Building Blocks to a Great Culture P1

Hi Everyone!

Today's post is directed towards salon owners. Now this does not mean estheticians who do not own a salon cannot benefit from this, if you choose, this can be applicable across the board.

Before I get started I want to explain what culture is, culture is essentially the personality of a company. It is a set of values, beliefs, and energy that the people involved create. Culture can effect whether work is fun, boring, or stressful. It is so important and whether people know it or not, there is a culture behind every business.

First you must define it. You get to choose what your culture is like. Sit down and start brainstorming, what do you want people to feel when they are in your salon? What are your goals - individually and for the business? Your culture should reflect you and what you believe in, and not just one aspect of what is important to you. As you have many values and beliefs, there are many ways to express them and you need to do this accurately. From the walkway to the bathroom, it should all represent your culture.

When writing it down try to compose both your vision and mission statements. Your vision statement will sum up where you see your company headed, what you want for the future of your company. Basically the 'WHY'. Why are you in this business? As nice as the money is, that is probably not where your passion comes from… so what is it?

Your mission - okay, so we now know why you are in this industry from your vision, now what are you planning on doing about it. How are you going to get your business, your industry, whatever 'it' is, how are you going to make a difference and get it where it needs to go? It is possible that part of my vision stems around having a fun environment for my employees and clients… well.. How am I going to do that? Well, I am going to have a collaborative party every Friday where people relax, enjoy their coworkers and we come up with ideas on how to grow. Okay obviously in the beauty industry this is less likely to happen on a Friday, so let's say its Monday brunch! Who knows? The point is, is that you can decide how your company will be perceived to others.

So what are your core values? Keep in mind that the values you choose should drive behaviour. Start by writing down what is important to you, if you already have a team then get them together and brainstorm as a team. By doing this you will make them care more, and they will be more likely to live by these values. Not all of your values have to be business related, if you start by writing down what is important to you, you may realize that you can intertwine some of them into your business. For example, maybe a healthy lifestyle is important to you, well encouraging people to drink more water on the job by supplying filtered water can tie in healthy lifestyle between you and your coworkers. Another example is some government jobs, where there is a high percentage of military folks working, are given the choice of a 30 minute break or a full hour IF they go to the gym. This promotes fitness which is very important to the government.

Make sure to involve the people the culture will affect the most. The more it affects them, the more it matters that they are involved. This is something you want them to be as passionate about as you are, if they have no say it may seemed forced, when in reality they may have made the same suggestion if they went through the process of what is important to them too.

Later this week we will discuss employees roles and how to begin implementing your culture. Til then,

Elise xox