We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanya Sanders Kelker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tanya, thanks for joining us today. Do you have any thoughts about how to create a more inclusive workplace?

When most people think of an inclusive workplace, they think of focusing on making sure that everyone feels included and are not offended, but that it takes away from the morale and productivity that guides businesses forward. Inclusivity does encompass affirmative action efforts and the removal of bias, discrimination or unequal opportunities. While those things are important, being a small business sometimes even a micro business, those are not always the issues a leader may face in the workplace surrounding inclusivity. Instead I would advise leaders to not dismiss inclusivity, but to view it in a different way. View inclusivity as a way that creates a culture in your business that everyone feels valued and supported as individuals and connected to the organization and its mission. One thing that I remember advising a client that was getting ready to hire several people on their team at one time; while advising them through the hiring and onboarding process, I remember putting a large amount of effort into ensuring that the current team members were informed and secure about the transition as it made the bringing in of new team members an easier transition. A few things that we implemented were, having more experienced team members apart of one of the interview rounds, also once the new team members were hired we sent a company wide email to all team members introducing them to the new members with their name, picture, fun facts and job title we also provided the same info of the existing team members to the new team members. Doing these small things along with other small gestures made their company culture more inclusive and workable.

Tanya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Tanya S. Kelker, MBA I am a believer in God, wife, mother of three boys and pet momma. Professionally I am a business strategist and financial and operations advisor for business owners in the beauty and service industries. I help them to increase their profits, scale their businesses as a true CEO and grow as the leader their team needs. I started my own accounting and business advisory firm back in 2010 were myself and my team worked with clients to have up to date business compliance i.e. bookkeeping, payroll and taxes and understand their numbers with business advisory. In 2015 I decided to niche down to the beauty industry and small medical practices only. This transition changed the trajectory of my business career as it gave me access to amazing clients that were doing amazing work and making alot of money but really didnt have their foundations, operations and finances intact. This passion grew into me wanting to create a case study in 2017 to show new entrepreneurs in those spaces that you can go from 0 clients to a fully functional business in 90 days and profitable in 120. My case study was me opening a day spa in real time for my clients that grew beyond just a case study but a multi award winning day spa making well over 7 figures. I sold my accounting and business advisory firm to focus on being the CEO of my day spa, teach accounting and financial educational classes and only focus on serving a few types of client, that falls into the category of Professionals transitioning into the CEO roles of their businesses. The services that I offer include: Esthetic Services Training, Solpreneur business training, strategy calls, strategy vip days, and virtual CFO and COO services.

Any advice for managing a team?

In the beauty industry particularly when most professionals want to be their own bosses, I had to be very intentional about how i designed my team structure in my day spa; we are a hybrid commission base studio where alot of other studios and spas are booth rental. I first took the stance that since I no longer work in my studio as a service provider, my team is my client and I must prioritize their experiences. I wanted my business to be a learning ground for those that want to eventually open their own salon or spa or be a solepreneur and for my team to have entrepreneurship freedoms with the protection of employment. So to manage the team, I allow them to have more control over the scheduling of the studio, the freedom to pick their schedules, access to me as a coach and mentorship for current positions as well as for their future endeavors and open communication. This model has helped me to keep our clients happy, my team happy and my business thriving.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

My most effective strategy for growing my clientele in my day spa has been leading with experiences to allow our clients to do the marketing for us. I focus alot of time and attention on anticipating our clients every need at our studio and being very intentional about their time with us. This attention to detail has allowed us to have fully booked schedules 4-6 weeks in advance without any additional outside marketing. One thing outside of word of mouth is each month I pick an area near my business to personalize our marketing. I will send them personalized giftcards (coupons) addressed to their business for a special offer and I give them a few extra to give to some of their best clients. This has been great for exposure and growing clients especially in the begining.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tanyaskelker.com
• Instagram: tanyaskelker bodypartystudios
• Linkedin: tanyaskelker
• Youtube: tanyaskelkerunlimited