Your Business: Hiring right with Elizabeth Canales-Ron

Elizabeth Canales-Ron, owner of Face Me.

Elizabeth Canales-Ron is the owner of Face Me, an Auckland-based business that supplies hair and makeup artist services and currently has a team of 11.

What are your main considerations when taking on new team members?

First up, I look for good recommendations. Generally we get to know who's good just by being in the industry, or if we're taking on a new batch of assistants we go to what we consider the best makeup school in Auckland and ask them to recommend their best students.

Presentation is another must for us, particularly when meeting someone for the first time, because our clients have to feel confident straight off the bat that that person can do their own hair and makeup.

Reliability is another one. When a person is booked for a job, we have to be able to trust that the person is going to turn up on time. The worst case scenario would be a bride calling me saying their makeup and hair artist hasn't turned up on their wedding day!

We're also looking for versatility because we offer both makeup artistry and hair styling; there are lots of makeup artists out there, but someone that can confidently do both is not easy to find.

How do you go about figuring out who you need at certain stages of the business?

For us the times when we need to hire are when staff move on overseas or on to other ventures, so it's about filling those gaps. In our business we cater for a range of situations, so sometimes we might need someone who is really experienced in hair and makeup for film, but other times we've hunted for makeup artists who are great and really experienced at doing weddings.

How did you go about starting to build your team?

I actually started out with a small team. After years of freelancing I'd met lots of other great hair and makeup artists and knew their work, so when I started the business in 2012 those were the people who I asked to join my team.

Once I'd established a core team, I set out to look for up-and-coming talent who could grow with the company. I contacted The Makeup School in Auckland, which I think does great training, and they gave us a full list of names of students who they recommended.

From there I set up trials, where I asked them to all come in on one day, did initial interviews and got to know their personalities and how they presented themselves. Then they were asked to come up with a look on a model, taking into consideration their kit, how confident they were, how long they took and the end result.

Once you've got new members of the team on board, what helps you get them working well with the rest of the team?

I really believe in giving talented new makeup artists a foot in the door of the industry, so it's important to me to have a close knit team and provide as much support and opportunities as as I can. We use a closed Facebook group to communicate with each other - share ideas, send notes, and pass on any other kind of non-official communication - and that's been really efficient.

We also ask new team members to set themselves up on Google Calendar, which they share with Face Me, so then we can quickly see their availability and book jobs efficiently. Nowadays there is no time to be calling around a team of 11 people to check up on who is free to do a particular job, so the Google Calendar system has worked really well for us.

Coming up in Your Business: What is the experience like for immigrant entrepreneurs who have set up businesses in New Zealand? If you've got a story to share about the highs and lows of being an immigrant entrepreneur, then drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com