I faced was similar to the previous owner; I did not know how to manage money. Looking back I can see where mistakes were made. The reception area was unorganized, but it had the potential to be great. So in my efforts of developing control systems I began organizing the reception department. I typed up a manual of ways of handling most situations that may occur between a client and the receptionist. Professional customer service was my goal. I laid out the plan on paper with the manual and next I approached the receptionists. We came up with simple phone greetings and methods of communicating to clients over the phone and in person. We found new and better ways to organize the appointment book so that everyone knew their schedule and had all the appropriate information on each client. These new approaches caught on. The more the reception area was organized and prepared the less likely they had to depend on me. They had the confidence they needed to handle their responsibilities. We gathered information from clients and salon consultants to improve our business and the services available to clients. With minor changes we were able to spice up the appearance of our tanning department as well as help organize it. We took the same approach to our laundry room and spa area. We framed the changes so that clients would find the materials they needed for their service more easily. Little by little the departments were looking better and better. The clients were noticing the changes and enjoying them. I analyzed figures and came up with new tanning packages to increase sells, marked down products periodically to move old product out. I developed a webpage of our business to increase traffic. We sold gift certificates on our website, usually selling hundreds of dollars’ worth each quarter. Each month we had a spa special which included a skin care service and a massage service. We kept our website updated monthly with each new special. We also started a salon fan page on Facebook so that our clients could view daily, weekly, and monthly specials. This really kept our business connected to the community. Our goal was to constantly remind our clients to come visit us whether to buy for themselves or for someone they loved. Getting our name out to the community and giving the community an idea of what we did and what we were about was important. We wanted them to know that they deserved to be pampered and we had the services to help them relax from head to toe. Our efforts showed a small climb in sells. I was quickly seeing that advertising was essential to our business’ growth. Advertising was not always cheap, but using Facebook and our webpage was cheaper and easier way to advertise on a daily basis. Occasionally we did newspaper advertisements and local business card ads in menus for restaurants and school flyers. We also met with a local graphic designer to design our new service brochure and our business cards. This was a cheap way of getting our name out. We dropped these off at local businesses and gave them out to every new and old client. Another way that we pointed ourselves out was purchasing new awnings with our logo on them so that people could see us from a distance. We also purchased banners with our name and information to set up at chamber events, parades, and other community events. We were chamber members and we helped sponsored chamber events. All of this was done over the course of 2 years. Every once in a while we planned meetings to get feedback from employees and staff and to update everyone on changes. The meetings were usually a time to complain and that is one place I struggled. I did not step outside the box to make the meetings fun and enjoyable. They were usually dry and long. We also tried planning events where we could all enjoy ourselves, like going to a hibachi grill or having holiday parties. When we held those events they were fun and we should have done more of them to pep up the staff and encourage them. As time went on it just seemed harder to plan and encourage people, because I felt so burden with the business battling with the economy. Struggling to pay bills for the business I consulted the owner. He gave me the opportunity to improve the financial situation, but with the crashing economy and an absence of money management I was unable to grasp control of the situation. The owner began assisting me on orders and paying bills as he shelved money into the business to keep it afloat. We cut back on hourly wages and I covered the reception area more. The idea of selling the business seemed better each month. Selling the business would probably mean me losing my job. In my second year of management I took a manicurist class at a local community college to obtain my manicurist license. I did this knowing we did not have enough staff to handle the demand for manicurist services. I finished in May and was able to bring in more income for the business by being available to render the services. By November the owner was looking for a prospect to purchase the business. During this time our full time manicurist told us she would be moving out of the country and leaving her clientele behind. So by mid-December I was taking over a full clientele and stepping away from my position as manager. January 1st we were officially owned and operated by a hairstylist that had only been with us for 4 months. I assisted the newest owner as she began managing the salon and spa. I worked with her for about a month showing her how to prepare payroll, taxes, and schedules. I illustrated ways of increasing revenue. One way I mentioned would help was to set up televisions in all the departments of the business advertising each department. Knowing that all of our tanners did not know what all we offered and all of our hair clients did not know we offered other services, this would have been a great way to advertise to our existing clients. We even spoke with a videographer and she agreed to swop services, so no money would be exchanged. Months have gone by and we have no televisions. As a small-business owner, you need to juggle many different roles, and tapping into all available resources is essential (Anonymous, 2009, Running A Successful Small Business ). So we analyzed the monthly figures and came up with ways to use fewer resources. I gave her advice on how to run the reception area, as well as, when to order inventory. Like me, she became overwhelmed in the first couple of months. Her managing style was different than anyone we had worked with before. She herself had no managing experience. Her ways were not consistent and out of order. If you were being reprimanded she would do so in front of other people including the clients. The respect people had for her went out the window. Unfortunately, her low-cost strategy was by abstaining from ordering products. She also put family members in the reception area to save money. Working as a full time hairstylist she was not able to assist or train the receptionist properly. A few of the staff members gave a few hours a week to help her save money on hourly wages. We also gave up our small commissions on product sells so that she could use the money as needed. To settle in my new position, to learn the daily responsibilities of operating my manicurist business, and allow the newest owner to become independent I had to back away from assisting her. She and her husband now operate it. They are struggling to make the business grow and to depend on fewer resources. The majority of the business’s income is made in the spring and summer months. During the fall and winter months it takes much more effort to bring in revenue and to minimize cost. I have managed my on manicurist business for 7 months now. Taking some of the skills that I have learned from my experience as manager and the education that I have received over the last few months has motivated me to plan, organize, lead, and control my business. I have not done any advertisements; I have grown by word of mouth. I enjoy what I do and I believe it shows in my work. Occasionally I will buy a box of cards and mail them out to my clients to let them know that I appreciate them and if there is an illness or an issue in their family I will send one out. My business has grown and has become established, I believe, all because of the faith that I have and the skills that I have learned. I take classes pertaining to my field and I am obtaining my bachelors in Business Administration. I should be graduating in October of 2013 and hopefully pursuing my master’s degree shortly after. In conclusion, I have shown the ways I have seen outcomes of functional and dysfunctional controls systems in the organization that I work at. I have exhibited my experience in managing and developing control systems, illustrated and analyzed essential techniques, and shown how it has impacted my professional and my personal life.