The Fundamentals

The Fundamentals
How To Run A Beauty Salon: Role Model
Mary Crane, 04.20.07, 6:00 PM ET

Every new business owner needs to know the fundamentals. Forbes.com is breaking down those building blocks by answering eight core questions related to a given industry. Taken together, the information will give budding entrepreneurs a head start on making those first critical steps.

Which big company is the ideal role model?

It may be comparing organic apples to oranges, but Frank Rizzieri, head of the Rizzieri Corp.'s two salons in New Jersey, says he looks to Whole Foods Market (nasdaq: WFMI - news - people ), the natural foods supermarket, for management inspiration.

In the salon world, the most precious resources are stylists, so keeping them around and happy is critical. Whole Foods "is great from a staff-retention point of view," says Rizzieri. "The interpersonal relationship [customers have] with their service provider means the customer leaves with the service provider."

Rizzieri admits it is harder for smaller companies like beauty salons to offer the same kind of perks that Whole Foods does. For example, Whole Foods' full-time employees who have worked more than 800 hours get medical coverage at no cost.

Still, there are some Whole Foods tactics that salon owners can offer to attract talent while not going broke in the process. For example, all employees 18 years old or older can sign up for the company's 401(k) retirement savings plan and everyone--part-timers and full-timers--gets paid time off based on the number of hours worked.

Whole Foods trains like mad, too. Each store has a budget for sending employees to classes and trade shows and for buying books and magazine subscriptions. The company also runs online classes via its "Whole Foods Market University" to reinforce the company culture and improve employees' skills.

Finally, salons might try adopting the supermarket's view on community involvement. Whole Foods administers two nonprofit foundations--the Whole Food Planet Foundation and the Animal Compassion Foundation--which give employees a way to interact outside of work and meet other people within the company. Salon owners, take note: Investing in local communities is not only a good way to raise employee morale, it's also great PR.

As for Rizzieri, he says he spends one-half of 1% of gross income on training and offers health benefits and paid vacation time to full-time employees. He also hand-picks and trains his own stylists. "We build our own culture that way," he says.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/20/whole-foods-training-ent-hr-cx_mc_0420fundsalonrolemodel.html?partner=yahootix