*– Special Note from Benn –*
I accidentally posted this post out of order for Bonnie, I’m very sorry. This was from two weeks ago, and so I’m posting it today, as I hope it’s better late than never.

Very sorry,
Benn

*– Awesome Bonnie Post –*

I promised this week to address the issue of hiring additional help to work at the kiosk. The information I will be sharing was obtained from Andria, a TAT International employee, who ran a very successful airbrush tattoo operation at the local mall for us when we first started this business.

Initially Andria was the only employee working the cart. Her experience was what you would define as Baptism by fire. She set up her cart, and went to work without any experience spraying tats. Her first customers were her Guinea Pigs. After she felt comfortable spraying tats, she started her search for employees.

Here are the criteria she used for hiring: The employees need to be friendly, outgoing people. She required that they have some artistic talent and must be open-minded. She encouraged her employees to show off their tattoos and body piercings. She wanted to hire people who were “approachable”. Her definition of approachable was people who were like most of us; average looking, a little over weight perhaps, a little too short or too tall. Her reasoning was that the majority of the population is not perfect and she didn’t want a potential customer to feel intimidated by Mr. or Ms. America applying the tat, or deciding not to get a tat because they felt self-conscious.

Her first employees were friends and acquaintances that met her hiring standards. She would always work with the new hire, during a time when the mall wasn’t busy. During their training session, she went over everything with the newbie, how to take the airbrush gun apart and clean it (This was before the Power Palette or Spectrum Color Changer), how to prepare the customers skin for the tat, how to clean the stencils, sales techniques and up-selling. She trained the newbie on how to apply a tat and watched to make sure they did it right. After she and the new employee felt comfortable with their ability, she would let them work on their own. She gave them her cell phone number and was always available to take their calls.

During the time she ran her kiosk at the mall, the minimum wage for Michigan was $5.25 an hour. She paid her help $7 an hour and eventually hired a manager for the cart at $9 an hour. She did not pay commission.

I know some of these hiring pointers are contrary to what is advised on our web site, such as requiring a person to have artistic talent. This issue was important because it said more about the individual applying for the job than the fact that it does not require any artistic talent to apply the tats. An artistic person may be more enthusiastic about applying tats than an accounting student and this enthusiasm is not lost on the customer.

Another contrary point from our website is the pay rate. Our employees were making more money than other kiosk workers at the mall. Our employees made $28 for a four hour shift, while the person at the kiosk next to them only made $21. This made them feel more valuable and happier about going to work and not sad that they would be working the kiosk during “dead” time. The manager did not have to figure out percentages either.

Well, we are not done yet. Next week we will be looking at day to day operations of the kiosk.