Business Solutions

by Douglas Preston

In 1983 I landed my first real job as a career aesthetician at a famous Union Square skin care salon in San Francisco, Calif. High on enthusiasm but lacking experience and clients I found myself positioned on the bottom rung of eight staff professionals that all received new customers ahead of me, leaving this new recruit with many an empty hour on his schedule. To help fill my time and, hopefully, earn a decent paycheck I proposed to the salon owner that we offer a complimentary make-up application to anyone following a facial treatment. I would do the work without compensation other than a commission on any product I sold. He thought I was crazy. "We don't give our services away", he flatly told me. "Our clients pay for them!" Well, yes, except that with make-up services clients hadn't been paying because they hadn't been buying them. Our so-called in-house make-up artist was perpetually on call and almost never in the salon. The make-up testers were in bad shape due to neglect and disuse. Foundations had separated and open lipsticks had grown a beard of dust and lint. Pencil waxes had hardened into graphite and heaven only knew the last time those brushes had been sanitized. Yuck!

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