Beware the ‘Suites’ Trend

The second biggest decision you will make as you begin your career is where to work after graduation. Why is your first job your most important? Because it sets the stage for things to come. Your first job will allow you to build your confidence and fine tune your newly acquired skills.

The new trend of ‘suites’ setup as individual rooms with a single station can be dangerous for budding careers. Here are three reasons why smart graduates are steering clear of flying solo too soon in their career.

#1 – Watch and Learn

As a Nuts and Bolts student you’ve learned it’s not just about giving a great haircut. The applied business skills you learned in the Nuts & Bolts Training program will be the key differences between a good and an amazing career. As you get started you will need (and want) the support of other more experience stylists around you. You can see how they approach a client who wants the impossible hairstyle, the diva client who is always late or how to increase your retail.

#2 – Funded Ongoing Skills Education

The good salons will have a focus on ongoing education that will be mandatory for stylists. That’s right, mandatory. As if you would say no! Being part of a progressive salon will mean you have access to ongoing education that will help you take leaps and bounds in your abilities. Go solo too early in your career and you’ll be sourcing secondary education on your own and risk falling behind your peers.

#3 – Bigger Magnet, Stronger Attraction

As you get started one of your priorities will be to start networking. You may be a few months away from taking your own clients, but while you are assisting and learning from senior team members you should be networking and learning how to ask people for their business. A salon will attract more clients just by nature of being a business with an established brand and resources to market themselves, making it easier to draw in new opportunities to network your way to a thriving business.

There is power in numbers and as you get going it will be nice to have a support group around you as you find your footing. The suites where you can have your own ‘business’ can be lonely as you are well and truly all on your own. Established stylists towards the end of their career often find these flexible options appealing to keep their established clients, but professionals looking to expand their horizons will only find the four walls of a suite stifling.