Stylists: Planning for Maternity Leave, Babies and Children

This week we're going to talk about maternity leave, having a baby that's under a year old, and being a mom that's behind the chair.

While I already had my children when I started my work as a stylist I've worked with countless women as they transition through this season of their life and I want to help prepare you and share a few tips on how to make this process easier for you and for your clients.

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Transcript

Morgan Franklin: 0:02

Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.

Tracey Franklin: 0:34

Today we're going to talk about maternity leave having a baby that's under a year old and being a mom that's behind the chair. While I already had my children when I started my work as a stylist, and as a salon owner. I've worked with countless women as they transition through this season of their life. And I want to help prepare you and share a few tips on how to make this process easier for you and for your clients. One of the biggest questions that I hear stylists ask is, am I going to get paid? Well, the truth is probably not. I've not really seen this happen in my local industry. Anyway, I'm sure there's a salon or two out there that does offer these benefits. But it's really not the norm. Working in an hourly pay or commission structure means if you're not performing services, you're not making any money, and neither am I. So unfortunately, as a salon owner, it doesn't really give me much to work with as far as paying you when you're off. In a setting where paid time off is one of the benefits, you're still probably looking at a week or two at the most depending on how long you've been with that company. maternity leave is anywhere from six to 12 weeks. And I'm not here to say you shouldn't take that time off, it's an incredibly important time to heal your body and bond with your new baby. You should however, plan on putting some money aside for your lead because it's unlikely that you're going to be paid for your time off from the salon. So what's it look like when you go back? Well, most new moms are gonna come back to a modified schedule. I have not seen anyone in a very long time just return full time after maternity leave. And I understand why this is a very important season of your life as a new family and missing anything and missing any of the firsts sounds like torture. But this isn't a career that will allow you to just disappear completely without consequences. Your clients are going to cycle through every six to 12 weeks, and they will probably need to be seen while you're out. My recommendation is to put them with the stylist in your salon, one that you know will offer a similar experience for a similar price, then your chances of them coming back to your chair is much higher. Don't get me wrong, so many clients are wonderfully loyal, but not all. And that's okay. Considering that you're probably coming back to limited time and availability anyways, you won't have time for them all. I have never had a problem modifying the schedule to suit a stylist, especially if they are a high value stylist, meaning the two or three days that they are at work are well spent, they work hard and they give their clients their all they also do their part around the salon helping their teammates out and they fold their share of towels to say the least. So the length of maternity leave varies. You know a lot of stylists used to come back after four or five, six weeks, but now stylists are taking up to 12 weeks off and how long you take off is a decision that needs to be based on what's good for you and what's best for your family. Some moms feel too guilty to go back to work at all, while others can't wait to get back at it. Some can go back part time while others don't really have that luxury. Some will do it for the creative edge while others will do it to put food on the table. No matter why or how many days you decide to work. There's no denying the amount of time taken off for maternity leave has increased and even doubled in the last several years. The only way to be prepared for not making money for like six to 12 weeks is to prepare. You've got several months of pregnancy before the baby gets here, but you've got a plan ahead and it can be done. A savings account is a simple but effective way to put away some money. Or maybe you commit to a certain percentage of your income. Or maybe you're like hey, I'm just gonna save all my cash tips. I find that to kind of be a fun way to put even a little more aside. I used to save all my cash tips in an envelope and let it accumulate over time. It really opened my eyes to how much money I was blowing by not treating my cash like real money. We do need to consider how much less common cash tips are now so maybe you include all your Venmo tips as well whatever works for you. So what if you're all alone or you work in a salon suite? Let's go back to placing your clients while you're gone. We know we need to set them up with a similar stylist if we work in that salon, but what if we're all alone? What if we're in a suite, I feel like most suite stylists still get to know their neighbors pretty good, and hopefully a few of them would be willing to help you out while you're gone. If that's not an option, hopefully you at least know a few stylists that you could reach out to on their behalf. At the end of the day, we need to help our clients the best we can. We don't want them fending for themselves and doing something rash like coloring their own hair. If for some reason, you just aren't able to find a replacement while you're out, then at least write their formulation down for them and include any details or preferences that could help a fellow stylist out. Make sure they're stocked up on all their at home care all their must haves things that your guests swears by and can't live without. Make sure it's in stock when they come in for that last appointment before you leave. Don't forget to have them already on the books for when you plan to return. Be aware of what they will need done in 610 12 weeks of not seeing you and make sure it's properly booked. What about the male stylist? What about the daddies? Do they get time off? What does that normally look like? Well, I can't personally speak on this. But I imagine they take off a week or two depending on their family dynamics. I think time off for dads is equally important, but it's just different. They need to bond with their baby and help mom out during this time. I'm all for it. And hopefully they are scheduling some time off. But honestly, I've just never seen a dad take the full amount of time off. There are so many extra responsibilities that you need to prepare for for a newborn stuff you've probably not even thought about like taking time off for their baby appointments or your postpartum deployments. Thinking about how often is this kid gonna get sick if they're in daycare, parenthood is a roller coaster, and no two experiences will be alike. But some things are pretty common. And that's that babies get sick. And daycares have very strict policies on getting them picked up and when they can return. In a perfect world. We all have this backup plan, a grandma or another family member that can help out when needed, and when possible, it's so helpful, but that's not an option for everyone. So work gets missed and everyone has to be rescheduled. It happens it's not fun for anyone but it does happen. I find that loyal clients who wait out your maternity leave and return to your chair, they will be understanding at first. But if it becomes a common occurrence, I urge you to try to make it up to them some how to get them in as soon as you can make sure they know how much you appreciate their understanding. Even the most loyal client will tire of the inconvenience, especially if they don't feel valued. So breastfeeding mamas, breastfeeding is totally doable as a working mom, even as a working stylist, you can pump during lunch or during processing times, this is a really good time to hit pause on double booking, if that's something that you do, you will need this time for other things, especially if you're a nursing mom. Not to mention these gadgets have come so far, the pump I tried to use like 30 years ago is a dinosaur compared to the technology we have now. So being a breastfeeding stylist is a lot more doable than it used to be. So what does a manageable schedule look like for a new parent, I find two to three days a week is the normal. Sometimes it started out as two when the child's really little and then they can work back up to three. I mean, it's really hard leaving your snuggling new angels for any amount of time. So I always suggest having a day off in between your work days. I know sometimes you're at the mercy of your babysitters. So if that's not possible, it's okay. And I know this sounds obvious, but I always say the best work schedule is a schedule that works. Meaning pick your days behind the chair and stick to them have consistency. It's better for your clients to know ahead of time what your schedule looks like. So they can plan as well. Finding your routine is going to help you out and it's really going to be good for your newborn as well. Some parents are just going to come back at it they're going to come back full time and full swing. And maybe that's what they need as a creative. Not everyone's meant to be a stay at home mom or even a part time stay at home mom, or maybe financially that's just what's gonna happen. Having your priorities in place is going to look different depending on the day. Some days your little person is going to need you they're going to be sick or the babysitter cancelled and you don't have a backup. Your child is going to be your priority that day. Then there's going to be days when you'd really like to be at home with your baby who came home with a low grade fever but it's not an emergency and you've got a client on the boat with the Big event that's coming up. Or maybe it's a client that you already had to reschedule before. If you've got help, and it's not an emergency, I think you should stay and take care of your client. My kids were six and seven. When I started my journey in this industry, I passed all the baby stuff, but there were still some challenges and days where I had to make hard decisions. I will say that as a single mother, sometimes life makes that decision for you and you just have to miss stuff. You miss appointments with clients when the kids need you most and you miss lacrosse, games and dance practice when you need to honor your commitment to your clients. It's not always easy, but it is always worth it. My kids got to enjoy a loving and present mother and a really good example of being successful and chasing your dreams and actually catching them.

Morgan Franklin: 10:47

Thank you for joining us on this episode of anytime soon. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post-production by Mike Franklin. Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com