Get them young

During a credit crunch, salons will need to cut costs, and one way is to employ young, low-paid staff. Julian Sampson examines the merits (and otherwise) of this tactic.

There’s a credit crunch on apparently. People are feeling the squeeze and spending less on the little luxuries then before. You have probably noticed that repeats are extending the time between visits or spending less in the salon. You, as a business owner, are probably also looking at your overheads too if you haven’t done so already.

Alongside rent, staff costs are easily one of the largest expenses of any business and in tough times you hear of redundancies or pay freezes as employers try to limit these costs. The purpose of this article is to tackle the issue of employing young, low paid staff.

These potential employees can be useful to a salon of any size – some jobs simply do not warrant high wages or it would be uncompetitive to do so. And of course, a salon can be a magnet for young people who have ambition in the industry or simply see it as a "cooler" way to earn some holiday or weekend cash.

All those rules...
It is true to say that sometimes the law has rules for rules' sake and it would also be true to say that on occasions these rules are debilitating for any business owner. Unfortunately our opinions don’t really count and these days compliance is an industry all in itself.

Experience suggests that you will have several job applications being made to you at any one time so it is easy to forget your obligations. One helpful source is the factsheet already available from Salon-Smart.net on interview questions that you can and cannot ask. But what are your responsibilities for these future stars of the salon?