What are the responsibilities of a salon manager? That's the question.
And the real answer is, “It depends!”
In all likelihood, there are 3 different types of people watching this video.
The first is that you don’t own the salon, but are managing the salon for the owner.
The second is that ‘you’ are the salon owner, but have employed a salon manager to manage the daily operations of the salon.
The third is that you are the salon owner. You also work in the business full time, probably behind the chair, and ‘you’ manage the business on a daily basis.
I know salon managers that have ‘a key to open the door’ at the beginning of the day, and close the door at the end of the day. And that’s the beginning and end of their management responsibility.
I know other salon managers who handle the recruitment, the banking, the payroll, the staff training, the inventory management …And everything in between.
I know salon managers that have 1-2 team members to oversee, and others with over 100 on their team.
So what are the responsibilities of a salon manager? It depends.
There is a difference between ‘Salon MANAGEMENT’ responsibilities and ‘Salon MANAGER’ responsibilities’. And it’s not just the spelling!
‘Salon Management’ responsibilities. Means everything, from the ‘daily operations, the financial, the marketing, the human resource component, the legal and the health and safety.
In other words, ‘Salon Management’ is ultimately responsible for every area of the business.
Whereas the ‘Salon Manager’ responsibilities is talking about the specific areas of responsibility that have been designated to the individual ‘salon manager’.
And this is where the owner of the business, needs to take ownership and decide what the responsibilities are that they want the individual salon manager to have.
Once they have listed what those responsibilities are, then they need to develop a job description outlining those responsibilities.
And then recruit someone, either from within the business, or externally, that already has the necessary skills.
Or alternatively, they need to recruit someone or promote from within, and then train them in the skills needed to be able to fulfil that management role.
Unfortunately, all too often, salon owners just want to give someone the title of ‘Manager’ and to then hold them accountable for the salon performance as well as expect them to deal with all the day to day people problems.
And then they wonder why it doesn’t work.
There isn’t a right or wrong list of ‘salon manager’ responsibilities.
The important thing is that if you’re the salon owner, that you define what the responsibilities are that you want to delegate to a manager.
And then to write up a job description, and offer the training and support, that reflects that.
As I say there isn’t a right or wrong list of what you may wish to delegate to a salon manager. It’s more a case of what’s ‘right or wrong’ for you and your business.
But as a generalisation most of the time, what the owner wants is to delegate the role of the day to day ‘people management’ to someone else. And they usually give that person the title of ‘salon manager’.
The titles that are given to positions are important, because, just the title alone, reflects a certain amount about the responsibilities of the position.
Some titles are culturally right in one salon, or even country, but may not be a fit in another. And sometimes titles are just about personal preference.
You could use the title ‘Salon Manager’. Or ‘Assistant Manager’. Or ‘Operations Manager’. Or Team Leader. They’re all similar, but different.
And as I say it also comes down to personal preference.
But if I had a salon today, and wanted to appoint someone to ‘manage the people side of the business’ on a day to day basis, I would choose the title ‘Team Leader’.
Because with that title, they know that their responsibility is about the people on their team.
And so even before a word of a job description has been written, there is already clarity about the direction of what their responsibilities are.