Organization of accounting of materials in a beauty salon is one of the "eternal" topics. And it’s not even that we don’t dare to keep records because it’s so difficult, it’s difficult precisely because we don’t dare to do it.
Back in 2009, at a meeting in a group of companies that owns, among other things, four beauty salons, 6 highly paid employees discussed the organization of accounting for materials in the provision of hairdressing services. Each of the participants had enough managerial experience: the successful construction and organization of banks, and the organization of accounting at public catering enterprises, and more than 6 years of experience in managing beauty salons.
As you know, in restaurants, customer service is carried out according to pre-developed recipes (technological cards). Those. before the dish enters the menu, the chef prepares the studies and draws up flow charts that determine the standard consumption of materials for which pricing, write-off and control of the enterprise's work are carried out. Without control of the bar and kitchen in public catering, thefts are calculated in thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars a month.
What did the participants of the meeting with the directors of the famous network of beauty salons in Ukraine come to? In the past, the director of the network, and now for 15 years as a practicing consultant, convincingly justified the impossibility of organizing the write-off of materials, for example, when dyeing a client - then the quote is almost literal: “You see, the length and thickness of hair is different for each client, write off the actual amount of paint that is squeezed out from a tube, impossible - how do you calculate it? " The opinion of the director of a network of beauty salons was supported by the directors of each of the beauty salons, mentioning manicure services, styling, etc., and so on, since there are always a lot of work issues and the salon direction was not the only one in the business. At this meeting, the meeting ended and, accordingly, all subsequent years, materials were written off, like all previous ones - once a month based on the results of the inventory. Those. once a month, the availability of materials in the salon was recounted and everything that was missing was written off, assuming that the materials were spent on customer service. Do I need to clarify that during all the years of its existence, a successful network of beauty salons worked on subsidies from the central office and the transfer of money from salon to salon. Each time a salary was paid, the owners dated the business, its profitability varied around zero, the earnings were enough to purchase materials and pay salaries. Fortunately, the premises of some of the salons were owned, which provided some financial stability. The reader is probably not surprised to hear that over the past 20 years, the network of three salons has remained a network of three salons.
Such high-quality management and consulting are possible in the absence of information and time to understand the issue. Perhaps you have already guessed how an interested specialist could answer the question of accounting for materials. If you have not yet opened the salon and immersed yourself in the subject, the secret is revealed below.
We do not condemn the highly paid director of a network of beauty salons and an expert consultant - everyone may have their own motives, perhaps someone feels like a "robin hood" business, returning the income initially selected by the owner to those in need. Perhaps the director exalts his importance, not allowing anyone to control cosmetics, and independently deals with this issue, investing energy not in the development of the business. We probably won't find out about the real motives, but the director of the salon is subject to certain temptations.
The purpose of organizing work at the enterprise is to protect employees from temptations as much as possible and direct their energy towards obtaining maximum profit.
So, having unlimited finances, premises in property, a well-known trademark used by a franchise, something was not enough for the successful development of the business. A beautiful business has turned into a business for employees, providing them with a salary and employment.
When you work with top stylists, directors of famous chains, such stories are not uncommon. Depending on the emotional coloring, one often hears that "It is not known how many" zips "will go for styling and how many grams in" zilch "it is impossible to count", "accounting for cosmetics is absurd", "accounting according to standards is a complete mess", a beauty salon is an art, etc. All this is not surprising to hear when your interlocutor is a top stylist / art director.
These and similar misconceptions exist either for the reason that "heads of beauty salons" are satisfied with everything and they do not want to change anything, or because they are simply not familiar with the standards approved back in 1998 and for various reasons do not want to apply them.
There are also opposite examples: motivated employees, after visiting the popular "schools of beauty salon directors", take up work, writing flow charts of procedures on pages in Excel with the highest the degree of detail: there are examples when everything is signed up to a sponge, to a cotton swab worth 0.0002 UAH. Imagine how inexpedient such a big waste of time is.
Let's return to the questions of the director of a well-known network of beauty salons.
It turns out that different hair lengths are not a hindrance to accounting, because the standards adopted in Ukraine 25 years ago are based on the European gradation of hair length. It turns out that it is very easy to determine the actual consumption of each color of paint for painting, because the master squeezes out the paint by weighing it on a scale.
We all trust someone or something in our life. The world around us is very complex due to its diversity. Not because each of the questions is difficult in itself, but because there are a lot of questions.
It is fortunate that, having opened a beauty salon, we trusted a hired director or consultant, and he, having sufficient qualifications and energy, works in our interests for a fee. What if you're out of luck? The financial risks remain with us, and the reward goes to the specialist we trusted. How often do we hear that a beauty salon balances on the verge of minus and zero (but in reality, often paying extra money, it is below zero - after all, if the premises and equipment are property, then rarely anyone considers lost profits).
In order to invest money in a beautiful business, take advantage of the opportunities that are opening up, and not waste money on remuneration of popular experts, elite marketers, directors of famous beauty salons and salon chains, here is a cycle of materials on standardization and accounting.
In the era of "deep fake" (from English, literally - "deep lie"), emotional marketing and sales, we understand that all these technologies are used not only by the beauty salon in relation to its clients, but also by experts, coaches, marketers in relation to the owners salon business.
In order not to waste time, not to become addicted, but to earn money and develop your favorite business, start by studying the basis. For without a foundation, even the most beautiful building will certainly collapse much faster than the same one, but with a foundation.