The Brooks Salon 29 The Brooks Salon Authored by Valerie Care Copyright 2013 MHR0050 Christopher Brooks just finished interviewing the last candidate for his new salon. He is hoping to hire six estheticians, professionally trained staff who could provide a wide variety of services including relaxation massage, facials, manicures and pedicures. Before he bought the property and set up his company, Christopher did a lot research. He knows there is a growing demand for the services that the Brooks Salon can offer and he is excited about the opportunity to launch his own business. Christopher's wife, Jennifer, helped him compie a lot of data about the prices and services offered by other salons in the area by going to each of the three existing businesses for services over the past year She laughed as she explained that was her contribution to the business. "Dirty job, but someone has to do it One thing Jennifer noticed in her research was that customers liked going to the same esthetician and may change salons if the person leaves. To reduce the risk of losing staff to another salon, Christopher plans to offer his staff a starting salary of $25 with the expectation that they could work up to 40 hours each week. That would give staff an annual base salary of approximately $50,000 before gratuities. The salon will be open six days a week with each employee working five of those six days. Christopher hopes to be able to have at least five estheticians working each day, allowing each employee to have a set day off in addition to Monday when the salon will be closed. This will give the salon a maximum of 240 direct labour hours per week. Staff will receive the same hourly rate no matter what service they provide Massages will be offered in 30 minute and 60 minute sessions. Christopher believes that the salon can make more money on the hour-long sessions and has priced those sessions at what he calls a discounted rate to entice customers to book the longer sessions