Ep. 40 - Don't Hire Just Because You're Busy
I happened to be in my spa on a random day last year when nearly $1,000 in sales almost walked right past my locked door.
Three people. One wanted hundreds of dollars in products. One was a husband buying a gift card for his wife (our client). One was a client wanting to purchase a gift card.
My two estheticians were both in 90-minute treatments. Completely booked. The door was locked because we don't have a front desk.
If I hadn't been there that day? All that money would've been left on the table.
And in that moment, my brain screamed: "WE NEED TO HIRE SOMEONE RIGHT NOW."
But here's what I've learned after seven years in business and watching countless spa owners (including myself) make this mistake:
It's not a hiring problem. It's a timing problem.
The Panic Hire Cycle (And Why You're Probably In It)
Here's how it goes:
Busy season hits. Calendars fill up. You're turning people away. Fear of leaving money on the table creeps in. Hiring feels URGENT. So you hire someone during the absolute busiest, most chaotic time of year.
You try to train them while you're exhausted, overwhelmed, and energetically unavailable. The new hire doesn't get set up properly because you literally don't have the bandwidth.
By the time they're finally trained and confident? The busy season is over.
Now you're on a different hamster wheel—trying to keep this new person booked during the SLOW season. Your payroll percentage creeps up because you have an extra person to pay but fewer clients to go around.
Financial stress replaces the stress of being busy. You've just traded one problem for another.
Sound familiar? Yeah. I've been there too.
The Hard Truth About Busy Seasons
By the time you realize you need to hire, you're usually already ankle-deep in clients.
And while yes, you CAN be strategic and hire ahead of time, hiring during Q4 or summer or whenever YOUR busy season hits is almost always a mistake.
Here's why: You can't train effectively when you're frantic. You can't give someone the attention they need when you're running between treatment rooms. You can't set them up for success when you're barely keeping your own head above water.
Learning needs to happen in an environment where there's actually space to learn.
What to Do INSTEAD of Panic Hiring
Okay, so the calendar is full. Money's being left on the table. What do you actually do?
Let me give you two alternatives that will solve the immediate problem without creating a payroll nightmare three months from now.
Solution #1: Support Staff Shifts (If You Have a Team)
This is my favorite solution, and it's what we currently use.
Here's how it works:
Identify your busiest days. For us, it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Assign each esthetician a support staff shift on one of those days.
What they do during that shift: Act as spa attendant + front desk + esthetician all in one. Handle walk-ins, answer phones and texts, check out clients for their coworkers who are in treatments, help with room turnover, follow up with their own clients about product refills, send thank you notes, make referral calls, handle the cleaning list.
Basically catch EVERYTHING that falls through the cracks when everyone's booked solid.
Why this works better than a front desk: An esthetician can consult on services and recommend products WAY faster and better than a front desk person. They're already trained. They know the answers.
And during downtime (when there aren't walk-ins), they're doing revenue-generating activities like following up on gift card promotions or calling clients to rebook.
How you pay them: Same hourly rate as when they're seeing clients.
What your team gets out of it: A BREAK. From the hands-on work. From the energetic output of treatments. And during Q4, your team WANTS to make more money. They expect it. This gives them the opportunity without burning them out.
Solution #2: On-Call Shifts (When You Have Overflow)
This is for when you have actual clients you can't fit in, not just walk-ins.
Here's how it works: Each esthetician has an agreed-upon on-call shift (typically around 5 hours, on a day that works for them). They can ONLY offer this shift when they can't fit someone in for two weeks.
So if a client calls and you're booked this week and next week, you can say: "I have an on-call shift I can open up for you tomorrow at 10am. Would that work?"
Important caveats:
I don't let my team see clients hands-on for more than 32-35 hours per week (energetically unsustainable)
This is only during the 3-4 busiest weeks of the year
After that busy season, they get encouraged to take a week off to realign
The script they use when someone books the on-call slot: "I tend to fill up really fast, and if you have your calendar handy, I'd love to get you rescheduled for the next three months. I want to make sure you get spots that work well for you because I genuinely look forward to seeing you on my books."
Why this works: The business makes more revenue, the esthetician takes home more in their paycheck, the client gets in during busy season, and the esthetician's books stay full during the SLOW season because they're pre-booking. Everyone wins.
The Script That Changes Everything
Whether you use support staff shifts or on-call shifts, there's ONE script your team needs to master:
"I love seeing you on my books. If you have your calendar available, I'd love to get you scheduled for the next three months so you don't lose your spot."
This is a KPI (key performance indicator). If your team isn't saying this, you need to hold them accountable.
Because if they're not rebooking clients at checkout, THAT might be why they're not staying booked—not because you need to hire someone new.
When It Actually IS Time to Hire
Here's my rule: When your team's monthly average is 80% booked or more, it's time to hire another esthetician.
Not 80% during Q4. Not 80% during summer. 80% AVERAGE across the year.
And here's the timing that actually works:
Interview in January or February (slow season when you have bandwidth)
Hire in March (still relatively slow, you can focus on training)
They're trained and ready by April/May (when things start picking up)
They hit busy season fully trained (and can actually handle it)
They use the rebooking script to stay booked through slow season (sustainable growth)
See the difference? You're hiring with intention during a season when you can actually set them up for success.
The Other Number That Matters
Before you hire, check this: Is your payroll percentage under 40% every single month?
If it's not, you have a different problem. And hiring another person will just make it worse.
You might need to raise your prices, increase retail sales, improve booking efficiency, or address team performance issues. Hiring won't fix those problems. It'll just multiply them.
The Busy Season Math That Lies to You
Here's what your brain does during busy season: "We're turning away 10 clients a week! That's $5,000 in lost revenue! We NEED another esthetician!"
But here's what you're not calculating: Training time, your time cost, the 8-12 weeks before they're actually confident and productive, the slow season that's coming where you'll struggle to keep them booked, the increased payroll percentage when revenue drops, the energetic drain of onboarding during your most exhausted season.
That $5,000 in "lost" revenue during Q4 might actually cost you $15,000+ in the long run if you hire at the wrong time.
When You're the Only Esthetician
If you are the only esthetician and you're up to your eyeballs in clients, yes, you need to hire. Period. End of story.
You cannot be full-time esthetician, full-time business owner, full-time marketing person, full-time janitor, full-time bookkeeper, full-time everything else—and then go home and cook dinner. That's not sustainable. That's a fast track to burnout.
BUT—and this is important—you still shouldn't hire during your busiest season. Hire during the slow season. Train them properly when you have the energy and bandwidth. THEN when busy season hits, they're ready.
Your Number One Priority Changes When You Hire
Here's something nobody tells you: When you're an esthetician, your number one priority is your client. When you become an employer, your number one priority is now your employees.
Their wellbeing. Their energy. Their success. Whatever is within your power to support them, that's now your responsibility.
I have one team member who's a total go-getter. She'll work until her body literally forces her to stop. My job as her boss? Tell her no. "You're not allowed to see clients more than 35 hands-on hours. This isn't punishment. This is me protecting you from burning yourself out."
Because when she burns out and has to take a week off, she loses money AND the spa loses her presence. Prevention is better than damage control.
The Question to Ask Before You Hire
Instead of "Are we busy enough to hire?" ask this: "Can I set this person up for success right now, or am I just trying to solve a temporary problem?"
If the answer is the latter, use support staff shifts and on-call shifts.
If the answer is the former AND your team is averaging 80%+ booked AND your payroll is under 40% AND it's a slow season where you have bandwidth to train properly? Then yes, it's time to hire.
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
I've made the panic hire mistake. Multiple times. And every single time, it created more stress than it solved.
The money left on the table during Q4? It stings. I know.
But the financial stress of carrying extra payroll during slow season? The guilt of not having enough clients to keep someone booked? The anxiety of watching your numbers get tighter and tighter? That stings worse.
Learn from my mistakes. Don't hire just because you're busy. Hire because you're strategically ready. Because the numbers support it. Because you have the bandwidth to do it right.
Your future self will thank you.
Ready to build a team the RIGHT way?
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Let's map out what sustainable growth looks like for your specific spa.
